Lessons in Leadership

In my last post I talked about how to bring out the best in people. It is true that leaders go through a journey of creating a vision, deciding on the concepts that drive the vision, ensuring transparency & trust, unleashing creativity and recognizing the efforts of all employees. Integrity is a value that is inherent in “great” leadership. In other words, “walking the talk.”  Once leaders agree on the core concepts that drive the vision, success correlates directly to how leaders model and reinforce the vision each and every day. Walking the talk and reinforcing the vision every day, every meeting and every opportunity provides clarity and a common understanding of purpose and contribution for all employees at all levels.  

An organization is a reflection of its leaders. So if the organization is not performing well, the leader does not have to look too far for answers. If safety performance is one of the core concepts that supports the vision, then how does leadership walk the talk? Do they talk about safety every day? Is it discussed at the beginning of every day, at the end of the day or not at all? Are the safety metrics visible for all to see or are they shared only in times of crisis? Do leaders hold team members accountable to follow safe work practices or do they turn a blind eye? Are systems like root cause analysis in place to support the vision of an injury free work environment? Are leaders engaged with the team every day, recognizing and congratulating good safety performance or are they visible only when an accident occurs?  Leading by example is a frequently overly used expression but it is critical to boost performance and to create a common vocabulary.

Think back in your career, how many times have you witnessed a contradiction of what is said to what is actually being done. For example, you visit an organization, go through the safety orientation, get equipped with your personal protective equipment (PPE) and then head out into the plant only to witness several team members not wearing their PPE. What does this say about the organization, about accountability, about leadership?  The bottom line, employees look to their leaders for direction and for leadership. If the leader’s words are in contradiction to his or her actions, employees will notice and respond accordingly. Great leaders recognize that “walking the talk” is a critical part of leadership.

An outstanding way for leaders to walk the talk and model the vision is by conducting a “gemba walk”. Gemba is a term in the Toyota Production System that means factory floor. From my perspective, this activity is the most gratifying, enjoyable and valuable part of the day. Over the course of my career, I have adopted this strategy and have determined it to be a critical component in transforming the culture and elevating performance. The walk is conducted on a daily basis, and at times accompanied by another manager or a team member from the production floor. A central theme is predetermined, derived from the tactical attributes that the team is engaged in to drive improvement and elevate performance. By selecting different themes for every walk, all the core concepts of the organization would eventually be covered. The intention of the “gemba walk” is to verify purpose and value of the various concepts that drive the vision both from the perspective of the company and also of the team.  The themes vary from quality, safety, cost savings, continuous improvement, 5S, people development, eliminating waste, culture and awareness, morale, communication etc. Throughout the walk, a series of questions are asked of the team leaders and team members. Questions are asked to gain clarity as to how the team use the concepts, what improvement suggestions they have, how often do they use the tools/charts etc. The greatest value is in listening to the responses, the sharing of ideas and encouraging the team to understand the importance of their work. In conducting these “gemba walks”, several things were accomplished: the creativity of the team was unleashed, a sense of contribution and purpose was established, an engaged team was created, and most importantly, a link to the overall goals and vision was demonstrated along with a common purpose and vocabulary.

In conclusion, when a leader takes an active interest in a given subject matter, the team in turn is interested in supporting the leader. The opposite is also true and if the leader shows no interest in an item, the team will generally think it is not important as well. Leaders set the tempo and set the example for the rest of the organization to follow. Walking the talk is the critical leadership link that enables organizations to achieve operational excellence and cultural transformation.