A great business culture in a dealer group will only emerge when good leaders live and breathe the values laid down by the organisation.
Mostly, one cannot exist without the other.
“To use a north-east expression – ‘it is better felt than telt’,” says Eden Motor Group chief executive Graeme Potts. “Culture and ethos need to be lived and discernible, particularly from senior team members.”
His words are echoed by founder of the Automotive 30% Club Julia Muir: “The leaders of the organisation need to identify exactly what their business purpose is, and the values and behavioural standards they want the people in the business to have, and they need to fully embody them.”
Rachel Clift (pictured), chief executive at motor industry charity Ben, which works with automotive firms to support wellbeing and culture, adds: “Senior leaders need to understand what positive culture in an organisation looks like and ‘walk the walk’. When leaders are aligned and walk the walk, culture can be consistent, even in multi-site organisations.”
Former Harwoods group sales and marketing director Clare Freemantle heads up consultancy Clarity Automotive and draws extensively on her senior team leadership experience when supporting dealer groups and suppliers. She says: “It’s all well and good saying things to your teams, but the best way to lead is by example.”
CAN YOU ‘CREATE’ A POSITIVE CULTURE?
Theories and models can provide structure and certainly helps when pinpointing a business’ ethos.
President of the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) and emeritus professor of Loughborough University’s business school, Professor Jim Saker says: “In reality, you can’t change culture because it’s not an independent variable. When somebody says they are going to change the culture, it’s a nonsense, you can only change things that go into making that culture.”
Saker looks at separate elements to identify a culture. Stories often told by staff are revealing; as too are symbols such as the size or location of a person’s office or the car an employee drives; the organisational structure (often illustrated in a waterfall chart) can differ from the power structure, for example, the parts team that doesn’t fulfil its obligations could bring the workshop to a standstill; identifying who has control is also a determiningfactor and not necessarily just of people.
For example, data has become increasingly important; and finally, rituals and routines tell much about a company’s culture such as the Monday morning sales meeting or the dress code.
Often, though, the culture of an organisation (good or bad) is much more tangible and very easily understood by staff and customers.
Freemantle says: “Housekeeping is one of the biggest barometers of a business. No one person can keep a business really tidy and make it look as though there is pride in the business. That comes from everyone caring and that means everyone is engaged and if they’re engaged, you’ve probably got pretty good leadership.”
Likewise, Muir believes a positive or a negative culture is apparent within a few minutes of entering the business. She looks for a clean and tidy appearance in all areas and the demeanour of staff will quickly reflect engagement or ‘a sense of fighting in the trenches’.
Behind-the-scenes polite language in emails and on signs is telling while positive group dynamics in meetings enable all to contribute views and ideas rather than a command and control approach.
She says: “A really critical area is the way that humour is expressed.” A company culture can be playful and humorous, but when it tips over into damaging the dignity of a colleague then it starts to have a negative impact.
When verbal aggressions and microaggressions become the norm, each one is like dropping litter on the floor of the dealership that the staff become accustomed to wading through and are oblivious to it, but customers, visitors and new recruits see the piles of ‘litter’ straight away in the toxic culture.
Ben’s emphasis on staff wellbeing helps drive businesses forward, Clift says: “Organisations with strong cultures respect and value the unique traits each individual brings and enable people to be their real selves at work. When people feel safe to do that and feel supported, engagement increases, collaboration improves and performance follows.”
The position is echoed by Freemantle: “I am a real advocate of congruence. People who are genuine in themselves get a lot more out of the teams around them because it can feel as if people mean what they say.”
EFFECTIVE LEADERS EMBODY BEHAVIOURS EXPECTED OF ALL
So, what makes a good leader? Saker says: “It is someone who does not think they know it all. They are inclusive and embrace diversity, not only in terms of who they employ, but in diversity of thought. Being honest and transparent with people, they are prepared to listen, they treat people with respect and there’s no bias.”
Muir’s definition is similar: “An effective leader embodies the required behaviours and shows empathy, dignity and respect to everyone in the business, irrespective of rank or time served, because they are all important members of the team.”
Good leaders also need substance and to meet business objectives, they need to recognise the importance of strategy.
Saker adds: “If you want to build trust with customers, you have to build trust with the staff first and the staff understand how to treat customers. Then the business becomes value-driven.”
Good leaders and a positive culture go hand-inhand for Potts (pictured): “Both team leadership and the establishment and maintenance of corporate culture require a number of elements. However, in my view, primary among them is setting strategy and objectives in a non-hierarchical way, with the absence of jargon, such that colleagues at every level can understand what we are about. The other major factor is that regular communication around progress towards objectives is vital.”
Freemantle agrees: “Once you have good culture in a business, you will generate those leaders who hold the same values, beliefs and outlook who then influence the culture further.”
After a 40-year career in automotive retail, Stephen Whitton founded his global movement for what he terms ‘mental wealth’ in automotive, enable. He now works with dealer groups and suppliers to foster an environment of wellbeing in organisations which, in turn, drives individuals to perform better – resulting in improved business outcomes.
He says: “Leaders are recognising that positive culture is more about engaging your teams, making sure employees’ wellbeing is front and centre. People perform well when they feel good about themselves and if you create a culture that fosters and nurtures that then I think it makes the job of effective leadership quite easy, but the leaders themselves have to lead with clarity confidence and purpose.”
The reality, though, can be different with the sector particularly prone to promoting the top performing salesperson into managerial positions.
Whitton points out that part of the problem is that managers can see themselves as managers of the process.
He says: “If you have manager in your title and people responsibilities, your job is the people, your job is to understand, to empathise, to be compassionate and to know that individuals need to be managed differently.”
Feedback through engagement surveys, face-to face sessions and everyday conversations provide insights while customer satisfaction scores are also an indicator of a good culture. Sustainable culture change happens when inclusion is embedded at every level of an organisation from attraction and recruitment through to onboarding, performance management, engagement and exit processes.
Ongoing investment in leadership development, training and support is critical to maintaining a strong culture together with clear communication channels, investment in support for health and wellbeing and regularly reviewing processes to ensure they genuinely support people. Clift said: “Importantly, employee experience andculture are everyone’s responsibility, not just HR or senior leaders. They are shaped daily by managers, colleagues and teams across the organisation so it’s about bringing people together on the journey.”
Muir’s KPI of 30% female representation in leadership roles is a critical indicator of the health of the culture and effective leadership. She says: “If women are not attracted to the employer brand, or do not stay or progress in the organisation, there is likely to be an outdated narrow set of leadership criteria being used, and the culture is probably one in which many people, not just women, can’t thrive or even survive.”
In Whitton’s workshops and through his consultancy, he focuses on his five ‘critical success factors’ to develop a more inclusive and positive business culture rather than ‘wholesale change’.
The first step is commitment from the management; followed by communication; then training; recruitment with an emphasis on looking beyond ‘your own image’; and finally, purpose. Purpose is perhaps the hardest to define but could be as simple as delivering the best brand experience in a region but at the other extreme, Whitton has been working with a group that once salaries, operational costs and dividends have been paid, ploughs money into charitable works and its own training academies.
For 120 years, Ben has supported the automotive industry’s people to overcome life’s toughest challenges and for Clift, this is key.
She says: “The health and wellbeing of employees, as well as leaders themselves can be overlooked. Leaders under sustained stress and pressure can struggle to support others, which can impact culture and performance. Investing in mental health, wellbeing, resilience and support for managers and leaders is closely connected to long-term success.”
