"Best Boss, Worst Boss!" The Interview Question That Exposes Every Bad Hire | Industry Spotlight
Car Dealership Guy Podcast
"Best Boss, Worst Boss!" The Interview Question That Exposes Every Bad Hire | Industry Spotlight
Car Dealership Guy Podcast · Jul 18, 2026
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Topic
daily KPI huddles
They’re talking about a management routine where managers meet often and quickly review the same performance numbers. The idea is to stay focused on what’s moving the business forward.
Term
KPIs
KPIs are numbers a business uses to track how well people are performing. Think of them like daily scorecards for things like sales and service results.
Term
RO's
ROs are repair orders, basically the service paperwork for a car that comes in. More ROs usually means more cars being worked on.
Term
customer value
Customer value is a dollar-based way to measure how much money customers bring in through service. It helps the dealership see whether they’re not just busy, but profitable.
Term
CSI
CSI is a customer satisfaction score. It reflects how happy customers are with their service experience, not just how much work was done.
Term
shop efficiency
Shop efficiency is how effectively the service shop uses its time. If technicians are busy doing billable work instead of waiting around, efficiency goes up.
Term
technicians productivity
Technicians productivity is basically how much work the techs get done. Dealerships track it to see whether the shop is running efficiently.
Topic
service vs sales controllability
They explain that service results are easier to improve from inside the dealership. Sales depends more on outside factors like how confident consumers feel.
LIVE
Well, bill, welcome to the car dealership guy industry spotlight podcast.
So bill, let's start out with a question.
If you were opening a brand new dealership tomorrow, what would be your first three
hires and why the first one would be a service manager?
I think if you have a good service manager, you're going to be able to attract talent.
You're going to be able to build the backbone of the store.
And that's kind of if you think of a dealership as a person, you need a strong backbone.
That's who that would be the absolute every time first hire.
Second one would probably be a new car manager because the programs are complicated.
Dealing with the manufacturers can be complicated.
So you need somebody who's kind of handling that all the time.
And then you need somebody who's putting the right money on trade.
So probably service manager, new car manager, used car manager,
and then you fill in the bones later of those three.
Which are the toughest to hire for in 2026 in automotive service manager?
Definitely, because the really good ones don't want to leave their store.
And, you know, they're in a good ecosystem and and they're really happy.
So that would by far be the toughest.
Yeah, some some have come on our show bill and they've said a sales manager,
whether it's a general manager, new car, used car is the toughest
because it requires such diverse skill sets, your training, your accountability.
And sometimes there are other positions like finance that pay better than a GM.
How do you deal with that in 26 bill?
So I think if the employee is thinking this is a career for them
and this is an organization where they're having a career,
some of that stuff gets smoothed out.
If it's a very transactional relationship with your employees,
where they feel like I need to make the most amount of money this year
because this might be the only year I work in the organization,
then it's going to come up over and over and over.
Yeah, which is a problem actually in automotive people that think short term versus long term.
So, Bill, you spent five years as a criminal prosecutor
before running one of the busiest dealer groups in Pennsylvania.
What pulled you into retail?
And I guess equally is important.
What what from that first career still shows up and how you lead people today?
So I actually think that the jobs are very similar,
which I don't know who would get insulted by that probably both.
But I think what happens when you're on trial
is you come up with a plan and two-thirds of it goes in the garbage
because things go wrong and you kind of have to come up with a new plan.
The best analogy I ever heard about being a criminal trial attorney
is if you put on a Broadway show and then at the end of it, the judge said,
I really like that I want a totally different Broadway show tomorrow.
Okay, let me put on a different one with a whole different cast and all that.
And I think being in retail is very similar
where you have your plan and every dealer who you'd interview has a plan or every manager.
And then two-thirds of it goes in the garbage
and you have to kind of you kind of have to say, I'm moving on.
I'm moving on and let that go.
And the other thing too is the situations, whether it's COVID, the 08 meltdown,
today the tariffs are constantly changing.
So there's always a new set of challenges
and you just have to work your way through it.
And yesterday's solution is not going to work today.
So that comes over.
That chaos and being comfortable in chaos, that came over.
Do you begrudge the first career?
You spent a lot of time, money, and focus on a career as a criminal prosecutor.
In fact, when I think of that position,
I think I don't know if you've seen the show Billions,
but that's what comes to mind is courtroom drama.
I see your point and kind of how that it carries over,
but you spent a lot of time, money, and focus getting into that career
and then pivoted into the second.
How does that show up in the way you lead daily?
And do you support others in pursuing similar educational pursuits in automotive?
It shows up all the time and part of it is you quickly get rid of your ego
than that first job because you realize that ultimately
the jury is going to decide based on the evidence and the testimony of the witnesses.
And you don't really matter all that much.
You're the one pitching the questions,
but the answers are what they really listen to.
And you didn't get involved in the case until everything was already over.
So you didn't even find out about it basically until the crime scene was created.
So I think recognizing that you're the least important part of the proceeding
and that you're just here to help organize it.
And the police officers, the eyewitnesses, all of that
is what's really going to carry the day and decide whether you get a conviction or not.
It's really helpful because when you get to a dealership,
in many ways, the dealer is the least important person
because you only get involved in a situation if things are going wrong.
And if you've got the right people in place, things rarely go wrong.
So as you hire general managers and sales managers and others throughout the organization,
do you, again, time focus spent on your education,
do you encourage similar educational pursuits as a way of making you a better leader?
Or do you relay and convey those lessons in interesting ways?
So I would say like everybody, my work experience comes up.
But I think the biggest thing is, did you have a boot camp
type experience early in your career where you were drinking from a fire hose as kind of the
common cliche, but where you had to turn your brain all the way on.
And that obviously happens when you're a trial attorney, you have to turn it all the way up.
And I think you learn at a speed, you also get an awareness that every person might see
the same situation you see, but see it differently. You learn that really quickly.
And that's helpful in dealing with employees because you get away from the idea that I'm
right, they're wrong. And you just lean into, well, that's what they're thinking. That's what
they're taking from the circumstance. And you try to meet their perspective.
I try to never win in an interaction with an employee. I would like to lose 100% of the time.
Because if they think they've won and they're going after it and they own the process and
own the thing that we're trying to do, that's my win.
I love that. That's a great, and by the way, we're going to come to this in a minute,
but I can't imagine either as a vendor presenting to you, given your law background,
and or as a general manager or a series of GMs, having to come up with an idea to fix a problem,
because I would imagine you scrutinize those and you provide feedback. And I would imagine that
people become better in that kind of court or arena of ideas. Do you encourage that kind of
vigorous sharing of thoughts and ideas and the best ideas winning? Not necessarily that
things are right or wrong, but we're going to get to the win together.
So I would say more than any other line I try to say to employees, what do you think?
And if what they think is matching mostly what I think, let's go. That's fine. I'll take 60,
70%. And again, that's this shedding your ego. But I will say, and this is an employee who Todd
knows well, who's my head of finance for the dealership group, whenever an employee comes
into a room with me who I don't really know that well, she'll say to them, tell him the truth,
because he's going to ask a bunch of questions and he already knows the answer to half of them.
So don't think you're going to be able to BS him. And that is my training coming out where you
just ask and you ask. And it also, I think one of the things that I do like about the
job that we do and what Todd does is you don't know the answer. The job is interesting because
we're constantly trying to figure it out. I'm glad it's not a job that I know. I'm learning it.
Yeah. So, Andrew Todd Kaminski, you spent over 30 years with Zurich, Todd. And you now lead direct
markets. What's evolved as we talk with Bill about hiring and dealerships, which we'll delve into
today, what's evolved about hiring and dealerships during your time with Zurich as you've watched
this industry change over three decades? Well, first of all, let me just say that
presenting to Bill is really easy because he's very smart and he uses logic. And he doesn't
let too much emotion enter the conversation. He asks and his background as a prosecutor,
he asks very pointed, very clear, direct questions that if you're prepared, things go really well.
And if you aren't, you are cooked. But it's very clear. You're asking me how has it changed
in dealerships the hiring process? Yes. I mean, I want to say a lot, but to be real, not enough,
I would say. I only say that because the turnover is still higher than I think anybody really wants.
And I feel like, and Bill brought it up, service managers, service directors,
I think it's a lot steadier there. And that group of people, if you look at their tenure,
is a lot longer than the front end of the business. And I still see when we go in to do
FNI training or income development, we do see a lot of turnover and we see a lot of people,
maybe they were at one dealership, and then we go to the next one. And you go, oh, you were just
over there, now you're over here. So it's evolved a bit that it's a lot more professional
than it ever has been. Yet we still see a lot of turnover that I would love to see people
at a dealership. And Bill has some of these folks, we go, hey, you're still here and it's been 25
years, they've made a career of it, not just in the industry, but at Friedman Toll. And that's
what you're trying to do. So it's evolved, it's more professional, but I don't think it's quite at
the level of corporate America. Yeah, and it is an interesting difference. We've had Don Hall,
who's the head of the Virginia Auto Dealers Association on this show, talking about the
FTC letter that went out many months ago. And he says, look, part of the problem in automotive in
2026 has to do a short term thinking, Bill. You brought that up, right? Where people are paid and
incentivized on a 30 day cycle rather than on a longer cycle. So Bill, Todd's talked about,
you've got some veterans in your organization who've stayed for the term. What's a key to hiring and
recruiting and getting retention long term and getting employees to see the longer view? That's
in corporate America. It's not so much an automotive today. So I think what we try to do,
and I think most times we're pretty successful, is we try to have training and patience with the
employees with the recognition that we're going to hire somebody at 20 years old or 22 or 23 years
old and kind of explain to them that this is something they can do for the next 20 or 30
or 40 years. And I think if you, I guess the expression we sometimes use is you marry the
employee. If you think you're dating your employee, your employee is going to think they're dating you.
And there's going to be that constant shuffle. If you commit to your employee, I think generally
they'll commit to you. So what we try to do is express, we're doing this in five year increments,
in 10 year increments. And this is how we're going to train you. And we try to walk people up in not
only compensation, but also responsibility. I think if you do that, people get a sense,
I'm going somewhere in this organization. And I do think that's something corporate America
tends to do a good job of. If you don't do that, they're going to say, well, this person hasn't
committed to me, I'm not committing to them. And the first chance they're going to jump.
Bill, I love the dating versus commitment comparison. And give us three tips that you do
to help with that focus and that commitment long term, because it's easy to say, but it's
actually tougher to execute on people get distracted in the long term. What are some
things you do in the organization that commit to employees and ask employees to commit to the
organization, read mental. So one of the things we do, I'm sure every dealer who listens to this
is going to say, I'm not doing that. But we show all of the managers the financial statement every
month. So we show them how the business is doing. And we sit down and we go through every line.
And I think most dealers would say that's a dangerous thing to do.
But if I'm going to ask them to commit to the overall goals of the organization,
to not show them how the overall organization is doing seems to me to be a little disingenuous.
Like I'm asking for loyalty, but I'm not giving it back. So that's something we do with managers. We
also tell people kind of over and again, you're on a career path. And we show them
the career path. And pretty much all of the promotions are based on objective markers
that the employees see every month. So that there's no sense. Well, the reason why he got promoted
to general managers, he goes to Eagles football games with Bill. You know, it's that that you
do the following things you can move up. So one of the things Todd's group really helped us with,
we have a hundred car club, which is if you sell a hundred cars in a six month period,
first half of the year, the second half of the year, you go out to dinner, you get treated
differently, you're eligible for promotion, you get monetary bonuses. That's something they know
if they work towards an achieve, they can now become a manager. And I think the more
they can see behind the curtain as an employee. And one of the things I try to think about
when we come up with decisions is not how do I like it as the dealer,
how would I like it if I was the employee? And I want no mystery. So occasionally,
that leads to tough conversations with the employees where they'll say, you know,
how come I wasn't considered for employee? And I'll say, well, you didn't hit the guidelines,
you know, so, but at least it's clear. Todd hundred car club might make sense in corporate
America. You've worked for a Swiss based insurance company for three decades. They've got policies,
procedures. As you talk to dealers like Bill, say, hey, let's do a hundred car club. It takes in
some organizations like bills, but it doesn't take in others. What's the difference between
an organization where it takes and it becomes part of culture? And it, it creates that loyalty,
that commitment between employer and employee. What's the difference between those organizations,
Todd? The owner, if you have a good owner, it takes. And the things that the wrap up with Bill
said when Bill was talking, he said two things, transparency and recognition. He's open with
a financial statement. He's trying to show you that you're in this with him. And that's a key
element. People don't like to be kept in the dark or surprised. So transparency. And then he also
sets up who gets promoted. The third word is meritocracy. So you've got meritocracy,
which people want. They don't want favoritism. So it's people getting promoted or recognized or
those who deserve it. It's been a clear set of guidelines. If you achieve the following things,
this is what you will receive. And that's what's going on. So you've got meritocracy, transparency,
and then recognition, which let's be real, as humans, we like that. We like to be recognized
for the things we've done. But if you ask what's the difference, if the owner is bought in and
into it and you have that support, it works. And when you don't forget it, because anything you're
trying to put in place, whether it's what Bill's putting in place or a mentorship program, it all
takes a lot of work. And it takes a lot of repetition. And it takes getting it into everybody's
mindset and then the culture. You can start these things, but very few people can keep them going.
So it takes the owner and it takes support around the owner. It can't all be the dealer.
It has to be Bill and Bill says, okay, listen, here's my role, and I need a chairperson to
help me with this, keep me organized, maybe, or I need you over here to drive this home when I'm
giving this lesson or I'm sharing this information, I need you to then go back
and reinforce what we've been talking about, because if it's just me, it's going to fall.
So Bill gets sort of lieutenants around him that are bought in that then keep his message
going when he's not in the room. So Bill, Todd makes a great point. It's
you can go in any order. What is it about automotive that we're afraid to share financial
statements? Because I'm sure there are a lot of dealers listening to this saying we'll show
a portion, we'll show a little bit, but I think showing it being transparent with it is part of
the buy-in. And then in your cases, Todd talks about who helps you keep track of this for the
long term so that it doesn't go in place and then lose its steam after 30, 60 days down the road.
It wasn't an easy decision for me to make. And pretty much when I went to state association
dinners or something like that, and I would say to people I'm thinking about sharing the financial
statement, the looks on their faces would be like, you're insane. And I'll buy your stores in six
months when you've run them into the ground. So I would say the biggest thing which was helpful
for me was I started out as an employee. So for me, the thing I was able to take my dealer hat
off, take it off and think about as an employee, the employees know the dealer makes more than the
employees. And I think that's what dealers are afraid that they'll see. But you also have more
liability than the employees. Like one of the things I do say to the employees is I can't quit.
I can't walk away. I can't go to another organization. So there's more risk. There's
more reward. But I think you just have to be open and honest that that's the situation. But if we
do better, if I the organization does better, the employee does better. And people
understand that it's logical. It's just you got to make that leap. And the other thing is if you
started off not doing this for the first 10 years of being a dealer, you got to almost reintroduce
yourself to the employees when you switch that because it's always easier to just keep doing
whatever you're doing. It's very hard to pivot. How did you pivot, Bill? What did pivoting look
like when you did the reset with your employees? Was there a moment in time where you said,
this is how I want to be? be transparent. I want to be a meritocracy. I want to celebrate
wins. What did that look like that moment? So it was right after the meltdown in 08 where companies
went into bankruptcy. The industry was in complete chaos. And I thought to myself, the only way we're
going to get through this is if we all are rowing in the same direction, if we all believe. So if
we're going to go down, we're going to go down horribly. But I don't want to go down slowly.
So I thought it takes everybody to buy in, everybody to attack it. And as Todd said,
one of the things, and this leads to your second question, is I started out by doing it for three
or four months with my top lieutenants and made sure they understood it. Because one of the things
I think every dealer knows that they're being honest is the most important questions get asked
when the dealer leaves the room. Yes. Yeah. And then they turn to their peer and go,
is he serious? What does this mean? So I made sure my general managers, my head of finance,
my service managers were really educated on this before I brought everybody in. And I told them,
I want you to understand this because you're going to get the questions and I won't,
at least initially, because it's intimidating to ask the person in charge, the boss, the whatever.
So they're going to ask the person who's the drill sergeant, not the general.
And I think them buying in, the kind of first followers, the first couple of people
really changed the whole culture. I would agree with only half of what Todd, Todd's a very smart
person. It is the dealer. But if you don't have those good lieutenants, forget it. And actually,
you did say that, like they're almost more important than the dealer, those followers.
Did you have to go through a couple wrong to find the right? And how did you deal with that?
If so, did you get dissent behind the back and have to address that? Yes, I did. And I'm sure Todd
is laughing because he knows some of the people who, you know, when you go out of the room,
they say this guy is crazy. You know, so but you have to have the faith that this is the right
thing to do. And that ultimately, there's going to be bumps. I think starting at it as a DA was
super helpful, but even more helpful was being a parent. So I've got two kids and raising them,
you realize that like, it's a long journey. You know, they're now 26 and 24. But there's going
to be easy days and hard days. And you have to, if you're going to commit to something, you have to
commit to it long term. And it's not like you can say with employees, we got to get
rid of this kid. Let's get a new kid in. Let's hire a new kid like that's not possible. So you
have to commit and you have to work with them every single day. And also, you're going to mess up.
And your kids are going to forgive you. So you have to recognize that too.
Yeah, but so actually, let's go with the kid thing, because I think that is interesting.
Where is the line between being committed to an employee and being taken advantage of by an employee?
That is a great question. And anybody who is a parent right now is nodding like, oh,
yeah, I've had those moments. I think the moments where I did feel like I was being taken advantage
of or the employee was kind of pushing more, rather than react emotionally, I would try to say,
I think you're taking advantage of the situation. But I'm going to I'd like you to explain to me
how you're not like, take me through your thought process. The reverse. I like it. Yeah. So because
because I can be wrong here, but it seems like you're kind of taking advantage of the situation.
Can you explain to me from your perspective how this is the right thing to do? How,
you know, I'm off base and and and you're you're right on, which by the way,
that that's a nice approach. All right, Bill, let's talk culture for a minute.
How do you build intentionally build one culture across sales, service, finance and parts? Those
are disparate departments. And in a lot of organizations, they're verticals that sometimes
combat and kind of compete against themselves. Yeah. So it is probably similar to children
in that way as you raise them. Is there harmony or not? I would say when we do meetings like
financial statement meetings, we do it everybody together. So the parts manager is sitting next
to the finance manager who's sitting next to the service manager sitting next to the sales
manager. Now that's unusual, Bill. That's unusual. Yes. Yeah. So and I take time in every meeting
to explain parts to the sales manager and sales to the service manager. So I find that people get
along a lot better if they understand the challenge that the other person is facing.
And then what we really try to tie together is we're not going to be a good service organization
unless we sell a lot of cars and we're not going to sell a lot of cars unless we're a good service
organization. So we're all in that boat. We're all rowing and we're either going to get there
together or we're going to sink. So that's something we talk about a lot. As far as building a culture,
you got to do it kind of one employee at a time. And one of the things we do now is we explain our
culture and things like the 100 car club at the initial interview of an employee, a prospective
employee. So you're told that within 10 minutes of applying for a job. And for some people,
they're into it and other people, they're not. And it's better if we know upfront that the person
has not bought in. It's better for them too. And I ask one question that's my kind of golden
question in an interview, which is who's the best boss you ever had and why and who's the worst
boss you ever had and why. And that'll tell me everything I need to know about how that person
wants to be managed. Boo, I'm going to borrow that question because you can also see if they make
excuses or if they find ways to win, right? Todd, speaking of culture, what type of behaviors
from leaders drive people away culture? We talked about transparency, but lack of it
is number one. Yeah. If people think that their boss or the company is hiding something from them,
yeah, they find something out in some other way that could have easily been told to them,
they should have known. That's number one. I mean, you start talking about
are they leaving their manager or their boss? Are they leaving the company? I think we all
would probably agree. It's usually you're leaving your manager or your boss. That's probably 90%
of it. So lack of transparency. I find if the lack of time, like giving, if your manager,
your boss isn't giving you any time like a monthly one-on-one where you are the person,
employee is the person speaking 80% of the time to say, here's what's going on with me and here's
the topics that I want to talk about and it's not just, here's my report out of my numbers
or the duties I was supposed to get done this month or this quarter, but here's what I want to talk
about. And if the boss doesn't give you that space and that ear and that time, that's a real
red flag. And it's, yeah, John. But Bill, in automotive, what Todd's talking about that time
to listen, there are a lot of GMs and sales managers and even other leaders in automotive,
they're so task driven. It's tough to give employees that space consistently over time. When
things get, you know, not as busy, they'll do it. But when we get into the chaos of the summer
months or big selling months, why is that so hard in automotive? So I think there's so much
outside stimulus and outside inputs. You get communications from the manufacturers, you know,
maybe you're looking at your wholesale losses. You got vendors trying to get in and talk to you,
you got three customers. So for the dealers, the best laid plans, we're going to be highly
communicative. And then you go, Oh, God, it's 530. And the day is gone. Alright, well, tomorrow
will be highly communicative. So what we do is I have a daily meeting with every one of my managers.
They all report their results in 10 minute phone calls. So at 1030 the morning, all the service
managers report the results to each other and me from 1030 to 1040, all the sales managers
from four o'clock to 410. And then we have some other groups that smaller groups, every service
manager, I mean, every service advisor in the company reports the results to me every day.
Wow. So as a dealer, though, an executive, an owner of a company, how do you make that time?
What was the market pressure that made you say, Hey, I see value in spending that time?
Because by the way, time is focus times also love because we all have limited amounts of it.
That's a significant commitment to your teams. What made you say this is worth doing and doing
every single day? So what I realized, and again, I was kind of driven by the financial statement,
it turns out, if all your service managers, sales managers, service advisors and sales
people are doing a great job, you're a genius. Your job is so easy. And if they're doing a bad
job, it doesn't matter how smart you are, it's all going to go sideways. So I commit more to them.
I often don't return manufacturer. I hope nobody's listening phone calls or whatever,
because I can't miss those 10 minute phone calls. Those are to me, the lifeblood of the company.
And I think it's actually a mistake to have one 50 minute meeting with a group. It's better to
have five 10 minute meetings with the group. So, so Bill, what is that? I'm a service manager.
What does that call look like? Role play that. So what does it look like? So there's 10 kind of KPIs
that they report on every single day. So I'll say, all right, Sam, how are we doing in Honda?
Take me through it. And you'll say, yesterday we had 42 ROs. We had a customer value of $420.
We had a total gross of $14,000. We're tracking $340,000 on the month. Looks like we're going to
hit or exceed our goal. Well, you know, our CSI with this, our shop efficiency, because that's
a report on the technicians productivity is that, and they'll just blow through it. And you have
about 45 to 50 seconds to give your 10 KPIs. And then I'll jump in for literally 10 seconds and say,
Sam, it's looking awesome with your appointment setting. We've got to pick up our customer value
a little bit. Couldn't be happier with the job you're doing. Okay, next we're going to go to Todd.
But everybody stays and listens. Sam listens to Todd's results. Todd listens to Bill's results
and so on and so forth. That is laser focused on those KPIs, which end up driving the results. But
then the time that you provide and give back, are you able to somehow quantify the impact of that
consistently over time? Have you ever thought about what's the value of that as a process?
That's huge. So of our 10 service centers, seven of them have set a record this year
in terms of service growth. So I do think it's made a huge impact on service. On sales, it's a
little tougher because, as you know, there's also market factors, you know, what's consumer confidence.
And so service, you can kind of move the needle a little easier than you can on sales.
But it's definitely helped. I'm just listening to Bill. It's just like the culture there is so
clear. That's the other benefit. You had transparency, meritocracy, you had recognition,
but clarity. It's clear when you're at Reedman Toll, everybody knows what the deal is. They
know what's coming. And then if you were to ask, Bill, this seems like a lot of time,
I would ask Bill or anybody, just list out for me what is more important than this.
That's right. And I challenge you to come up with things that are more important than
giving your team the time to report out and you that you're listening to them.
You can't come up with anything. There is nothing more important than that.
The leadership habits that consistently create that high performing team,
it is intentionally creating those times to listen, get feedback, and then
maintain the focus on KPIs. And Todd, to your point, like doing that consistently,
it's almost like making a promise to your employees that their job is important.
And then consistently doing it is delivering an integrity in delivering on that promise.
And Bill, that consistency has also got to help with employee retention. Have you ever had employees
that are like, you know what? This is BS. I'm not doing this call every single day. I refuse to show
up every day. Like I'm out. Have you ever had anybody that wants to go hide and they self-select
out? You don't even have to let them go. We have. I mean, one of the ways I can
tell if a manager is going sideways is if they start missing those calls.
So we very intentionally make the calls 10 minutes with the idea that I get you're busy,
but you've got, what is it, 480 minutes in the day. You can give me 10.
And when a manager or an employee starts avoiding the call,
you can tell they're drifting from the culture. So that's one easy way to see it.
But we talked about the, that question I asked in the interview, who's the best boss you ever
had and why and who's the worst boss. And I get the same answer almost every single time,
which is for the best boss, sometimes they'll say he was harsh or she was nice. But the number one
thing they'll say is they communicated what they wanted and they were the same person every single
day. For the worst boss, they will say, I did not know what person I was getting when I walked
through the door every day. So it was kind of one day nice, next day mean. So you could be strict
or you can be very easy, but I don't think you can be both. And that was, for me, a light bulb
moment where I said, I am going to over-communicate my expectations, radically over-communicate.
By the way, at the dealership meetings with other dealers, when I say like, as I said to you,
oh, I take these calls with every day, they were like, what? That is insane and not in a supportive
way. But my feeling is I want in 10 minute increments to communicate what the goals are every
single day and then be really encouraging as we hit them, but be super clear. If you have an employee
bill that you know is on their way out, their results aren't quite where they need to be.
You've gone through a process of having tough conversations. Does it become difficult to hear
the report out every single day at some point, some way? Yes, although they probably get sick of it
before I do because I think it's really hard to report failure over and again,
especially if you're doing it every single day. But one of the things, again, for years I did all
determinations in the dealership because they just felt it's such a crappy, terrible thing to do
that to put that on someone else is not really fair, especially if I'm going to make the decision,
I should be the one to communicate it. And the thing I will not have in a termination meeting
is the person go, this is the first time hearing this. I had no idea. So the terms I wanted them
to be as simple as the person going, I know it just didn't work out and me saying them,
I know it just didn't work out. And there's kind of a meeting of the minds, even if no one's happy
about it. Last question up as we wrap today. And again, thank you for being so generous with your
time. This has been an incredible conversation in my mind. If a dealer's listening today, Bill,
and could implement just one thing over the next 30 days to not only just attract, but also retain
and develop better talent, what would you tell them to do first of all the things we've talked
about today? Communicate their vision from the first interview and then every day. So whatever,
you know, and obviously every dealer has a different approach. Every dealer has, you know,
they hit all the same markers for probably in a different way. But communicate to the point
where the employee is really bored. Communicate to the point where it would be impossible to work
for that dealer and not know what the expectations are. Todd, thinking about career talent and
promotion, what's one piece of great advice you've received throughout your career? This is one I
got from a long time mentor after attending a sort of work outing with all the senior executives.
And he said to me, you know, Todd, it's not who you know. It's who knows you.
Of course, confused me. And I said, what are you talking about? He said,
I watch you move around the room and you meet everybody. But if I went over and asked the
global CEO, if he knew who Todd Kaminsky was, what would he say to me? I hear that you know him.
Does he know you? And I said, Oh my God, it really hit me hard to say you have to these people have
to know who you are. If something comes up with job of promotion, you want them to think of you.
So it was a maybe don't spend all of your time meeting 30 people. Why don't you take a little
more time with each of them so you can build a real bond and not just go around too quickly?
It was that person, that mentor I had would hit me with like once a year, some sort of
light bulb career changing advice. And that's one that it hit me really hard and it hurt.
But he was right. Todd Kaminsky, head of Zurich direct markets, Bill Flanagan,
dealer, readman, toll. Thank you both for being on the show, sharing your perspectives on all
things hiring, recruiting and culture development inside automotive today in 2026.
About this episode
Hiring and leadership are treated like a truth-testing process: the guest argues the first hire at a new store should be a service manager, and the “golden question” for spotting fit is asking about the best and worst boss. The conversation connects bad hires to short-term thinking, lack of transparency, and managers who don’t make time for consistent check-ins. Culture is built with meritocracy, daily KPI routines, and clear expectations—so people feel ownership and accountability.
Original notes
In this episode of the Industry Spotlight, joining host Sam D'Arc are Bill O'flanagan, Dealer Principal at Reedman Toll Auto Group, and Todd Kaminski, Head of Direct Markets at Zurich North America to discuss the one interview question that predicts almost everything about whether a new hire will thrive or wash out, and why building a culture of transparency and daily accountability is the real fix for automotive's turnover problem.
O'Flanagan shares his go-to interview question, "Who was your best boss and why, and who was your worst boss and why," and explains how the answer tells him everything he needs to know about how someone wants to be managed.
He also breaks down why he shares full financial statements with every manager, a move his peers once called "insane," and how a daily 10-minute results call with every manager helped seven of his ten service centers set growth records this year.
Kaminski adds a rare outside view from three decades working inside dealerships on why transparency, meritocracy, and recognition are what separate cultures that retain talent from those that don't.
This episode of the Car Dealership Guy Podcast is brought to you by Zurich North America.
Topics:
00:10 The First Three Hires.
01:20 Why Service Manager Is Toughest.
02:25 The Trial Skill That Wins.
04:20 Why Dealer Is Least Important.
06:30 Why Bill Never Wins Arguments.
08:00 The Finance Director's Warning.
11:30 Dating Vs. Marrying Employees.
13:10 The Risky Financial Move.
16:00 Three Pillars Of Culture.
19:40 The 2008 Pivot.
23:15 The Parent-Employee Link.
28:30 The 10-Minute Daily Call.
Zurich - Zurich delivers The Zurich Advantage to dealerships nationwide by combining comprehensive F&I products, consultative training, revenue‑generating programs, and wealth‑building profit participation strategies. Grounded in our mission to provide clarity, confidence, and certainty, we help dealers protect what matters, strengthen performance, and build a legacy for the road ahead. Learn more @ here.
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