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Last month we discussed growing your way out of this malaise in the market. Now let’s concentrate on the people who will have a large impact in making it happen – the employees in your Product Support department.

There was an old story floating around back in the days when Pittsburgh dominated the steel making industry. There was a plant that was a few weeks from closing – the cost per unit was too high, the wage and benefits packages were too high, and the productivity levels were too low. The company had not kept up with investments in tolling and process improvement, and the employees had become complacent or discouraged – or both. One evening, when the second shift arrived the number 18 was scrawled boldly on the shipping dock floor. No one knew what it was, but they decided that the day shift had produced 18 pallets of steel during their shift. So off they went on their shift and when they had completed it the last thing they did was write the number 24 on the floor on top of the 18 that was there. The next evening the number was 28 and they did their work and wrote their count of 32. As you suspect, the number stabilized at 34, nearly double the starting point. Productivity nearly doubled but it was too late. The plant closed.

I think it is time we established some numbers on a daily basis to challenge ourselves to perform to the best of our abilities. The key to this exercise is the age-old question: How do you know when you are doing a good job? This is where many of the dealers that I work with have lost it. Through the good work of AED, as an industry we have many standards of operating performance. We have benchmarks to compare against, we have best practices to pursue, and with your OEMs you also have other goals and measures to look over.

I think we need to take that to the employees who are actually performing the work for us – the group of people who are there every day providing the high levels of service that keep your customers coming back. How do they know when they are doing a good job? What is their “18?”

You have heard me mention Patrick Lencioni and his fables in previous columns and articles. The one I am referencing now is “The Three Signs of a Miserable Job.” Understand, that’s not a bad job, but a miserable job. He describes three elements that contribute to the “Sunday Blues,” the feeling you have when you realize the weekend is over and you will be going to work tomorrow. The sign I have in mind is “Immeasureability.” It’s that absence of having an “18” goal post in front of you.

We need to develop daily performance goals. How many orders did we process today? How many back orders were left after we had completed all the expediting and sourcing? How many outbound customer calls did I make to a customer? How many shipments did we make today? How many part numbers were put into stock today? You know the ones I mean – the work units of the Parts Department.

And for the Service Department: How many work orders were closed today? How many inspections did we complete today? How many jobs did we succeed in winning today? How many tasks were done in less time than the standard time? How many jobs were done that passed the quality test 100 percent today?

So here is the challenge for you: Sit down with these talented, hardworking people and develop team goals and individual goals so that at the end of each day each employee will know whether or not they did a good job. It really is quite simple, you know.

I sincerely don’t believe anyone can motivate anyone else on a sustainable basis. I think individuals have to do it within themselves. But – and it is a significant “but” – the environment and the boss can demotivate everyone at any time. How about we get out of the way and find out how good our employees truly are in what they do? Develop goals with them that can be measured every day. That is how we get back on a winning track. Everyone will win: The customers, the management and the employees. Really.