What’s the state of leadership, particularly as former icons have been brought down in sectors like financial services?

It, too, is evolving, but the good news is we seem to be getting past the leader-as-guru, leader-as-god, phenomenon. That doesn’t do anyone any good.

As the nature of the work force changes, from an industrial worker to a service worker to a knowledge worker, the leadership paradigm has had to shift from command and control to participatory leadership. And now it is all about herding cats, and what it takes to herd cats well.

As I suggested, what causes change is some kind of attractive future that people are drawn into, or something about their present that scares the heck out of them. Part of getting people to engage in the act of change is helping them figure out what that balance is for them, in their company and their industry. Then they realize that “I don’t like being demoralized and upset,” and so “I would rather find a way to get ahead of the curve.”

What’s the toughest thing you had to learn?

That business is much less rational than anyone really believes.

I have studied many situations where the answer seemed obvious, but the answer that emerged had a lot more to do with the dynamics of the people involved.

We are always projecting status.  How and where we stand.  How we end a spoken sentence.  What  we do with our arms and hands.  How we hold our head.  Where do our eyes look while speaking.  Is there a difference between looking down to the left or right?  Distance from the other person.  All these things create the perceived status to the other person.  The most fascinating thing I have discovered in teaching status in leadership classes is the blind spot some people have about their own status as perceived by others.

All social interactions require a see saw of high and low status for a conversation to continue.  Think about the following.  “Mike, we really had a great business day today.” Mike: ” This was not as good as yesterday, how can you say that?”  “Yes, I guess your are right.” “You know I am right.”   What if Mike had taken low status and said “yes it was”.  Conversation over!  I often have people role play in class taking high and low.  In any conversation lasting more than a minute, I have seen people who could not take or stay “low”.  They would swear they were low and the class would shout them down.  After many attempts and coaching, they simply could not hold low status in a conversation.

How would you like to work with or for this person?  Does this person even realize what they are doing?  NO!  Can they be trained to stop doing this?  Yes, if they really want to change.  This  individuals parting comment was “why should I take low status when I am almost always right when dealing with my boss”.  Last I heard, he was no longer working for that company, or boss.

Interesting email this week.  Client was really justifiably proud of six of seven days of zero waste from a step in their process.  This was really an outstanding accomplishment that was not achieved without some serious work using Six Sigma tools. The previous months had seen most days of 25%+ scrap rate.  The material that was being scrapped was one of the more expensive additions to the product and also a differentiators from our competitors.  Obviously, I asked “what have you done to celebrate this and is your control plan in place”.  I almost always assure that the people doing the job have a celebration so they remember when we do the job this way, it feels good!

As I looked at the additional data being tracked I noticed that fully 50% of the parts in this department were “reworked to acceptable quality standards”.  We have cash flow issues as almost all businesses are experiencing.  Material cost is 5X labor cost for our product, so this sounds like a good deal and everyone is pleased with our “world class rework procedures”.  We congratulate ourselves on our  ingenuity to salvage this material.  Our job classifications pay the highest rate to our “reworkers”.

Does this part cost us more than the part that was made right the first time?  How many hours of OT do we pay while remaking this part right?  When do we say we are putting no more time ($) into reworking this part?  Is our selling price for the product adjusted to show this additional cost?

Would our customer prefer to buy a product built with “world class reworked parts” or one with all the parts made right the first time???

Informance recently released their latest tracking numbers for some 16,000 client manufacturing companies.  How does your company stack up?  We are blessed with opportunity!

“Benchmarking activities can be as simple as comparing shifts, lines and product categories. But when the benchmarking effort spans entire plants throughout the enterprise, and leverages insight from the manufacturing community, there is a shift in perception about what is realistic and possible

The highly granular and rich real-time nature of Informance EMI allows analysts to correlate attributes of best-in-class performers across a variety of metrics, and deliver meaningful insight and direction for performance improvement.

The 2009 Informance Manufacturing Operations Benchmark Study revealed that:

• Top quartile performers currently operate at 78% overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) with “best of the best” performers at 93%.
• Typical plants in the CPG industry average more than 88,100 short duration interruptions per year.
• Food and beverage manufacturers struggle the most with equipment failures, but best in class manufactures have found ways to minimize those losses. Equipment failures represent only 6% of capacity for best in class manufacturers, but they represent 16% of capacity for the lowest quartile.
• Pharmaceutical manufacturing operations struggle the most with changeovers and short, frequent stops. Changeovers on average take up 14% of capacity, compared to only 3% across all industries, which is almost five times more.

“When businesses benchmark manufacturing performance and examine corresponding strategies of best-in-class performers (lines, plants, and even other companies), they close the gap between today’s performance and what could be,” comments, John Oskin, Executive Vice President with Informance International.

I began coaching a new client yesterday.  This client is with a company that he absolutely loves the product and the company.  He left his former company because he didn’t believe in the product and the company did not value its employees or distributors.  His goals for the next 180 days are to create self esteem and enough financial resources that he can get married and provide for a family.

Self esteem is self imposed by someone else’s value system, not his own.  His father is a well known professional who came from a very impoverished background and put himself through college with no financial help from his family.  My client was sent to a very prestigious (expensive) university.  He has chosen a path after graduation that has not been the route his family chose.  How does he create is own self esteem without using someone else’s value system?  If he is successful in his new role, will this give him  self esteem in his families’ eyes?  Is that the “true” self or someone else’s?

The second goal is to increase his income to change his living standards.  Interesting that his passionate motivator is Individualistic with Utilitarian second.  This is not surprising that his self esteem will be increased by monetary gain and security.  He needs to double his  salary in the next three years to meet his goals.  Currently his question to answer for the next coaching session is “what can I accomplish at work that will generate a bonus while satisfying my real job”?  Stay tuned for the answer!

When we came out of school  we were blessed with so many tools and knowledge that we just knew that the world was waiting for us to apply it.  Then a funny thing happened that scared us.  The plant we entered was filled with “experience” that we did not know about.  After a few attempts at telling someone our ideas and they continually told us “you don’t have any experience with your education” we recognized the unfairness of the situation.  In fact some people are educated above their intelligence level!

As we moved from one job to the next, we found that some of the leadership skills we learned were “transportable”.  Their real impact was it didn’t take as long to accomplish the same things on the next assignment.  Perhaps we were getting some experience to go with our knowledge.  Now we were seeing and valuing experience also.  Experience is like fishing in the same shoreline.  We see the deep hole we remember that harbored the nice trout.  Our experience told us what lure to cast and where the most likely place the fish was hiding.

Experience and knowledge really pays off  when the two curves cross and your leadership pulls everyone else to a new level of competency.  Remember, nothing happens until someone touches something.  The most efficient process in the world is always limited to the experience AND knowledge of the person who starts it.  Leadership assures that person always inputs the proper skills to the task.

Years ago one of the first really successful entrepreneurs of the Quality revolution was Philip Crosby of Quality is Free fame.  His definition of quality is still classic in its simplicity.  Crosby defined quality as on time, within agreed upon specifications and at agreed upon price. What could be simpler?  What needs to be added?  This is quality for any transaction including our contract with our employees.

On time- I will truthfully review all employees job performance at the agreed upon time frames.  This is not a “have to” but a “want to”.  Every employee survey taken “honest, timely feedback on my performance” is always in the top three of satisfaction with my boss.

Within agreed upon specifications- In our last review, we agreed upon certain goals that are tied to our departmental objectives which support the business goals, which support the company goals.  How am I doing against those goals?  How can the company be successful without goal accomplishment?  Therefore, I cannot be successful.  Tell me the truth!

Agreed upon price- I am paid a salary, wage, bonus, etc. that we agreed to when I started working.  If this changes, is in jeopardy, or new guidelines are published, tell me.  I want to control what I can control, but tell me what is non negotiable.  If I have other choices of employment, with the truth about “price” I can control my own destiny.  Again, tell me if the price is no longer valid!

Quality is free, but  leaders  have to conquer FEAR to feel free to tell the truth on my job performance.  The earlier the better in my career.

As companies are going through the throes of this down turn in the economy, some difficult decisions must be made regarding personnel, wages and staffing.  Fear is always lurking in the shadows.  We are afraid of the repercussions of telling people the truth.  One truth that can never be violated- no one is bigger than the organization.

If one person is holding the needed changes back, they cannot carry the business down with them.  As the leaders, we are responsible for the well being of all employees.  Hopefully, we are all aligned around the “critical few” business objectives.  The simplest way to measure anyone’s performance is what they are doing is aligned with the company’s goals.  If they are not pulling their weight and accomplishing the input our business needs to assure everyone’s future, then we are making them more important than the organization.

Yesterday I visited a local Boys and Girls Club.  I have never really visited one but  my client insisted that while we were out for lunch that we stop by.  I was blown away by the discipline and enthusiasm of the Executive Director and his staff.  This was no “game house” but a disciplined after school program that costs families $10 a year!  Before they walk in the door, they pull their pants up and turn their ball caps around.  The first hour is devoted to getting your homework done.  Then they can participate in other activities.

Since they have a staff of 12 and 13 Directors on the Board, communications is a critical skill.  Fortunately I am a distributor for TTI assessment products.  As part of their corporate culture, they give back to the community by providing DISC and PIAV at no charge to such agencies as the Boys and Girls club.  I will be using them to train staff and board members to create a more successful organization at no charge.

I am proud to be a distributor of TTI products for the past 10 years.  They feel so strongly about giving back  that they recognize the distributor who does the most for his community using TTI products each year.  In this time of “corporate greed” in the paper each day, it is the time of year to celebrate those who truly share their knowledge and expertise to improve the future of our youth and country.  TTI is such a company.

Was getting an update from one of my clients tonight on the changes he is implementing in his new company as Director of Manufacturing.  He is known for being open and honest with his employees which takes a while for them to realize he is really “different”.   He is letting them decide as a group the best way to staff, pay and reward themselves during the next calendar year.  They know how many units they must produce, what cost must be and how many a month.  They will interview the new supervisors and members of their work team.  They were all floored by the new responsibilities they were being offered.  Most importantly, the team members  trusted the new leader and were willing to be accountable with proper training.  The new Director was floored by how incredulous they were that they would be given so much control over their work and were willing to accept these responsibilities. ” How did you accomplish all this in such a short time”, I asked him.  His response hit me right between the eyes.  “I am surprised at how far honesty in management will carry you”. Need I say more?