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Michael Cirillo: The Biggest Problem In Retail Auto and How To Solve It | Leadership | Ep. 678

The Dealer Playbook Sep 18, 2025 30 min

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About this episode

Michael Cirillo dives into the pervasive issue of ethical fading in the retail automotive industry, where short-term gains overshadow core values and accountability. He emphasizes the importance of legacy and personal fulfillment in leadership, urging leaders to create a framework that fosters purpose and growth within their teams. Cirillo introduces the 'six types of working genius' assessment as a tool to enhance team dynamics and reduce turnover, advocating for a culture that prioritizes ethical practices and meaningful contributions. His insights aim to inspire leaders to build a legacy that lasts beyond monetary success.

Topics: ethical fading legacy building leadership accountability team dynamics working genius assessment personal fulfillment organizational culture employee retention purpose-driven work

Most people assume the biggest problem in retail auto is inventory, rates, or competition.

But every time I walk into a dealership, I see something else at the core of the struggle. It isn’t obvious on the surface, but you can feel it in the turnover, the burnout, the “busy but not fulfilled” pace that too many teams are stuck in.

We love to talk about legacy in this industry. The photos on the walls, the family names on the buildings. But the truth is, legacy can’t just be something we inherit or frame. It has to be something we create every single day. And most stores don’t have a framework for how to actually do that.

That gap shows up everywhere: in culture, in leadership, in the quiet frustration people feel when they show up to work and wonder if it really matters.

In this week’s solo episode, I share what I believe is the biggest problem holding retail auto back, and how you can solve it. It’s the same framework my team and I use in my companies, and it’s made all the difference in how we lead, how we serve, and even how I show up at home with my family.

I think you’ll find it both challenging and hopeful.

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Ethical fading runs rampant in the automotive industry.

Ethical fading happens when leaders prioritize short-term wins above anything else.

Ethical fading happens when leaders prioritize a lack of accountability,

keeping the top performing salesperson because they generate a ton of revenue but are absolutely

cancerous, sends a clear message to the rest of the team that we are willing to give up on

the things that we say matter most in lieu of monetary gain.

Think of that ripple effect.

So ethical fading is something that should be avoided at all cost and the way that we can avoid it is by

One of the things that I enjoy most about producing the dealer playbook is hearing from you.

The messages that I get of people who are getting so much value out of the podcast,

applying it to their day-to-day workflows and finding a thriving career right here in the

retail auto industry. It means the world to me. And you know, one of the ways that we make doing

this possible is through my agency Flex Dealer. And of course, in the spirit of providing value,

I think this is a perfect time to head over to www.flexdealer.com to show even further support

for you, my beloved DPB gang. Right now, if you go to my website, flexdealer.com,

you can get a full free PDF of my number one best-selling book, Don't Wait Dominate.

And the reason I think it's so special is that a lot of the topics that are discussed in this book

are even more relevant today than ever with this surge in popularized AI and people wondering,

well, what can I do next? How can I have a competitive advantage? Well, that's all here

in this book. And so I'd love to be able to offer you a free copy of this. If you go to

flexdealer.com, it would mean the world to me because that is how we continue to produce the show for you.

Hey gang, welcome to this episode of the Dealer Playbook Podcast. I am so excited that you are

here because we are going to be digging into a framework that I have observed has helped teams

all over this great industry. My team at my companies, in fact, just absolutely dominate

and perpetuate something that I know we all care about, which is legacy, amplifying legacy,

building a legacy, building something that is meaningful, that brings fulfillment

and showing up in the right way for our customers, for our team members, for our organization,

our community, so on and so forth. And this has been on my heart lately because,

you know, as I'm visiting dealerships, as I'm going in and out of dealerships,

I'm seeing a common thread. My observation is that while there are

marketing or region or sales specific challenges that each store faces,

they all kind of boil down to the same issue. And I think it's high time that we address it.

Our industry loves legacy, okay, as a background. We just love it. Our industry has third and

fourth generation owners now. And the pictures are all over the wall of the four bearers,

the people who paved the way. And that means a lot to us in this industry. I mean,

my legacy, my family's history means the world to me. Often I find myself

going down the wormhole considering, wait a minute, so my grandfather on my dad's side

fought on the front lines of World War Two, he was a lone survivor immigrated to Canada

at the same time that my mom's family is immigrating to Canada from Portugal.

And somehow they moved to the same city area, somehow show up to the same

church festival and somehow meet each other. And that's how my parents meet. It's like,

I love thinking about that stuff. And then I get into the legacy side of it,

which is the sacrifices that I know my grandparents made on both sides to provide just a little bit

better of a life to their children, my parents, and my parents, the sacrifices that they made

to build something special in our family to give us just an even better lifestyle and even better

setup than they had. And then I think about the work that my wife and I are doing for our children

to carry that baton to lift that torch up in building something special and fulfilling

and satisfying. Of course, legacy is tied to family most often. Yes, we do cool things

in business, but it's tied to family. I mean, the family is the most precious

unit, the most precious organization in the world. And when we come together as families

and get to build something and create something and teach our children to go out into the world,

into the community, to be noble citizens, a stalwart, service oriented, God fearing.

I mean, that's the stuff I think that brings us all fulfillment work.

What we do for our career, what we're doing in the auto industry is an extension of that.

It's actually how we perform and how we function at work is a mirror, if you will,

of what's happening at home. Most often, I'm a firm believer that no material success

will ever compensate for failure at home. We talk a lot about leadership in this industry,

leadership and legacy in this industry. And it's like, dude, if I'm a crappy parent,

and I'm sorry, that's harsh, but if I'm a crappy parent, and I can't lead my family

or lead myself even, what does it matter if I have a leadership title at work?

That is, I don't believe that's legacy. That's not part of legacy.

Well, we care about legacy. My buddy Glenn, he wrote a really awesome book called the legacy titles,

which kind of encapsulates how do I grow up business while also building on the foundation

of legacy. I've had conversations with my dad before where I'm like, look, I am so grateful

for what you and mom have done for me. And as part of that legacy, the only way that I can pay it back

is to pay it forward. And I think that's something that we all care about in the industry. We want

to build something that lasts, right? The men and women in this industry are showing up

day in and day out grinding it out. And sadly, from the conversations I have in and out of

the dealerships that we visit and work with, it seems that there's a lack of fulfillment.

There's an anxiety, because growth doesn't seem to be happening or pacing the way that

individuals think it does. I mean, we have evidence of this. Look at the turnover that

still exists in the automotive industry in 2025. It's still pretty abysmal. People jumping around

like crazy. You don't believe me? Go on Facebook right now. Three scrolls and you're going to see

people who just got hired here, who are no longer there that now work there that don't work there

anymore that moved on. And it just happens. And I think the reason that that happens is twofold.

And it's not one to just blame leadership, their self accountability and that equation as well,

based on what I've observed. And that is that, while we like the idea of legacy and

we feel warm and fuzzy talking about it, we don't necessarily have a framework to create it,

to show up every day with purpose, with a renewed sense of urgency around that purpose,

with the focus required to fulfill that purpose. And therefore, we kind of want to

believe what somebody who's wanting us to work for them say, what the organization is trying

to sell us on. And then, you know, six months goes by and we realize it's not that my hope in

this episode is that I can leave you with something tangible, something that I'm really

excited about, by the way, is maybe the beginning of a framework for you that if you

implement this will create some unlocks inside of your organization inside of your existing

team. If you're a leader like me, you're constantly examining what can I be doing differently?

I feel like maybe we're not getting it in this area. What could I do differently? What ownership can I

take to understand the circumstances better, help build the vision and help deploy or

activate people in the right direction? Because we care that people are facing in the right

direction. And with the right level of accountability and understanding, get them

moving in the right direction at the pace that we would like to see them moving,

because it's equitable at that point, they're seeing growth and that inspires them to move with

more rapid pace. And we're seeing their growth, which gives us the desire as leaders to feed

more into them to fuel that furnace. And I've discovered something that I think is so powerful,

it's something that we utilize at my companies that has brought a tremendous amount of understanding

so that the legacy that we all want to build comes to fruition in an organized way,

in a fulfilling way, so that stress levels decrease, focus increases, profitability increases,

customer experience increases, so on and so forth. But before I get to it,

I want to just share this because I talked about the common thread that I see,

lack of vision, lack of purpose, not knowing why we show up, lack of leadership, personal

leadership and accountability. But there is something else that happens in our industry,

it runs rampant in our industry. And that is something that Simon Sinek refers to as ethical

fading. We see this in every industry. I want to just read this to you because

I think it's important that we understand ethical fading. Let me grab this, this is

from Simon Sinek. He says, let me just read it here, ethical fading is a condition in

culture that allows people to act in unethical ways in order to advance their own interests,

often at the expense of others, while falsely believing, okay, while falsely believing

that they have not compromised their own moral principles. Ethical fading often starts with small

seemingly innocuous transgressions that when left unchecked continue to grow and compound.

Now, as I read that, are you going, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I got it. That's a thing.

Ethical fading runs rampant in the automotive industry. Ethical fading happens when leaders

prioritize short term wins above anything else. Ethical fading happens when leaders prioritize

a lack of accountability. We see it all the time. We talk about it all the time, keeping the top

performing salesperson because they generate a ton of revenue but are absolutely cancerous.

Ethical fading exists. Why? Because it sends a clear message to the rest of the team that we

are willing to give up on the things that we actually, that we say matter most in lieu of

monetary gain. And so what happens is people start saying, well, if that's the case,

then I'm going to cut corners. I'm not going to put my best effort in. Why would I? Why don't

I just save time? Me, right? Me time, like he talks about here. Ethical fading is a condition

in a culture that allows people to act in unethical ways in order to advance their own interests,

often at the expense of others. Think of that ripple effect. Imagine that your ethical fading,

the corners you're willing to cut, don't just have an impact negatively on the person that works

right next to you, but might be impacting an entirely different department with team members

that you don't engage with from day to day. And they have no idea why they're feeling negatively

impacted. And it was the ripple effect caused by your own ethical fade fading.

So ethical fading is something that should be avoided at all costs. And the way that we can

avoid it is by setting clear values, adhering to them, building our team based on compatibility

with those core values. Having a clearly defined mission, having the critical actions that we'll

take each day, Paul Daly does this so well at more than cars, a so do he reviews regularly

with the team, the critical actions, the core values, the principles, the guiding principles

that should invigorate the team, but also in a positive way weed out individuals who potentially

are not compatible with those beliefs and those values and that that mission.

Now, I know it's difficult, right? Because you might be thinking, oh man, we're too far gone.

This would be an awkward conversation. Please have it. Please have the difficult conversation.

Please apologize. Please solve the resentments. Please seek to do a reset

if you're the leader or if you're a team member where you've realized ethical

fading in yourself to say, hey, you know what, I'm done with this behavior and I'm showing up

not just for me anymore, for my family, for my legacy, for my ability to set up the next

generation of automotive people so that they have it a little bit better than I had it, right?

That's how we truly build legacy in the automotive industry.

You know, when we look at legacy and its impact, what do we often talk about? We talk about things

like, you know, if we were to look at our four bearers, second-gen owners, first-gen owners,

the people that started it all, we often discuss things like, well, the accountability and they

were hardworking and they had vision and they cared about people and they cared about people

and felt stewardship for the people. It wasn't that they just built business. It wasn't just that

they were good at money. There were guiding principles that laid the foundation of their

legacy and that is largely why you are experiencing what you're experiencing today.

Hey, does your marketing agency suck? Listen, before we hop back into this episode,

I know you know me as the host of the Dealer Playbook, but did you also know that I'm the

CEO of FlexDealer, an agency that's helping dealers capture better quality leads from local SEO

and hyper-targeted ads that convert? So if you want to sell more cars and finally have

a partner that's in it with you that doesn't suck, visit flexdealer.com. Let's hop back

into this episode. And so something you can do if you're a leader or if you're a leader of one

is to sit down and say, well, what are my guiding principles? What are my critical actions? What

is my mission? What is the reason why I show up every day? Why am I grinding it out? Is it

just to pick up a paycheck? I doubt it. Like if you really boil it down, it's because you

want to build something special. You want to create a life for your family

that sets them up to have it a little bit better than you had it.

Now, when it comes to teams, you might say, well, hey, this is all fine and dandy,

but boy are there annoying people on my team that just get in the way and make it so difficult

to show up and be a good leader and do the service. They're so annoying. They can't get out

of their own way. The drama, right? And I have something for you. You're ready for this?

I love this. This, by the way, what I'm about to share with you is something that

I look at so frequently daily. In fact, sometimes several times a day in my organization.

And it is an assessment that you can do. Yes, you have to pay for it. Believe me, it's worth it.

And it is called the six types of working genius assessment. The six types of working genius

assessment is not a personality assessment. The best way that I could describe it to you

is it is a mode of operation assessment. It is an assessment that helps identify

your zone of working genius, the competencies that you have that are genius that bring you joy.

Right. It helps you identify working competencies like things, the way you operate that you're good

at, but that are not like in your, you know, your zone of genius. And then there's your

working frustrations or, you know, the mode of operation where it's like, I can do it,

but boy, I don't like doing that. Right. I don't like doing these things. I do not derive joy

and happiness from doing these things. Remember, we talked about fulfillment earlier

and building something meaningful. I think it is incumbent upon every organization

to have everyone in their organization take six types of working genius assessment.

Well, why? Because you know how in the industry we often talk about

they were the right person, but the wrong spot. And I wasn't quite sure the spot to put them in,

so they're not, they're not here anymore. We hear that a lot.

Well, if you understand your team's zone of working genius, working competency,

and working frustrations, it will give a visual map for you on, on who is most compatible to work

with one another and give you more understanding into the people on your team and how they operate

so that you can better unify your team. I'm going to give you some real examples

for my team. I'm not going to mention names, but when you look at the working,

the six types of working genius, it's broken down into six case. So you're working genius,

you'll have two of them. You're working competency, you'll have two working competencies,

and you're working frustrations, you'll have two of those as well.

There's discernment, enablement, tenacity, invention, wonder and galvanizing.

I'll share with you my working zones of genius. I lead my, my working zone of genius are discernment

and enablement. Discernment is identifying whether or not an idea or project will work,

so understanding its viability and enablement is demonstrating to my team that it will work

and kind of enabling around that. That's kind of the, the easy way to explain it.

Invention is they love creating new ideas, right? It's just like it sounds.

Wonder is like they float in the clouds. Ah, and they derive joy from considering

every last thing, right? They like to know that. Galvanizing, rally the troops, rally the troops,

galvanizing, bring people together, galvanizing. Tenacity, get it done. Oh, you want me to

run through that wall? I'm gonna run through that wall. Let's get the job done, right?

Wonder floats in the clouds, whispers to the clouds, would you please rain?

Tenacity turning the soil. I don't even know rain. I'll make my own rain. I'm gonna turn the soil.

They said turn the soil. Why are they hanging up in the clouds? Whisper in to create rain.

The task is to turn the soil, right?

When you understand, and this is eye opening, when, when your team takes a zone of working genius

assessment and you start to look at them, I promise you, you will gain a greater understanding of

the teams with which you have stewardship if you are in a leadership position. But team members

will also have a greater understanding of how they work with one another.

You will also gain an understanding into where the drama might come into the mix.

Somebody with tenacity might really have a challenge with somebody who leads with wonder.

However, because these are modes of operation with which we naturally derive joy and

fulfillment, it is important to note that every team needs to have a mix of these individuals.

A tenacious team without wonder will rot in the field.

Why? Because tenacity says, well, the task was to run through walls. I'm gonna run through that

wall. Wonder says, yeah, but wait, when you run through that wall, will you even be in the

right room? But no, okay, but you ran through the wall. So you, you know, so but we need that we

need tenacity to run through walls as much as we need wonder to determine whether or not we are

in the right way. Emer, who's our Chief Revenue Officer at Flex and Lift Kit, 20 year retired

Marine. And I love the parallels to military operations. I've learned so much from him.

I am not an expert. I will preface that by saying this. But you know, as a Marine,

it's like he talks about how they're the tip of the spear, like go in, penetrate, boom, tenacity.

But I asked him once, I'm like, would you ever deploy on a mission if there was no strategy?

He's like, no, never. I wonder. Oh, see, I use the word. I wonder if the person helping

develop the strategy leads with wonder. Right. There has to be somebody that wonders.

There has to be invention creating ideas. What if we all we should try. There has to be discernment.

Okay, I'm looking at it. I think this is viable or not viable. Enablement. Yep, this is going to

work. Right. And so what's an action item from from this episode? Definitely, definitely,

do a six types of working genius assessment with your team. Just pay for it, budget it.

It's so critically important. Because when you examine how your team operates, it

is going to make it easier, like I said, for you to understand them. And understanding is just

the pinnacle of knowledge. When you understand, boy, do your actions, your behaviors, your

mindsets shift. You start to avoid some drama. Because when you encounter the drama, you can

pull up the individuals that are at the heart of it and say, Oh, oh, I see they operate differently.

And nobody has bridged understanding for them. But if we can help bridge understanding for them

saying, Hey, well, that individual's working zone of genius leads with this. But it kind of

maybe goes against this. And that's why you guys are feeling it. Then it allows room for empathy

for those team members to come together and find a resolution. I'm telling you guys, this is a game

changer for my team. There are rarely conversations that happen from the seat I sit in as the CEO,

where I say, Well, listen, let's look at the zone of working genius assessment for what you're

experiencing. And I think we'll find some answers there. Again, it's not a personality

assessment. It is a working zone of it is a motive operation assessment.

You are then setting your organization up in a way that brings everybody growth sets them up

with the right foundation gives them the right level of understanding gives them the ability

to unify gives you the ability as the leader to help set a vision in a way that matches

their motive operation. So it creates an equitable relationship, right?

And that folks in my opinion is how we can build legacy.

You're probably wondering, has Michael done this for his family? And the answer is yes.

Yes. My wife, my kids zones of working genius assessments, what a game changer is a parent

to like understand my child a little bit better. Again, what I love about it is this is not pointing

out strengths and weaknesses that is simply saying you naturally derive joy from operating in

this way, you do not naturally derive joy from operating in this way. And you are good at

operating in this way. Imagine knowing what drains your team. Imagine knowing what empowers

your team you want to solve for building a legacy you want to solve for the attrition problem that

our industry has you want to solve for the drama you want to solve for having the right person

in the wrong spot not knowing where or how to put them assess their zone of working genius.

Now, here's a little little nugget. Okay, take with it as you will take from it as you will

rather. Once you have all of those assessments completed, go into your GPT create a project.

Call it a mine's called chief of staff. So I have a chief of staff

project in my GPT for flex dealer for a so do for lift kit. I put all of those

zone of working geniuses in there. I trained my GPT to pull from those project files all of

their PDFs of all of their assessments. And now I can use my GPT to help me draw connections,

training, curriculums, ways of doing after actions or what we call them is practice

sessions ways to reframe and reposition things so that we are getting the boast out of

the best out of each member of our team. No, because you know me authenticity is so important to me.

No, I am not going to sit here and convince you that we are perfect. Okay.

But we're striving. We're seeking to be 1% better every day. And what I can say authentically

is that doing these assessments has been an absolute game changer.

Holy smokes. What did we cover so much? We talked about importance of legacy,

a general issue that our industry has in not feeling like they're fulfilling the legacy

or probably paying proper homage to the forebears. We talked about why I think that issue exists.

We talked about churn. We talked about ethical fading and how we can avoid that.

And hopefully you felt the kickstart to a framework that you can implement in your store

to get more from your people for your people to get more from themselves to build a solid

foundation with which we can continue to build up, up, up. I believe it is our duty as stewards.

Not leader, not manager as a steward. Each of us have stewardship for ourselves and for people who

have been trusted to work within our tender care and concern. And this is going to help you do it.

Hey, listen, if you got value from this episode, if you are excited about your working genius

assessment, man, I would love for you to message me once you've completed that. Let me know where

you're at. I'm so excited. I love this stuff. It is so, so cool, but I would love to hear from you

on how it's gone with your working genius assessment, how it's helping impact your team.

You can message me, Michael at the dealer playbook.com. Please visit us on our socials.

It would mean the world to me. Thank you so much for being here. And until next time,

God bless. Hey, thanks for listening to the dealer playbook podcast. If you enjoyed tuning in,

please subscribe, share and hit that like button. You can also join us and the DPP community on

social media. Check back next week for a new dealer playbook episode. Thanks so much for joining.

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