McCarron: How to Knock the Ball Out of the Park

Do you have an e-learning program for “Getting to Work on Time?” How about “How to Tuck in Your Shirt?” Is there a class you could send your sales advisors to in order to “help” them get better at not vaping at the counter? Of course, there isn’t. (And I hope I didn’t just tempt fate!) 

When we teach little children how to play baseball, we don’t tell them all the things they can’t do after they hit the ball. We simply tell them to run to first base as fast as they can. We don’t explain in a PowerPoint deck why running to third base is illegal or wrong or inefficient. Certainly, we don’t have a debate about how running to third base first isn’t in the best interest of keeping fans in the seats, so they buy more hot dogs and merch. 

You just run to first base — past the bag and listen to see if the umpire says safe or out. Only when you’ve mastered the concept of hitting the ball and running fast and straight to first base would a coach introduce the idea that if the ball was hit hard into the outfield and your first base coach was telling you to keep running, you curve your path towards second. You don’t even introduce the idea of a double until the entire team learns to hit, run fast and straight and do what the umpire says. 

In many tire dealerships across North America, there’s a manager or owner talking about gross profit margins and sales strategies and converting phone rings to door dings with an employee in sneakers, wearing an untucked shirt, who was late for the ninth time this month.

“But he’s a good salesperson,” I’m told. 

I’m not bashing employees here, by the way. But do you know why employees don’t tuck in their shirts or are chronically late or say things to customers they shouldn’t? The injustice of low standards. In other words, it’s simply because they are allowed. That’s not an employee problem. That’s a leadership problem. 

You want employees to come to you with ideas on how to do things better, not complain that running to first base is hard. The door should always be open for suggestions and as a leader, you should listen to ideas on how to improve processes and margins and customer satisfaction. You want input from the people doing the work. However, we’re not here to debate the rules. This is why there should be as few rules to follow as possible. 

Too many rules mean memorizing problems and conflicting priorities. In consistent studies, humans are able to memorize and incorporate things in groups of less than 10. You’ve watched baseball your whole life and can probably only name nine ways to get to first, even though there are probably 10 ways or you may struggle to name all the dwarves from “Snow White.”

You might not be able to get all the rules in the shop down to nine or 10 things, but creating a code of conduct and standards isn’t impossible. 

Lowering the bar because something is hard does not produce better outcomes. It actually reduces the heights to which your eagles will soar. It lowers every bar or rung in the process. A loose belt on a car produces no output or transfer of motion — just a lot of useless, irritating noise. The lower and upper ends of the belt pulleys that create tension have no grip. Overtighten by lowering expectations and commanding the eagles in your shop to soar to excellence and the belt will snap. 

The tension of high standards is a good thing. “But he’s really good at this one thing” is not only fear talking. It’s showing your employees you are afraid to do things the right way. It also shows them that profit is more important than integrity. Profit is a byproduct of a properly tensioned belt. The pulleys of marketing, selling, process and standing by your work because you and your employees have standards is what creates profit. 

Everyone has bad days. That's why some pulleys have tensioners — a spring that allows for a little flexibility for the unexpected demands on the motor. Life happens. Your employees have a day here and there where things just aren’t clicking. But repeatedly making or allowing mistakes to flow into your shop on a regular basis puts cracks in the belt. Yes, sometimes good employees get caught daydreaming and are picked off at first base. No team ever went 162-0 and never will, but you can dramatically increase your odds of having a winning season by setting and enforcing high standards. Don’t aim low.