Leader Feeder

Should you post job openings? Or should you just appoint the person you think is the best fit? If you decide simply to appoint someone to a position without posting it first, you’ll end up getting a backlash of negativity for not posting it for others to consider. It’s tempting to skip the job posting […]

There are leaders out there who shouldn’t be leaders. The reality is, for every 15 to 20 supervisors there’s usually one or two who aren’t up to the challenge, and they’re holding back their team from achieving more. The interesting thing is that, given the chance, many of those struggling leaders would gladly go back […]

What do you do when results miss expectations? In other words, your team isn’t hitting their numbers. As a leader in an operational setting, consistently achieving results is your main objective. You’ve likely felt the pressure when your team isn’t hitting the numbers. And some bosses think that the right answer is to raise their […]

How many change initiatives in your organization have gone according to the original game plan? Likely either none or very few. As a result, it would be easy to get cynical every time a new change initiative is launched. Should you get overly negative as a leader or should you stay positive to give change […]

We all want to be liked by others. But when you’re in a leadership role, focusing on being liked by your team can cause disastrous results. Think back to your favorite teacher in high school or college. At first, you might think of the teacher who was the easiest on you. But when you really […]

Many leaders think that charisma is very important. Charisma is often how well you speak, and whether you can inspire the troops. Competence, on the other hand, is being able to consistently generate results and having a track record of making and keeping promises. At first, charisma is alluring and attractive. However, sometimes what the […]

Do some of your workers work hard at not working rather than simply doing the work that you’ve assigned? You may have seen this in your working career, where someone makes a significant effort to only do the bare minimum. The following three examples might be hard to believe, but they’re actually true. In one […]

As a leader, you’ve probably been made to believe that being helpful is a good thing. And usually, it is. But, did you know that there are instances when helpfulness is a bad thing? It all comes down to accountability. When your team member comes to you and they’ve got a game plan figured out, you […]

In the Front Line Leadership course, we ask participants to think back to the best manager or supervisor they’d ever worked for, and then list some of those traits that made the manager so successful. Let’s cover five of the most common attributes that make their way onto the flip chart in the classroom. First […]

Being too busy can cause inefficiencies in your overall leadership. Many leaders want to do a better job at leading, but they get bogged down doing lots of tasks that take away their time from interacting with their teams. Dr. Linda Duxbury, from the University of Ottawa, did some interesting research about how managers use […]

When you ask employees for their feedback through an engagement survey, you’re creating a set of expectations that things are going to change. However, HR and management can sometimes end up overpromising and under delivering, only to look back six months later and say, “Wow, we really didn’t accomplish a lot since we got those […]

Did you know that being conscious and transparent about incompetence can be a good thing? Most of us don’t like to be told that we’re incompetent. And in many cases, people tend to get defensive instead of admitting that they don’t know something. But it can be very helpful to admit when you don’t know, […]

Are you making these disciplinary mistakes? If so, you may be creating a worse situation with your employees. Correcting unacceptable behavior and performance is a part of a leader’s responsibilities. But as a leader, when you don’t do it well, you’ll end up more frustrated than before you started. So, let’s take a look at […]

The results are disastrous when a team leader stops engaging with his or her team. Some leaders mistakenly think that their job is to stay in their office and avoid interacting with their team, and communicate only by email. That is a recipe for disaster. I remember one leader who I was asked to coach. He rarely interacted […]

Want to stop losing employees? Consider creating a positive “hope slope” in your department. Employees don’t make the decision to leave your company, or stay, based on whether the environment is terrible or awesome. They make the decision based on whether things are getting better or getting worse. Your job as the leader is to give employees hope that you […]

In today’s Leader Feeder, we’ll look at how you can be the leader of choice to help you recruit and retain talented workers. When the economy is running well, many companies find it a challenge to recruit and retain talented workers. They want to be the employer of choice. For your company to be the […]

Does your team complain about how the other shift leaves your department in terms of messiness, low inventory or lack of supplies? In this leader feeder, we’re going to learn why you should stop complaining about the other shift. When the employees on your shift complain about the previous one, do you join in on that complaining? It […]

You, as a front line leader, need to know how to conduct successful shift startup meetings to start your team’s day off right. Many leaders will conduct a short, five-minute meeting to start the shift. Sometimes it’s called a toolbox meeting or a tailboard meeting. It’s designed to be a standup gathering of your team […]

Let’s look at praise: how to see it and how to say it. Every leadership program, including ours, will tell you that positive reinforcement is a good thing. It helps motivate your team and builds on the good things happening in your department. The question for you is how many good things are happening on […]

We’ve talked about team motivation in previous Leader Feeder episodes, but we haven’t talked about demotivation – the things you do as a leader that can actually demotivate your team. These demotivators should be eliminated first before you worry about how to motivate your team. Here are a few of the top demotivators to avoid […]

Even if the rest of your organization has somewhat of a dysfunctional culture, your own department’s subculture can thrive. Think about the various departments in your organization. Would you say that all of them have the same culture? Or does each department, shift, or location have its own unique subculture? Most people report that different […]

If you’re a leader in a production or operations role, safety should be your top priority. When leaders emphasize safety, workers know that management cares about them. What is it that motivates unsafe or risky behavior? Usually it involves the worker deciding that productivity and shortcuts will save time, and they think that saving time […]

Productivity should be a major focal point for virtually every leader, because your team’s output has a direct impact on revenue and cost. Productivity is how much output your team can generate within the resources you have available. The more you can produce with the resources available, the greater the value your team generates. A […]

Words can be interpreted differently by different people, so it’s important as a leader to avoid communication confusion. Leaders who use vague words can be easily misinterpreted. Here are just a few examples: “That employee is always late.” “Sometimes the machine is down.” “We almost never have an issue with that supplier.” The problem with […]

Is it a matter of skill or is it will? That’s the question you need to ask yourself when a team member isn’t meeting your expectations as a leader. Knowing whether the gap in performance is a skill issue or a motivation problem helps you gain the clarity you need to create the most effective solution. […]