Like every other aspect of automotive, the retail arm of the industry is undergoing immense change. Yet one constant remains for dealerships, no matter where they are located or which logos are on the building: it's the people business first, the car business second.
Jennifer Lennox is the Vice President of People, Culture, and Learning at AutoCanada, a North American dealer group operating over 80 franchised locations comprised of nearly 30 brands. In this episode of AutoVision News Radio, Jennifer expands on AutoCanada's core values and explains why the organization invests in its relationships with employees and customers.
Carl also recalls his time in automotive retail and his Women in Literature class in college, as Jennifer shares a powerful message about why women professionals should embrace who they are.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace via Pew Research Center: http://tinyurl.com/bdzy5z2d
AutoCanada & The Value of People w/ Jennifer Lennox: http://tinyurl.com/5ynmpxw7
From the Women In Literature Class at Iowa Western, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft via Britannica: http://tinyurl.com/mvxfh5n2
Follow AutoVision News on LinkedIn: https://tinyurl.com/49jyrd3b
[00:00:00] My name is Carl Anthony and I work in the automotive industry in Detroit.
[00:00:07] Sometimes that work encompasses future vehicle technology and that's what we talk about here, for the most part anyway.
[00:00:14] This is AutoVision News Radio.
[00:00:19] In January 2009, I started my career in the automotive industry in a little older and a little wiser, or perhaps set another way, hindsight is 2020. Moving at the speed of mobility, this is AutoVision News Radio with Karl Ansonie in Detroit, Michigan. Jennifer Lennox is the Vice President of People, Culture and Learning at Auto Canada.
[00:01:42] Auto Canada is a North American dealer group currently operating over 80 franchise locations Jennifer shared the core values that underpin auto Canada and why they are important to the organization. What I like to say is more importantly than kind of where we are located, it's really who we are. And we're working towards the same goal. So we've recently just united under one umbrella of our that and perhaps even get ahead of that. So that's really important to us. And finally, you walk into any dealership, for example, you'll see the different departments. You look at us through North America. We've got two countries. We look at our locations.
[00:04:20] We work in multiple provinces.
[00:04:21] So our big motto is the one team piece, which is that we win together.
[00:04:26] So it is not. He knows them. He created them with a team of us. He believes them. And he really drives that message in every single aspect. So it starts there. And then to truly operationalize it, everything we do needs to use those values, almost like a filter, anything that we do, any decision we make, it goes through those values.
[00:05:42] Every higher we make, are they aligned with our values?
[00:05:46] When we're promoting, is it aligned to our values? if you're building loyalty. So really we use those as well for accountability within all of us and within all of our team members. I asked Jennifer to take me through a typical day in her role at Auto Canada. I mentioned the president Jeff Thorpe before and one of his first hires at Auto Canada was my role. You know, we've really set the stage very quickly that people have a seat at the
[00:07:02] table. So when I think about my job, that they're prioritizing and they have to support They have no blockers They have autonomy to make some decisions that they need to do and then I would say
[00:08:24] There's a lot of planning on what's coming up in the next quarter. So a lot of times Jennifer mentioned tire training and it's been forever since I've been through a good tire training class I'd love the opportunity to go through one again But back in 2012 when I was at luxury Auto Mall in Sioux Falls All of us service advisors went through two full days of tire and oil training and at the end of that We were just really able to make better service recommendations to our customers at that time in 2012 right around that time
[00:10:45] Auto Canada team members have access to additional training and education materials. Everybody in a dealership has access to the manufacturer's training.
[00:10:49] So that comes and it's wonderful materials.
[00:10:52] I'm very different based on the manufacturer.
[00:10:54] So Auto Canada and Leader, basically what we're doing now is we're complementing that with
[00:10:59] what we call playbooks.
[00:11:01] So we're actually bringing people together and getting them aligned that way because
[00:11:05] we're so broad and and acted the same. We really wouldn't be moving forward in this world like we are. So I just love the different opinions and different advice and different thoughts. So really, you know, for us, it's, you're teaching in your dealerships and your collision centers is all about that continuous discussion about what we can do better, how we can educate. Where are the gaps, making it a free space for people to be like, oh, I'm ignorant to this. I don't quite understand it. And just giving them that space.
[00:13:40] So overall, again, it doesn't happen overnight,
[00:13:42] but just keep asking the questions
[00:13:44] and encouraging people to really check in
[00:13:46] on what they can do better. part-time or full-time are not self-employed and whose company or organization has more than 10 people. I will leave a link to this study from the Pew Research Center in the show notes. Among the key findings are how women are more likely than men to value diversity, equity, and inclusion at work.
[00:15:00] In the DEI study from the Pew Research Center, over 50 percent of women say such initiatives
[00:15:05] are a good thing compared in favor of men, as opposed to women in the professional world. So in my women in literature class, I learned that female journalists had to write under male bylines if they even wanted to be considered. They even wanted to be considered for publication.
[00:16:21] And sometimes that wouldn't even matter
[00:16:23] because the male journalist would just take credit
[00:16:25] for their work anyway. They'll tell you that they don't want to leave. Once they get here, they don't want to leave. But the stereotype still sets the stage that ultimately they don't necessarily have a space here. It is not about not having a space and automotive.
[00:17:40] It's about women in particular not applying or reaching out to work here because they don't
[00:17:46] know how wonderful it is to an opportunity that we sit in that we can offer this contrast of, you know, what somebody else may say, but you know, we have a seat at the
[00:19:03] table and it's well received and we love it. So again, I encourage people to go ask,
[00:20:06] piece which I always go back to where it talks about differences and there's one particular dichotomy within Myers-Briggs which talks about our decision making and how some people
[00:20:11] are very thinking black and white and some are very feelings and values based and I always
[00:20:16] wondered why I was so different I felt like from so many leaders and I sat on this other
[00:20:22] end of this dichotomy which is when I made decision my heart was in it and I practiced and I brought it to the table and my career skyrocketed. My legacy and what I want to leave behind is reminding every single person, I don't care who you are, what you look like, your gender, I don't care what any effect. It's the minute you figure out your space and what you bring to that table, own it,
[00:21:43] deliver it and don't let anybody question you on it.