Michael Cirillo: The Biggest Problem In Retail Auto and How To Solve It | Leadership | Ep. 678
Most people assume the biggest problem in retail auto is inventory, rates, or competition.
But every time I walk into a dealership, I see something else at the core of the struggle. It isn’t obvious on the surface, but you can feel it in the turnover, the burnout, the “busy but not fulfilled” pace that too many teams are stuck in.
We love to talk about legacy in this industry. The photos on the walls, the family names on the buildings. But the truth is, legacy can’t just be something we inherit or frame. It has to be something we create every single day. And most stores don’t have a framework for how to actually do that.
That gap shows up everywhere: in culture, in leadership, in the quiet frustration people feel when they show up to work and wonder if it really matters.
In this week’s solo episode, I share what I believe is the biggest problem holding retail auto back, and how you can solve it. It’s the same framework my team and I use in my companies, and it’s made all the difference in how we lead, how we serve, and even how I show up at home with my family.
I think you’ll find it both challenging and hopeful.
You can also grab your free copy of my #1 bestselling ebook Don’t Wait, Dominate! here → www.flexdealer.com
Episode Brought To You By FlexDealer
Need Better Quality Leads? FLX helps car dealers generate better quality leads through localized organic search and highly-targeted digital ads that convert. Not only that, they work tirelessly to ensure car dealers integrate marketing and operations for a robust and functional growth strategy.
Watch The Full Episode
Prefer to watch episodes? Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel and turn on notifications to get full access to our content.
Episode Transcript
MC: 0:00
(Preview Intro)
Ethical fading runs rampant in the automotive industry. Ethical fading happens when leaders prioritize short-term wins above anything else. Ethical fading happens when leaders prioritize a lack of accountability, keeping the top performing salesperson because they generate a ton of revenue but are absolutely cancerous. It sends a clear message to the rest of the team that we are willing to give up on the things that we say matter most in lieu of monetary gain. Think of that ripple effect. So ethical fading is something that should be avoided at all costs, and the way that we can avoid it is by…..
(Intro)
One of the things that I enjoy most about producing the Dealer Playbook is hearing from you the messages that I get of people who are getting so much value out of the podcast, applying it to their day-to-day workflows and finding a thriving career right here in the retail auto industry. It means the world to me, and one of the ways that we make doing this possible is through my agency, flexdealer. And, of course, in the spirit of providing value, I think this is a perfect time to head over to www.flexdealer.com to show even further support for you, my beloved DPB gang. Right now, if you go to my website, flexdealer.com, you can get a full, free PDF of my number one bestselling book Don't Wait Dominate, and the reason I think it's so special is that a lot of the topics that are discussed in this book are even more relevant today than ever, with this surge in popularized AI and people wondering, well, what can I do next? How can I have a competitive advantage? Well, that's all here in this book, and so I'd love to be able to offer you a free copy of this If you go to flexdealer.com. It would mean the world to me, because that is how we continue to produce this show for you.
(Episode Begins)
Hey gang, welcome to this episode of the Dealer Playbook Podcast. I am so excited that you are here because we are going to be digging into a framework that I have observed has helped teams all over this great industry. My team, my companies, in fact, just absolutely dominate and perpetuate something that I know we all care about, which is legacy amplifying, legacy building a legacy building something that is meaningful, that brings fulfillment, and showing up in the right way for our customers, for our team members, for our organization, our community, so on and so forth. And this has been on my heart lately, because, as I'm visiting dealerships, as I'm going in and out of dealerships, I'm seeing a common thread. My observation is that while there are marketing or region or sales specific challenges that each store faces, they all kind of boil down to the same issue and I think it's high time that we address it.
MC: 3:10
Our industry loves legacy as a background. We just love it. Our industry has third and fourth generation owners now and the pictures are all over the wall of the forebearers, the people who paved the way, and that means a lot to us in this industry. I mean my legacy, my family's history means the world to me. Often I find myself going down the wormhole considering wait a minute. So my grandfather on my dad's side fought on the front lines of World War II. He was a lone survivor, immigrated to Canada at the same time that my mom's family's immigrating to Canada from Portugal and somehow they moved to the same city area, somehow show up to the same church festival and somehow meet each other, and that's how my parents meet. It's like I love thinking about that stuff and then I get into the legacy side of it, which is the sacrifices that I know my grandparents made on both sides to provide just a little bit better of a life to their children, my parents and my parents, the sacrifices that they made to build something special in our family, to give us just an even better lifestyle and even better setup than they had. And then I think about the work that my wife and I are doing for our children to carry that baton, to lift that torch up in building something special and fulfilling and satisfying. Of course, legacy is tied to family most often. Yes, we do cool things in business, but it's tied to family. I mean the family is the most precious unit, the most precious organization in the world and when we come together as families and get to build something and create something and teach our children to go out into the world, into the community, to be noble citizens, a stalwart, service-oriented, god-fearing, I mean that's the stuff, I think, that brings us all fulfillment. Work, what we do for our career, what we're doing in the auto industry, is an extension of that. It's actually how we perform and how we function at work is a mirror, if you will, of what's happening at home Most often.
MC: 5:34
I'm a firm believer that no material success will ever compensate for failure at home. We talk a lot about leadership in this industry, leadership and legacy in this industry, and it's like dude, if I'm a crappy parent and I'm sorry that's harsh, but if I'm a crappy parent and I can't lead my family or lead myself, even, what does it matter if I have a leadership title at work, that is, I don't believe that's legacy, that's not part of legacy. Well, we care about legacy. My buddy glenn. He wrote a really awesome book called the legacy titles, which kind of encapsulates how do I grow up business while also building on the foundation of legacy. I've had conversations with my dad before where I'm like look, I am so grateful for what you and mom have done for me and, as part of that legacy, the only way that I can pay it back is to pay it forward, and I think that's something that we all care about in the industry. We want to build something that lasts right.
MC: 6:46
The men and women in this industry are showing up day in and day out grinding it out. Um, and sadly, from the conversations I have in and out of the, it seems that there's a lack of fulfillment. There's an anxiety because growth doesn't seem to be happening or pacing the way that individuals think it does. We have evidence of this. Look at the turnover that still exists in the automotive industry in 2025. It's still pretty abysmal People jumping around like crazy. You don't believe me? Go on Facebook right now Three scrolls and you're going to see people who just got hired here, who are no longer there, that now work there, that don't work there anymore, that moved on and it just happens.
MC: 7:39
And I think the reason that that happens is twofold, and it's not one to just blame leadership. There's self-accountability in that equation as well, based on what I've observed, and that is that, while we like the idea of legacy and we feel warm and fuzzy talking about it, we don't necessarily have a framework to create it, to show up every day with purpose, with a renewed sense of urgency around that purpose, with the focus required to fulfill that purpose, and therefore we kind of want to believe what somebody who's wanting us to work for them say, what the organization is trying to sell us on, and then six months goes by and we realize it's not that. My hope in this episode is that I can leave you with something tangible. Something that I'm really excited about, by the way, is maybe the beginning of a framework for you that, if you implement this, will create some unlocks inside of your organization, inside of your existing team. If you're a leader like me, you're constantly examining what can I be doing differently. I feel like maybe we're not getting it in this area. What could I do differently? What ownership can I take to understand the circumstances better, help build the vision and help deploy or activate people in the right direction, because we care that people are facing in the right direction and, with the right level of accountability and understanding, get them moving in the right direction at the pace that we would like to see them moving, because it's equitable. At that point they're seeing growth and that inspires them to move with more rapid pace and we're seeing their growth, which gives us the desire, as leaders, to feed more into them, to fuel that furnace. And I've discovered something that I think is so powerful. It's something that we utilize at my companies. That has brought a tremendous amount of understanding so that the legacy that we all want to build comes to fruition in an organized way, in a fulfilling way, so that stress levels decrease, focus increases, profitability increases, customer experience increases, so on and so forth.
MC: 10:11
But before I get to it, I want to just share this, because I talked about the common thread that I see lack of vision, lack of purpose, not knowing why we show up, lack of leadership, personal leadership and accountability. But there is something else that happens in our industry. It runs rampant in our industry, and that is something that Simon Sinek refers to as ethical fading. We see this in every industry. I want to just read this to you because I think it's important that we understand ethical fading. Important that we understand ethical fading. Uh, let me, let me grab this. This is from simon sinek. He says, um, let me just read it here. Uh, ethical fading is a condition in culture that allows people to act in unethical ways in order to advance their own interests, often at the expense of others, while falsely believing okay, while falsely believing that they have not compromised their own moral principles.
MC: 11:13
Ethical fading often starts with small, seemingly innocuous transgressions that, when left unchecked, continue to grow and compound. Now, as I read that, are you going? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I got it. That's a thing. Ethical fading runs rampant in the automotive industry. Ethical fading happens when leaders prioritize short-term wins above anything else. Ethical fading happens when leaders prioritize a lack of accountability. We see it all the time. We talk about it all the time Keeping the top performing salesperson because they generate a ton of revenue but are absolutely cancerous.
MC: 12:00
Ethical fading exists why? Because it sends a clear message to the rest of the team that we are willing to give up on the things that we actually, that we say matter most in lieu of of, you know, monetary gain. And so what happens is people start saying, well, if that's the case, then I'm going to cut corners, I'm not going to put my best effort in. Why would I? Why don't I just save time Me right, me time, like he talks about here.
MC: 12:33
Ethical fading is a condition in a culture that allows people to act in unethical ways in order to advance their own interests, often at the expense of others. Think of that ripple effect. Imagine that your ethical fading, the corners you're willing to cut, don't just have an impact negatively on the person that works right next to you, but might be impacting an entirely different department, with team members that you don't engage with from day to day, and they have no idea why they're feeling negatively impacted. And it was the ripple effect caused by your own ethical fading. So ethical fading is something that should be avoided at all costs, and the way that we can avoid it is by setting clear values, adhering to them, building our team based on compatibility with those core values, having a clearly defined mission, having the critical actions that we'll take each day. Paul Daly does this so well at More Than Cars so do. He reviews regularly with the team the critical actions, the core values, the principles, the guiding principles that should invigorate the team but also, in a positive way, weed out individuals who potentially are not compatible with those beliefs and those values and that mission.
MC: 14:01
Now, I know it's difficult, right, because you might be thinking, oh man, we're too far gone. This would be an awkward conversation. Please have it. Please have the difficult conversation. Please apologize. Please solve the resentments. Please seek to do a reset If you're the leader or if you're a team member where you've realized ethical fading in yourself to say, hey, you know what I'm done with this behavior and I'm showing up for my family, for my legacy, for my ability to set up the next generation of automotive people so that they have it a little bit better than I had it. Right, that's how we truly build legacy in the auto, automotive industry.
MC: 14:59
You know, when we look at legacy and it's and it's impact, what do we often talk about? We talk about things like if we were to look at our forebearers second gen owners, first gen owners, the people that started it all. We often discuss things like, well, the accountability, and they were hardworking and they had vision and they cared about people. And they, you know, they cared about people and had stewards, felt stewardship for the people, and it wasn't that they just built business, it wasn't just that they were good at money. There were guiding principles that laid the foundation of their legacy, and that is largely why you are experiencing what you're experiencing today.
MC: 16:00
Agencies suck. Listen, before we hop back into this episode, I know you know me as the host of the Dealer Playbook, but did you also know that I'm the CEO of FlexDealer, an agency that's helping dealers capture better quality leads from local SEO and hyper-targeted ads that convert? So if you want to sell more cars and finally have a partner that's in it with you, that doesn't suck visit FlexDealercom. Let's hop back into this episode. Visit flex dealercom. Let's hop back into this episode.
MC: 16:21
And so something you can do if you're a leader, or if you're a leader of one, is to sit down and say, well, what are my guiding principles, what are my critical actions? What are my mission? What is the reason why I show up every day. Why am I grinding it out? Is it just to pick up a paycheck? I doubt it like. If you really boil it down, it's because you want to build something special. You want to create a life for your family that sets them up to be just a little have it a little bit better than you had it now.
MC: 16:54
When it comes to teams, you might say, well, hey, this is all fine and dandy, but boy are there. You might say, well, hey, this is all fine and dandy, but boy, are there annoying people on my team that just get in the way and make it so difficult to show up and be a good leader and do the service. They're so annoying they can't get out of their own way. The drama Right, and I have something for you. You're ready for this. I love this.
MC: 17:22
This, by the way, what I'm about to share with you is something that I look at so frequently daily, in fact, sometimes several times a day in my organization, and it is an assessment that you can do. Yes, you have to pay for it, believe me, it's worth it and it is called the six types of working genius assessment. The six types of working genius assessment is not a personality assessment. The best way that I could describe it to you is it is a mode of operation assessment. It is an assessment that helps identify your zone of working genius, the competencies that you have that are genius that bring you joy. It helps you identify working competencies like things, the way you operate that you're good at but that are not in your zone of genius. And then there's your working frustrations, or, um, you know the mode of operation where it's like I can do it, but, boy, I don't like doing that. Right, I don't like doing these things. I do not derive joy and happiness from doing these things. Remember, we talked about fulfillment earlier and building something meaningful. I think it is incumbent upon every organization to have everyone in their organization. Remember, we talked about fulfillment earlier and building something meaningful. I think it is incumbent upon every organization to have everyone in their organization.
MC: 18:47
Take six types of working genius assessment. Well, why? Because you know how, in the industry we often talk about, they were the right person, but the wrong spot and I wasn't quite sure the spot to put them in. So they're not. They're not here anymore. We hear that a lot. Well, if you understand your team's zone of working genius, working competency and working frustrations. It will give a visual map map for you on who is most compatible to work with one another and give you more understanding into the people on your team and how they operate, so that you can better unify your team.
MC: 19:33
I'm going to give you some real examples from my team. I'm not going to mention names, but when you look at the six types of working genius, it's broken down into six. Okay, so you're working genius You'll have two of them. You're working competency You'll have two working competencies. And you're working frustrations You'll have two of those as well.
MC: 19:52
There's discernment, enablement, tenacity, invention, wonder and galvanizing. I'll share with you my working zones of genius. I lead my working zone of genius are discernment and enablement. Discernment is identifying whether or not an idea or project will work, so understanding its viability and enablement is. So understanding its viability and enablement is demonstrating to my team that it will work and kind of enabling around that. That's kind of the easy way to explain it.
MC: 20:31
Invention is they love creating new ideas. Right, it's just like it sounds. Wonder is like they float in the clouds and they derive joy from considering every last thing. Right, they like to know that. Galvanizing rally the troops, rally the troops. Galvanizing Bring people together. Galvanizing, tenacity Get it done. Oh, you want me to run through that wall? I'm going to run through that wall. Let's get the job done Right. Wonder floats in the clouds, whispers to the clouds. Would you please rain? Tenacity, turning the soil. I don't need no rain, I'll make my own rain. I'm going to turn the soil. They said turn the soil. Why are they hanging up in the clouds, whispering to create rain? The task is to turn the soil right.
MC: 21:31
When you understand and this is eye-opening, when your team takes a zone of working genius, assessment, and you start to look at them, I promise you you will gain a greater understanding of the teams with which you have stewardship if you are in a leadership position, but team members will also have a greater understanding of how they work with one another. You will also gain an understanding into where the drama might come into the mix. Somebody with tenacity might really have a challenge with somebody who leads with wonder. However, because these are modes of operation with which we naturally derive joy and fulfillment, it is important to note that every team needs to have a mix of these individuals. A tenacious team without wonder will rot in the field. Why? Because tenacity says well, the task was to run through walls, I'm going to run through that wall. Wonder says, yeah, but wait, when you run through that wall will you even be in the right room? But no, okay, but you ran through the wall. So you, you know so. But we need that. We need tenacity to run through walls as much as we need wonder to determine whether or not we are in the right way.
MC: 22:57
Uh, emer, who's our chief revenue officer at flex and LiftKit, 20-year retired Marine, and I love the parallels to military operations. I've learned so much from him. I am not an expert, I will preface that by saying this, but you know, as a Marine, it's like he talks about how they're the tip of the spear, like go in, penetrate, boom, tenacity. But I asked him once I'm like would you ever deploy on a mission if there was no strategy? He's like no, never. I wonder, oh, see, I use the word. I wonder if the person helping develop the strategy leads with wonder. Right, there has to be somebody that wonders. There has to be invention creating ideas. What if we? Oh, we should try. There has to be invention creating ideas. What if we oh, we should try. There has to be discernment. Okay, I'm looking at it. I think this is viable or not viable? Enablement, yep, this is going to work Right. And so what's an action item from this episode? Definitely, definitely, definitely, do a six types of working.
MC: 23:56
Genius assessment with your team, just pay for it, budget it. It's so critically important because, when genius assessment with your team, just pay for it, budget it. It's so critically important because, when you examine how your team operates, it is going to make it easier, like I said, for you to understand them, and understanding is just the pinnacle of knowledge. When you understand, boy, do your actions, your behaviors, your mindsets shift. You start to avoid some drama because when you encounter the drama, you can pull up the individuals that are at the heart of it and say, oh, I see they operate differently and nobody has bridged understanding for them. But if we can help bridge understanding for them, saying, hey, well, that individual's working zone of genius leads with this, but it kind of maybe goes against this and that's why you guys are feeling it, then it allows room for empathy for those team members to come together and find a resolution.
MC: 24:51
I'm telling you guys, this is a game changer for my team. There are rarely conversations that happen from the seat I sit in as the CEO, where I say well, listen, let's look at the zone of working genius assessment for what you're experiencing, and I think we'll find some answers there. Again, it's not a personality assessment, it is a working zone of, it is a mode of operation assessment. You are then setting your organization up in a way that brings everybody growth, sets them up with the right foundation, gives them the right level of understanding, gives them the ability to unify, gives you the ability, as the leader, to help set a vision in a way that matches their mode of operation. So it creates an equitable relationship, right, and that, folks, in my opinion, is how we can build legacy. You're probably wondering has Michael done this for his family? And the answer is yes. Yes, my wife, my kids. Zones of working genius assessments what a game changer as a parent to understand my child a little bit better.
MC: 26:03
Again, what I love about it is this is not pointing out strengths and weaknesses, it is simply saying you naturally derive joy from operating in this way. You do not naturally derive joy from operating in this way and you are good at operating in this way. Imagine knowing what drains your team. Imagine knowing what empowers your team. You want to solve for building a legacy. You want to solve for the attrition problem that our industry has. You want to solve for the drama you want to solve for building a legacy. You want to solve for the attrition problem that our industry has. You want to solve for the drama you want to solve for having the right person in the wrong spot, not knowing where or how to put them. Assess their zone of working genius.
MC: 26:42
Now here's a little nugget. Take with it as you will, take from it as you will, rather. Once you have all of those assessments completed, go into your GPT, create a project, call it. Mine's called Chief of Staff. So I have a Chief of Staff project in my GPT for FlexDealer, for Asodu, for LiftKit. I put all of those Zona working geniuses in there. I train my GPT to pull from those project files all of their PDFs and all of their assessments, and now I can use my GPT to help me draw connections, training curriculums, ways of doing after actions, or what we call them as practice sessions, ways to reframe and reposition things so that we are getting the best out of each member of our team.
MC: 27:44
No, because you know me, authenticity is so important to me. No, I am not going to sit here and convince you that we are perfect, okay, but we're striving, we're seeking to be 1% better every day, and what I can say authentically is that doing these assessments has been an absolute game changer. Holy smokes, what did we cover so much? We talked about importance of legacy a general issue that our industry has and not feeling like they're fulfilling the legacy or probably paying proper homage to the forebearers. We talked about why I think that issue exists. We talked about churn. We talked about ethical fading and how we can avoid that and hopefully, you felt the kickstart to a framework that you can implement in your store to get more from your people, for your people to get more from themselves, to build a solid foundation with which we can continue to build, up, up, up.
MC: 28:44
I believe it is our duty as stewards, not leader, not manager. As a steward, each of us have stewardship for ourselves and for people who have been trusted to work within our tender care and concern, and this is going to help you do it. Hey, listen, if you got value from this episode, if you are excited about your working genius assessment. Man, I would love for you to message me once you've completed that and let me know where you're at. I'm so excited. I love this stuff. It is so, so cool. But I would love to hear from you on how it's gone with your working genius assessment, how it's helping impact your team.
MC: 29:28
You can message me, michael, at the dealer playbookcom. Please visit us on our socials. It would mean the world to me. Thank you so much for being here and until next time, god bless. Hey, thanks for listening to the Dealer Playbook Podcast. If you enjoyed tuning in, please subscribe, share and hit that like button. You can also join us and the DPB community on social media. Check back next week for a new Dealer Playbook episode. Thanks so much for joining.
(Outro) Hey, thanks for listening to the Dealer Playbook Podcast. If you enjoyed tuning in, please subscribe, share and hit that like button. You can also join us and the DPB community on social media. Check back next week for a new Dealer Playbook episode. Thanks so much for joining.
