Three Questions for Changing Behavior
On the manufacturing floor, there are always going to be dozens of different, diverse personalities. When people with different—or even conflicting—personalities need to engage with each other, and it can cause conflicts that drain the energy of the team, create frustration, and lead to low productivity or high turnover. However, it’s still possible for a … Read More
Think & Grow Rich
Think & Grow Rich | Author: Napoleon Hill, 1937 What’s It All About? Can a book written in 1937 still be relevant today? At first, I was skeptical that a book written so long ago could still have lessons for today’s leaders. But after I read another book, You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero, … Read More
Connection Before Trust: The First Step is an Inside Job!
“My team just has too much connection!” Throughout my years of coaching and advising manufacturing leaders, this isn’t a statement I often hear. In fact, it’s usually the exact opposite. When there is a disconnect between leaders and their teams, it leads to communication challenges, poor culture, halted productivity, and a lack of trust throughout … Read More
Using Empathy, Intention, and Communication
Using Empathy, Intention, and Communication: The Tools for Breaking Down Barriers for Women in Manufacturing Women only account for 43% of the total workforce. Their numbers are even smaller in the manufacturing industry, with women holding around 27% to 29% of manufacturing industry jobs. To make matters worse, this percentage has stayed the same since … Read More
The Steps to Embracing Your Rubber Band Resilience
The Steps to Embracing Your Rubber Band Resilience To learn about growth and resilience, look toward rubber bands! On a recent episode of the Mindfulness Manufacturing podcast, I welcomed corporate energy expert Kathy Parry for an energizing conversation about her ideas on “rubber band resilience” and how manufacturing leaders can embrace the strain that comes … Read More
How to Bring “The Golden Rule” to the Manufacturing Floor
How to Bring “The Golden Rule” to the Manufacturing Floor “Treat others the way you want to be treated.” Even though most manufacturing leaders have probably heard this “golden rule”, kindness and understanding are not always prioritized in the manufacturing industry. This was the topic of my recent Mindfulness Manufacturing podcast with guest Thom Singer, … Read More
What Keeps Women Out of Manufacturing Leadership Roles — and What We Can Do to Break Down Barriers
Did you know that women only make up 43% of the total workforce? As this recent statistic shows, the numbers are even smaller in manufacturing industries, with female employees rarely making it to higher-up leadership positions. This means that women in manufacturing are a massively untapped market, even in the midst of ongoing worker shortages. … Read More
Showing Who You Really Are: The Key Characteristics of Great Leaders
“People see who you are—even if you don’t!” That’s one of the favorite sayings of John Raymer, a recent guest on my Mindfulness Manufacturing podcast. In this episode, John shared some great insights learned from his 28-year-career with Toyota Motor Manufacturing, especially about how manufacturing leaders can identify problems in their organizations by looking closely … Read More
Out the Window or Through the Mirror: Where You Should Look to Drive Productive Outcomes
When you have a big success as a leader, it’s all too easy to pat yourself on the back, congratulate yourself on a job well done, and take all the credit. On the flip side, it’s also incredibly easy to blame others at the first sign of trouble. If you find yourself taking credit for … Read More
Growing Your Mindset: The Steps it Does—and Doesn’t—Take
The Barriers to a Growth Mindset In a book I read recently, I learned more about the two types of mindsets: growth mindsets and fixed mindsets. It got me thinking about the importance of being opened minded, but how open-mindedness alone isn’t always enough to set you up for success. It can actually cause you … Read More
When Results Make You a Believer — Improving Your Culture, Part 3
“Emotional intelligence” has become a buzzword lately. With a growing emphasis on culture and shortages of supply of our talented workplace, curiosity about emotional intelligence is likely to grow. An interest in emotional intelligence is probably why you opened this article, so let’s dive back into our series on emotional intelligence and how it helped … Read More
3 Key Steps to Getting Your Team Engaged — Improving Your Culture, Part 2
Great, you have an indication that the culture you want to be working in is not what you desire. Congratulations, you can’t fix what you are not willing to expose, and it sounds like you have the first step well on your way! That is the first step, having data to start with. … Read More
The Emotional Culture Index – Improving Your Culture, Part 1
Do you know how your staff really feels about you, or wonder what you can do to retain great staff and attract new employees? There’s now a simple way to measure that! You may have a feeling or opinion about what your employees think of you, but what you see or think might not align … Read More
What To Know Before Beginning Executive Coaching
If you’re considering executive coaching, here are a few things that will simplify your decision-making process! Pain and Permission When I was certified with the Center of Executive Coaching many years ago, I learned—the hard way!—that there are two key elements that are required for successful executive coaching engagement: pain and permission. What Does Pain … Read More
Why No One Listens To You—and How To Change That With The Coach Approach
When you’re driving your car and a passenger is giving you directions—like turn left, take this exit, get in this lane, and turn right when we pass that old orange brick church—do you think you’ll remember how to get there by yourself next time? Heck no! Now, consider driving to the same location by yourself … Read More
There’s No Crying in Frames: Why Leaving Your Emotions at the Door Doesn’t Work
“There’s no crying in baseball!” Thanks to the 1992 movie A League of Their Own, where Tom Hanks plays a coach for an all-women’s baseball team, this quote has become famous and even came in at number 54 on the American Film Institute’s list of top 100 movie quotes. Like many others, I found the … Read More
Your Safe Has a Back Door: I Sealed Mine and You Can Too
When someone trusts you enough to tell you top secret information, it drives the connection we crave in relationships and confirms that others like us. But how do you know what you should or should not share? When it is gossip and ego urging us to impress others with what we know versus being authentic … Read More
Have You Been Riding your Emotional Waves or Tumbling into the Surf?
I got some news I was not expecting that put me on the emotional surfboard and I went for a ride! Not the fun kind, the more distracting and uncomfortable kind; like a rollercoaster you really did not want to go on, and once it started, you just wanted off. If you work in manufacturing, … Read More
The “Who, What and Why” of Productive Meetings
I am busy, lots of meetings, can’t get anything done! A surefire way to know a drastic change is needed. There was a standard production meeting in comfy chairs that usually ran over an hour every day. We had lots of data to review and had interesting discussions on what happened the previous day and … Read More
Does Emotional Intelligence Improve Safety?
Results from one large manufacturer bear further study. Trevor Blondeel JAN 08, 2020 At the 2019 Genos Annual Global Conference in Hawaii, participants from 17 different countries heard speakers around the theme of “Emotional Intelligence in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.” I was surprised to find that a session on the relationship between emotional intelligence … Read More
How are You Showing Up?
Turn Missed Targets into Better Results with Feedback. It was a typical day in high-volume manufacturing. Our $100 million+, 300-person operation had a new task at hand, one that needed to be completed right away. To get it done, I gathered the leadership team together and explained the task that we needed to accomplish. I … Read More
No Ego: How Leaders Can Cut the Cost of Workplace Drama, End Entitlement, and Drive Big Results
No Ego: How Leaders Can Cut the Cost of Workplace Drama, End Entitlement and Drive Big Results. | Author: Cy Wakeman, 2017 | What’s It All About? Recently, one of my clients mentioned she was reading a book called “No Ego” by Cy Wakeman. At first, I thought “well, I don’t need to read that—my ego … Read More
A Kickstart Edge for the New Year
One of my mentors Brian suggested I check out this guy Andrew Neitlich and his Center for Executive Coaching to build on my 3 Cs; Competency, Credibility, and Confidence. It exceeded my expectations and put me into turbo drive! First of all, Andrew is a unique coach and trainer, and I learned an incredible amount … Read More
Breaking the Golden Handcuffs
I didn’t even know I had them on. Just over a year ago, a recruiter called me about a very interesting opportunity which could have been a good fit. Through the conversation, we discussed what my salary was at that time. He sensed my concern in what the future position compensated. He then said to … Read More
‘I Believe In You’, and 4 Key points That Make it Real
A man almost lost his career and confidence in himself. My direct influence was pushing him one way or another. We may not be saving lives on the operating table, but I know we are shaping one’s worth. It takes two: Leader and the student; both have to have the courage to bounce back. I … Read More
Put Some Windex On It
Put some Windex on it; it will fix anything. Spending time with my wife means watching a lot of romantic comedies. It’s because she wants to watch them and I am so supportive. Honest. My Big Fat Greek Wedding has become one of my favourites of the genre. Gus Portokalos, the father of the bride … Read More
My Lean Journey Derailed, Here is How I am Getting Things Back on Track
It’s hard to believe I’ve spent twenty years in the automotive industry. For the last eight, I’ve held senior leadership positions in: Logistics, Material Planning, Trucking, Internal Material flow, Engineering, Maintenance, and Operations. And I never had a clue what I was doing. We had started doing great things before the financial crisis of 2008. … Read More