Just ONE Thing
If You’re Not a Mentor, You’re the Problem
Episode 250
with Rick White, 180BIZ
Good morning. My name is Rick White from 180BIZ, and this is my Just ONE Thing. We're a training and coaching company that has been helping shop owners for over 20 years get closer to the business of their dreams.
What I wanna talk about today is, I wanna talk about MENTOR.
Being a mentor, I think that is so important. When I started out in this industry, I was a kid. I started at my dad's shop when I was a kid. Gotta tell you, he was really, really hard on me.
He expected twice the work in half the time, and the work had to be twice as good as anyone else's. I gotta tell you, at the time I really felt like it was unfair. I remember thinking to myself, why is he so hard on me when the other guys don't get treated the same way?
And it was decades later when I realized something. He wasn't pushing me because he thought less of me. He was pushing me because he thought more of me. He saw potential in me that I didn't see in myself. But there's something I wish he had done differently.
I wish he had told me. Right? Because when you push somebody without explaining why, it feels like criticism. But when you're pushing somebody—well, so. I really want you to understand what I'm saying here because I think we all fall into this.
When you're pushing somebody without explaining why, if they don't understand why you're doing this, where you're going, what's the outcome, it feels like criticism.
But when you remind them that you believe in them, it becomes mentorship.
So what I wanna do is, I wanna tell you what reality is. In most shops, though, owners actually do the opposite. They avoid pushing people, not because they don't care, but either because they're afraid to or they don't know where to push. And they don't wanna push too hard because they're afraid someone's gonna quit. So their expectations stay unspoken. And months go by, nothing happens, right?
Production's not where it's supposed to be.
Frustration builds, and then eventually all this crap comes out sideways. It's a snappy conversation. It's passive-aggressive comments. It's irritation over mistakes. And you know something? Your team members are thinking, my boss is impossible to please. All the time you are thinking, why won't they just step up?
But the real problem is simple: expectations were never clearly shared. And because of that, and because the owner never communicated the belief behind those expectations—so not only should you communicate the expectation, but you gotta communicate the belief that they can do it.
What do mentors do differently?
Mentors don't avoid expectations. They clarify them, and they combine those expectations with belief. They see something in someone before that person sees it in themselves.
I mean, think about this for one sec. I'm willing to bet there's three to five people that have come into your life that have demanded more from you.
And then, because of those three to five people, you are who you are and where you are today because of them.
Right? But that's what a mentor does. See, they see something in somebody, and then they say something about it. They call it out because sometimes the most powerful words someone will ever hear are, "I see something special in you."
I see something special in you.
So I wanna give you a framework for mentorship. It's really simple. It's the SEER method.
So I want you to give these four steps.
So here's the first thing I want you to do. Number one, you gotta spot potential. You gotta have your antenna up. You gotta look for someone that's curious all the time, or look for somebody that's expending effort, you know, really pushing through and showing great effort. Look for somebody that's taking ownership of something.
Listen to this carefully. Potential shows up in small behaviors before it shows up in big results. Please write that down. Potential shows up in small behaviors, small actions, before it shows up in big results. Your job is to notice the small behaviors. That's step one.
Number two, E—express belief and expand their vision.
See, most leaders, they think it; they just never say it. They never tell 'em, I see leadership potential in you. They don't say that, right? They don't say, you could become one of the best techs in the shop. You're capable of so much more than what you're doing now. See, these words matter more than what you realize. So you've gotta be able to see it, right? You gotta be able to express that belief, but then you gotta expand their vision. You gotta help them see a bigger future. It might be becoming the master tech, best tech in the shop, or shop foreman, or a manager, or a shop owner.
Here's what's really cool: once your team member sees that future—like once you can get them to see and believe in that future—they start investing in themselves. How cool is that? So that's the E, right? Express your belief and expand their vision.
Second E: elevate expectations.
Once someone knows you believe in them, you can push them. You can say, I expect more from you. I know what you're capable of. Hey, that was a good job, but I know you can do it better. See, without your belief, that pressure feels like criticism. But with your belief, that pressure feels like an investment.
Okay? So I really need you to understand that.
I want to just give you a real practical challenge, and please share this video. We need to get this out to people.
I need you to find—I'm gonna give you a challenge—I want you to find one person in your shop with unrecognized potential. I want you to tell them what you see in them, and then I want you to raise the bar.
But here's the other thing: you gotta do the R. You gotta remind them.
See, when you elevate your expectations, after a while it's gonna be hard. They're gonna have to grow. It's gonna be challenging for them. And what you've gotta do is you've gotta remind them all the time. So spot potential, express your belief and expand their vision, and then you're gonna elevate your expectations.
Then you're gonna remind them.
So S-E-E-R.
Remind them all the time how great they're gonna be. Let them know everything that they're capable of doing, right? Because every great technician, every great advisor, every great shop owner became who they are because someone saw more in them than they saw in themselves.
And your job is simple: you see it, you say it, and then you help them become it.
If we could be some help for you, just shoot me an email, [email protected]
, and let's sit down and just talk.
Okay? Everybody, have a great week. Go make some money. I'll see y'all later. Bye-bye.
