Motivation That Moves the Shop Forward

Welcome to Ratchet and Wrench Radio,

produced by Endeavor Business Media,

a division of Endeavor B2B,

bringing you strategies and inspiration

for auto care success.

Hey everyone, Christine Schaffrin here,

and welcome back to Ratchet and Wrench Radio.

Today we're revisiting a great conversation

led by Sarah Welch,

managing editor of Modern Tire Dealer,

who sat down with leadership expert Mike Mooney.

With experience spanning high performance environments

like NASCAR and the corporate world,

Mike brings a unique perspective

on what it takes to truly motivate teams.

In this episode, they dig into

how aligning individual motivations

with your shop's mission

can transform the way your team shows up every day.

Mike also challenges the idea

that everyone is driven by the same goals,

and explains how leaders can uncover

what truly motivates their people,

and use that insight to build stronger,

more committed teams.

From breaking out of the

this is how we've always done it mindset,

to creating a culture of ownership

and continuous improvement,

this conversation is packed with real world examples

and practical takeaways you can apply

in your shop right away.

Let's get into it.

Thank you for joining us, Mike.

We're happy to have you.

Thanks, Sarah.

It's great to be with you today.

Thank you.

Today, Mike and I will dive into

how to motivate teams in automotive service

focusing on aligning personal and company goals,

resetting assumptions about work,

stepping out of comfort zones to improve

and building real commitment.

Mike, your background spans

high pressure environments like NASCAR

and corporate settings.

How do you define alignment

between an individual's personal goals

and an organization's goals?

Yeah, that's a great question.

Sarah, I would say one of the first steps

that you can do to take in this,

because it's a challenge, right?

Because everyone's got different goals.

We have different purposes of why

we're sometimes working in an organization.

I like to step back and look at it

through the lens of the mission.

Are we aligned on the mission

that we are here to do?

And I've always found that that mission alignment

is what helps people shift out of the idea of,

here's what I do versus why it matters.

And I think that's an important distinction for leaders

in any industry, in any organization,

is to recognize that we have to take time

to help people on their teams

see not just what they do in their task,

but more importantly, why it matters

to the overall mission of the organization.

Okay, yeah, that makes total sense.

Could you maybe give me an example

of what that would look like in a service shop

or for a tire dealer?

Yeah, so if you're thinking about that,

let's look at it from a customer standpoint there, right?

It's really about, in that sense, their customer service.

I will talk about a frictionless experience,

something where the customer comes in

and you want them leaving to give referrals, testimonials,

whatever it might be, ratings, what have you.

The goal then is to keep that front and center, right?

Is to say, okay, so if that's our mission,

if that's what we're going after,

if we wanna make sure in this case

that it's gonna be a phenomenal customer experience,

then let's take a step back and look at your role

and what you're doing and how and what you do,

how that ladders up to treating that experience, right?

Because that's what helps take us a step back

from the here's what I do to here's why it matters

and how I do it in a way that's going to help this mission

of a better customer experience, right?

So it could be, oh gosh, an example,

could be from a technician standpoint, right?

Maybe it's them taking a moment to get out from behind

their computer to go up and meet with that customer

for a minute, even if maybe that's not technically

part of their job, but to go and talk with them

and let them know here's what I'm gonna be doing

and how it's going to work

and why we're gonna be doing it this way, right?

So there's a way that now that person who might say,

well, I'm not really, I'm more of the behind the scenes

person here, but you don't have to be, right?

You could, there is an opportunity to bring them

into more of that customer moment.

Okay, sure, yeah.

You know, often leaders assume people should be

automatically motivated by company success.

Why is it critical to avoid assumptions

about what drives people

and how can leaders uncover real motivators?

Yeah, yeah, I think that's such a great question

because the key word you put in there is assume

and oftentimes as business owners or leaders,

we assume that your motivation is gonna be the same

as my motivation and it's absolutely not true.

It's like people saying, well, everyone should have

an owner's mentality.

I don't buy that because not everyone in there is an owner.

Not everyone's in there and has that level of skin

in the game to say, yes, I have an owner's mentality.

Now, should I take pride in the work I do?

Yes, absolutely.

And one of the things that the leaders can do

is to recognize what specifically motivates each person.

I know this sounds so rudimentary, right?

Sarah, it's like, well, of course you should know

what motivates your people.

But I would encourage everyone who's listening right now

to really think about when was the last time

they had a conversation with their team one-on-one

and said, what motivates you?

Like, why are you here?

Not about, you know, hey, tell me what fulfills you in life

and all those different things.

I mean, those are wonderful things to know about your team.

But if you can understand what motivates them,

some people it's about the ability

to master a technical skill.

Maybe others it's about getting more proficient,

you know, in an area of expertise.

Some it might just be, look, I want to provide

a stable income for my family.

That's all I'm looking for, right?

But if you can uncover those

and you can actually then understand, wow,

those are game changers because now you have an opportunity

as that leader or owner to say, great.

Now, let me help you get there, right?

So if it's mastering technical skills, perfect.

I'm going to work on getting you to additional training.

I'm going to look for opportunities

that are going to keep your saw sharp

as you're going through.

If it's a stable work environment

that you can provide for your family, fantastic.

Let's talk about how we build longevity in here for you

and what that will take.

What are the steps that it's going to need to be for you?

You know, I had a good buddy of mine

who was in the tech industry.

He was a chief revenue officer for a company.

And what he shared, I think, is applicable in any industry.

His boss has wanted him to have quotas

for all of his salespeople.

You have to hit these numbers.

Here's the quota, hit the number.

And he said, you know what,

instead I want to go in a different direction.

I want to know what motivates these folks.

I want to know why they show up every day to work.

And he went out and he was talking with all these people

and some of them it was stable jobs.

Some of it was building retirement.

Some of it was just getting that lake house.

It's something, right?

And his whole point then was like, fantastic.

Now, how do I help you get there?

Now, it's my job, because if I can keep you motivated

and help you towards your motivation by understanding,

now I have an opportunity to have you feel closer

to the work at hand and how this is a place

that's going to help you get there.

Sure, sure.

That was a long answer for it.

But does that, you want to be?

No, no, that was a great answer.

I think it really shows how aligning personal motivations

with corporate motivations can help teams

move forward together.

Another big thing that stands in the way of progress

at organizations is this is how we've always done it attitude.

Or just people being comfortable with that process

that they've been doing for the last 10 or 20

or however many years.

How can leaders and teams move past that comfort

in those familiar processes to be open to improvement?

Yeah, yeah, you know, Mario Andretti had a great quote.

He said, if everything feels like it's under control,

you're going, you're not going fast enough, you know?

It's like, OK, there's this fine line of how, you know,

comfort can actually be a performance killer

and also ego creeps in there of, you know, the fact that, OK,

well, this is how it's worked and how it's always worked

and how it will work.

I I like to go back to this great example.

Visually, if you ever want to check this out online,

you can go check out the F1 pit stops, right?

And how they've evolved is a great video on it

from like the 1950s all the way.

I think the version that they use in that video

is from like Melbourne, Australia from 2013, right?

And the cool thing about it is a great illustration

on the on the Sarah of like the idea of, you know,

this is how we've always done it or this is good enough.

But in the 1950s in Indianapolis, the F1 pit stop,

you have any idea how long it was?

How long it took for them to do a pit stop back then?

Change four tires?

I'm going to guess probably minutes.

Yeah, yeah, you're not too far off.

It was 67 seconds.

OK, 67 seconds.

So if if you if you put yourself in the 1950s, you're like,

well, that was probably blazing fast at the time, right?

Because that's what they knew and that's what's worked up to that point.

But when you look back at it, right, from where we are,

and then you look at that 2013 pit stop, and it was,

I want to say, like, you know, less than three seconds.

You go, what in the world happened here?

You know, and and what happened there is the great example of somebody saying,

well, yeah, this is what's worked.

Yet yet it takes someone with the courage to say,

yeah, but how can we do a little better?

What's a tool that would help us get a little more efficient?

What's a way of thinking that would help us get a little more impactful here?

So I would say that one of the best things that an organization can do

if they find themselves in that situation is to challenge the assumptions

and ask those questions.

Yes, this has been working, but is there a different way?

Like, what's that one small thing like the one percent?

What's that small little change that we can make today?

Because the reality is like that pit stop from 1950 and 67 seconds

didn't just leap to, you know, three seconds in no time at all, right?

It took decades.

So it's really the culmination of the small, consistent steps and asking

how do we get a little better?

What's a different way of doing it?

You know, is there a new tool we can consider?

That's what's going to bring the gains for a business or race team,

whatever it is to have the success they're looking for, to create innovation,

to find new ways of serving their clients and customers.

Sure. And I think, you know, the example that you use with the pit stop

just goes to show, too, if you're clinging to that, this is how we've always done

in mentality, you know, you're not going to stay competitive

as things progress, because there's way a 67 second pit stop in F1 racing now

would be, you know, like that car would not even be on the track with the rest of them.

Not at all. And you know what, though, Sarah, I mean, it's a great point

because there are businesses every year that are going out of business

because they have that mentality.

Sure. It works. It's been working.

I don't know what happened. I don't know why it's not working now.

Well, it's not working now because the conditions are always changing.

The marketplace is always changing.

Customer expectations, customer needs, right?

The service level that we need to be providing as owners, as technicians,

as customer service reps has got to always be a step or two ahead of where

this current market is. That's the way you stay ahead.

And you stay ahead by asking those questions and they can be tough.

They can be challenging.

Maybe you're working for an owner.

Maybe you listen to this and you got an owner who just doesn't want to hear

any other way. And that's just the way it is, right?

Well, I can tell you the clock's ticking right now.

You know, the clock is ticking on that.

Once you have that alignment and that openness to change established,

how do leaders build real commitment from the people that work from them?

You know, not just compliance.

Obviously, we all go to work and there's an expectation that will do X, Y, Z

to, you know, get a paycheck at the end of the week or at the end of every two weeks.

But how do you really get that buy in from your people that like

we're doing something special here?

I've always found that that ownership is that key to commitment, right?

It's not taking orders or someone giving orders to get them committed

and excited about it.

It's really about feeling a sense of ownership and something.

And, you know, years years ago when I was I was doing some public relations

work for for NASCAR for the 50th anniversary, way back in 1998.

Gotta hurt. I'm glad I'm sitting down.

That would like hurt my back if I'm standing up thinking about that today.

But the point is back then I was doing I had a chance to do some work

with Junior Johnson, right?

The Hall of Fame driver and I mean, just an amazing, amazing person.

And we had this conversation around commitment for his teams.

And he used the analogy in the story.

And some of your listeners may have heard this before, but he would always use

the the breakfast plate, bacon and egg analogy for his team.

And he used the analogy that those hands were involved in making that breakfast

because they would just show up each day and go about their business.

But that hog, you know, that hog was committed and and, you know, pun intended,

perhaps I think to have some skin in the game is what's going to get that commitment.

So to do that, owners, leaders, you get you get ownership by bringing people

into the conversation instead of dictating the terms of what success

is going to be and how we're going to get there.

Make this a process where people understand where we're trying to go

and then help them see where they fit into the steps to make that happen,

and to bring that to life.

Because when when people see when they see their roles, it's like a pit crew

is like any other team where it's performance driven and it's relying

on different people doing different jobs, often at the same time.

If you don't see why your role is important, the value it brings

and the impact you have to your teammates, if you don't complete it,

you're not going to have that sense of ownership or commitment in any team.

So I really think if if leaders could step back and say, OK,

I'm looking at planning, I'm looking at a new initiative,

we're bringing in a new piece of equipment or technology, whatever it is,

I'm going to bring in the team members who are going to be working with and on this.

And I want them to help be part of the plan of what we're going to do.

Bring them into it.

Let their ideas be be part of your solution and your plan.

OK, and I guess like a follow up to that would be how much

does reinforcement of like, you know, you have this initial,

you've made it clear initially, like what what part of the puzzle

that this person is, like what piece of the puzzle that this employee is.

So once you have that established, I guess, how does like continued

reinforcement play into making sure that, you know, this person

doesn't feel forgotten later or they don't feel as much of a part of the process?

Because I guess, you know, to fall back on the pit crew example,

like you're always going to be part of the pit crew, you know,

you're not the race car driver.

So like, how do you make sure that guy knows that he's important?

Yeah, so so then that's that there would put the owner or leader,

like in the crew chief's box, right, in that position.

And that that crew chief's job isn't just to set strategy and make sure

that as the race is unfolding and the conditions are changing

or the car's performance or handling is changing,

that they'll change strategy based on that.

But they'll do it by bringing in the key people on the team to be like,

hey, come back with a plan, hey, come back with a thought.

So there's a constant engagement between them, which also means then

that leaders and organizations, as things are changing within the business

or with that project that you're always checking in, you got to check in.

It's all about the check in.

And again, like these things, Sarah, it's like, gosh, I, you know,

I wish that there was some great bombshell of like, oh, my God,

here's the magic, you know, silver bullet to blow everyone's mind.

But but there really isn't one.

It's just consistency and showing up and checking in with your team,

letting them know, hey, great job on this specific thing.

I like the way you did that.

I was watching when you did this and I thought the way you handle that was fantastic.

Right. That conversation was much different than, hey, good job.

Yeah. Yeah, definitely.

You know, good job for what? Thank you.

That's just a blanket conversation.

Keep me engaged by knowing that you're watching and seeing what I'm doing.

You appreciate what I'm doing, how I handled it, or maybe give me a little

course correction as I'm going along, you know?

Yeah. So I guess on like the opposite side of that, you know,

what's the number one mistake you see leaders make when trying to motivate

their teams and what do you feel like the biggest mindset shift is that

they can tap into to turn that mistake into a win.

So what I've seen happen with a lot of companies is they they set the goal

right and they try to motivate everyone to focus on the top of that mountain

of what that goal is and what they're trying to get done.

I don't know about you, Sarah, but usually when a company sets a goal

or the organization sets a goal, has your experience been that they're

a little tiny goals or they're like usually big lofty, holy crap,

how am I going to get their goals?

I would say more than how am I going to get their goals?

Yeah, exactly. 100 percent.

And again, a company wouldn't be in business long

if they were just setting tiny little, you know, short goals.

So the big goals is typically where organizations are.

And where do you think leaders are always focusing

with their people when they have that big goal up there?

What are they reminding their people of every day?

The big goal, the big goal.

Yeah. And at first you're like, OK, no problem.

That's good. We'll get there.

You know, OK, not a problem.

I'll just do what I got to do here.

But day after day, week after week, big goal, big goal.

It starts to feel a little overwhelming.

I don't know about you, but I've been in a situation where I'm like,

I have no way, I have no idea how we're going to how we're going to get there.

You know, I think it's way beyond what I can do.

So so here's here's where I'm going with this.

I think that there are two things that go in here from a mindset

and then an application.

The first is that people have to believe

that their role matters in getting to that goal.

That gets back to what we were talking about early on, right?

Getting people to get by in and understanding is not just what they do,

but it's what they do in relation to the mission of where we're trying to go.

So they have to believe that that their role makes a difference.

OK, so belief is also a big motivator

and helps people keep motivated because they actually believe that what they do matters.

The second is and this is something that we did at the race team all the time

is we do what's called the touch from the outcome.

OK, and yeah, I might say exactly just like your face just did there.

You're like, OK, but the touch.

I thought the outcomes were going for my it is it is.

But the suggestion is this for the for our race team.

We knew when I was at Roush Roush Fenway, we would sit, you know,

in the fall, December, and we say, look, here's the goal for the year.

Do we want to finish in the top five in points?

Do we think we have a championship contending team?

Where do we want to finish? So we say, OK, great.

Here's a top five.

We that's our goal. We want to finish there.

Now, what the team did is they broke down all the different steps,

all the different things that we needed to achieve, the milestones

that we would need to get to that finish, to that outcome.

We had to have a certain number of top five finishes,

a certain number of stage wins to get points.

We had to have right.

You start going through all of these different action points.

Our pit stop times are number of penalties

that we couldn't afford to have during the race, things like that.

And we took all of those actions and sort of boiling them down

into all the different areas of the organization that had a touch point to that.

So what ended up happening, Sarah, was that we weren't focused on that top five

because that just seemed like, you know, in February, very, very far off.

But by attaching from that and focusing on that one race

and we knew in that race, here were the 10 things that we had to do really well.

OK, that's that's what we focused on.

And we got to the next race and here were the six things

that we had to really focus on our milestones to get there.

And we just did race to race to race and it really helps you exhale

and not get hung up on the, oh, my God, how are we going to get all the way up there?

You know, and I mean, another great example of that, quite honestly,

was when Kyle Bush broke his leg in Daytona several years ago,

like before the season even started, it was it was the Bush series race

or Xfinity series race and broke his leg and his foot in that race and was out.

You know, gosh, I want to say it was like from February till May he was out.

And it seems like there's no way we're going to win a championship right now.

So just forget about that.

So they just went about focusing on winning the next race,

finishing the top five in the next race.

And they started doing this.

They won the next four races that they were in ended up winning their way

into the championship and won the championship at Homestead at the end of the year.

I mean, it was insane.

It was absolutely insane.

But but the point is if they had listened to themselves,

there's no way we can win a championship.

No one's ever done this before.

We were so far out.

They just set that aside and said, let's focus on this race

and do the things we know we need to do.

So as business owners, if we can look at the goal,

take a step back and let each person on our team see what they have to do

in order to have for us to hit that goal, actually break it down into measurable steps,

give them milestones.

Then they can focus on that every day.

That's all you want to focus on.

Then more importantly, as a leader, when you're walking around and checking in,

you're not asking them about that big about the big number or whatever it is.

You're asking them how you're doing today,

how are things going today for what you've got to get done?

Sure, to radically different conversations, Sarah.

Sure. And where do you think the responsibility falls

when it comes to finding efficiencies?

Do you think that falls on the individuals who are doing the job every day

to sort of identify those?

Or do you think it falls on the person who's leading those individuals

to target where those efficiencies might be made up?

This would be the shortest answer I'll give you today.

OK. You ready?

Yeah. Yes.

OK, so everybody falls on everybody.

It does. Now, it doesn't mean that everyone's got to have a voice

in everybody's area of work.

But my point is your question was, is it the person who's in that particular area

or is it the leader with the group or organization?

And I'd say it's yes.

I'd say the onus should be on the person doing that work every day

to think about how can I do this a little better?

How can I get more efficient?

What's a better way of maybe doing this?

But I also believe, too, that the leader or the owner of that business

should equally be in there looking and asking,

you know, looking for different ways that we could, again,

be more efficient, more impactful.

So I think that's and again, that's the beauty of collaboration

and people feeling ownership in a solution.

Even if the owner were to say, look, I want to take 30 minutes a month

or we're going to go grab lunch, right?

People are like, oh, we can't take 30 minutes out of the shop.

Great. Go get lunch.

And maybe over one of your over one of your lunches, you dedicate each month

to saying, where's one area that we can get this a little better here?

And let's have a round table and talk about that.

Does that happen in the business?

I don't know. But I can guarantee a lot of them don't.

A lot of companies don't.

So what kind of companies do you know that do regularly have those types of discussions?

High performing ones, high performing ones every time.

Gotcha. Yeah.

I mean, well, they are because because they they are constantly, again,

they're not satisfied with the status quo because they know what what got the company

and the team to here is not going to take them to there.

So it's this constant, almost like reinvention, evolution.

It's a curious mindset to be like, well, OK, this is working now.

But, you know, how can we make that a little better?

What's different is the market changing.

How can I be more proactive for where the market's going instead of me

meeting it head on when things are changing?

So I would say that those high performing teams are the ones that are challenging

themselves. But but the other part of it, Sarah, is that this is super important

for leaders and their owners, their mindset is that your team needs to

understand your intentions of your questions.

Like if your team doesn't understand that the intentions of your questions

about how can we get better, how can we get more efficient is purely

to help the organization be more effective and impactful.

And it's not some, you know, veiled question of like, Sarah, why are you slow?

Sarah, you're not doing it fast enough.

Sarah, why aren't you getting it done better?

Because people will take things like that, right?

So like, hey, how can we get better at this?

The first question is like, well, am I doing it wrong?

Am I not doing it good enough?

Yeah, so so the leader has to really set that tone to say my intention.

If I'm going to be asking you these questions, it's not about that.

It's not about you not doing your job better. You're a pro.

I just I know that we can always keep getting better.

And that's what I'm trying to do.

Sure, sure. And definitely having, you know, that alignment of personal

goals with corporate goals in that situation of like, hey, we can both

accomplish our goals together.

That seems like it's really important that that's a thousand percent.

So we just went full circle on that, which is basically if you want to

start at the beginning of aligning the goals, that's why I was saying,

we got to align to the mission and help people see it's not just what they do.

It's the value of what they do in relation to the mission.

And then how do we get that commitment?

Well, we bring them in.

We haven't put some skin in the game with their ideas and their thoughts, right?

So now there's some ownership.

And now I'm checking in with them and seeing how are we doing on this, right?

Is there a way to continue the sharpen that saw?

I'm going to keep checking in. I love the way you did that, right?

And then this is this is a beautiful cycle.

And this is what high performing teams do day in and day out, week in and week out.

It's not easy if you're if you're just starting, it might feel uncomfortable.

But I think all we're trying to do with these shows, right, Sarah,

and the work that you're doing is just get people to start, just get a start.

Mike, I really appreciate your explanation for leaders

who are listening to this and want to take the conversation further.

What's the best way they can connect with you, access your frameworks

or bring you in to help their teams?

Yeah, well, thank you for asking.

I appreciate that.

I really have the conversation in here and the ground that we covered for sure,

because it's certainly something that's close to my heart.

And so people can easily email me, and it's Mike.

M-I-K-E at Mike Mooney dot com.

You can always go to Mike Mooney dot com, which is my website there.

And I'd be happy to talk.

I'd love to explore, collaborate and see how we can, you know,

create high performing teams or help you or your organization

reach another level of performance.

Perfect. Thank you so much, Mike.

This has been a great discussion.

Thank you for your time.

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Motivation That Moves the Shop Forward

About this episode

Mario Andretti

F1 pit stop

pit stop evolution (1950s to 2013 Melbourne)

pit stop time

one percent

competitive

F1 racing

touch from the outcome

Roush Fenway

points

stage wins

penalties

milestones

Daytona

Xfinity series

Bush series race

Homestead

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