Coaching brought on some changes for the Leadership Team at Woodriff Smash Repairs. They took a step back and looked at what they wanted to be known for and started to create the foundations of what Woodriff Smash Repairs was then, and now moving forward to Woodriff Preferred Auto. They looked at the four pillars of collision, mechanical, detailing and aftercare and realized they did not just want to be known for collision but all those things and more. They also wanted to be known for innovations, leadership, and sustainability.
A few lessons they learnt early on in leadership were positive performance, effective conversations, difficult conversations and one of the biggest lessons that Joe took out of it was – the things I walk past are the standards I set, and that was huge!
They wrote that quote up on the wall in the boardroom because if you are walking past something that is not quite right then you have set that standard and that is not okay. That is standard vocabulary at Woodriff today. Joe said, “If I walk past anything that is not me, if there is something that happens from the situation that I have walked past, that is my fault because I set that standard.”
It is rare that a senior leadership team member will walk past something without calling it out and they do it in the right manner. It is not about talking down to someone on the floor, it is about respectfully saying “hey mate, looks like you aren’t having the best time, do you want to have a chat?” It is then discussed and sorted quickly, and it is back to work.
It is all about being respectful, Gavin calls this the approach and coach. How do you approach and coach your team when you need to have those conversations? Sometimes you must have the difficult conversations so how do you approach your team so that you get buy-in from that team member so that they take a learning out of that experience and grow themselves. This becomes the evolution of culture and Gavin drives this home everywhere he goes, if you do not have great culture, it does not matter what systems or processes you have in place because all you will do is turn over staff.
Joe also believes good staff culture is important. We are in a high-paced industry and there is a lot going on, so culture is tested daily, weekly, but it is how you deal with it is paramount. Now it feels good walking through the shop and Joe knows they are continuously working on that commitment, no matter how big or small they go, culture is first and foremost with everything.
Without your culture, you are pushing up hill the whole time.