According to a 2016 report by Marketdata Enterprises Inc, dating services is a $2.5 billion business in the United States alone. Since 2001, online services have soared in popularity and now account for 70 percent of the market’s value.

Why is that?

Neuroscience reveals that the brain needs three critical elements to function properly:

• Oxygen (breathing)
• Glucose (eating)
• Connection (??)

Even though most people don’t directly associate eating and breathing with mental health, we all understand the importance of those activities. Research shows that after about six minutes without oxygen the brain begins to die. Further, most people cannot survive more than a month without food.

But what about this thing called connection? What is it and why is it so important?

According to Google, connection is defined as a relationship in which a person, thing, or idea is linked or associated with something else.

We are relational beings and we need each other more than we often realize. In fact, studies have shown that without human touch, attention, and nurturing an infant’s brain does not develop normally. Even though we become more self-sufficient as we grow this need for connection remains throughout our entire life.

Henry Cloud brings tremendous perspective of the importance and role of connection in his book The Power of the Other (click here to view a brief overview of the book). This is another one of those books that you will reference for the rest of your career. I highly recommend it.

Poor teamwork is the most commonly stated complaint in virtually every dealership. Not surprising if your people aren’t connected.

From a practical standpoint here are a three simple things you can do to create and maintain better connections in your dealership:

1. Introduce all new staff to the rest of the team on their first day. This will create a sense of belonging, increase familiarity, and enhance immediate engagement.
2. Wear name badges. Every relationship begins with a name. Many people think that name badges are only for external customers, but name badges enhance connections between staff at all levels and help not only the integration of new staff, but speed the building of relationship amongst staff. I am often amazed at how few dealership staff really know each other.
3. Have regular all staff meetings. I recommend monthly, but don’t go longer than three months. An annual Christmas party is not sufficient. Regular all-staff meetings where people can get to know each other is a great way to build connection and create the foundation for teamwork.

Herb Mast is a Leadership Coach and Business Consultant. He would love to assist you in implementing the principles and concepts presented above. He is confident that in the process you will enjoy a 10X ROI.

Click here to schedule a free no-obligation introductory consultation.

What is hope? In many ways it is a nebulous term. Pause for a moment and see if you are able to write out a definition. I think you will find it harder to do than you think.

Now that you have written your definition, I’ll share with you how Merriam-Webster defines hope:

intransitive verb

:to cherish a desire with anticipation : to want something to happen or be true

• Hopes for a promotion
• Hoping for the best
• I hope

 transitive verb

:to desire with expectation of obtainment or fulfillment

• I hope she remembers.
• Hopes to be invited

noun

— hope against hope

: to hope without any basis for expecting fulfillment

Ultimately there are two types of hope—true and false. True hope requires some form of action or for something to change in order for hope to have any substance. Further hope requires a basis in reality. Otherwise, without change and without a basis in reality, it is false hope, which is nothing more than a wish.

In his book Necessary Endings Henry Cloud states, hope is designed to give us more time, so that whatever we are hoping for can come to pass. But because that is what hope does for us—buys more time and spends it—it sometimes creates problems if we are not in touch with reality. In that case, it is hope that keeps us going down a road that has no realistic chance of being the right road or making what we want come to pass. In a false reality, hope is the worst quality you can have!

In the leadership model—of getting a team from HERE to THERE (see HERBISM #2)—an executable plan provides hope. Notice that that the term includes both the concept of a plan and a basis in reality of being executable. Unfortunately many leaders assign unrealistic objectives to their people. Unrealistic objectives steals hope because the individual does not see it how it is executable. And, when there is no hope an individual shuts down and puts in less effort.

That is why it is better for leaders to work with their people to come up with goals and objectives together. When targets are realistic and the individual participates in the process they gain true hope, similar to the effects of positivity, and they work harder to achieve the objective.

Challenge: The next time you think of assigning sales targets sit together with your people individually and ask them what they think they will be able to achieve. If they provide low targets (sandbagging) you can challenge them to make the target realistic, but avoid the temptation to assign a target or push them into unrealistic targets. You will be surprised how much more your people are able to achieve when they reach and exceed targets they agreed to.

Example: If you have a sales person who has the potential to see 12 cars/mth don’t try to push them to 18, hoping they will end up with 12. Rather, get them to tell you what they are willing to commit to for the month. If they say 9 ask them how they came to that number and find out what their plan is. Encourage them to commit to more because you believe they are cable of doing so and have achieved it in the past. If their reasons for only committing to 9 are fair, like the fact that they will be away for a week during the month, accept their goal, suggest that you will hold them accountable to that and the work plan they put forward, and offer your support.

In the same way, if they suggest a higher goal, like 15, find out what their plan is and whether it is realistic. Once you agree on a goal, accept it, suggest that you will hold them accountable to it and the work plan they put forward, and offer your support.

Herb Mast is a Leadership Coach and Business Consultant. He would love to assist you in implementing the principles and concepts presented above. He is confident that in the process you will enjoy a 10X ROI.

Click here to schedule a free no-obligation introductory consultation.

I was not always a reader. In fact, I used to hate to read.

All of that changed as I ventured out in my own business endeavors shortly after graduating from college. I came across a quote that said “Leaders are readers.” I thought of myself as a leader and felt convicted that I was not reading more (more accurately stated, not at all).

Some interesting statistics (click here to see the Metalfloss article):

• One-third of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.
• 42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.
• 80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.
• 70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years

Few leaders have time to read a book cover to cover in one sitting, but all of us have gaps in our schedule (for me it is at the airport waiting for my next flight or sitting on the plane waiting to take off). The Intentionality model suggests that a habit of reading just 5 pages a day will allow you to read many books, and expand your perspective, without seemingly losing any time. A number of my clients even do that with their leadership teams and are able to absorb the content of a number of books each year—with results that speak for themselves.

To this end, as I was recently building out my website further, and adding a resource section of “inspiring Resources” I was surprised to learn that I had read over 100 books in the past 5-10 years.

If you would like to know what books are great for leadership, team building, and improving organizational health feel free to visit my   Inspiring Resources page.

Stay hungry and thirsty [for knowledge and perspective] my friends…

Herb Mast is a Leadership Coach and Business Consultant. He would love to assist you in implementing the principles and concepts presented above. He is confident that in the process you will enjoy a 10X ROI.

Click here to schedule a free no-obligation introductory consultation.

Early in a new year is a great time to be reminded of the power of intentionality.

A fresh start.

That is what most of us look forward to at the beginning of a new year. The opportunity to reflect back, glean the good, discard the bad, and formulate a new plan that will get us closer to GREAT.