Proudly serving the industry for which it was named for more than 50 years, Outdoor Power Equipment provides dealers who sell and service outdoor power equipment with valuable information to succeed in a competitive market.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/38457
FEATURE STORY By Bob Clements ate an environment where your employees are motivated and inspired. You need to identify each employee’s purpose in work- ing for you and your business, and then show the employees how their purposes align with those of the dealership. In a dealership, the purpose of an employee can range from the need to just make money, to the desire to take something that is bro- ken and make it work again. Regardless of the reason, once you recognize why your employees work, you’ll be able to uncover the goals, plans and dreams you have in common. After identifying these shared purposes, your goal is to help your em- ployees recognize that they share common purposes with others. As your employees understand how their work collectively meets their own purposes, the purposes of others and those of the organization, their motivation to work grows. Creating HIGH-PERFORMANCE employees switch or quick push of a button, a soft, yellow light gives us comfort. The light coming out is harmless, and if you held your hand against the lens, the only thing that would happen is the light would be blocked. Send the same amount of light through a laser chamber, and you can use it to carve steel or make microscopically pre- cise surgical cuts on the human eye. What makes the difference? The laser chamber synchronizes and concentrates waves of light. It aligns the wavelength, vibration and direction of all light waves that will comprise the laser beam. So, these waves don’t bounce off of one another, scatter, and lose their force — they focus intensely on a single point. Their focus is their power. The same holds true with the people you manage. M 18 ost of us have been out at night with just a flashlight to cut a path through the dark- ness. With one flick of a As an owner or a manager, your goal is to focus on your employees individually, showing them how their job can be that laser chamber, bringing their wants and needs together to achieve success. That focus brings an excitement and energy that creates an unstoppable motivation in your employees, giving you the ability to achieve the results you need from your employees and your dealership. Build a motivating environment All of us want to make a difference. We want the hours we spend at work to make some contribution — to have a purpose. Your goal as a manager is to establish a work environment in your dealership where the employees can experience an appropriate level of challenge and know that what they do makes a difference. To achieve that goal, you have to work to cre- OUTDOOR POWER EQUIPMENT www.outdoorpowerequipment.com Think back for a moment in time when someone said you were good at something. You may have been very good at sports, music or art, and someone simply let you know that they noticed how good you were and encouraged you to continue pursuing it as a goal or dream. At that moment in time, you probably wanted to excel in that area even more. Now imagine if you were given a scholarship to continue pursuing that goal or dream in college. You would be even more motivated to hone your skills. The same thing happens in your dealership. Em- ployees are more motivated when you give them opportunities to develop their talents. Opportunities to grow, learn, and improve are some of the most effective motivators. And because 80 percent of critical job learning occurs on the job, motivational op- portunities at work abound. Support and encourage By identifying the specific talents and skills of your employees, you can then find ways to nurture them. The investment you make in their training and skill develop- ment will increase employee motivation and satisfaction, as well as the bottom line. Think back to when you learned how to ride a bicycle. You were motivated by the challenge of learning a new skill. You fo- cused your attention on the task and finally mastered it. But there was also probably someone right behind you, cheering you on as you peddled away — a mom, dad, brother, sister or friend that encouraged your effort to master this new skill. Image above ©istockphoto.com/RUSSELLTATEdotCOMRUSSELLTATEdotCOM