Automotive
Lead and let be
How to build confidence in your employees
By Brooke Bates
Smart Business Pittsburgh | December 2008
Page 1 of 2
Dave Angelicchio
general manager, Pittsburgh Independent Auto Auction
Dave Angelicchio isn’t going
to do your job for you — but he could if he wanted to.
The general manager of
Pittsburgh Independent Auto
Auction challenges himself to
be able to perform the tasks of
his managers. But it’s not about
trying to micromanage his 150
employees; he just wants to
know what everyone is doing so
he can confidently make decisions for the company.
So, for example, when his
family-owned business formerly
known as D-A Auto Auction
chose the more identifiable
name of Pittsburgh Independent
Auto Auction last March,
Angelicchio knew what his
managers thought of the
change before it happened.
“We all believed that it was
going to be beneficial for the
business,” he says. “If it’s beneficial to the business, it’s beneficial to them, as well.”
Smart Business spoke with
Angelicchio about how he builds
confidence in his employees to
empower them to make decisions.
Be willing to do anything. I don’t
ask employees to do anything
I won’t do myself. You have to
be willing and able to do anything before you ask anyone
else to do it. That’s the best
way to lead. People follow
people who do, not people
who talk. If you’re a person of
action, people will follow you
and do what you need done.
I’ve always made myself
learn how to do anything that
needs done. I’m not a person
that says to an employee, ‘Go
figure this out and do it.’ I’m
always feet first into a project
so that I understand the nuts
and bolts of how it’s done.
I always feel like I can step
into an employee’s position if I
had to. The more people you
have, the harder that gets.
It’s just about knowing what
[your managers] do and being
able to do it yourself. [It takes]
many, many years of learning.
People don’t start off as chief
executives. People start off in
the work force.
As you work and learn and
grow, you learn to do a lot of
different things. By the time
you get to the level where
you’re in that type of management position, you have done
a lot of the other jobs or at
least similar jobs that would
give you the background to
step in and do that.
Let employees do their thing. I
didn’t mean having a hand in
it; I said having the ability to
do it. I’m not a micromanager;
I let my people do their jobs.
The confidence that suggests I know the business is
transcended to the employee.
They know that you know.
That’s what leading is about.
It’s not knowing everything,
but it’s being able to do
things and having confidence in people to let them do that.
My philosophy is to let them
do their job. That’s the way
that you do things. If they
see that you have confidence
in their ability, it goes back
and forth both ways.
