In my message of December 28, 2016, I suggested that you immediately focus on what you might most wish to accomplish in the first 75 days, or the earliest 20%, of 2017. If you decided not to follow my suggestion, you need read no further! However, if you did define and commit to 3 – 5 short-term goals, and since the 1^st Quarter of 2017 is nearly history, please reflect on your YTD performance, and answer a few questions for yourself:

• How many of your goals did you accomplish?
• Did you (like me) have a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG)? If so, did you get close to achieving it?
• If you continue doing exactly what you’ve done during the first quarter, where will you be at the end of the second quarter…or at the end of the year, for that matter?

Many of you are probably disappointed with yourselves. I’m sure that you started out the year with the best of intentions, determined that 2017 would be different. However, somewhere along the way, you may have lost your focus and dropped the ball…and now you find yourself having to play catch up. It happens to the best of us, and the good news is that you can turn things around.

An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. If Q-1 difficulties dragged you backward, it may only mean that you are about to be launched into something great. So, keep aim on your goals! If you had a slow start, or are unhappy with your performance, you need to step up your game and deploy better execution strategies to ensure that your goals are achieved in the second quarter.

So, what can you do if you find yourself currently underperforming? What strategies can you deploy to make up for lost time? How do you right your wrongs? How do you quickly redeem yourself in the second quarter? If you are like many of the clients I have worked with, one or more of the following are probably absent from your dealership culture:

Focus…Urgency and Agility…Activity Management…Accountability

Each of these four areas of opportunity are addressed on my new website (also mobile-friendly), ghaGPS.com, and I welcome you to visit and take a tour. I think you will find a lot of great ideas and tools that will help you stage your comeback and crush your second quarter goals. And no one will bother you while you’re looking around. From the “Home” page, click on any of the areas in which you seek improvements. Investigate all the useful content in the “Browse Our Resources” section. Finally, be sure to check out the FREE Evaluation page in the “Connect with Garry” section.

As you may recall, developing and launching the new website was one of my 2017 jump-start goals, and I managed to “get ‘er done”. Unfortunately, I didn’t do as well on my other two goals!

We’re all staring down the barrel of the same reality; April 1st begins the second quarter of the year, and if we want to drive more, better, and faster results…we must enforce greater self-discipline and unleash a performance explosion.

I’ve spent the last 30 years of my life working with dealer principals and dealership managers, showing them how to build and maintain superior performance and helping them achieve more than they ever thought possible. My style is to mix a blend of encouragement, tough love, strict discipline, hyper accountability, and a strong sense of urgency to keep senior managers and their teams fully engaged and performing at the very top of their abilities. My career is defined by my relentless search for fresh strategies that work in the retail automotive industry. I always provide “Value First!” I try to do “Great Things all of the time!” And some of the time I get paid for it! I hope to have the opportunity of working with you soon.

Warmest regards,

Garry House