In my duties as the manager of the Car Wash College, I am constantly scouring the internet for relative content to bring to the classes. I watch a lot of videos on management styles, leadership capabilities, etc., and there are literally thousands of them.
Obviously, I can’t present them all (and there are a lot of them that should be removed from the internet for poor content), but in my research, I stumbled across a guy by the name of Mark Horstman. I had never heard of Mr. Horstman before, but I became instantly enthralled in the way he described management in his 20-minute speech to a management group in France several years ago.
After watching hundreds of videos on management, some of them very overly complicated, some whose theories were severely flawed and most boring beyond words, Mr. Horstman’s take I found refreshingly simple — yet very practical — for managers on every level, and it all boils down to these two things.
Results
We, as most businesses, are very results driven: cost per car, labor percentage of gross, average per car, damage claims as a percentage of sales, etc.
Each individual company has its own ideas of what each should be, but they are all looking for the same thing: results.
By arming managers with the results that the company is looking for, they can come up with a plan of attack to deliver those results. If the results a company are looking for are not clearly defined, how do managers know if they are on the right track?
Retention
If just given results that the company wants without any other rules, managers would have a tendency to abuse their people, so there has to be some kind of tension or break to keep that from happening.
While results are still the bottom line, managers must keep their people while doing it in order to satisfy company requirements.
Life is complicated enough. Let’s simplify whenever and wherever we can.
Specify the results you are hoping to achieve to provide direction and retention of staff as a tension break, and you’ll see the cream rise to the top!
Good luck and good washing!
Bob Fox has 35 years’ experience in the carwash industry and is the vice president of Sonny’s Car Wash College™. Bob can be reached at [email protected]. For more information about CarWash College™ certification programs, visit CarWash College or call the registrar’s office at 1-866-492-7422.
This content is sponsored by CarWash College. Sponsored content is authorized by the client and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Professional Carwashing & Detailing editorial team.
This content is sponsored by CarWash College. Sponsored content is authorized by the client and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Professional Carwashing & Detailing editorial team.
