Your carwash can see improved customer service, lower turnover, and greater cash flow if you make team building a priority. As your team’s leader, it’s mainly up to you to keep your group focused, goal-oriented, on-task, and moving in a cohesive direction. You may have said to yourself on more than one occasion, “but grown-ups shouldn’t have to be led by the hand. They should be self-motivated and ready to work.” Well, in a perfect world, you would need only to employ an info-dissemination-meeting when needed. Then, you would release workers to go forth being highly self-sustaining, internally motivated, super productive, mutually supportive team members. When and if you find that perfect world, please keep it to yourself. If you let the rest know about it, they will surely contaminate that antiseptic pristine environment. Where multitudes go, trouble is sure to follow. Not to say that somewhere in a carwash that Shangri-La place doesn’t exist, but it would be rare. Instead, we have to be prepared to keep our sleeves rolled up and flex our supervisory biceps to earn our pay.

Each week, you’re challenged to: complete goals, contend with issues, keep your team on target, solve problems, provide guidance, unveil new goals, strive for good communication, provide an amiable atmosphere, and empower the team. Your plate is full. Everyone interacts with you. You are the central force that sets the tone and provides the energy to your team. The questions for you are: “What is the take away people experience from being in contact with you?” How are people affected? Are they better off for having been around you? Have you challenged them and given them the tools to carry out the challenge? Are they positively impacted by a conversation with you? Was there some point in the day where each team member interacted with you, no matter how brief, and came away with a positive kernel? Was there a “take-away” that will help them improve and be better equipped for what’s ahead?

There must be certain objectives working within your team to make your carwash successful. Most people want to come to work and have it be minus personal conflict, negative attitudes, vicious gossip, uncorrected laziness, strife, anxiety, office politics, and egotism. They want a productive atmosphere where people come together each day to accomplish a common goal and at the end of that day, go home and live their lives.

Are there personal conflicts between members of your staff? Are there individuals who pass their work off on others or do such a poor job that coworkers voluntarily step in? If this is your carwash, as team leader, you need to intervene.

Is there info that doesn’t get disseminated properly or goes ignored? Even if the communication issue is more along the lines of a lack of interpersonal skills, a fix is needed. If you want open communication, you have to model what that looks like. If there are interpersonal issues that have gone on too long, you have to step in and get those involved working to come up with a solution. Offer advice when they seem stuck for a solution. Let them tell you what they think went wrong first and allow them to come up with solutions to their issues. If the solutions don’t seem strong enough to nullify the problem, ask for others. Again, wait to offer solutions of your own. Only do that, when they seem at a loss to solve their own problems. Remind them that great communication involves: respect, listening, self-control, accountability, empathy and clarity.

Team members must feel they are part of the whole. This level of singularity is very important for bringing cohesion to a group. If any member feels left out or ignored, as if their input has lesser value, the entire team suffers. Simply put, you don’t have a true team but a clique. This must be avoided with every effort by everyone. We have to ensure that all team members are welcomed and efforts are made to maintain inclusion. Personal dislikes must be left at the door. We don’t have to be friends in order to be friendly. There are many people you greet or interact with each day in a friendly manner without being bosom buddies. Team members deserve to not feel excluded for any reason. If they aren’t pulling their weight, they should be disciplined, not excluded. Your carwash customers benefit greatly when served happy, productive workers who enjoy working there.

Energize your team whenever needed. It’s hard to implement even a good plan when there is a lack of enthusiasm. The desire to live brings enthusiasm for exercise, proper nutrition, a good attitude, and mental relaxation. That enthusiasm makes implementation achievable. Encourage your team to be energized and enthusiastic. When you get team members who are naturally negative and love to voice all the pessimism they can find, combat them in a way that makes their words less effective. Begin to draw their attention to their frequent nature of negativity by stating what you see and asking them to create a better scenario. Often, negative people aren’t aware of just how destructive they are. They’ve been without enthusiasm for so long it’s become a way of life.Don’t let your customers be exposed workers who are unhappy to be there. Your customers deserve to have enthusiastic workers who enjoy their job. This enthusiasm transfers to the customers, the team and to your bottom line.