Lean Tips Edition #171 (#2776-#2790)

For my Facebook fans you already know about this great feature. But for those of you that are not connected to A Lean Journey on Facebook or Twitter I post daily a feature I call Lean Tips.  It is meant to be advice, things I learned from experience, and some knowledge tidbits about Lean to help you along your journey.  Another great reason to like A Lean Journey on Facebook.

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Here is the next addition of tips from the Facebook page:

Lean Tip #2776 - Focus on Alignment.

A key part of managing your team is to ensure that they understand how their jobs and actions directly align to business goals. Knowing how and why what they do matters to the company as a whole helps to create a sense of shared responsibility, and can improve employee engagement in significant ways. Transparency with your team about goals also helps workers understand that targets are not arbitrarily chosen.

Lean Tip #2777 - Manage by Trust, Not by Fear

A healthy workplace is one where the key energy is trust, while where fear predominates is a fear-based workplace. You’ll see employees run away from a place that is managed by fear. Where managers use the power of their position to control their team. Management by Fear is Simply Not a Successful Strategy in Business. You do not have to be such kind of manager. Because no business can afford to lose a team member, so let it be the trust that keeps the team together and not fear.

Lean Tip #2778 - Empower Teams and Do Not Micromanage

What does empower mean? Empowerment is exactly defined as the process to enable an individual to behave, act, and control activities in an independent way. If you are managing an un-empowered workforce, you’re probably a bad manager. Likewise, managers seem to do a blunder by micromanaging. Google’s manager research revealed that good managers empower their teams by giving them opportunities to grow.  Micromanagement is one quality that frustrates employees. So, focus on giving the right balance of freedom and advice to your team.

Lean Tip #2779 – Spread Positivity

You’d never realize it, but the psyche of your employees is what you can change—change the overall working environment. Though many of you may not consider it a part of the project manager role, when you play you’ll see the difference. It’s true that whatever vibe you walk in with, your people will pick it up. So, if you’re positive and energetic, your team will more likely to feel that way. Keep projecting a positive attitude, because happier employees are more productive, more creative, and create a more winning working environment.

Lean Tip #2780 - Point out Other People’s Potential

It is evident that every employee is different having their own set of experiences, values, beliefs, and cultural backgrounds. The best leaders identify and appreciate the differences that individuals bring to the table and understands how to put them to full use. When managing, always be mindful of pushing your teams so they see full potential in themselves to increase their performance. Talk to them about their strengths or find an efficient process they’re more likely to love it. If you want to build upon some of your project management skills, learn to bring out the potential of your people. 

Lean Tip #2781 – Respond Instead of Reacting.

A common behavior when presented with a challenge is to let your emotions drive the situation. We all have a fight-or-flight reaction when we feel unsafe. Incorporate a technique into your workplace culture that will help you take a moment to respond instead of reacting. A responsive solution may take a little more time in the beginning, but it can save you the hours of cleanup for a reactive action to the challenge.

Lean Tip #2782 – Build Trust to Reduce Fear

Building trust takes time. It is not usually a one-time event. You can build trust by maintaining authentic interactions during daily work activities. One highly effective way to build trust is to make sure that verbal commitments and behaviors match the actions. For example, if your company identifies in the mission that the organization is a friendly or caring place, then employees would want to exemplify this behavior as a measure of the authenticity of the individual. Or an employee who commits to completing a task at a particular time would want to either complete the work on time or communicate the change in timelines. When you give employees a culture that maintains trust, you reduce fractures to the organization. Leaders who exhibit an authentic alignment of words to actions give employees a place where they can focus on the work instead of the breakdowns in behaviors.

Lean Tip #2783 – Maintain a Process.

A process offers employees a roadmap for what they need to do, how they need to do it, and when it should be done. You reduce fear at work when employees have this process-driven roadmap in place to monitor workloads and timelines. The process provides an organized sense of movement that gives constant feedback and accountability of individuals for each part of the project.

Lean Tip #2784 – Never Shrug Someone Off

When two parties cannot agree on a mutual solution, we call it an impasse. Impasses happen all the time and aren’t worth overreacting to, but you can create fear when you determine to go separate ways when you can agree on a solution. The next time that person thinks you don’t agree with them, they could avoid the discussion altogether. For you to be an effective leader, you need people to know for a fact that even if they reach an impasse with you, a professional conclusion will follow.

Instead of shrugging them off, become both a student and a teacher, and ask your partner to do the same. You are at an impasse because you have different information, goals or opinions. Often, a logical and mutually beneficial conclusion will emerge by way of mutual understanding or compromise.

Lean Tip #2785 – Acknowledge an Idea Before Accepting or Rejecting It

In group settings, it’s common for someone to raise an idea just to be quickly shut down. The embarrassment attached to being shut down in front of everyone can be tremendous, and can even be enough to cause them to choose to never raise an idea again. This is stifling to an organization, and instantly creates a culture of fear.

First, acknowledge the idea. This proves that the person is valuable and the idea has value (even if not enough to actually accept), and that raising ideas is simply a part of the process. Others will build comfort and confidence purely through observation. Then the idea can be accepted or rejected based on objective or subjective criteria, whichever is more appropriate. Not only have you prevented from introducing fear into the workplace, you’ve subtly trained everyone in the room how to pre-qualify their ideas before raising them — ultimately improving the productivity of the rest of the session.

Lean Tip #2786 – A Good Manager Always Listens and Communicates

Listening might sound cliché or a vague concept. Quoting Andy Stanley, “Leaders who don’t listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing to say.” As a manager, you have to strike a balance between giving instruction and listening to feedback. Being in this position of privilege doesn’t mean that you have monotony of knowledge, rather the buck of decision making stops with you. Your employees and the folks under you are the ones bringing the vision to life while you are providing overall direction to this vision. If you don’t listen, there is a high chance that you will get disjointed from the process and progress of this vision.

Lean Tip #2787 – Effective Management Means Taking Responsibility

Most new managers find it difficult to assume responsibility when things don’t pan out as they hoped, for example, a late deadline, an undelivered or under-delivered work item, or a project that didn’t go according to plan. Whatever the scenario is, it is crucial that you hold yourself to the same high standards that you hold other team members. If it was a failed team effort, be the first to assume responsibility instead of shifting blame onto others. This will make your employees respect you and also stand up for you in the future.

Lean Tip #2788 – Be at the Forefront of Problem Solving

Being a manager and a leader requires an affinity for solving problems and providing direction at the most crucial times. At an impasse, there is often a tendency by managers to pass on responsibility to employees, especially when things aren’t going as planned. Some go as far as hogging all the glory when positive results come back. Resolving problems requires that you be at the forefront of accountability, even when things are tough.

Lean Tip #2789 – Focus on Alignment.

A key part of managing your team is to ensure that they understand how their jobs and actions directly align with business goals. Knowing how and why what they do matters to the company as a whole helps to create a sense of shared responsibility, and can improve employee engagement in significant ways. Transparency with your team about goals also helps workers understand that targets are not arbitrarily chosen.

Lean Tip #2790 – The People You Manage are a Direct Reflection on You.

How well your direct reports perform can be a reflection of your effectiveness as a leader.

The best leaders groom employees and help them grow. In addition to overseeing others’ work, you now have a hand in their career development. Take the time to learn about your team members’ short-term and longer-term goals. Explore ways in which you can help them reach those goals.

Offer support that helps them develop new skills and elevates their performance. It takes more time than just downloading a to-do list, but you will end up with a more engaged, successful employee — which is a great reflection on you as a manager.

Lean Quote: Five Habits that Enhance Self-Reflection and Personal Growth

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"Self-reflection entails asking yourself questions about your values, assessing your strengths and failures, thinking about your perceptions and interactions with others, and imagining where you want to take your life in the future."   —  Robert L. Rosen

For many people, new year’s resolutions involve some form of self-improvement. We want to lose weight, quit smoking, or start an exercise program. These are all worthwhile goals, but to make the most of the changes you want to create, you should start with some self-reflection.

By definition, self-reflection involves deliberate thinking about your own behavior and beliefs. When you engage in this deliberate kind of thinking, you will develop awareness of your mental and emotional states and awareness of your actions. Developing this awareness is the basis for personal growth.

Five Habits that Enhance Self-Reflection and Personal Growth

• Be honest with yourself. You don’t do yourself any favors if you aren’t 100% honest with yourself about how things are going and how you are behaving.
• Notice behavior patterns. We are all creatures of habit. Some of these habits are helpful and others are not. It’s good to be aware of your habits so you can actively weaken the ones you don’t want and strengthen the ones you do want.
• Be able to articulate your core values. If you don’t know what’s important to you, how can you ever grow and manifest your best self? Take time to consider what’s most important to you so that you can better evaluate whether or not you're living those values.
• Be forgiving. Change is hard and old habits are hard to break. Be gentle with yourself when you don’t get it right. It’s okay. We’re all human. We all make mistakes.
• Keep track of your self-reflection. Start a journal where you record your observations and monitor your personal growth. This will help you when looking back at your year to remind yourself of where you’ve been and where you want to go.

Top Five Questions for Self-Reflection

1. What are my values?
2. In what ways do my words and actions reflect or fail to reflect my values?
3. What are areas in which I’m doing well and what are areas in which I could improve?
4. How am I caring for myself so that I am mentally and physically at my best?
5. What have I learned about myself today (this week, this month, this year)?

If you can engage in self-reflection, you will develop insights about yourself and put yourself in a great position for personal growth.

  

Listening Is Key to Employee Engagement

Are you really listening to your employees?

According to a 2016 Deloitte report, “The biggest challenge in leading engagement programs is shifting from a transactional, once-a-year mind-set, to an ‘always on,’ continuous listening approach to monitoring engagement.”

Many leading management books will tell you just how important the art of listening to employees is. In ‘The One Minute Manager (1982)’ authors Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, tell us that the best way to create employee engagement is to allocate time to listen to them.

You may be hearing employees, but if you’re not listening, you’re missing out on opportunities to improve engagement and satisfaction. Listening is a more advanced skill than passively hearing, and better listeners are more in tune with their company, employees, and clients.

As Simon Sinek, author of ‘Start with Why?’ says, “Good listeners have a huge advantage. For one, when they engage in conversation, they make people ‘feel’ heard. They ‘feel’ that someone really understands their wants, needs and desires. And for good reason; a good listener does care to understand.”

When you’re actively listening to employees, you can understand if they are truly excited to work at your organization, within their teams, and in their roles.

But it’s not just about listening to lower-level employees -- you can learn a lot from listening to their managers, as well. You can determine whether your people managers are aligned with your strategy, supported by your leadership, and have the necessary resources to lead.

Employee listening gives your employees a voice. Prioritizing employee listening is critical for improving engagement and benefits your business.

Here are a few more benefits to employee listening:

1. Demonstrate that you care about your employees.

Listening to your employees’ concerns and anxieties shows that you value their opinions and want to understand how they are feeling—that you care about the human being on the other end. Even if your organization’s engagement has been strong and competitive against benchmarks, it’s important to give your employees a microphone, even in turbulent times.

2. Gain real-time feedback to take action or make adjustments.

Employee feedback can help identify areas of opportunities and risks. You may not be able to solve everything for everyone, but any action is better than no action. Look for low-hanging fruit or bigger opportunities that you can address.

3. Empower your managers to engage their teams.

Beyond diving into work or a performance conversation, focusing on feedback helps managers make time to connect on a personal level. Additionally, if you share team-level feedback with managers, they will have a better understanding of their team’s challenges and topics that are top of mind. This knowledge will help them coach accordingly.

4. Gain intelligence on how to move your business forward.

For your business to eventually thrive, you need to move your business forward. And this doesn’t necessarily mean business as usual. We’re facing an unprecedented crisis and attempting to do business in unusual times.

Asking for feedback during this time not only helps you understand how employees are feeling and performing—it helps you uncover key insights that will allow your organization to move from today’s chaos to setting goals, recovering, and thriving.

While their focus may have shifted from things like career development and high-performance, having this insight allows you to narrow in the areas that need the most help so you can move forward more quickly. Consider how you might address the following situations.

If employees are feeling:

Scared → How can leaders build trust?

Exhausted → How can managers help them reprioritize or flex on goals?

Overwhelmed → How can leaders and managers provide clarity on a common goal?

Anxious → How can you build trust with goal clarity and priorities?

Disrupted → How can you recognize great work and inspire more of it?

It’s time to pay attention. Employees want to be heard. If you don’t listen, they’ll become disengaged, even finding their way to your competitors. That’s not going to help anyone – and we all know how talent retention rates can affect a business.

In addition to these valuable insights, listening to employees and managers helps to build trust and rapport, and relationships play an important role in keeping employees happy and engaged.

5 Way to Motivate Lean Manufacturing Teams

Organizations generally adopt Lean to move the needle on specific indicators. They want to be more productive, improve the health of the organization, or increase revenue.

But the Lean concept isn’t simply about improving metrics; it is about changing the culture. And changing the culture begins with leadership. Everyone from the top down needs to begin re-framing the work, enacting the values, and striving for perfection.

Lean production can only be achieved if the performance of the workers involved are at its highest level. Lean managers, however, must not forget that organizational performance always comes down to the behavior of the workers, which are always determined, by competence and motivation.

Therefore, Lean managers are also tasked to motivate their employees in order for them to internalize the organizational goals and the individual goals of each work unit. Lean leadership is about mentoring, embodying, and inspiring Lean thinking and Lean values throughout your organization.

The following 5 techniques are used by Lean managers to build a motivational culture in the organization.

1. Sense of achievement

Management must create among workers the feeling that they achieve something, both individually and collectively. Recognition must be given for both individual and group achievement. Management must make sure that workers feel that sense of achievement whenever a goal has been reached or when new innovations have been effected. Show team achievements during stand-ups meeting in the morning.

2. Learning and growth

Learning and growing within an organization is a continuous process. It does not end when a worker has mastered the necessary skills of his job. Management must give workers opportunities to learn new skills to enable them to move to different level, possibly a higher one, within the organization. Further education and training opportunities must be made available to workers who have ambition to grow in the organizational hierarchy. Try to organize small training sessions where people share field experience and tips.

3. Stimulating work

Management must create a work environment that will be stimulating to the workers. Continuous improvement culture must stimulate workers to solve small problems, to spot waste, to collaborate and feel responsible for all the achievements of the organization and for the clients.

4. Responsibility and empowerment

Workers are given their individual and collective responsibilities as an individual worker and as a member of the team. Together with the responsibility given comes the empowerment of the same. Workers must be empowered, or given the authority, to carry out their responsibilities.

5. Feeling of being part of something

A worker must never feel that is just one of the many nameless and faceless workers in the organization. He must be given recognition as a contributor to the achievements of the organization. Every single worker must feel that he is part of something important in the organization. He must feel that he is an important cog in the organizational machine.

Lean thinking starts at the top, but also from the inside out. Leaders must cultivate an attitude of respect for others and humility within themselves. They use questions and mentoring to lead employees to discover and enact their own improvements, and support their decisions.

They serve employees by removing obstacles and promoting flow. Over time, these behaviors become learned and practiced by everyone on the team and everyone in the organization.

Lean systems are powerful ways to improve productivity, quality, and profits. But they cannot be simply adopted as quick fixes to target certain metrics; they must be fully adopted, committed to, and practiced daily by everyone in the organization.

A leader has the opportunity to inspire and foster these behaviors or undermine them. Adopting continuous improvement within yourself is the first step.

 

Lean Quote: Leadership Lessons From Mom

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"If leadership is influence, mother is the first leader most meet."   —  Dan Rockwell

Here in the United States, this coming Sunday, May 9, is Mother’s Day. I was blessed with an extraordinary mother who loved me unconditionally. To honor her and mothers everywhere, here are some inspiring advice.

1. Go to your room and think about what you did.

It may feel like the punishment you got as a child, but giving yourself a time out–time to reflect, understand, and clarify–is one of the best things you can do to improve your leadership.

2. Who do you think you’re talking to?

How you speak and what you say is important. As a leader, you are looked to as a role model. People expect you to speak to them–and, more important, listen to them–with respect.

3. Play nice.

It’s one of life’s most basic lessons: Get along with others and treat them as you want to be treated. It continues to distinguish the best and most memorable leaders.

4. Mind your manners.

As a leader, you are charged with creating a culture within your organization, just as mothers tend to do in families. It’s your job to create clear boundaries of what is tolerable and what is not.

5. If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.

You will always do well to remember how much negative words can hurt people, and to remind yourself that not everything you think needs to be spoken. Using words carefully, especially around others, is a critically important skill.

6. Please don’t fight.

Especially if you grew up with siblings, part of everyday life involved learning how to deal with conflict and those you don’t get along with. Managing emotions and working together toward productive solutions are hallmarks of great leadership.

7. You have an answer for everything, don’t you?

It may still be such a temptation to be argumentative, but you’ll be a much more effective leader if you can take in Mom’s lesson to listen before you speak. You don’t always have to come back with an answer. Often the smartest reply is just to keep listening.

8. Don’t hang around with a bad crowd.

You may not have liked hearing it at the time, but again, she was right: Whom you spend time with is a reflection of who you are. Every relationship influences you and says something about you. Spend time with those who want the best for you and reach out to those who need help.

9. Finish your homework before you play.

Good leadership is impossible without the ability to set priorities and be well prepared. Mom was our first coach when it came to time management.

10. You can’t judge a book by its cover.

Whole seminars today are centered on this basic principle of diversity and inclusion. As leaders, we’re all called to teach others not to judge quickly and to be open to the gifts and perspectives of those who are different from us in some way.

11. Respect your elders.

When life gets tough we need guidance, mentorship, and support–and we look to those we respect, often those who have acquired years of experience and wisdom.

12. I will always be proud of you.

If you’re like most of us, your mother was a source of unconditional pride. And that pride reassured you that you could do better and provided support when we failed. Now, as an adult, showing others that you are proud of them and believe in them is the best possible way to pay that gift forward.

I know mom is an important influence because there’s deep emotion when people reflect on their mothers. There’s no question that behind almost every great leader or thinker there is a great mom.

Credit: The Most Important Leadership Lessons You Can Learn Only From Mom by Lolly Daskal

 

Five Ways You’re Stifling Employee Engagement

Organizations know how important it is to have motivated, engaged employees, but most fail to hold managers accountable for making it happen. Most managers don’t demotivate their employees on purpose. They act improperly without thinking about what damage they are doing to the enthusiasm and motivation of their employees.

Few things are as costly and disruptive to a business as managers who kill morale. Demotivated employees underperform, and then jump ship at the first opportunity.

Not Seeking Employee Input

In neglecting the importance of employee involvement and making the decision-making process exclusively to senior management, primarily when certain decisions directly affect the team, employee morale will inevitably plummet as they lose any sense of ownership.

For leadership to ensure their employees are invested in working towards the achievement of the company’s goals, it is essential to avoid making decisions behind closed doors. Instead, bring together the entire team, hear them out, and brainstorm to come up with the best solutions and decisions that will benefit the organization as a whole.

Not Acting on Employee Ideas

Your employees are full of great ideas. Not every employee idea is going to light your flame of enthusiasm. But, all employee ideas have merit. If nothing else the initiative and motivation that inspired the employee to seek to solve a problem or please a customer, is worth noting. Regularly solicit them — and act on the best ones. Otherwise, your staff will feel ignored and undervalued.

Hoarding Information

When management keeps employees in the dark about information that directly affects them, such as their performance and output, it can kill morale. Open communication is vital in any organization; By building walls that shut out employees from senior management, you are tearing down trust and allowing employee engagement to suffer.

Lack of Follow Through

Making promises to people places you on the fine line that lies between making them very happy and watching them walk out the door. When you uphold a commitment, you grow in the eyes of your employees because you prove yourself to be trustworthy and honorable (two very important qualities in a boss). But when you disregard your commitment, you come across as slimy, uncaring, and disrespectful. After all, if the boss doesn’t honor his or her commitments, why should everyone else?

Letting Accomplishments Go Unrecognized.

It’s easy to underestimate the power of a pat on the back, especially with top performers who are intrinsically motivated. Everyone likes kudos, none more so than those who work hard and give their all. Rewarding individual accomplishments shows that you’re paying attention. Managers need to communicate with their people to find out what makes them feel good (for some, it’s a raise; for others, it’s public recognition) and then to reward them for a job well done. With top performers, this will happen often if you’re doing it right.

These are some of the top reasons why employees are not motivated to contribute their best efforts at work. Sure, a lot of the responsibility lies with the choices that each employee makes, but even more is traceable to the environment that employers create for employees. Eliminate these ways to destroy motivation at work.

A highly motivated workforce feels empowered by their work and valued by the organization. When it comes to keeping your employees motivated, there are a number of factors to keep in mind—from communicating goals and expectations to showing interest in your employees’ professional aspirations. The right approach paves the way to a well-balanced workplace and ensures the future success of your business.

What Really Matters in Life? The Fisherman Parable

One of the most inspirational and touching stories I have read. This story is my inspiration to slow down, reassess, and get real about how I want to live life. It is about an encounter between an enterprising tourist and a small fisherman, in which the tourist suggests how the fisherman can improve his life. It’s a great story on balancing work and life, and the goals we hope to achieve.

An American businessman was standing at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish.

The American Harvard MBA: How long it took you to catch them?
The Mexican Fisherman: Only a little while.

The American Harvard MBA: Why don’t you stay out longer and catch more fish?
The Mexican Fisherman: I have enough to support my family’s immediate needs.

The American Harvard MBA: But what do you do with the rest of your time?
The Mexican Fisherman: Responding with a smile, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life, senor.”

The American Harvard MBA: Impatiently interrupted, “Look, I have an MBA from Harvard, and I can help you to be more profitable. You can start by fishing several hours longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra money, you can buy a bigger boat. With the additional income that larger boat will bring, before long you can buy a second boat, then a third one, and so on, until you have an entire fleet of fishing boats.”

The American Harvard MBA: Proud of his own sharp thinking, he excitedly elaborated a grand scheme which could bring even bigger profits, “Then, instead of selling your catch to a middleman you’ll be able to sell your fish directly to the processor, or even open your own cannery. Eventually, you could control the product, processing and distribution. You could leave this tiny coastal village and move to Mexico City, or possibly even Los Angeles or New York City, where you could even further expand your enterprise.”

The Mexican Fisherman: asked, “But senor, how long will this all take?”
The American Harvard MBA: After a rapid mental calculation, he replied “Probably about 15-20 years, maybe less if you work really hard.”

The Mexican Fisherman: asked, “And then what, senor?”
The American Harvard MBA: laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO (Initial Public Offering) and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions.”

The Mexican Fisherman: asked “Millions, senor? Then what?”
The American Harvard MBA: said slowly, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos”

The moral of the story is:
Life is Simple. Know what really matters in life, and you may find that it is already much closer than you think.

The Mexican fisherman story above teaches us all too well the importance of learning how to be content with what we currently have. It is truly an art learning the meaning of “enough.”  Money often doesn’t make us happier.

So, take this day to remember that life is about balance.  Spend your time intentionally.  Don’t say “yes” to things that you are not passionate about.  Learn to say no to things that don’t excite you!

In the end, time is the true currency of life.  Not money.  Don’t ever forget that.

Go find your little coastal village, catch some fish, and teach others how to catch them, too.  That’s what this site is all about.