Mentoring For Success with Jason Wiegmink

THE LIVEWELL Hervey Bay podcast recently hosted an engaging interview with Jason Wiegmink, Dealer Principal of Wide Bay Motor Group.

The focus of this podcast was to explore how to position yourself as an asset to an organisation and to be a great mentor to the people within that organisation.

Jason purchased Wide Bay Motor Group in 2009 and at that time they had approximately 67 staff members.

“The business has had a huge amount of growth since then, now employing 107 staff members across two sites,” said Jason.

“Having so many employees across two sites sometimes has its challenges and you cannot be in two places at the same time”.

“You have to have trust within your leadership team and of course this takes time”.

“It’s human nature when you first start out in a business regardless of its size, you want to have your fingers all over everything, it’s new, it’s your baby and you’re 100% in”.

“You want to make sure that everything is being done in a certain way”.

“So when you are hiring your team, you are looking for skill, experience and especially character traits that will enhance your workplace culture”.

“I’m 50 and my personal goal is to see this business continue on into the future, successfully without me”.

“Therefore, instilling my work ethic and culture into my team will hopefully greatly assist with this”.

“Autonomy in a role within an organisation shows your employee a great signal of trust’.

“Giving them that freedom will help them navigate their career and is hugely important for career development”.

 “I have a silent business partner, and the autonomy and trust given in a multimillion-dollar business has been incredible and is very humbling for me”.

“As I’ve navigated through my career, I’ve had quite a journey from the ground up. There were key moments, that really shaped who I am today and how I envision my future business.”

“We migrated to Australia in 2001 and I started working for a dealership in Brisbane, as a used car sales man.”

“My work ethic and my approach has always been no matter where I work, I understand my sense of personal responsibility. I am always respectful to everyone that I work with and everyone that I worked for.”

“Through a series of work experiences and good timing, I have advanced greatly through the motoring industry.”

When Jason was, asked as someone at the helm of an organisation like Wide Bay Motor Group, what advice would you give on how to maximise the potential of your staff, the answer was a simple one.

“Make time in your day for conversations with your staff. It could be personal in nature, it could be about the business or industry, it could be about anything really, you learn so much from an individual when you listen clearly.”

“Sometimes a conversation with your boss is not a comfortable one for some.”

“I took a Technician out for lunch one day and he couldn’t eat, He was that nervous. He was actually leaving us and I wanted to take the opportunity to thank him and to say goodbye.”

“Eventually he became comfortable and the conversation started to fly”.

“So what I am saying is giving staff one-on-one time or taking time out to ask how their day is, is invaluable.”

“You create a workplace culture where you are approachable, you’re not on a different level to everyone else.”

“We are all one team.”

“When we have potential employees coming in for interviews, I always look for their personal traits.”

“Be yourself, be transparent and open. No point pretending to be something or someone else because it’s going to come out in three to six month’s time.” 

“If I had to go back and give my younger self a piece of advice it would be, to spend more time with my family.”

“In Africa the culture is to make sure that the future of your family is secure, because there’s no safety net.”

“I guess that was ingrained in me and continued when we moved to Australia.”

“We were starting from scratch, so it was incredibly important to me that the future for my wife and for our children was secure.”