A shop manager can be great at the work and still need help leading change. If you have to push each new process yourself, you may need someone who can own that part of the job.
I was reviewing a call between one of our operators and a shop owner.
The owner had bought the business not long before. Cash was tight. Some stock was being bought too early. The owner was worried about payroll.
Then our operator asked a key question.
Did he have someone in the shop he could rely on as a leader?
The owner's tone changed.
Good at the work. Less ready to lead change.
The owner had a shop manager. The manager was good at doing the work.
But the owner didn't see him as the right person to lead the changes the shop needed.
The owner would still have to get him on board with new ways to work.
That was the gap I wanted our operator to see.
You can have a good team and still be the person who has to drive every change. You explain it. You push it. You check that it sticks.
That's a lot to carry.
Who owns the fix?
In this shop, early stock orders had tied up cash.
I wanted our operator to find out how much. Then look for other gaps and put the cost into a simple model.
But finding the problem was only part of the job.
Who would change the process? Who would work with the team? Who would make sure they kept doing it the new way?
Those were the questions that made this a leadership need.
I wrote about the cash side in You Saved on Inventory. So Why Is Cash So Tight?
You don't have to blame your manager
The owner said the manager was good at the work. That matters.
The issue was the next job the shop needed done. It needed someone to lead changes in how the work flowed.
As a buyer, I would get clear on that gap before hiring.
- What changes do we need?
- Who drives them now?
- What keeps coming back to me?
- What would the new person take over?
For this shop, that meant changing how stock was bought and getting the team to follow the new process.
What could a fractional operations leader do?
In this case, I wanted our operator to show the owner the problems he found. Then explain what it would look like for him to fix them.
That was the next step we discussed. We hadn't yet seen the changes made or the cash freed up.
The owner needed cash freed up. He also needed someone to change how the shop worked, so he wouldn’t have to push each step himself.
If that sounds like your business, get matched with an operator who can work with your team and own the change.