Lipstick on a Pig
At a recent auto dealer conference, I got to see Patrick Lencioni carefully build the case that formed the basis of his book “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.” He explained the importance of trust, healthy conflict, commitment, accountability, and shared goals, while the entire audience nodded along in agreement. By the end, everyone was worked into a frenzy eager to go back to work and apply his ideas. Here, one of the greatest, living team gurus was basically handing out the playbook on how to build a winning team, and all we had to do was execute. During Q&A, a dealer (a fairly successful one), stood up and said “this is all great stuff and I totally believe in it, but how can it work in a traditional dealership where people have their own individual goals, agendas, and pay plans, with no real incentive to work together?” Lencioni looked up, furrowed his brow and gave a slightly confused look as though he’d been asked to calculate how much wood a woodchuck could chuck, and replied “Yeah, obviously, you’d have to fix all that stuff first.”
His response was a good reminder that you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig. Attend all the conferences, hang all the Successories posters, and read all the best-selling leadership books but ultimately if you haven’t designed an organization that can embrace authentic teamwork, then everything else is just cosmetic.
CEO + Founder of the Llewellyn Family Office. Investor. Philanthropist.
8 年Anytime Aaron! I hope you enjoy the area. There is all sorts of cool stuff out there not just these dealerships. Should he still be there, please tell Wayne Velte I said hello. He is the best orderer of special parts. :) Have a great weekend!
Systems Analyst CareSource Management Group
8 年Let the church say "Amen"
CEO + Founder of the Llewellyn Family Office. Investor. Philanthropist.
8 年What a beautifully written, thoughtful and informative post. Even though I did not attend, I feel as though I did. For a great model of a dealership that has learned to build amazing team dynamics across two platforms side by side please check out Bob Smith BMW & Bob Smith MINI. It took a minute but by the time I left...WOW. I never wanted a clubman more. ;)
I possess a lifetime of marketing assets and expertise unlike any other.
8 年With over 30 years of retail and wholesale involvement in senior "automotive management" positions, In all honesty your "bang on" with many of the observations exposed in your article. Thanks for sharing Aaron. Unfortunately, the nature of the car industry requires managers and principals to deliberately seed and nurture distrust, promote unhealthy lifestyle and no family work balance, commitment to take advantage of customers naivety and good nature strictly for profit, accountability based upon production and not performance, and shared goals imposed upon and shoved down employees throats. Believe it or not, this is the actual state of what really happens behind the scenes. High unit sale profits from the actual vehicle acquisition and a panoply of additional unncesary and extremely costly add-ons. oftentimes boosting the final purchase price by thousands of dollars. No room for transparency or honesty in the car business, let alone fixing the 5 dysfunctions. Good luck with that!
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8 年What I love most is that in all his expertise, Lencioni didn't attempt a deep, ethereal answer. In its simplicity, the fix was 'to fix,' and not try to create the impossible. For some reason, that was fresh air to read. Thanks for posting.