We focused on Standard Work for Leaders in our Advanced Learning series for Continuous Improvement.
This video will provide insights about the thinking, what you need to know as a leader before you implement, the approach to implementation, and how to utilize the thinking as a learning tool for continuous improvement.
The start of the new year is a temporal landmark. Temporal landmarks allow us to reset and have a fresh start. This is an excellent time to establish goals for yourself.
A big part of the success of achieving goals is our level of personal motivation. There are two types of goals: ‘want to’ – goals that we deem are important to us and ‘have to’ – a goal someone else requires or expects. The level of motivation is much higher for ‘want to’ goals as it fits into our values and identity and is essential to us. With a ‘want to’ goal, you will be more conscious of the obstacles to achieving the goal and stay away from them.
Many consider training a ‘have to’ goal as they feel the company mandates it. For example, you may have received training on Leader Standardized Work (LSW). A tactic for providing a better focus on ‘have to’ goals is trying to reframe the training, so it better fits your values and identity. For example, maybe one of your values is being a conscientious leader. Executing the elements on your LSW may help you support this value. Another strategy is to pair it with something more enjoyable, such as setting out an LSW task to engage more with your team members. Finally, replace the goal of implementing LSW with something more meaningful for yourself that may accomplish the same. For example, you still follow the LSW format but use one of your LSW tasks to support a personal goal.
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I would like to congratulate our Front Line Leader Spring 2021 graduates. We now have 20 more high performance leaders in the FLL alumni adding to 2000+ that are already alumni. This group rose to the virtual challenge and has demonstrated that good leaders can develop in any environment.
With their graduation, I will pass on some wisdom by Peter Drucker on Leadership.
The most important leadership decision you will make will be the decision to become a leader. Acceptance of the responsibility to become a leader is important. It means you must live with the fear of something going wrong. You may be blamed for actions that may not be fully under your control. It means living with the anxiety that followers may not follow you and that you may make the wrong decisions. You may have to live with the embarrassment and penalties of failure.
Many people who have the capability of becoming great leaders never accept this challenge. They live with the fear that limits the success they may achieve and the contribution that might make by helping others. The decision is yours to make.
Please let me know your thoughts.
Thank you
Scott
Scott Smith at 12:35 PM
What Mary Kay Ash taught the world about leadership and problem solving
Monday, April 26, 2021
Mary Kay Ash built the global cosmetic empire Mary Kay which is now a $3.25 billion company. (Some of youmay recall Mary Kay’s signature pink Cadillac).
She built the empire based on the following leadership and problem solving approach:
1. Follow the golden rule – do unto others as you would have them do unto you – in dealing with team members and employees. If you help them get what they want, they will help you get what you want.
2. The people are more important than the plan. Make them feel important, praise them, listen to them and let them contribute. In return you will get their best efforts and their support. Managers get their best ideas from their teams.
3. Manager must lead by getting their hands dirty.
4. Managers have a responsibility to their employees. They must instill in their employees a sense of pride and pleasure in the work and try to provide a low-stress environment in which people can do their best. All employees are called by their first names, regardless of title.
5. There are no ‘little people’ in the organization. Everyone is important to the organization’s success. (When Mary Kay was alive, she met personally will all new employees within the first month).
We are all facing anxiety right now – we are being overwhelmed with emails and information. We are practicing new public health protocols. We are concerned about what our future looks like. We can choose to sit and absorb it or we can do something very simple – go for a walk.
We all know that walking burns calories and gets your heart rate up (which can’t hurt with our new Skip the Dishes habit). Walking has been proven to reduce stress and anxiety, especially if you walk in a natural or wooded area. No special equipment or membership is needed. You can walk anytime, anywhere - for a long period of time or just a few minutes for a break.
What you may not know is that walking also improves creativity. A Stanford study shows that walking increases the supply of blood to the brain and that walkers perform better on creative thinking tests. To illustrate this further some avid walkers included Aristotle, Charles Dickens, Ludwig von Beethoven, Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs. So while there are definitely physical health benefits from walking the mental health benefits are equally as important.
Walking is a means for you to clear you mind, take a break, refocus, solve problems and come up with new ideas. It is the easiest solution to help reduce the anxiety we are feeling both personally and professionally.
Start your new habit now while the fall weather is here. You will feel the positive effects immediately.
Tips on leading through the 'temporary' normal - Think to S.E.E.
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
As we move towards the ‘new normal’, our need to adapt the way we execute our work will demand an increase in our continuous improvement and innovation (CI&I) activity.
As you do this, I would encourage you to follow the logic I use for future state design – THINK TO S.E.E – Simple, Elegant and Effective.
When you approach CI&I, the focus should always be on simplifying how we do our work – it is much easier to make things more complicated than it is to simply them. Solutions should be elegant or well-designed following design thinking methodology. And finally, it is critical that processes are effective in delivering internal and external customer value.
Developing and executing future state design using the THINK TO S.E.E approach does take more thought and effort, but the effort will have a much higher rate of return. Quoting Mark Twain – “If I had more time, I would have written you a shorter letter”.
If you would be interested in attending a virtual skill development session on the THINK TO S.E.E methodology, please let me know.
Tips on leading through the 'temporary' normal - Create the Future
Thursday, May 14, 2020
One of my favourite management thinkers is Peter Drucker.
One of his many philosophies is “The best way to predict the future is to create it”.
In simple terms, it is up to you on how your future will unfold. By coming up with ideas about what you want to achieve, you begin to plan. As you plan, you begin to take action. As you take action, you begin to create your future.
As we approach the new normal, it is more important than ever for both individuals and organizations to embrace this thinking.
Leading through the temporary normal - all work and no play
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
“All work and no play make Jack a dull boy”. Originally a proverb, this phrase was made famous by Jack Nicholson in the movie ‘The Shining’. The real meaning of the proverb is that if you focus only on repetitive work, work that has limited challenge or if you do the same work every day, you will get bored and demotivated. In organizations, focusing solely on executing daily work can lead to reduced productivity and lower engagement.
Everyone needs meaning and challenge beyond their daily work. Getting teams involved in continuous improvement projects or problem solving will allow them to focus on activities that will contribute to the long-term success of the organization. If teams can get involved in improving their own work and work areas, it allows for increased levels of ownership, productivity improvement and reduced levels of frustration. All very necessary activities to prepare to move into the new normal.
Tips on leading through the 'temporary' normal - adaptability and resilience
Monday, April 20, 2020
We have moved from uncertainty to the ‘temporary’ normal. We appear to be moving through 3 distinct phases – uncertainly and adjustment, the temporary normal and the new normal. Most of us are now in the temporary normal phase (I know I am).
What is different about this phase? We are experiencing what it is like to work in a social distance work world, whether at home or at the workplace. We have figured out methods to execute our work and are falling into some form of operating rhythm. Most of us have moved to an acceptance phase and are trying to make the best of the current state. Some of us are learning valuable lessons that we can apply for this phase and for the new normal.
What is required to win in this phase? We are still dealing with a situation that is not well understood and has limited predictability. Our natural instinct is to try to predict or control the situation. In a complex situation, both are very difficult. Instead, we need to focus on adaptability and resilience. Adaptability is preparing ourselves to rapidly reconfigure how we do our work and how we engage with our team members. Resilience is developing the skills to step back, understand, regroup and then set a course to continue to move towards our long-term goals. In order to be resilient your team needs to have a positive but realistic attitude, to be able to use failure and set- backs as an opportunity to learn and grow and to execute a plan to adapt and move forward.
As leaders it is up to us to set the example for both adaptability and resilience.
