Meet 3 Women Who Are Paving the Way at Manheim

Careers have a way of taking unexpected turns, and sometimes, they lead you exactly where you’re meant to be. Glenna Bishop never expected cars to be part of her professional journey — but now, she can’t imagine having it any other way.  

The same goes for Emily Decker and Toni Hanshaw. Emily started as a special education teacher, while Toni worked in hospitality, dreaming of one day opening a bed and breakfast. Yet today, all three women are prominent leaders in the automotive industry, each serving as general manager (GM) of their own auction locations at Manheim, part of the Cox family of businesses.

So, what are their secrets to success? Here’s what each has learned about navigating career change, growth and leadership in the automotive world. 

1. Say “yes” to new opportunities — even the unexpected ones. 

Glenna credits leaders at Cox for encouraging her to take key steps in her career. 

One of her first managers gave her the idea to explore job openings in a different part of the company in support of Glenna’s plans to move from Ohio to Florida. 

“I had interviewed for a few media jobs in Florida, but nothing had panned out and I was feeling a little discouraged,” Glenna recalled. “My boss said at the time said, ‘Well, why don’t you look at jobs at Cox Automotive?’ And I said, ‘That’s funny. I don’t know anything about cars. I’m not doing that.’” 

After her initial hesitation, Glenna did follow that advice and landed a marketing role at Manheim in Palm Beach, FL, marking the beginning of her successful career in the auto industry. 

Years later, when Glenna was mapping out a transition into business operations at Manheim, her leaders nudged her to go after a field marketing manager role. Although that didn’t seem like the clear next step, she listened to their advice — and it paid off. That specific position, which gave her exposure to multiple auction locations, turned out to be the ideal stepping stone on her path to becoming GM.  

“I tell people this all the time: I would not be sitting in the seat that I’m in today if I didn’t take that role,” she said. “I gained a new perspective on the actual strategy that goes into every location, I got to spend time with big commercial clients and I built relationships at all locations that still have to this day.”

Similarly, Emily Decker’s 27-year career at Manheim has been defined by embracing new opportunities. Like when she took a chance on an entirely new path when she first joined Manheim in Tampa and Lakeland, FL. Or when she pursued an assistant GM role, which took her to North Carolina. 

That promotion was a turning point for Emily because it shifted her mindset from waiting to “feel qualified” to actively pursuing growth. At the time, she was reading Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg, which highlighted how women often feel the need to meet every qualification before going for a role. That resonated deeply with her. 

“I remember where I was standing in my house when I read that [chapter], and it was like a light switch just flipped,” she said. “There’s no reason why you can’t go after the jobs that you're interested in. You have to take your shot.” 

Within a year of getting that role, Emily was promoted to GM at an auction location in Indiana. Since then, she has also served as GM for Manheim in Phoenix, AZ, and now at Manheim Pennsylvania Market Center — the OG site where the business began back in 1945 and one of the world’s largest auto auctions. 

“When you’re driving to the auction, you get to a point on the road where you look down and the auction is as far as your eye can see; it’s the size of a city — it is a city,” she said. “And I literally said out loud to myself, ‘Wow, I get to go there.’

2. Give yourself time to adjust. 

Glenna admits that getting up to speed in a completely new industry was overwhelming at first, but she followed coworkers’ advice to give herself time to learn the business. 

“When I first got there, everybody said to me, give yourself a full year before you decide if you want to stay or go, because it really takes that long to understand what we do,” she said. “And I can tell you that it didn’t even take me the full year before I fell in love with it. There’s something about the thrill of this environment that drew me in.” 

3. Tap into your natural talents. 

At her core, Toni Hanshaw is all about being of service to others. It’s what she enjoyed most about working in the hospitality industry before she joined Manheim, and it’s how she established herself as a leader. 

“I would be out there doing what I naturally do, which is love on people,” she said. “I think that’s what continued to help me take a different path to the seat I’m in today. Each opportunity presented itself because what I did was from the heart.” 

When she was new to Manheim, Toni made it a point to build a rapport with clients — car dealers — which helped her learn the ropes of the business. 

“Long before I took leadership roles, I was constantly being coached by the dealers,” she said. “They would talk about condition reports or arbitrations — things I absolutely knew nothing about — but I was sitting with them, giving them the time and learning. All that knowledge allowed me to be in the position I am in today.” 

Throughout her 19-year career at the company, Toni has served in marketing and operations roles, including as assistant GM and GM at multiple auction locations throughout Florida. Today, she is GM at Manheim Orlando Market Center, which includes Manheim Orlando and Manheim Central Florida. 

“Each layer in my career, it all aligned because I kept the one thing that was really important at the center: serving people,” she said. “Everyone has to find that thing that connects them to everything they do.” 

4. Prioritize skills over titles. 

Glenna’s career at Cox taught her that she didn’t have to follow a specific progression to get to where she wanted to be. 

“You don’t have to take a linear path with Cox,” she said. “You have to learn certain skills, build certain relationships and make a certain impact on the business, but there’s no specific role you have to hold to do those things.” 

And she shares this advice with others when they ask her how they can approach career growth.  

“I feel like that is such a freeing way to go about your career journey because you’re not stuck on what you think you have to do next,” she said. 

5. Keep learning. 

Emily has benefited from multiple leadership development opportunities at Manheim and at Cox. She also got her master’s degree in organizational leadership using Cox’s tuition reimbursement program. 

“I would not have gone back to school and completed that if Cox hadn’t provided that opportunity to me,” she said. 

Toni said that working for a company that genuinely values and invests in her — both as a person and a professional — has made all the difference in her trajectory. It’s why she’s built a successful, long-term career at Manheim. 

“My leader didn’t stifle my thinking and allowed me the freedom to be creative, and the company supported me, made me feel valued and gave me the training to become a better leader,” Toni said. “Not every company is going to invest in you that way — and because they invested in me, I hugely invested back with my time, my effort, my passion and my ideas.” 

6. Lead by example. 

Toni never focused on being the only woman in the room — she was too busy doing the work, building relationships and making an impact.  

“I never really paid attention to gender,” she said. “As crazy as that sounds, I was just busy working.” 

Over time, she began to notice a shift. Those who once doubted her were now opening doors and advocating on her behalf. She recognized that perceptions of leadership are often shaped by past experiences and mindsets. While this didn’t hold back her career, she’s now using her leadership position to change those perceptions and help others grow. 

“As a leader and a woman of color, I realized how important it was that my voice got a little bit stronger and my coaching and my strategic direction got more defined, so that I could help champion others and ger them to where they want to be.”

7. Help others embrace change to stay ahead. 

Emily knows that it’s her responsibility to set her team up for long-term success by helping them embrace new tools and technologies that’ll take their careers — and the industry as a whole — to the next level. Her team at Manheim, PA, is setting the tone within the business with cutting-edge features, from online auctions to AI diagnostic tools. 

“We have AI diagnostic tools where we’re able to identify damages and different things with the vehicle,” she said. “It just it makes it a lot easier for our team members to be able to do their jobs, and it gives clients more information so they can make a better decision when selling their vehicles.” 

8. Identify your “why.” 

Stepping into leadership roles, including her most recent as GM at Manheim Dallas-Fort Worth, allowed Glenna to achieve her true purpose in this business.  

“That role really let me find my passion for this business, and that is the people that we work with,” she said. “This was the first time that I was leading a big team of like 80 people, and I felt solely responsible for their futures and the impact that they were making. For my employees, it’s not just coming here to do a job; they’re coming here to provide for their families. And that’s really what drives me.”

To this day, Glenna says she isn’t in this industry for a love of cars, but rather a love of helping people. 

“My philosophy is that we’re not in the car business; we’re in the people business through the means of a vehicle,” she said. “My job is not moving metal — that’s what we do on a day-to-day basis — but my job is to change people’s lives, and I feel like I have the opportunity to do that every day.” 

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