CallSource^® Aim Higher

A Wake-Up Call to Whiners!!

by Dave Anderson , May 15 2009

If you still don't believe that we've devolved into a society of victims, whiners and wimps, the buzz of bawling and babbling in the Big Easy during the recent NADA Convention would have convinced you otherwise. I am addressing this article to whiners. While you are probably not one, you most likely know one. If this is the case, please feel free to share these four points with them. It may not shake them out of their denial, but you're likely to feel better as a result. In fact, it was therapeutic for me just to put these thoughts down on paper.

1. It is more about decisions than conditions.

Everyone is blaming conditions for their current, sorry state: the economy, the government, the past president, the manufacturer, their co-workers, the competition, the banks and the list continues ad infinitum. Without question, external factors can impair your business. However, it is your inside decisions, more than outside conditions that have the power to either compound your misery or accelerate your recovery. The fact is, during the robust times, many of you made the decisions to do the following: stop recruiting; fail to hold others accountable; avoid tough decisions; neglect controlling expenses, incur new debt, let up on training, take your customers for granted, stop prospecting for new business, ignore personal growth, bond with bunglers, confuse tenure with loyalty, reward mediocrity, freeze in a comfort zone and calcify in a mold. How convenient, to commit these leadership sins and then blame what you can't control when business turns south! Get a grip! Of course the outside conditions are relevant, but they'd be far less so if you had made better inside decisions. Start making better decisions now and you can limit the damage that external conditions inflict on your business.

Although you wouldn't know this by listening to the news, there are still plenty of businesses out there having fun and making money. They are those who have chosen to focus more on the quality of their decisions that can move them forward, than a list of conditions that justifies their failures. The adage is true: "Adversity causes some men to break and others to break records." You can't break records if you're blaming conditions!

2. You aren't as good as you thought.

I would like to particularly address the young, cocky, know-it-all sales managers who got into this business in the middle of a strong economy and were propped up by hot product helium and zero-percent financing. The favorable outside conditions may have convinced you that you were God's gift to our industry. Surprise! You're not, so I hope that you didn't embarrass yourself by mistaking a bull market for brains. Fact: The good times made you look better than you were. To be fair, the down times are probably making you look worse than you really are as well. Learn from these times. Sharpen your skills, humble yourself, listen more than you speak, admit and correct your failures and commit to going back to the drawing board and proving yourself over again each day.

I know this will come as a surprise to those who are products of today's "everyone is special," "don't keep score" and "every player gets a trophy" entitlement times, but here's the reality. The chances are quite good that you are not that special; rather, you are one of many. You may have talent and potential, but unfulfilled talent and potential are two of the most common tragedies known to man. Simply having these assets makes no one special. Converting talent and potential into results is what is special! You're not special because you show up, but because you step up! And here's a newsflash: In the real world, we do keep score and not everyone goes home a winner.

Anyone who told you otherwise: teachers, parents, friends, bosses and the like, fibbed to you. One of the best things your mentors could have taught you is that life is filled with absolutes: There is right and wrong, winning and losing, winners and losers, success and failure. However, just because you're losing doesn't make you a loser. Losing is a temporary condition; being a loser is a state of mind. But the key that prevents you from devolving from losing into becoming a loser is to toughen up, straighten up, grow up and accept responsibility for your life.

3. Lose your sense of entitlement.

Let me suggest what your company owes you: a fair wage, a safe place to work, competent and character-based leadership, training to improve your skills...and that's about it. Incidentally, you're not owed the next promotion simply because you have the most tenure. Nor are you due a raise because you've been at your desk for another calendar year. These things must be earned and not assumed. And perks ranging from donuts on Friday, free coffee in meetings, turkeys at Thanksgiving or a candy cane at Christmas are offered at the free will of your employer. You don't have any of these things coming.

Now let's talk about what you owe your company:

(A). When you're at work, "be there"! Don't run your personal life or agenda on company time. This includes severely limiting personal phone calls, text messaging, and Internet usage. If you don't like this or feel too restricted by it, then you should join the other 7.2 percent of the workforce looking for a job at this moment because, contrary to what you may think, it is not your employer's responsibility to dedicate itself to making you happy.

(B). Stop pacing yourself and budgeting your efforts. Give 100 percent of your efforts to your job each day and don't try to cash royalty checks from what you did, once-upon-a-time.

(C). Care! Stop bringing your hands to work while you check your head and heart at the door. Look for ways to improve every aspect of your organization. Do what is required, and then some. Speak well of your organization and its people when you are away from the job.

(D). A positive attitude and sense of gratitude for your job. There are 11 million people out of work in America at this moment. Your workplace may not be Shangri-la and your boss probably isn't Ozzie or Harriet, but there are plenty of folks who would trade their unemployment slips and eviction notices with your paycheck in a heartbeat. You can say "thank you" for the opportunity you have to come to work each day by following the four points previously outlined in this section and others like them.

4. This storm is too long to wait out.

Don't be naïve: This downturn isn't going to turnaround anytime soon. The economy hasn't even bottomed out yet, and it won't begin the process of a slow, methodical recovery until that happens. Because of this, you've got to stop waiting for the things around you to change and begin to change more of the things around you. You'll need to move farther, faster than you have in the past as you seize opportunities, cut losses and adjust your course. Shelve your longer term forecasts for a time and put a business plan into place that works today, in this market. Stop waiting out the storm, get out there and dance in the rain! Get proactive. Revive your killer instinct. Get the upper hand back on your business. Focus on what you can control. The shelf-life for whiners in these current market conditions is becoming increasingly short.

Dave Anderson is president of LearnToLead. He is an international author and speaker, presenting 120 times annually in 13 countries. Dave has been a car salesman, general manager and director of some of America's most successful dealerships. He is the author of nine books, his most recent being, the TKO Business Series. Dave has spoken at the NADA Convention for nine consecutive years.

Dave can be contacted at The Dave Anderson Corporation, P.O. Box 2338
Agoura Hills, CA 91376   Phone: 800.519.8224   818.735.9503 (Canada, Int'l)
email: dave@learntolead.com