Business grows as owners and leaders grow. The fastest path to growth and success? Building a great shop culture.
Many shop owners deem themselves “too busy” to focus on culture, but it is a key component to recruiting the next generation into the industry and retaining the great employees you already have.
Maryann Croce, owner of Small Biz Vantage and Croce’s Transmission Specialists, defined culture and why focusing on it in your business is so important during her presentation, “The invisible culture,” at ASA X50 on April 30.
Defining culture
Businesses need to be ready to welcome the next generation into the industry. Part of this is by ensuring the culture in your business is one that attracts and retains great talent. Culture is an environment, a tone or a vibe recognized by a group — whether that be in a school, association, family, community, or even your business. It is how your team will interact, celebrate wins, maintain morale and innovate.
Some shop owners struggle to build a culture that they see working for all levels of their staff. They can too easily label the younger generation as entitled or having no loyalty. Conversely, the younger generation can apply labels to seasoned shop owners, thinking they are reluctant to change and adapt to technology.
But the two generations have more in common than they realize, Croce said.
“All of us want safety, security and growth. We want to be seen as an individual who provides value. We want security and to know our company is in good standing. We also want growth; to be able to grow and learn and advance,” she said.
These are priorities that need to be engrained in culture.
Your culture today
Every business has a culture, Croce said. The question becomes is it one that just evolved, or one that you intentionally built?
Many shop owners struggle to pay attention to culture when they are first starting out because they are busy. It is more of a focus on getting the vehicles in and getting the vehicles out. An invisible culture is one not driven or dictated by the owner, and it will not work for your business. An invisible culture is what your team isn’t telling you, Croce said. You may not be approachable; they may not believe you have their back. They aren’t growing or don’t see a growth path; they may question the health of the business. All of these uncommunicated thoughts and beliefs will corrode your business over time.
Why focus on culture?
“A thriving culture can be your competitive advantage,” Croce said. “Many people ask, ‘How do I motivate my team?’ Here’s the thing: you don’t. Everyone is motivated by something different and motivation is internal. So you don’t motivate. You inspire your team.”
And a great way to build employee engagement — which is highly related to performance outcomes — is to have great culture.
We now know why culture is important. Next, let’s determine what type of culture currently exists in your business. Croce outlined four types of culture, each that had some pros and cons:
- Team Culture — You are there for your team and take care of your team, so they will take care of the customer. The positive is that the team feels appreciated and valued. The negative is that if you accommodate your staff too much, they can lose accountability and responsibility, causing challenges in servicing the customer.
- Results Culture — You focus on the data and results. The pro is that you are going to attract a very driven team. The con is that you can cause burnout and turnover if you only focus on the end result. This environment can also create an atmosphere where your employees only look out for themselves.
- Customer Culture — You want exceptional service so you do all you can for the customer. This is great in that you deliver exceptional service, but it can be hard on the team in that the customer is dictating how you are running your business.
- Red tape — You as an owner have high standards, so you want to approve all decisions. This model maintains quality, but also keeps employees from feeling empowered to make decisions. It also involves the owner is so many decisions that they may feel like they are putting out fires all day every day.
“The best is a blend of different types of culture. The mix will depend on you as a leader, your style, personality and knowing your market,” Croce said.
Building a culture
To implement a culture of success into your business, first you want to identify the core values you want to embody in your shop. Some examples include respect, integrity, empathy, cooperation, service, vision or balance.
Next, take time to identify which culture you currently have. You can then assess the positives and negatives of that culture to help you understand what needs to change in order to embody your core values.
Implementation is simple — it starts with you. “Live and breathe the culture you want to intentionally build. You are an example,” Croce said.
Ultimately, your business can’t afford not to have a strong culture. There are two costs to culture — financial and emotional. It is challenging to lose employees, see drops in productivity and go through onboarding. So maintaining strong employees is the best plan. It is also emotionally challenging to employees. If there is no stability, positivity or growth, employee engagement will be impacted. You can also lose quality employees by keeping a toxic employee in your business.
Stop letting “busy” run your life. Focus on being productive. It starts with a great culture.
