How diversity and inclusion can help your car dealership’s bottomline

Welcome back to Diversity in Automotive, brought to you by TrueCar and CarNow. In today’s segment, host Cory Mosley is joined by Tony Chatman, president of Chatman Enterprises, and an acclaimed corporate relationship expert. Today, our esteemed host and guest discuss building better relationships through an inclusive dealership.

While many people are making conscious, positive changes to address racial and gender inequality in their personal and professional lives, there are still some folks who aren’t jumping on board. During Chatman’s time working with and training corporate professionals at the federal level, he has seen some organizations prohibit training on this topic. When people think of the terms diversity and inclusion, they often get a few things wrong.

In the 1990s when the idea of managing diversity came about, the intention was that a diverse team would make a company or organization more effective and efficient than it would be with a homogenized group. Now collectively we understand that the more inclusive we are, the more creative and productive we are. It impacts the bottom line, but this is a relatively new target. There are still many business leaders that reject diversity because they believe it is a detriment to their business interests.

This skeptical belief system also impacts team building. Traditionally in team building, leaders should focus on four key areas:

1. Forming
2. Storming
3. Norming
4. Performing

The same thing happens when dealing with diversity and inclusion. During the storming phase, a lot of people jump ship because it’s uncomfortable and the conversations can be challenging. So, the folks that stop at this phase, never see the benefits that come with norming and performing.

For more great insight from Cory Mosley and Tony Chatman, be sure to watch the entire show above. Don’t forget to join us next Thursday for another episode of Diversity in Automotive.

Did you miss last week’s episode of Diversity in Automotive? Watch it here now! And don’t forget to share your questions and comments with Jim Fitzpatrick at jfitzpatrick@cbtnews.com.