Kingman: How to Let Your Leaders Lead

In a sea of similarities, understanding your niche and your value proposition is what will truly set you apart from the other fish in the sea. What happens within your four walls and what you do truly well is why customers come back. However, if you try to be all things to everyone, you will miss the mark on what makes you great. 

I’ve been in hundreds of tire stores and they all feel different to me. It’s not the oil they use or the brands they sell, nor is it the demographics and fundamental differences of the town or city they’re in. More often than not, it’s how the owner, operator or manager runs the place.

Imagine what it was like in the 1970s and 80s. Before email, cell phones, computers and even fax machines were common, tire dealership owners had to trust their teams to do the right thing and find a way to get it done. That individualism didn’t create consistency, but it did create teams — even families. Now, before everyone you email me and tell me people aren’t the same today as they were in 1970, let me share with you how, although different, they aren’t that different. 

Most leaders crave independence. It’s one of the key reasons they chose to lead rather than stay in their current role. Yet corporations, especially, and even many independents, struggle to achieve the balance between letting people lead and ensuring they are doing what you want. We have to be careful when giving leaders independence to ensure we are protecting the company and brand from theft, fraud, potential lawsuits — you name it. Without the right guidance, independence is the wild west. But independence with guidance creates a magic synergy for leaders, teams and your bottom line. 

In my role as CEO of a chain of tire stores in Georgia and Illinois, I must do it from afar — about 2,200 miles afar. Our stores operate in different time zones and no matter the fire that breaks out, I’m not dropping in for a surprise visit. My leadership team wasn’t always sold on this level of independence. I remember the first couple of years. The word consistency kept coming up. Finally, one day, it all clicked. Who cared if our processes were 100% consistent if our teammates and customers loved what each store was doing? Consistency was just something we kept fighting for that we’d never achieve. We partnered with great teammates to lead our stores, so why were we trying so hard to make them something they weren’t? 

Once we embraced this philosophy, the business started growing at an even faster rate. Let’s be clear, though — we still had our values and core principles. But we hired people who had those core values and principles. We just had to show them how they look out for our brand and the part they play in that. Never compromise on your non-negotiables! 

So if you believe in this philosophy, how do you enact it without inadvertently creating a free-for-all?

Step one: Communicate your trust. We rarely actually say the words “I trust you” out loud, but it's important that we do. Many of us are constantly replaying the things people say in our minds, trying to find meaning and understanding, and what we often create is misunderstanding. This act of self-reflection is a strong piece of what makes great teammates constantly strive to improve, but without trust from their leaders, this can also create skepticism and resentment. When you say to your teammates that you trust their decision, you will create empowerment and ultimately more time for you as the leader.

Here’s a key consideration: When people make decisions, they will not always make the same decision you would make. This doesn’t make their decision necessarily wrong — just different. Allow this. If they make a poor decision, don’t beat them up for making the decision. Instead, use it as a learning opportunity and move on. Over time, their decision-making abilities will improve.

Step two: Communicate your desire for them to take more ownership. Give them a little leash first and see how they handle it. Don’t give them full rein at once. Let them earn it one piece at a time. This not only ensures they can handle what you are giving them, but it also builds the independence muscle, as well as their confidence. They are always more prepared for responsibility than we believe they are. The more responsibility you give people, the more responsible they become. 

Step three: Make sure everyone knows your non-negotiables. One non-negotiable for my teams is offering customers a paid inspection. This is a core part of our process, and we use it not just to sell an inspection, but to qualify the customer. We don’t do it just so we know who the buyers and the non-buyers are. We do it so we know how to communicate with the customer, so they never feel they are being oversold. We measure this key performance indicator (KPI) and coach regularly to ensure we don’t lose sight of it. We are never disappointed when we have a bad sales day, as long as our teammates deliver on the KPI behaviors — in other words, our non-negotiables. What we also know is that if they deliver on these behaviors, we don’t have a lot of bad days. So we clearly communicate our non-negotiables and the way we use our KPIs. 

Step four: We meet regularly. Now this is where we are challenged. Being in multiple time zones and hundreds of miles apart, we can’t easily have team meetings. However, when I managed teams without this barrier, we always had monthly team meetings. The first week of the month — the second week is too long — we get our managers together and review everyone’s financials together. We learn how all the KPIs feed each other and what prescription is needed based on each potential scenario. We try to let the managers create their own prescription and the following month, we measure how effective their cure worked. The best meetings are when the managers do the majority of the talking. 

These meetings don’t have to be all day. Spend a couple of hours reviewing the financials, update managers on any coming changes or non-negotiables that need to be improved and get them back to their store to work their magic. They should always leave with a purpose and a plan to discuss what their team needs to work on at their individual store meeting. 

Step five: Grow their leadership. One thing that we don’t do well within our industry is actual teammate development. It’s funny — we will promote someone to be an area or regional manager because their store performed well and we just think they’re automatically a great trainer. That’s rarely the case. Great operators use different skillsets than great trainers. Although some can do both, this is rarely the case. You still must send your people to professional trainers.

My wife is a surgical nurse and loves what she does. She has always declined management roles because in every hospital she has worked, nurses are promoted based on their ability to manage their workloads. However, there is such turnover in the nurse manager role because what makes them great nurses doesn't always translate into making them great managers. This same thing is true between great operators and great trainers. 

Another strong benefit to putting your teammates in training isn’t just what they learn, but their appreciation of your investment in them. Sending them away to training shows you believe in them and that they have a future with your organization. That in itself creates the desire to do more for you. Preferably, you put them in a group that aligns with your values and this sends them back pumped and excited. That excitement is infectious and spreads to the rest of their team. 

If you follow these five steps, you will watch your team grow in ways you never thought possible. If you have the right people, you’ll create a return on investment that not only rewards you financially but delivers something even more: peace of mind. The energy required to micromanage and hold our great teammates back from running a store as they are naturally inclined is exhausting. Relinquishing this will allow you more time to strategize bigger opportunities and will free your mind to improve your work-life balance. Your teams will find more natural synergies and your customers will love the value proposition you deliver even more.