Blue Collar Leadership

(Part 25 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams ...Ch. 25 Lead the Team: Unleash the team's potential. “All leaders know there’s a huge gap between what the team has to do and what the team is capable of doing. High impact leaders close the gap. Low impact leaders widen the gap.” ~ Mack Story

(Part 24 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams ...Ch. 24 The Power of How: The best leaders ask the best questions. “When you want to persuade, you’ll always get further by asking a question than by making a statement.” ~ Dorothy Leeds

(Part 23 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams ...Ch. 23 Where's the Problem? Go see, demonstrate respect, and ask questions. “Lean managers pose questions to their problem owners about the nature of the problem and the best available counter-measures. Doing this automatically transfers responsibility for the problem...closer to the problem.” ~ Jim Womack

(Part 22 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams ...Ch. 22 High Impact Delegation: Delegate results not methods. “The more decisions a leader makes, the further he or she is away from leading a high performance team. Make too many command decisions and you’ll doom yourself and your team to mediocrity.” ~ Mark Miller

(Part 21 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams ...Ch. 21 Avoid Answering Questions: Don't make decisions; facilitate decision-making. “Some people assume we stumble onto our success, but the path of discovery is paved with interesting questions.” ~ Bryan Cioffi

(Part 20 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams ...Ch. 20 Questions Transfer Responsibility: Lead with questions not directions. “When you initiate change, you take responsibility. Initiating change requires a proactive approach and only proactive people will do it. Initiating change requires you to say ‘I will’ instead of ‘I wish.’” ~ Ria Story

(Part 19 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams ...Ch. 19 Prime the Pump: Prepare the team for the dream. “Vision does not ignite growth, passion does. Passion fuels vision, and vision is the focus of the power of passion. Leaders who are passionate about their call create vision.” ~ Ken Hemphill

(Part 18 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams ...Ch. 18 Be a Leader: Processes and things don't think and feel, but people do. “Managers change behavior. Leaders change the way you think without you realizing it.” ~ Daniel Burrus

(Part 17 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams ...Ch. 17 The Key to Buy-In: Learn to leverage the meeting before the meeting. “The individual in your organization who communicates the clearest vision will often be perceived as the leader. Clarity is perceived as leadership.” ~ Andy Stanley

(Part 16 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams ...Ch. 16 Listen to the Voices: Take the time it takes, so it takes less time. “Listening is the greatest communication tool to use when you want to connect with someone.” ~ Ria Story

(Part 15 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams ...Ch. 15 Waste Doesn't Motivate: Eliminating frustrations gets everyone motivated. “Lean is not really about waste elimination, it’s about frustration elimination, removing obstacles that stand in the way of people being their best, that prevent us from having a joyful and meaningful experience. It’s not about telling, it’s about lis...

(Part 14 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams ...Ch. 14 Connect First: Communication is about information; connection is about inspiration. “A great man is always willing to be little.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

(Part 13 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams ...Ch. 13 Declare Your Intent: Help the team see and feel the right things. “Followers choose to follow a leader with a compelling purpose, vision, cause, or goal, the unifying purpose. It is the leader’s unifying purpose that attracts the interest and loyalty of followers. The leader is someone who is able to communicate unifying pur...

(Part 12 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams ...Ch. 12 The Emotional Trust Account: You are either making deposits or withdrawals. “If I try to use human influence strategies and tactics of how to get other people to do what I want, to work better, to be more motivated, to like me and each other - while my character is fundamentally flawed, marked by duplicity or insincerity - t...

In this episode, Bobby Kerns shares his team's 4 year journey of cultural transformation. Their successes and their struggles. But, the most important thing he shares is this: They made it happen! And, they are still making it happen and drilling down farther into their division with plans of carrying leadership development all the way to the front lines. I met Bobby 3-4 years ago when I first spo...

(Part 11 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams ...Ch. 11 Respect for the People: Leaders who respect the people develop the people. “Treat a man as he appears to be and you make him worse. But treat a man as if he already were what he potentially could be, and you make him what he should be.” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

(Part 10 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams ...Ch. 10 Continuous Improvement: Leading yourself and others through change . “The great thing about business is that despite all the history, all the deeply embedded traditional dysfunctional management practices, and all the baggage of unhealthy relationships and corrosive cultures, it is possible at any moment in time to push the...

(Part 9 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams ...Ch. 9 Righting the Wrong: Lean is not two pillars; it's about two foundational layers. “Being intentional about discovering the hidden ways in which we sabotage ourselves empowers us to expose and eliminate these invisible culprits.” ~ Amir Ghannad

(Part 8 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams ...Ch. 8 Develop Others: The best leaders go slow to go fast. “Lean managers go slow to go fast, by taking the time at the outset to fully understand the process and its purpose, through dialogue with everyone involved...and by fully understanding the root cause of problems and the most promising counter-measure before taking action.”...

(Part 7 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams ...Ch. 7 Develop Yourself: It's not about you, but it starts with you. “You can never become a leader without doing more than you are paid for, and you cannot become successful without developing leadership in your chosen occupation.” ~ Napoleon Hill

(Part 6 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams ...Ch. 6 Leading Up: Results increase your influence above. “Accepting responsibility for getting results regardless of the situation or circumstance is a choice. When it comes to building trust and gaining influence with the leaders who are formally responsible for moving the organization forward, the quickest way to do it is to get r...

(Part 5 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams ...Ch. 5 Make It Happen: Managers make a plan; high impact leaders make it happen. “In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt

(Part 4 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams ...Ch. 4 Defining Influence: Influence trumps authority. “Lean managers seek responsibility to address important issues by leading as if they have no authority. Leading without the benefit of authority is actually critical in any organization because even in authority-based organizations managers rarely have control over everything tou...

(Part 3 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams ...Ch. 3 Overcoming the Resistance: The challenge of change. “Managers, especially senior managers, overestimate their effectiveness, particularly as they seek to improve their organizations through formal initiatives. And, they underestimate the impact, often negative, of their daily personal actions on employees.” ~ Jim Womack

(Part 2 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams ... Ch. 2 Living Kaizen: Live it to lead it. The one thing that separates high impact leaders from low impact leaders is CHARACTER. That one thing is made up of many things.