Many dealership managers earn promotions through production, yet few learn to lead their teams. Often, those managers push back on leadership coaching, but that resistance could cost them and the dealership down the road. Bart Nollenberger, a John Maxwell-Certified Leadership Coach and Author of Keep the Change, joins us on today’s Training Camp episode to share his playbook for resistant managers.
Middle management is the weak spot
Dealerships train owners and salespeople, but the managers in the middle rarely get leadership instruction. Sales managers, used car managers and general sales managers often move up without ever studying how to lead.
"We have a weakness in our industry, and that is middle management."
Maxwell’s five levels of leadership show where many managers stall. Level one relies on position, and level two on permission. Level three is production, which keeps a manager employed even when the person leads poorly, Nollenberger said.
Stores that reach level four, people development, tend to last. Those organizations can withstand tariffs and economic shifts, he said. His training teaches managers to coach their people and to hold one-on-one meetings.
How to win over managers who resist coaching
Coaching starts with a manager’s own goals, so questions work better than orders. Nollenberger asks what a manager wants and why it matters. He then offers a half-hour meeting every other week to help reach that goal. Few managers turn that down.
He learned much of that approach by running a recovery ministry in Phoenix with his wife. Leading people through the discipline of recovery prepares a coach to lead anyone, he said. Nollenberger has been sober for 41 years.
Some managers need harder evidence, and an anonymous 360 report supplies it. Every employee in a department rates leadership across 10 components, including communication, teamwork and fun at work. A dealership group in Georgia used it in two stores, and six months of one-on-one and group coaching followed.
The service department’s culture turned around, Nollenberger said. The other store’s sales and service teams bought in as well. The feedback stings, but it shows managers exactly where they need to improve.
Managers who still refuse face a choice to train, transfer or terminate, he said. Without willingness, no coach can help. Self-awareness and humility, along with discipline and consistency, mark the leaders who last.
Leading beyond the showroom
The principles Nollenberger teaches dealers also travel well beyond the showroom. He recently returned from his second mission trip to Africa in as many years. A pastor there invited him back. He spoke to about 25 groups, including children in the slums, teenagers in school, church leaders and Sunday congregations.
Each talk centered on four ideas, which were to admit, believe, make decisions and take inventory. Those come from the 12 steps of recovery, which he adapted into a leadership book called Keep the Change. Everyone needs them, he said, whether or not addiction is part of their story.
