Breakthrough the Finish Line and Keep Running!

Breakthrough the Finish Line and Keep Running!

By Mark Preston

The Race is never over! I have visited many manufacturing plants and it is interesting to see many plants still the same as if it were the 1970’s. I believe they thought that they were good enough and change was not necessary. This is a total responsibility of leadership in leading the team to the future and never being satisfied with ok or good. Competition feeds on leaderships laziness and waste in the company. Why would I say this? If I asked your sales team, “Do you feed on your competitions waste?’ They would reply, “If they can’t deliver on time, we can deliver on time. If they have bad quality, we have better quality. If they have high costs, we have better costs.” The companies that continually improve by eliminating waste have a distinct advantage over their competition. The goal of leadership is to lead team members with forward looking plans to eliminate waste and create a cohesive team.

Four ways leaders should enable their team to look forward:

• Establish vision and clarify desired outcomes. Strategy deployment must be done continuously. Are you comparing the actual current state to where you want to be continuously or is Strategy Deployment a yearly exercise that only checks the box? I like the slogan “The Pain of Discipline, or the Pain of Regret”. I say this when I go to the gym or don’t go to the gym. I say this when I have a plan or don’t have a plan. Strategy is a roadmap to get to a milestone destination. It is never a final destination because of continuous change. If I want to drive from Atlanta, Georgia to Seattle, Washington, I may eventually get there without a map, but it will take a lot less time if I have a GPS or Map. Does Your Company have a Strategic Plan – Roadmap – to get to the next milestone for the company to succeed?
• Be Positive. A Positive Leader brings a presence of Possibilities. Do you run into problems or opportunities to become better. Attitude is contagious and if leadership brings a negative attitude, it will spread like cancer throughout the organization. World class leaders provide their teams with the tools to do their job, the environment for them to do their job and they are excellent communicators. Reflect on these things before scolding your team. Are you developing your team members to see problems as opportunities to become better?
• Proactively Eliminate Waste. Many companies have lost their advantage and have fallen into a rut of fighting fires or reacting to daily problems. You must teach and develop your team to get ahead of problems and fix them before they bite you. (Ask me about a Rattlesnake Hunt). Mr. Nakamura was one of my favorite plant managers at TDK. He had the ability to develop his team to think outside of the box by asking questions which made us look at the possibility of things that might happen. By thinking proactively and fixing problems before they occur, it gave us time to achieve great results. Benjamin Zander says it best, “Live in the Kingdom of Possibilities”. Are you stuck fighting fires or are you focused on the future?
• Lift the team up instead of pushing them down. Celebrate the achievement of milestones. Teach team members what great looks like by celebrating them often. Leaders must remember that they are successful because of their teams’ accomplishments. Make it about the teams' accomplishments. Pride for the company comes from the success of the team that created that success. I enjoy seeing companies bring first line employees to the AME (Association of Manufacturing Excellence) conference to receive the AME Excellence Award that they achieved. These leaders reward and remember who achieved this award and why they are in the leadership position that they are in. We are only as good as those that work for us. Leaders must do everything possible to develop and recognize their team members. Are you as a leader taking your team for granted or are you lifting them up?

How can I help you?

I hope you enjoyed the article, and it brought a smile to your face. Please comment and share, I would like to hear your thoughts. Have a great week! Please reach out if you need help developing leadership and engagement at your company.

I specialize in:

• Strategic Planning Workshops
• Value Stream Mapping Workshops
• Rattlesnake Hunt Engagement
• Monthly Leadership Coaching
• Lean Certification
• Lean Assessment and Lean Journey Development

Have a great week!

Mark

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Mark Preston

[email protected]