Has someone ever said to you, “You should have done this,” or “Why didn’t you do it this way?” But you didn’t know how to do it in the first place? I see parents (myself included) get onto our kids because they didn’t do something right – we even might ground them because of it. But did we take the time to show them the correct way, or did we just tell them to do it? It is our job as parents to sit down and show our children the right way to do something. We can’t expect them to do something right if we don’t take the time to show them.

We as professionals do the same thing in the workplace. We tell our employees to do something but never show them the way that we want them to do it. And then we get onto them and write them up for it.

I remember as a child, maybe a young teenager, I was helping my dad change bearings in his truck. He explained to me what I needed to do but didn’t show me. When I thought I was finished, I told him and he came out and looked at the finished job. He started to raise his voice, pointing out the mistakes that I made, and saying he just should have done it himself, because then it would have been done right.

I was upset. I didn’t want to disappoint him. He was my father and I wanted him to have trust in me that I would complete any task he gave me. On this day, I felt I had failed him. As he was getting mad, I thought more about what I did wrong and then asked him why he didn’t just show me how to do it, and I would learn from there.

He thought about what I said, and he agreed. He said, “Son, you’re right. I assumed you already would know this, and I am sorry I didn’t show you before.” So for the short time I had left with him until he passed away in June 1999, he would sit me down and show me exactly what he wanted me to do before I took on a new task.

If they don’t know what to do, we are the guilty ones for not teaching them. If we hire a new salesperson and don’t teach them how to sell a car, all the proper steps, and they let the customer leave the lot without a manager talking to them, is it right to yell at them? Did we show them how to do these things?

Too many green pea salespeople quit or get fired because they didn’t sell anything, but they were never shown how.

When I started in the car business, I was told on my first day: This computer program is a CRM. It holds your customer information. And that is a lot. Customers drive up and want to buy cars – go get them. So really, I was clueless as to what I was doing.

I can’t tell you how many times I got yelled at because I let a customer go, or didn’t have the right paperwork in the folder, or didn’t say the right thing to the customer.

Remember, when you point a finger at your employee, three more fingers are pointing back at you. Train them, teach them – show them and they will learn!