Several times throughout the year, it’s important to slow down, take a deep breath and evaluate ourselves, our processes and our results. Whether we call it a checkup or a self-assessment, taking the time to evaluate your work provides a fresh perspective, creates a path for improvement and helps us to set goals:

Burnout can occur when we fail to take the time to analyze our daily work habits, so let’s do what we can to prevent it! To ensure we stay on the right path, here are three things we should be checking up on regularly.

1. Check Your Expectations
   Expectations that are too high or too low can cause frustration and a sense that the results we seek are unattainable and out of our control. Setting realistic and measurable goals is a great way to keep ourselves and our expectations in check. Instead of setting a specific number to reach, we must set the steps and activities that will produce what we expect. Practicing the process, researching areas of focus and overcoming common objections we hear from customers will bring about change and improvement. Our numbers never define us; our habits do. So inspect what you expect.
   
   
2. Check Your Feedback
   We have entered a world where everyone is guided by feedback. It’s not just a cultural phenomenon; it’s a discovery that everything improves when we look at it from the eyes of others. So be open to feedback, and in fact, you should welcome it!

   The best and most profitable ideas often come from customers, leadership and, at times, from the most unsuspecting places, like role-play. Role-play can be one of the most productive uses of our time. It provides an opportunity for fellow employees to look at what we do and tell us one thing we can do better. The name of the game is constructive feedback. 

   The cumulative effect of this feedback can bring about tremendous improvement and cause us, and our teams, to reach levels we could never achieve by ourselves. The most successful individuals and companies are top-performing because they have honed the power of feedback. We must check to ensure we are listening to feedback and using it to improve. 

3. Check the Clock
   In our increasingly busy world, time has become a commodity more important than money! For example, it is easy to focus on the total time a customer is in the F&I office and try to hurry through the process to shorten it in the hope of eliminating any frustrations for them. However, customers are not frustrated with the amount of time spent in the office but rather how that time is spent.
   
   

   If customers gain insightful information and are able to ask questions to understand how a product will help them, they’ll have a better ownership experience, time will fly by and the second hand on the clock will be less concerning. 

   A good goal to set is for every customer to leave the office feeling that their time was respected and they were enlightened. If we are making a point to be fully present in our conversations, listening to others with purpose and sharing relevant information to provide an understanding, our customers will have a better experience! It’s all about what we are doing with the time as the clock moves each day! 

Regular checkups always produce better results and a better future. You will never be sorry that you took a moment to take a step back and evaluate yourself. This applies to teams and individuals. So, give yourself a checkup, and watch as you become the efficient, successful and fulfilled worker everyone strives to be!