Mastering Lean Leadership and how to support it as a Communications Professional

Lean management isn’t new to most of us. But in the context of the new possibilities and challenges of Industry 4.0 and Digitalization the importance of implementing lean processes and fostering lean leaders becomes of greater importance even for the very last among us. As communicators it is often on us to support or even steer the way of how companies and leaders are applying the concepts of operating according to lean principles within the company and to support leaders how to put lean concepts to best use among their teams. While lean management for many leaders simply is a possibility to satisfy customer requirements and therefore regard it as a simply processual topic. I am convinced that often it is not understood that leaders first must master their own abilities, then teach their teams and out of this create a lean environment to foster further success.

Basic assumptions

Following my university school of thoughts I think that businesses must adapt to change or face extinction. While coping with the constant change (panta rhei) business and leaders should rely on scientific methods. So does lean. The prove of concept has widely been shown by the automaker Toyota within its management strategy (continuous improvement & respect for people). And related to those two pillars, truly lean leaders must first of all gain the knowledge they need to take effective action and secondly practice self-development to gain belief and trust in themselves. This is one of the most challenging journeys to coach and support for any communicator.

Let’s be real

The world faces increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity and the biggest challenge to any CXO or senior executive is that they must embrace the ongoing need to adapt to change, offer tangible value to customers to keep their businesses thriving. In this context they core of any lean practice or leadership is the understanding that the customer (by the way this includes colleagues who create and deliver products and services, people who buy products, and anyone else who is affected or influenced by products and services) is to put first. Therefore anyone of us is set out to satisfy customer requirements on every level. If this fails there will be a cease to create and offer value resulting in a business instability. Until 2030 it is expected that about 40% of today’s organizations will vanish as their leaders are not able to deal with change or focus on the customer’s (hidden) needs.

As I wrote above the scientific proof of concept has been shown via the Toyota Way. At this point I will not summarize the theoretical setup of this managers 101 but definitely recommend these two books (1 and 2) as lecture for any interested mind. To continue my thoughts it is of greater importance to cherish the fact that lean thinking calls for constantly asking questions across the organization and throughout the entire process of developing solutions. Out of the simple idea of continuously asking questions the two pillars of continuous improvement and respect for people arise.

Quiet logical, as one only asks questions in order to improve something and one has to respect anyone around him as his response to my question won’t be of value if I don’t value him. Out of this “behavior” a spirit for challenge and the urge to really go down to the core to solve problems arises. And as problems and solutions both are manmade they consequently only can be solved by people (leaders and teams).

What an amazing coincidence

Looks like it is all about the leaders. Their knowledge and actions lead to take are critical factors in their evolution as a lean leader. They must demonstrate the ability to motivate their self before trying to

motivate others, including customers and the organization. Anyone can deal with the concept about what it takes to become a lean leader, but taking the action based on what has been learned is the true challenge and this challenge is also the communicators challenge if he is CCO or in any executive related position.

Pretty much like with any media training repetition is key to success. Nobody will become a good face to the crowd by simply practicing once a year. It is the hard daily work. And nothing else with lean leadership. People want to follow leaders who believe in themselves, listen to others and then trust, respectively stick to their own judgment. Leaders can instruct others only based on what they know and can do themselves. As the world changes the leader has to change. There is nothing worse than an executive who once (long ago) reached a position and just possesses. Leaders must devote themselves to the lifelong quest to perfect their (leadership) skills. Gaining mastery over leadership is particularly challenging because one can’t learn how to lead by rote. Therefore any leader needs a partner that he can rely on in order to get honest feedback – again this is calling us the communicators to the plan. Together with the leaders that we support we can develop characteristics they either have or they need to gain. In this context I want to share six clues that might be of service to you.

Guidance to master lean leadership

Make leadership development a measurable process: First it is about to define objectives, track evolution and measure progress. Then it is about sharing ones understanding of success with others and find inspiration in others (from interpersonal to intrapersonal level).

Empower others: True leaders help others to become leaders. Simply out of the fact that a group is stronger than an individual and trust will strengthen the ties in between the teem individuals, I recommend to always help others to develop. And in this nurturing situation develop individually as your organization develops

Build an encouraging culture: To make the lean jump ahead, an enterprise needs leaders at all levels. An organization’s culture should encourage the development of leaders within and attract leaders from the outside.

Expect failure: Well, this is a no-brainer. With change comes failure. We learned walking this way and the same way algorithms and AIs develop at the moment. But I need to mention it, a some personalities can’t accept the idea of failure. And therefore they deny the chance of learning that dwells within every failure.

Shift from training to developing: To improve lean leader abilities, one has to learn how to evaluate matters judiciously. Engaging in training to gain the wisdom one needs, while at the same time seeking opportunities to apply ones knowledge is key (for me it is like a combination of lean and AGIL). Sticking to this one don’t necessarily has to gain expertise before he can lead, but as a lean leader, one may face difficult situations on which he can grow.

Embrace being born and made: Some chosen ones may inherit characteristics of a lean leader, but as always genius is only half the battle. The rest is effort and the right circumstances to grow and learn. The most about leadership is learned while facing challenging times. So you should always walk on the uneven road from time to time to keep in good and lean shape.

That’s it for the basics. I hope you enjoyed my thoughts on lean leadership and my idea of how communications professionals (external or internal ones) can support a leader on his way to lean leadership while growing at the same time themselves.

As always I am looking forward to your kind feedback!