Leadership isn't about shouting "be more driven". It's about creating the conditions where people choose the right behaviours. In this episode, I talk with leadership coach Wendy Harbutt about practical management strategies you can use today: getting beyond "carrot and stick", setting agreements that people actually keep, and replacing lazy money fixes with recognition, growth, and clear processes.

What we cover

• Nature vs nurture: you can encourage drive, you can't inject it. Focus on the outcome and design better routes to it.
• "Why won't they answer the phone?" Get past labels like "lazy"; find the real blocker and change the environment so the right choice is the easy one.
• Accountability that works: co-create clear, timed agreements; agree the check-ins; coach the "how" before you judge the result.
• Motivation beyond money: belonging, progress, recognition, development, and why cash alone is a blunt tool that can backfire.
• Induction and process: lock down the non-negotiables early, then keep performance interesting so it sustains.
• Teams vs lone wolves: decide what you actually want, then design incentives for that, not the opposite.
• First-time manager playbook: daily reflection, get a mentor, learn core skills (delegation, feedback), believe you can, and build from there.

About Symco Training:

Symco Training was founded in 2000 by Simon Bowkett and it was his belief that the business had to offer its clients something different. That difference was clear to Simon from his days in the dealership when he experienced many sales trainers who had all the answers, but were unable, unwilling or both to actually show the delegate how they could be implemented. It remains the ethos of the business today. You see, Symco only employ trainers that are committed to delivering not only in spiring and insightful training, but are equally as happy to demonstrate these skills and techniques with real customers in your own showroom. We believe in order for sales training to be effective and in Simon's words 'real world', it needs to be tried and tested in the only place it matters the showroom floor. There is no room for theory when your goals are for your team to sell more cars, hours or parts and retain more profit. In dealerships around the world the focus applied by many of the sales executives is to try and sell a deal. Symco specialise in getting your teams to focus on selling themselves, the product and then supporting this with the deal.

To find out more visit: www.symcotraining.co.uk