Like everyone else, I’m watching the horrible news coming out of North Carolina with a heavy heart.

The devastation and suffering will impact that area and those people enduring Hurricane Helene’s aftermath for years to come. These catastrophic events have reminded me of a wonderful lesson in leadership that I witnessed closer to home many years ago, and I want to take this opportunity to share it with you.

At the time, I lived in Arlington, Texas, and was just getting my feet under me as a young lawyer representing used-car dealers, many of which were in buy-here, pay-here. A horrible storm blew through town, one of those dramatic Texas out of nowhere storms that brings crazy winds, large amounts of rain and hail, and then quickly leaves. There were lots of knocked down trees, flooding, destroyed and damaged roofs, and lots of people were without electricity.

This was the late 1990s, so the public wasn’t quite so technology dependent as it is today, not everyone even owned a cell phone and people still had home phone lines back then, but the effects were everywhere.

Once a few days passed and people went back to work, I happened to be at a client’s car lot. We had a case that was set for trial in Justice of the Peace Court that had to be rescheduled, so I had just stopped by to let the owner know and see how his place was impacted by the storm. When I got there, I walked right into the middle of a team meeting. Not that I had much of a choice, the building wasn’t much larger than a single wide trailer, so if you took two steps in the door you were in the middle of things.

I could immediately tell this was a serious meeting, I could see the frustration on the face of this usually upbeat owner.

He stood in the center of the room, apologizing for not teaching his personnel well enough. He said that as he listened to them speaking on the phone with customers, he felt that they didn’t share his values, which was a reflection on him.  He shared that their calls sounded like the numbers on the collection reports were the most important thing to them, and he always wanted his team to remember that people are on the other end of those calls, and right now lots of them have serious problems.

He continued on, saying that the storm had affected everyone in the room in one way or another. The business was closed for a few days, some people lost electricity, some cars had hail damage, and one manager had opened her home to some relatives whose roof had been damaged. He said that by comparison, they were all lucky and that many people, including some of their customers, had it worse.

He asked everyone to remember this when they got back on the phones with people, and that instead of making collections calls, he wanted his people to take an interest in their customers and how they’d weathered the storm. He gave a short lesson in talking with insurance companies and instructed his personnel to help customers resolve insurance claims. He told them to be caring and to offer guidance even if it has nothing to do with their vehicle.

He shared that his store had been in business for decades and people had come to depend on them, and there was a lot more to the business than selling cars and collecting money. He said he wasn’t naive, some people would use the storm as an excuse not to make payments, but he’d rather give everyone the benefit of the doubt than add to the problems of someone that was already suffering.

Over the coming days, he led by example. He personally called customers to check on them, even bringing some groceries to a lady whose car was blocked in the driveway by a fallen tree, along with a chainsaw to remove the debris.

Something tells me that he earned a loyal customer for life.

I was fortunate to stumble into that meeting on that day. To a young lawyer that didn’t know much of anything about business, it made a big impression on me.

I like to think that in the years since, I’ve emulated that important, beautiful lesson that people come first and that the actions of one person can have a tremendous impact on so many others. I hope that by sharing this, some of you will find inspiration and meaning during this difficult time.

Steve Levine is an auto finance lawyer with over 30 years of experience protecting car dealers and finance companies. He is an owner and chief legal and compliance officer of Ignite Consulting Partners, which offers guidance on compliance, operations and best practices. In 2022 he published Winning the Fight: A Guide to Protect Car Dealers, which is available on Amazon, or contact info@IgniteCP.com to learn more and get your complimentary copy. Follow Steve on Twitter @LawyerLevine for compliance and industry related content.