Do Auto Repair Shop Owners Know a Winner from a Whiner?

Winners by Rick White, President 180BIZ

Today I want to talk about winners and the two mindsets that winners have that nobody else does.

 The very first mindset all winners have is they hate being bad at stuff. Think about that. It simply means that you don't like mediocre performance. You don't want to have a situation where you're not the best at something where you haven't accepted the challenge of learning something new and becoming a master of it.  And then the second mindset is they're willing to look like a beginner.

I always say before you can learn how to run, you must learn how to walk. And before you can learn to walk, you must learn how to crawl.

 But people don't like the crawl phase. They don't like the walk and fall phase. They want to go from never have done it to “WHAM!” going a million miles per hour. That doesn't happen. Now let's look at each one of these.

 If you have someone who hates to look bad but doesn't have the second mindset of willing to look like a beginner. You will never grow. You will have a lane where you just don't want to do anything else. You will want to stay right here in your comfort zone because that's all you know. As I'm saying this, it almost makes sense that willing to look like a beginner is getting outside of your comfort zone.  Do you know anyone like that? It's not you, is it?

 If I had that mindset, this Just One Thing wouldn't be happening. The video training that we have never would have happened because I wouldn't have been willing to look like a beginner. That's the first thing. If you have someone who hates being bad at stuff but isn't willing to look like a beginner, you got zero growth. 

 Here’s the second part of this. You have someone who is willing to look like a beginner but doesn't hate being bad at stuff, you’re going to get mediocrity.  They are willing to accept “meh.”

 Now what's really awesome about this is can you use it. Step back and ask yourself which one of these do you have to work on? Which one are you allowing subpar performance out of yourself?  Because you know it's not good. It's not bad, but it's okay. Are you accepting that?

 Here's the second way you can use this. It’s when you're interviewing someone. Is there a way, and the answer is yes, to use this with people that you’re interviewing?  Start asking questions to uncover if they hate being bad at stuff. Is that a driver for them? That's a big subject right there. Are they willing to look like a beginner? So, you might ask questions like this.

• What was the last time you did something new?
• How did it feel?
• What did you do with it?

 Then you’ll see if people are holding themselves to a higher standard. This is really critical. I think this is a great way to pick out people that will be great additions to your team. Not anchors. We want additions, not anchors.

 It all comes down to how you answer these questions.

 What kind of leader are you?

• How bad do you feel about not knowing something?
• Do you hate it? Must you know how it works?
• Must you be your very best at it?
• When was the last time that intentionally showed up in your shop?
• When was the last time you showed your team that it was okay to look like a beginner?

I think these are two really fantastic questions to ask yourself.

 God bless, stay safe and go make some money.