Executive View: Dealers must achieve the mastery of motivation to increase revenues

In his latest monthly insight into performance improvement and people leadership, Dr Will Holden, chairman of Sewells, urges automotive managers to deliver the 4 Rs of motivation and see their teams' sales rise.

After more than 50 years of helping the motor industry, and everyone in it, to be the best it, and they, can be there are some important things that never seem to change much.

One of the things we get asked for on a regular basis by Senior managers is "what's the best way to motivate people"? - especially when we’re in the VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) world we're in currently.

From a personal perspective, I've never known the motor industry to be in anything but VUCA world, with the scale and intensity of it increasing every year.

From a business and managerial perspective, as we hinted in our last article, being able to motivate people, and keep them motivated to perform at the highest level to consistently exceed objectives is the key to great results.

There's two principles that underpin the mastery of motivation: -

Like all success, it's not about doing extraordinary things, it's about doing simple things extraordinarily well.

Business change requirements happen quickly

Habits change slowly.

Human nature never changes.

So, to become a motivational Ninja a basic understanding of human nature is needed, which most leaders don't have by the way and then, and only then, can they begin to focus on doing certain simple motivational things extraordinarily well.

The most important and powerful principle of human nature is ... human beings become (on the outside) what they think about (on the inside)!

Yes, it's as simple as that; good or bad, positive or negative. As highly effective leaders and motivators of our teams we must develop them to be thinking the right things about themselves, their customers, their ability to excel at their job and any task they take on, exceeding their objectives, their future prospects, their teammates, the company, the bosses, etc.

There are certain areas, and techniques, that will motivate most people on the planet – across the generations and regardless of background.

First things first, however.

Firstly, being a brilliant motivator takes time, it's a labour of love. It'll take 50% of your time at work to do this properly and involves individual attention and team sessions.

Secondly, please don't fall into the trap of "treating people like you'd want to be treated. As inconvenient as it may be, motivation, is a very personal thing, what does it for one, doesn't do it for others.

We need to learn the art of treating people like they'd like to be treated.

Thirdly, it difficult trying to wake someone up who is pretending to be asleep. Some people just don’t have the right attitude or mindset to be part of a dynamic, winning and high performing team.

Our research with a cross-section of people in the motor industry tells us, and you, what the order of importance is when it comes to motivation and what to focus upon.

These are The 4 R’s of Motivation (in order), below.