Lean Leadership for Ops Managers

How well do you stick to your core values when it comes time to make hard decisions? It’s easy to talk about them in meetings and put them as posters on the walls, but do your decisions and actions align with your values?  In this episode, Jamie shares how our behavior shows our values, plus an important update regarding the podcast.  What You’ll Learn from this Episode: An Update on the Podcast C...

What is Lean Leadership?   It’s kind of an elusive, hard-to-define thing . In today’s episode, I’ll break down what both Lean and Leadership mean to me, which then drives how I develop leaders. You’ll hear key components to consider when moving Lean Leadership beyond a buzzword to definable meaning. This is my living and growing definition. Things can change, but the goal is to inspire you to crea...

How well do you listen? How quickly do you jump in and start offering solutions or try to fix the problem? In this episode, Jamie shares things that hinder us from listening and how to listen effectively as an operations leader. What You'll Learn from this Episode: Choosing to Listen Intentionally Things that Hinder Me from Listening Two Ways to Improve Our Listening Skills Shifting Away from...

How do we create an organization that has a growth mindset? So often, we look at our teams to see how they can improve, but building a culture of improvement starts with us as the leaders. In this episode, Katie Anderson joins us to discuss GE's Lean Mindset Event and how to develop a growth mindset as a leader. What You'll Learn from this Episode: Change Begins with Leadership Learning...

How do you approach safety? As leaders, it's easy to focus on policies to ensure everyone follows the rules, but safety encompasses so much more than procedures; it is a team sport. In this episode, Jamie shares how safety starts with our mindset and culture within our team. What You'll Learn from this Episode: Safety is a product of servant leadership Safety is an expression of love An...

Hello from New York! I am coming to you live from GE's Lean Mindset Event, which focuses on encouraging the right mindset to embrace lean and features several excellent speakers across different industries, including CEOs from top companies, former NBA and NFL players, and more. In this episode, I share an overview of the event, plus my initial reaction and key takeaways. What You'll Lea...

How might operations leaders delegate more effectively? In this episode, Jamie explains how the reason we delegate can drive more effective delegation and practical steps you can take to delegate for development efficiently. What You'll Learn from this Episode: How to Delegate More Effectively The Primary Reason for Delegating Gaining Clarity on the Individual, Activity, and Skills Define the...

Why do you delegate? How does that determine what tasks you choose to give?  In this episode, Jamie discusses the real reasons Ops Managers should delegate and how it benefits themselves plus other members of their team. What You'll Learn from this Episode: The Reasons Ops Managers Delegate Delegating for Myself Delegating to Help the Individual Delegating for the Good of the Team Get full sh...

How often do you delegate? It can be difficult to delegate tasks that could be completed by other members of our team, in turn freeing up more of our time. In this episode, Jamie discusses three common obstacles that leaders face regarding delegation. What You’ll Learn from this Episode: How often do you delegate It takes time to delegate Letting go of control Feeling guilt in delegating https://p...

How often do you characterize your work as fun?   In this episode, Jamie shares how a big challenge and getting creative and trying new and better ways is fun for her, and as Operations Managers, you should be finding fun in your work too. Even though not every aspect of your job may be enjoyable, if you never find joy in what you do, there is a problem. What You’ll Learn from this Episode: A shif...

You can’t have a lean culture without conflict, but so many organizations and leaders are NOT comfortable with conflict. Here’s the question: “What would be the impact to your organization if you could have less destructive conflict and more productive conflict?” What You’ll Learn from this Episode Two types of workplace conflict, and how they differ How the research behind DiSC for Productive Con...

Do any of your leaders ever rush into solving a problem? It’s so easy to jump in and start pushing and moving too fast without taking a measured approach. In this episode, Jamie discusses the pitfall of Unstructured Urgency and how to overcome it. What You’ll Learn from this Episode How Unstructured Urgency Shows Up The Impact of Lack of Structure How to Help Leaders Avoid Unstructured Urgency Get...

Do you ever find yourself stalling to make a decision? Leaders often get stuck not making a decision because they don’t know enough or how to make the “perfect” one. In this episode, I share how perfection is an Enemy of Effective Operation and some practical steps to overcome it.  What You’ll Learn from this Episode: How perfection shows up The consequences of the decisions we make Perfection del...

What causes Ops Leaders to struggle with effective execution? Even when the processes are in place, they never seem to be used consistently or correctly. In this episode, Jamie discusses how complexity is a cause of failed execution, and how to create simplicity instead. What You'll Learn from this Episode: Choosing the Tasks to Complete Complexity as an Enemy to Effective Execution Creating...

I know you are busy. So, how do you prioritize tasks when they are all important? How do you decide what to focus on? In this episode, I discuss an enemy of execution: distraction. Not being distracted with meaningless or unimportant things, but staying focused on long-term, strategic goals when there is so much to do in your day-to-day.  What You'll Learn from this Episode: Dealing with the...

So often leaders want to learn how to “fix other people.” To get them to do the work, to get on board, to be better. But true leadership starts with our own thoughts, beliefs, and self awareness.  You are probably keenly aware of your results. But what about your feelings? Or your underlying, automatic thoughts?  In this episode, I dig into coaching techniques for self leadership. Because whether...

Do you want it done on time, or do you want it done right? We’ve all heard statements like this, and maybe we’ve even said them. It’s so easy to get caught up in this either/or thinking and thinking it’s impossible to have both outcomes. But what if it is possible to have both? In this episode, I share the idea of AND thinking and a replay of my story from Episode 001, where I experienced a missed...

As a leader, do you find too much of your time is spent in chaos and firefighting? Would you prefer to spend your energy moving your team toward an improved culture with better business results? In today’s episode, Paul Dunlop explains how Leader Standard Work cuts through the chaos and creates a stable environment ripe for Continuous Improvement.   What You'll Learn from this Episode: The ro...

Is there any greater priority in today’s business environment than attracting and retaining talented and dedicated employees? In today’s episode, Tracy O’Rourke explains the critical impact of meaningful leader routines on the engagement of a company’s workforce.   What You’ll Learn from this Episode:   The role of leader routines in improving culture Steps for implementing and enhancing Leader St...

While work is made up of process, organizations are made up of people. That’s right, weird, messy, emotional human beings. So operations leadership isn’t just about managing operations or improving process - it’s also highly dependent on leading people.  Moe Carrick joins us to discuss how we can lead people well while also getting results.  What You’ll Learn from this Episode People Make Organiza...

How often do you share your mistakes as a leader? So often in organization we celebrate success and share what went right, while shying away from the mistakes and lessons learned it took to accomplish that success.  In this episode we talk with Elisabeth Swan about reframing mistakes as gold that can help foster stronger collaboration, team building and problem solving. What You’ll Learn: How impr...

Diverse executive teams deliver better performance. It’s shown in study after study. Despite modest progress, women are still dramatically underrepresented in leadership roles. How can women take steps to advance to the rooms where decisions are made, and then to confidently contribute in those rooms? How can current executives take responsibility and action to build greater diversity and inclusio...

Happy New Year! As we shift our focus to the next year by setting goals and thinking about what we want to achieve, it’s easy to limit what we believe is possible. In this episode, Sarah Tilkens shares how to shift from a goal mindset to a growth mindset to expand what is possible.   What You'll Learn from this Episode: Setting Meaningful Goals How Mindset Can Expand what is Possible Five Ste...

What is your personal purpose? So often, we talk about organizational purpose as part of our True North, but what about you personally? What motivates you to keep going during those challenging days? In this episode, Sam Morgan joins us to share how he helps change people's lives by assisting them to uncover their personal purpose while also understanding the process of Improvement Kata and t...

We all have a telling habit and may not even realize it. As leaders, we are often blind to the fact that instead of answering a question or giving a suggestion, we are telling others what they should do.  In this episode, Katie Anderson joins us to share how to build awareness of and break the telling habit.    What You'll Learn from this Episode: Developing Without Telling Telling in Disguis...