Every owner wants to grow the business and help employees become better professionals. But how many are truly ready to delegate and trust their team’s decisions? LeAnne Williamson helps shop owners answer that question honestly.
LeAnne is an executive coach, Advanced Certified Profit First Professional, certified engagement coach, and consultant at ATI who also writes for Motor Age. In episode 64 of Maximum Octane, she and Kim Hickey break down what leadership really is, the four leadership styles, why owners struggle to delegate, and why giving advice is not always the best way to lead.
What You Will Learn
- A bit about LeAnne’s background and why she is so passionate about leadership
- Leadership is an influence process
- The four styles of leadership
- An advice for shop owners who can’t let go of making all the decisions
- Learn to embrace and accept change
- You can always squeeze in some personal development training in your schedule
- Sometimes, shop owners get in the way of their internal customers
- Is advice always welcome?
Why LeAnne Is Passionate About Leadership
LeAnne begins by sharing her background and why leadership matters so much to her. Beyond formal education, she invests heavily in personal development, studying with well-known teachers in personal growth and finance. That commitment to learning shapes how she coaches shop owners.
Personal development is a recurring theme among effective leaders. Many successful owners attribute their growth to books, seminars, coaching, and mentors who challenged their thinking. LeAnne’s commitment to continuous learning reflects a belief that leaders cannot grow their businesses beyond their own level of development. As leaders grow, they become better equipped to guide their teams through challenges and change.
Leadership Is an Influence Process
Around the 7 minute mark, LeAnne defines leadership as an influence process. Titles give authority, but influence is earned through trust, consistency, and how you treat people. Leaders who rely only on authority get compliance. Leaders who build influence get commitment.
Influence is built through credibility, which comes from competence, consistency, and character. Leaders who know their work, keep their promises, and act with integrity earn the trust that makes influence possible. Influence also grows when leaders show genuine interest in others, listen carefully, and help people achieve their goals. Over time, influential leaders find that people follow them willingly, not because they have to, but because they want to.
On the shop floor, influence shows up in small moments. It is the technician who follows a new inspection process because the owner explained why it matters, rather than because a memo said so. It is the advisor who brings a problem to the manager early because past mistakes were handled fairly. Leaders lose influence quickly when they make promises they do not keep, criticize people in front of others, or apply rules inconsistently. Because influence is earned over time and spent in moments, protecting it means paying attention to how every interaction lands, not just the big decisions.
The Four Styles of Leadership
LeAnne explains four styles of leadership. While she describes them in detail in the episode, the general idea, found in many leadership models, is that leaders should adjust their approach based on the person and the situation. A new employee may need direct instruction. An experienced employee may need only support or space. Using the wrong style can frustrate both leader and employee.
ATI’s The Leadership Triad and Four Essential Structured Conversations for Any Leader offer additional frameworks.
Situational leadership models, such as the one developed by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard, describe styles like directing, coaching, supporting, and delegating. The idea is that the best leaders adjust their approach based on each person’s competence and commitment for a specific task. A new advisor learning estimates may need direction, while a veteran technician may need only support or delegation. Using the right style at the right time helps people grow and avoids frustration on both sides.
A common mistake is using one style for everyone. Owners who default to directing frustrate experienced employees who feel micromanaged. Owners who default to delegating leave new hires floundering without enough guidance. Another mistake is assuming a person needs the same style for every task. A veteran technician may need little oversight in the bay but plenty of direction when first asked to train an apprentice or lead a team meeting. Matching style to the person and the specific task, and adjusting as they grow, is what makes the approach work.
Advice for Owners Who Cannot Let Go
Around the 15 minute mark, LeAnne offers advice for owners who cannot stop making every decision. This is one of the most common challenges in independent shops. Owners often built the business by being involved in everything, and letting go feels risky. LeAnne explains that holding on too tightly prevents the team from growing and keeps the owner trapped.
Starting small helps. Delegate a decision with clear guidelines, let the person own it, and review results together. Al Oramas describes this shift in Turning Our Internal Customers Into Inspiring Leaders, and Connor Tracy shares his own wake-up call in The Delegation Wake-Up Call.
Owners often hold on to decisions out of fear: fear that others will make mistakes, fear of losing control, or fear that they will no longer be needed. Recognizing these fears is an important step. Mistakes can be managed with clear guidelines and follow-up. Control can be maintained through metrics and communication. And owners who let go are needed more than ever, but for higher-level work like strategy and leadership development.
A practical first step is to keep a simple log for a week of every decision that comes to the owner. At the end of the week, sort the list into three groups: decisions only the owner should make, decisions someone else could make with guidelines, and decisions someone else could make right now. Most owners are surprised by how long the second and third lists are. Handing off a few items from those lists, with clear limits and a regular check-in, starts building the team’s confidence and frees the owner’s time almost immediately.
Embrace Change
LeAnne encourages leaders to embrace and accept change. The industry, the workforce, and customer expectations are all evolving. Leaders who resist change fall behind. Those who welcome it find new opportunities.
Change in the auto repair industry is constant, from vehicle technology to customer expectations to workforce dynamics. Leaders who embrace change look for ways to adapt and improve rather than resisting new realities. They also help their teams through change by explaining the reasons, involving people in planning, and supporting them as they learn new ways of working.
Make Time for Personal Development
Around the 21 minute mark, LeAnne points out that personal development can always fit into a schedule. Audiobooks during the commute, a podcast at lunch, or 15 minutes of reading before bed all add up. Owners who keep learning keep growing.
Personal development does not require large blocks of time. Many leaders listen to audiobooks or podcasts during commutes, read a few pages each morning, or attend periodic workshops. The key is consistency. Small amounts of learning, done regularly, compound into significant growth over a year.
When Owners Get in the Way
LeAnne also discusses how shop owners sometimes get in the way of their own employees. Constant interruptions, second-guessing decisions, and redoing work all signal a lack of trust. Even well-meaning involvement can slow the team down.
Owners can unintentionally slow their teams by overriding decisions, changing priorities frequently, or inserting themselves into routine work. Asking the team for honest feedback about where the owner creates bottlenecks can be eye-opening. Removing those bottlenecks often improves speed and morale.
Is Advice Always Welcome?
LeAnne closes by asking whether advice is always welcome. She recommends The Advice Trap by Michael Bungay Stanier, which argues that leaders often rush to give advice when they should stay curious and ask questions. When leaders ask more and tell less, employees think for themselves and build confidence.
Asking questions instead of giving advice helps employees develop problem-solving skills and confidence. Questions like “What options have you considered?” or “What do you think is the best next step?” encourage people to think for themselves. Leaders can still offer advice when needed, but leading with curiosity often produces better long-term results.
Shifting from advice to questions takes practice, especially for owners who are used to being the expert in the building. One approach is to pause before answering when an employee brings a problem and ask, “What do you think we should do?” If their idea is workable, let them try it, even if it is not exactly how the owner would do it. Over time, employees stop bringing every problem to the owner because they have learned to work through it themselves. That shift is one of the clearest signs that leadership is spreading through the shop.
Developing Leaders at Every Level
LeAnne’s perspective connects to a broader idea in Maximum Octane: every employee can be a leader in their own area. When owners invest in developing leadership skills throughout their teams, the business becomes more resilient and adaptable. Employees take ownership, solve problems, and support one another, reducing dependence on the owner.
Developing leaders at every level involves training, mentoring, giving people responsibility, and recognizing leadership behaviors. It also requires leaders who model the behaviors they want to see. Over time, a culture of leadership becomes one of a shop’s greatest assets.
Signs You Are Getting in Your Team’s Way
Owners often do not see their own bottlenecks, but the team does. Common signs include employees who wait for the owner before acting on routine issues, repair orders that stall because only the owner can approve them, and frequent reversals of decisions that managers already made. Another sign is a team that goes quiet when the owner walks into a meeting.
When these patterns appear, the fix usually starts with clarity. Writing down what each role is allowed to decide, publishing approval limits, and committing not to override decisions without a conversation all help. Asking the team directly where the owner slows things down, and thanking them for honest answers, builds trust and gives the owner a clear list of habits to change.
Leadership Practices to Try
- Identify which leadership style each team member needs right now.
- Delegate one decision this week with clear guidelines.
- In your next conversation, ask three questions before giving any advice.
- Schedule 15 minutes a day for personal development.
Greg Marks shares how he balances trust and verification in How to Befriend Internal Customers and Keep Things Business Oriented.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does it mean that leadership is an influence process?
It means that leadership is about how well a person can move others toward a goal, not about their title. A manager with authority can require compliance, but people follow leaders willingly when they trust them. That trust comes from competence, consistency, keeping promises, and treating people with respect. Anyone in a shop, from a lead technician to a front counter advisor, can lead through influence, which is why developing these skills throughout a team pays off.
What are the four styles of situational leadership?
Situational leadership models commonly describe four styles: directing, coaching, supporting, and delegating. Directing gives clear instructions to people who are new to a task. Coaching adds explanation and encouragement as skills develop. Supporting focuses on building confidence for capable people who may be hesitant. Delegating hands off responsibility to people who are both skilled and committed. The right style depends on the person and the specific task, and it should change as the person grows.
How can a shop owner start delegating?
Start with a low-risk, recurring decision, such as ordering shop supplies or scheduling routine maintenance appointments. Explain the goal, set clear limits on spending or authority, and agree on how and when results will be reviewed. Then step back and let the person own it. Resist the urge to redo the work unless there is a real problem. As confidence grows on both sides, gradually hand off more significant responsibilities with the same structure.
Why do business owners struggle to let go of control?
Most owners built their businesses by doing everything themselves, so letting go can feel like risking what they worked for. Common fears include losing quality, losing customers, or no longer being needed. Some owners also have never had a trusted person ready to take on responsibility. Recognizing these fears, building clear processes, and developing people gradually reduces the risk. Many owners find that letting go gives them time for higher-value work like planning and coaching.
Resources and Links From This Episode
- Book: Michael Bungay Stainer, The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious & Change the Way You Lead Forever
Connect With the Guests
- LeAnne: LinkedIn
