For several columns I’ve been talking about lessons I learned early in my time in this industry, and what those lessons have meant for my career. Regardless of what stage of your career you are in, others’ experiences can lead to valuable knowledge for continued growth and success.
I can easily point to perhaps the most pivotal day in my career in which I was given an incredible opportunity and a lesson in leadership from Don Keenan, the second-generation owner of the company I joined in mid-1993.
Back then, Keenan Auto Body was just opening its second location in the Philadelphia area, and I was hired to run that new location. While this was of course a great opportunity, the defining moment I’m speaking of actually didn’t occur until four years later.
In the intervening years, I worked to implement at “Keenan Auto Body West” many of the same processes and systems I’d used at the dealership body shop where I’d previously work.
This was in the days before there was anything close to the sophistication of the shop management systems we have today. I used a manual scheduling process that worked on the theory of moving forward with the end in mind. In other words, I’d determine when a car needed to be done, and work back from there to determine when it needed to be done in body and move to paint, etc. It wasn’t high-tech but it worked. That and the other processes and regular meetings with staff we had eventually had that shop humming along.
About four years in, we started to see customers coming in who I actually would have expected to go to our original shop, Keenan Auto Body East, based solely on location. I couldn’t figure out why that would be. I asked Don, and he didn’t understand it either.
Over time, I figured out that the processes and culture we’d developed at the company’s second shop had helped it develop a reputation for quality and on-time performance. It wasn’t that those things were lacking at our original location; we were just using different systems and management styles. And Don’s focus was naturally split between running the original shop and expanding the business.
So in 1997, as the company was about to open a third location, I summoned every bit of courage I had and asked Don to consider handing over responsibility for operations to me. Among the points I tried to make: As we open up another location, we really shouldn’t have three different processes at three different shops. And by turning over operations to me, it would free him up to get more involved in the industry and focus on the types of CEO responsibilities the growing company needed.
Somewhat to my amazement, Don did just that. I don’t think the ego of many company owners would allow them to do that. But Don understood the importance and value of process, calibration and consistency, and I give him a lot of credit for the company’s subsequent success (and my career). I couldn’t appreciate more how he responded to my question, and I was extremely grateful he was willing to “turn over the keys to the car” to me.
I came away with two lessons. First, as an employee, look for opportunities that could allow you to help the company improve, and if you are confident in your abilities to perform, ask for the additional responsibility and advancement you’d like.
Second, what I saw and learned from Don that day is that successful leaders need to understand what their company needs most from them. They work to focus on those things, helping develop others who can take on and excel at the other needed leadership roles within the company.
Thank you, Don.
