Executive View: Lead with questions, not solutions, and empower a dealership's team

Gail Harrison, managing director of business improvement experts Sewells, offers crucial coaching tips for automotive managers with a reminder that their solution is not necessarily the best one and harnessing the brainpower of employees pays dividends.

You don't have to look too far in automotive organisations to find managers who are ninjas at solving problems.

Many managers advance through the organisation via a technical role, they are valued for their experience and expertise and suddenly find themselves managing others.

They've been paid for being solution-focused and are used to coming up with answers for any of the myriad of problems facing them on a day-to-day basis.

This can work pretty well except that: