Lessons in Leadership

Who has had the greatest influence in your career? When one looks back at their professional career, they can usually point to one or more mentors that have influenced and shaped the progression of their work lives.  Over the course of my career, I have been fortunate to have collaborated and worked with some truly outstanding leaders. Leaders that epitomize vision, values, engagement, performance and above all having a passion for what they believe in.

One of those leaders is Jerry Beaubien, who mentored and coached me throughout my career at Johnson Controls and made me the leader that I am today.  Jerry retired from JCI in 2004 after an illustrious career of developing leadership, securing wide spread buy-in and driving performance.

His “Lessons in Leadership” were profound and were built on the foundation of respect & dignity and driving improvement through the engagement and commitment of all employees throughout the organization. His vision and implementation of the Johnson Controls Manufacturing System (JCMS; founded on the principles of the Toyota Production Systems), which utilizes manufacturing tools that enable a manufacturing plant (or process) to achieve production at the pace of customer demand with six sigma quality, was critical in the overall success of the organization. In essence, JCMS drove operational excellence in People, Quality and Cost and required a philosophy of absolute customer focus, zero tolerance of waste and a stable work environment. Jerry recognized that organizational change of this magnitude could not be successful without the commitment and buy-in from all employees but also without a recognition program that celebrated successes.

“We had monthly plant manager forums when we introduced JCMS,” says Jerry Beaubien, a vice president and general manager at JCI and a Team Rally founder, “but we needed more volunteers within the plants and buy-in from the employees to take it across-the-board quickly.”Pricing and quality pressures from automakers were taking their toll, and putting the plants on edge. Implementing JCMS, it was thought, would alleviate some of the pressure, and provide a base from which further gains could be made while placing every plant on the same quality footing. Only no one was in a hurry to adopt this new way of doing things. That’s when Beaubien and his team came up with an idea that offered plants an opportunity to celebrate their successes in implementing JCMS, and share their knowledge with others. The team doing the best job of communicating their knowledge of the JCMS tools, accounting for the annual savings, and sharing their knowledge would receive a modest trophy. “The whole thing was local at first, with a total of eight teams participating,” says Beaubien, “but the demand came from the plants to do more, and from the company to expand the concept.” “From there it went global,” he says.

Jerry’s coaching and mentorship has helped me aspire to and succeed in the various leadership roles that I have held over the course of my career.  He has taught me invaluable lessons in being value driven, solution oriented, team builder, change agent along with having sense of urgency, focus and purpose.  I attribute my leadership style of energizing teams, optimizing processes and accelerating performance to the influence and philosophies of Jerry Beaubien.

So, without further ado, I would like to share with you some of Jerry’s “Lessons in Leadership” that he so passionately shared with me.  The following hangs in my office and is a constant reminder of the influence Jerry has had in the journey of my career.  Thank you Jerry! Enjoy…..

A “Real” Leader the “Boss” …

                … Coaches, trains, motivates & inspires; doesn’t just drive

                … Merits goodwill & respect; doesn’t need positional power and authority

                … Arouses creativity & enthusiasm; doesn’t use fear and intimidation

                … Uses we, us and ours; doesn’t need the ego “I”

                … Promotes the team, trust & collaboration; doesn’t empire build

                … Has and makes the job- game fun; doesn’t sport the responsibility

                … Instills freedom, confidence & commitment; doesn’t rain on parades

                … Anticipates & prevents; doesn’t detect & react emotionally

                … Laughs loudest when the joke’s on him/her; doesn’t lack self confidence

                … Learns from & admits mistakes; doesn’t need infallibility

                … Pursues excellence & growth; doesn’t accept failure and complacency

                … Recognizes & acknowledges; doesn’t steal the thunder of others

                … Gathers facts & data; doesn’t rely on opinions and judgements

                … Decides, plans & takes action; doesn’t dilly-dally

                … Listens, cares & assert; doesn’t need to hear himself

                … Says let’s go win/win; doesn’t settle for win/lose

In my next few blog posts I will expand on the concepts of JCMS and on the recognition program of Team Rally.