Most shop owners say they want a great team. What many actually build, without realizing it, is a team of people they are too afraid to hold accountable. In episode 144 of Maximum Octane, two veteran owners who hit that wall talk candidly about blowing up their teams and rebuilding them the right way.
Jason Patel sits down with Woody Howard of Simpsonville Automotive in Kentucky and Fred Gestwicki of Canton, Ohio, both with nearly 30 years in the industry. With no script, they talk shop about letting people fail on purpose, teams that quit on the same day, techs who plateaued, hiring for initiative, always interviewing, framing extended warranties as a payment method, and a simple productivity hack that costs nothing.
What You Will Learn
- The three-legged stool moment: what a wheel balancer taught Woody about building a stable business
- Why giving your team clear lanes of failure, not just job descriptions, is what actually builds accountability
- The bolt-breaking exercise: how Fred teaches young techs what failure feels like before it costs a customer
- How Woody’s four-day work week experiment wiped out almost his entire team, and what he found on the other side
- Fred’s hard lesson about hiring for potential instead of who someone actually is right now
- The 24-year-old service advisor who turned out to be the real secret sauce, not the $200K tech
- When Fred fired a tech over a near-accident, his team asked for the tech back, and why he rehired him under a 90-day restart
- Fred’s productivity hack: bring a laptop, sit in the shop, say nothing, and just watch for a full day
- How to frame extended warranties as a method of payment, not a fight, and why copying the customer on every communication changes everything
- Fred’s closing thought: every day, start with your vision and make sure who you have is actually getting you there
The Three-Legged Stool
Woody opens with a “three-legged stool” moment involving a wheel balancer that taught him about building a stable business. A business, like a stool, needs balanced support. If one leg is weak, everything wobbles.
For a repair shop, the legs might be described as people, processes, and profitability. A shop with talented technicians but no consistent processes wobbles every time someone has a bad day. A shop with great systems but thin margins cannot afford to keep good people. And a profitable shop that neglects its team eventually loses the people who produce those profits. When something feels unstable, it can help to ask which leg is weakest right now, then focus energy there instead of trying to fix everything at once.
Clear Lanes of Failure
Around the 3 minute mark, the owners explain why giving the team clear “lanes of failure,” not just job descriptions, builds accountability. People need room to make mistakes within defined boundaries. That is how they learn and grow without putting the business or customers at risk.
Fred describes a bolt-breaking exercise he uses to teach young technicians what failure feels like before it costs a customer. Matt Barnes shares a similar view of failure in How Empowering Internal Customers Can Increase Revenue.
Defining those lanes in a shop might mean letting a newer technician handle a diagnostic from start to finish while a lead tech reviews the result before the car leaves, or letting a service advisor build and present estimates on their own with the manager checking a sample each day. The person owns the work and the learning, while a safety net protects the customer. The opposite approach, where the owner jumps in at the first sign of trouble, may prevent a small mistake today but prevents growth for years. People rarely become accountable for outcomes they were never allowed to own.
ATI’s article Accountability Is Not a 4-Letter Word explores how clear expectations make accountability feel fair instead of punitive.
When the Whole Team Walked
Around the 8 minute mark, Woody tells how his four-day workweek experiment ended up wiping out almost his entire team, and what he found on the other side. Losing nearly everyone was painful, but rebuilding gave him the chance to create the team and culture he wanted.
Big changes to schedules, pay, or structure can reveal how much trust exists on a team. When owners make changes, it helps to explain the reasons, involve key people in planning, and set a trial period with clear measures of success. Even with careful planning, some people may decide the new direction is not for them. That can be painful, but it also creates space to hire people who share the vision. The owners in this episode show that a difficult reset can lead to a healthier team when the rebuild is intentional.
Hire for Who Someone Is Now
Fred shares a hard lesson about hiring for potential instead of who someone actually is today. Hoping a person will grow into a role can backfire. They also discuss hiring for initiative over intelligence, since drive and ownership are harder to teach than knowledge.
ATI’s How to Know If You Made a Bad Hire and From the Right Person to the Right Fit are useful companions.
One practical safeguard is to separate what a candidate has demonstrated from what they say they will do. A technician who has never completed an advanced diagnostic may say they are ready to learn, and they may be, but the shop should plan for the training time and support that requires. Hiring for initiative shows up in small signs: how a candidate prepared for the interview, whether they followed up, how they talk about past mistakes, and whether they have pursued training on their own. Those clues often predict more than a confident answer to a technical question.
The Real Secret Sauce
Around the 15 minute mark, the owners tell the story of a 24-year-old service advisor who turned out to be the real secret sauce of a shop, more impactful than a highly paid technician. Great advisors drive the whole operation.
The 90-Day Restart
Fred tells the story of firing a technician over a near-accident, then rehiring him under a 90-day restart after the team asked for him back. It is a thoughtful example of how accountability and second chances can coexist when expectations are clear.
A restart works only when expectations are specific and written down. A good plan states what behavior must change, how progress will be measured, how often the manager will check in, and what happens if the standard is not met. It also gives the employee a fair chance by providing the support they need. Shops that use this approach should be consistent, applying the same standards to everyone, so the team sees accountability as fair rather than personal. Documentation protects both the employee and the business if the restart does not work out.
Fred’s Productivity Hack
Around the 30 minute mark, Fred shares his productivity hack: bring a laptop, sit in the shop, say nothing, and watch for a full day. Every few months, this simple exercise reveals bottlenecks, wasted motion, and habits that numbers alone do not show. ATI’s Are Your Technicians Efficient AND Productive? explains how to measure what you observe.
Extended Warranties as a Payment Method
The owners discuss framing extended warranties as a method of payment rather than a fight. Copying the customer on every communication with the warranty company keeps everyone informed and reduces conflict.
Start With Your Vision
Fred closes with a reminder: every day, start with your vision and make sure the people you have are getting you there. If your people cannot change, you may need to change your people.
How to Put This Into Practice This Month
The ideas in this episode can feel big, but each one can start with a single step. Owners who want to build a more accountable team might try this sequence over the next four weeks.
- Week one: List every team member and note where expectations are unclear or have not been enforced. Be honest about the conversations you have been avoiding.
- Week two: Define one “lane” for each key role, a responsibility the person fully owns, along with how success will be measured.
- Week three: Spend a full day quietly observing the shop. Write down every delay, repeated question, and workaround you see.
- Week four: Hold one-on-one conversations to share expectations and observations, and agree on specific next steps with each person.
At the end of the month, review what changed. Some people will step up quickly when expectations are clear. Others may need more support, and a few may not be the right fit. Either way, the owner will be making decisions based on observation and clear standards rather than frustration.
Accountability Questions
- Is there someone on your team you are afraid to hold accountable?
- Have you defined safe lanes for people to fail and learn?
- Are you interviewing candidates even when you are fully staffed?
- When did you last spend a full day observing your shop?
For more on difficult team decisions, listen to Keith Katz in The Destructive Power of Toxic Employees. Fred’s earlier episode, Transparency, Accountability, and Clear Communication at the Service of Auto Repair Growth, covers pay plans and culture.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I hold employees accountable without losing them?
Start with clear, written expectations so people know exactly what success looks like. Give regular feedback, both positive and corrective, rather than saving everything for a tense conversation. Focus on behavior and results, not personality, and apply standards consistently across the team. Most good employees appreciate clarity and fairness. The people who leave because standards are enforced are often the ones who were holding the team back.
What should I do if my whole team quits?
First, take an honest look at why it happened, including your own role, so the same issues do not repeat. Then focus on stabilizing operations: prioritize existing customer commitments, communicate openly with customers about any delays, and reach out to your candidate pipeline. Use the rebuild as an opportunity to define the culture, roles, and expectations you want from day one, and hire carefully for people who fit that vision.
Should a repair shop keep interviewing when fully staffed?
Many successful shops do. Ongoing interviewing builds a list of qualified candidates, so a resignation does not become an emergency. It also keeps the owner aware of the talent available in the local market and what candidates expect. The key is honesty: let candidates know you are building relationships for future openings, keep in touch with strong prospects, and be ready to move quickly when the right person and the right opening line up.
How can I improve productivity in my auto repair shop without spending money?
Spend time observing. Sitting in the shop for a full day without intervening often reveals bottlenecks, such as technicians waiting on parts, approvals, or information, along with wasted steps and unclear handoffs. Compare what you see with your productivity and efficiency reports, then fix the biggest bottleneck first. Small process changes, like staging parts before a job starts or improving advisor and technician communication, can make a noticeable difference.
How should a shop handle extended warranty claims?
Treat the warranty as one way the customer is paying for the repair, and make sure the customer understands their own contract and responsibilities. Keep the customer informed throughout the process, including copying them on communication with the warranty company where appropriate. Document the diagnosis carefully with notes and photos. Being transparent about coverage, deductibles, and anything the warranty may not pay for helps prevent surprises and keeps the shop from getting caught in the middle.
Resources and Links From This Episode
Connect With the Guests
- Fred Gestwicki: LinkedIn, Fix It with Fred website, Fix It with Fred Instagram, Fix It with Fred Facebook, Fix It with Fred X
- Woodrow Howard: Simpsonville Automotive website, Simpsonville Automotive Facebook
