Lean Quote: 5 ways To Develop Future Leaders in Your Organization

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.

"We need to foster curious minds with a desire to learn and a passion to discover new and better ways of doing things."   —  Simon Brown

Leadership development has become a necessary focus for any organization that wishes to separate itself from the pack and become established in markets that are always changing the rules.

Companies need to invest in leadership development, but more importantly, they need to make sure it’s part of their culture. There’s nothing wrong with a one-day seminar, but it’s not a leadership development plan. Creating a culture takes more than a single rah-rah meeting.

Creating an intentional strategy for developing employees is one of the most important things you can do as a leader to impact the culture of your organization. This is especially true for those you would categorize as future leaders.

If you want to be intentional about developing future leaders in your organization, here are a few keys to consider:

1. Communicate Your Vision to Employees

Every successful business has a vision. Maintain regular communication about the company’s vision and request your employees and other people to help you to achieve it. Sharing your business motives with your employees allows them to set their mission and the future leaders see their future in your company and work towards attaining it. Therefore, it is imperative to have a common goal with your employees. Keep them on track each day to ensure that they do not lose focus. Always remember that the future of leadership in your company is determined by the manner that you handle your current workers.

2. Show Employees You Trust Them

If you want to help employees develop, trust them to do their jobs by getting out of the way. Let them know what your expectations are by modeling the behavior you expect—show them you trust them. This not only lets employees know what they need to succeed and gives them greater ownership, but it also shows them that credibility and trust are important in your organization.

3. Use Job Rotation to Broaden Experience

Give your workers a chance to broaden their expertise by working in different parts of the company. This will allow you and them to discover both their strengths and the areas where they need additional training. It will also give them an appreciation of other roles that will be beneficial in managing others in those areas.

4. Create Coaching and Mentoring Opportunities

One of the best ways to develop future leaders is by having them learn directly from other successful leaders. Once you’ve identified candidates that could potentially be great leaders, match them up with a great leader to mentor them, coach them, and consistently provide feedback. A mentor can provide customized guidance that helps prepare junior employees to become more effective leaders in the future. Building these strong relationships early creates opportunities for open, honest lines of communication throughout the leadership development process.

5. Provide “Stretch” Assignments for Employees

Offer a chance for your employees to prove themselves while also cultivating new talents. Providing assignments that stretch them outside of their comfort zone will force them to learn to better manage stress and tap into their creativity and problem solving abilities. Even failure can provide valuable lessons that can better your team.

These are just a few of the ways organizations can develop leadership potential in the workplace. By keeping communication open, incorporating leadership into regular professional development, and giving emerging leaders opportunities to grow, organizations can begin to build their leadership pipelines from within.

Seven Leadership Principles That Will Get Results

Leadership principles give us ideas on how we can lead ourselves and our team to encourage high levels of performance and greater chances for learning and growth.

Here are just seven principles that will help you achieve more as a leader with your team. See if they could work for you:

Principle 1: Kindle Passion

People will work for money, but they’ll die for a cause. Strong leaders engage people’s hearts. They build ever-deeper passion and commitment.

Passion is the driving force that enables people to attain far more than they ever imagined. Without passion there is no drive to succeed. It is the fuel of the will, and everything you do as a leader must express your passion. Passion is contagious and is easily shared. Passion will bridge moments of weakness, and will drive you past your failures while reaching for your goals. Passion radiates from you and is easily detected by others.

Principle 2: Maintain Good Communication

Communication can make the difference between a highly engaged team and a highly disengaged team.

A leader’s ability to clearly articulate expectations, consistently communicate culture, and regularly exchange meaningful feedback with their team members will determine how well they are able to motivate employees.

And remember, listening is the most important part of this. Leaders who engage in active listening are able to build real connections with employees and develop an understanding of what they need to succeed.

Principle 3: Fosters Accountability

You can’t expect employees to take accountability for results if they aren’t being given the clarity they need to take ownership and do great work. When leaders provide this clarity through frequent feedback, they are demonstrating their own accountability for expectation-setting and inspiring their employees to hold themselves accountable for meeting expectations.

Rather than punishing employees for not achieving expected results, focus on ensuring there is clarity in job expectations, clearly communicate the organization’s goals and the role employees play in achieving those goals, and don’t just react when teams fall short of expectations—make sure you are giving employees recognition when they do achieve the expected results.

Principle 4: Cultivate an Improvement Mindset

Leaders should never stop growing. No matter how well a leader thinks they are leading, they should always strive to do better. They should also learn to view mistakes as opportunities for growth and encourage employees to do the same. 

When leaders treat mistakes as learning opportunities, they are demonstrating their capacity for growth and helping their employees develop an improvement mindset that keeps them always moving forward.

Cultivating an improvement mindset not only helps leaders hone their leadership skills, but also inspires their team members to continuously develop their skills when they model this principle. Leaders can also help their teams continually improve by providing regular constructive feedback and coaching and mentoring employees.

Principle 5: Encourage Collaboration

When you have an inclusive team of highly engaged employees, it can achieve great things through collaborative efforts, but it’s important for leaders to create a harmonious work environment where team members work well together for this to happen.

Leaders who encourage collaboration and give their teams the tools they need to work together successfully are helping their employees learn the true meaning of teamwork. This means ensuring there’s no place for toxic behaviors within the organization. 

Encouraging employees to work together keeps engagement and trust high and can lead to work environments where high performance is the norm. It can also keep employees from working in silos.

Principle 6: Set the Example

Your actions as a leader speak much louder than your all company meetings, corporate communications, or motivational speeches at team meetings. This is why it is a fundamental principle that leaders walk the talk of vision, values, and purpose if they are to maintain the trust, respect, and credibility of those they are attempting to lead.

Leaders are continually raising the bar and driving their teams to deliver high quality products, services and processes. Leaders ensure that defects do not get sent down the line and that problems are fixed so they stay fixed.

Principle 7: Adaptability

Great leaders help their teams thrive, even during difficult times, and even during times of change. As constant change is the only thing any of us can be sure of in the business world, adaptability plays a significant role in determining how successful an organization will be in the future.

Agility in adapting helps us not only survive, but flourish in times of change. Leaders are better able to do this and help their teams do this when they bring employees into the process because it provides them with a variety of viewpoints and approaches to adapting.

When leaders embrace change and demonstrate an ability to adapt quickly, but also in an intentional way that doesn’t lose sight of long-term goals, it can help employees feel a much needed sense of stability in potentially challenging times and can help them adapt more easily.

The best way I know how to consistently exceed expectations for your customers, employees, or investors is to do the things I’ve talked about. Lead, stay focused on what you and your organization do best, set high standards, empower others, give others a reason to believe deeply in what you and they are doing, never compromise your standards, and give more than expected.

Lean Tips Edition #208 (#3331 - #3345)

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.

Click this link for A Lean Journey's Facebook Page Notes Feed.

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

Lean Tip #3331 – Require Management to Set a Strong Example

When employees are told they are supposed to follow the standards which have been laid out for them, only to find that their managers are not doing the same it can be very discouraging. The leadership team should always be the examples which other people can follow, not a source of trouble for the lean team. Managers at every level should be required to follow the standard and also enforce the same on their teams throughout the company.

Lean Tip #3332 – Create an Implementation Plan with Milestones

Implementation can be a difficult time for any strategy which is why it should be properly planned out. Having a written plan with set milestones is the best way to get the results you’re looking for. When the plan is written and easy to understand it is much easier for everyone at all levels to follow properly. While creating the plan make sure to include all the key teams which will be needed during the implementation process so they can give their input and have a good understanding of how everything works throughout the process.

Lean Tip #3333 – Show, Don’t Tell What The Ideal Workplace Should Look Like

Most people are visual learners by trait. Use visual aids to help the staff understand what your definition of a clean and organized workstation looks like. Before and after pictures can help show a pattern of progression and track success. Place the before pictures outside the workspace so workers can visually track progression.

Lean Tip #3334 – Clearly Define Your Expectations

Every employee should have specific roles that they are expected to fill within the system. These expectations should be clearly defined within each and every job description. Consistently emphasize the importance of completing these tasks and why they are important to the overall success of the company. Your leaders should be able to provide both positive feedback and constructive feedback if certain expectations are not met.

Lean Tip #3335 – Reward Excellence

Take the time to reward your staff or teams that are outperforming. This not a means of rewarding employees for doing their job, but rather pointing out those that go above and beyond the level of standards you layout. As you conduct your monthly audits remember it is important to recognize achievements. Friendly competition and recognition is a powerful tool for improvement.

Lean Tip #3336 – Leave Your Door Open To Be More Accessible

The times when you shut your office door to conduct sensitive business or ensure privacy should be the exception rather than the rule. If you spend most of your time behind closed doors, your staff isn't going to feel a connection with you. Instead, they'll feel alienated and cut off. Even if it means more distractions due to people stopping by to say hello or ask questions, try to keep your office door open whenever possible.

Lean Tip #3337 – Talk to Your Staff If You Want Them to Approach You

Take an interest in your employees beyond just the work they do. Getting to know your staff builds trusting relationships. You don't have to get deeply involved in workers' personal lives, but you should know about their families, interests and hobbies. A simple "Good morning, how was your weekend?" can work wonders in making an employee feel that you care about them. As smart managers know, employees who feel liked and respected are more likely to be productive and enthusiastic workers.

Lean Tip #3338 – Don't Punish the Messenger

If you're the kind of boss who only wants to hear good news, your employees won't tell you everything you need to know-and that will mean unpleasant surprises down the road. Let your staff know they can come to you with potential problems or suggestions on how to improve operations. Recognize that since they're the ones on the "front lines" of your business, they may have better insights than you do into what is really going on.

Lean Tip #3339 – Speak Openly and Honestly With Others

If you want to become an approachable manager, a crucial step is to start speaking openly and honestly with others. It means being straightforward and honest about your intentions and willing to listen to others’ perspectives. Be responsive, show openness to feedback, and communicate openly about what you are doing and why so that everyone in your team feels engaged and invested in your work. Finally, while being honest, respect others’ time and effort.

Lean Tip #3340 – Seek Feedback From Your Team and Others Around You

To be an approachable manager, you need to seek feedback from your team and others around you constantly. It will help you understand the areas in which you need to improve and take the necessary measures to improve your relationship and communication skills.

By getting feedback from various sources, you will be able to understand the needs of your team better and cater to them accordingly. However, take proper note of your feedback, as it can be a valuable tool in your professional arsenal. If handled properly, feedback can help drive continuous improvement and development in your managerial skills.

Lean Tip #3341 – Create an Image of Change

Create an image of the benefits of change and show your audience why taking action is necessary. You can do this through a scenario planning framework. Drawing the best-case scenario, worst-case scenario and realistic scenario can allow your team to react and buy into your vision. You may also use case studies to help your audience visualize what you are working to achieve.

Lean Tip #3342 – Show the Benefits of Your Plan

Showing how the plan is going to help the organization can allow your team to make mental calculations of whether the idea is worth buying into. Sometimes, the perceived loss of current benefits can make some people slow to accept change. If you show them the positives of the change, they may be more likely to be accepting of your plan.

Lean Tip #3343 – Lead Your Team by Example

It can be easier to get buy-in from a team if you lead by example. If an idea requires changes of staff, first make the changes yourself to show team members you are prepared to do what you're asking them to do. This can give them an idea of what you're asking of them as well as encourage them to trust you.

Lean Tip #3344 – Be Aware of Emotions

Getting buy-in is an interpersonal activity, often with high stakes involved. Selling your vision is likely to stir emotions such as passion and anger, which, if appropriately directed, may improve your chances of securing a commitment from others. To be successful in getting buy-in, you can pay attention to your audience's emotions while also maintaining your own emotions.

Lean Tip #3345 – Leverage Feedback

Use the team's feedback to improve the original idea. People may be more likely to commit to action if they feel their ideas are part of the plan. Not all feedback may become part of the plan, but it is vital to acknowledge everyone who contributed by saying "our plan." The way you communicate can help show others that the vision is not from an individual, but is the product of a team effort.

Lean Quote: Know Yourself

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.

"The key to an ideal workplace, in one hyphenated word, is this: self-awareness."   —  Neil Blumenthal

Self-awareness is the ability to see yourself clearly and objectively through reflection and introspection. This is a critical tool to help you reach higher levels of job satisfaction, become a better leader, improve relationships with colleagues, and manage your emotions better. It’s also positively correlated with higher levels of overall happiness.

There are many ways to build and practice self-awareness, but here are some of the most effective:

1. Practice Mindfulness

Mindfulness allows you to be present with yourself and observe your thoughts in a non-judgmental way. What better way to become self-aware than focusing, nonjudgmentally, on you?

Mindfulness forces you to focus on yourself on purpose, in the present moment. Next time you’re feeling frustrated at work, use mindfulness to check-in with yourself: what thoughts are going through your mind? How are you feeling? Simply being present enough to acknowledge your thoughts, feelings, and emotions, will help you become more acquainted and better at recognizing them properly within yourself.

2. Make Time to Reflect

Reflecting can be done in multiple ways and is customizable to the person reflecting, but the important thing is to go over your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to see where you met your standards, where you failed them, and where you could improve.

You can also reflect on your standards themselves to see if they are good ones for you to hold yourself to. You can try writing in a journal, talking out loud, or simply sitting quietly and thinking, whatever helps you to reflect on yourself.

3. Become a Better Listener, and Ask for Feedback

When you learn how to listen to your friends, colleagues, and managers without evaluating or judging them, you’ll become more empathetic and understand people better. Listening, by the way, isn’t the same as hearing -- like mindfulness, the practice of listening takes purpose and control. Listening to the important people in your life should give you a true sense of how they perceive you.

You can translate those listening skills to yourself, too, and become better at understanding your own thoughts and emotions. Listening to others and yourself is critical to becoming self-aware.

Additionally, it's important to ask for feedback from the people you work with, or lead. It’s impossible to have true, complete self-awareness, if you only turn inwards -- gaining different perspectives on who you are will help you see a truer, more complete picture.

Developing self-awareness might feel uncomfortable at first as you get used to actively seeking critical feedback and viewing yourself from an objective standpoint. However, the impact it can have on your professional relationships, the productivity of your team and the profitability of your company are undeniable.

Empower Your Employees With the Right Mindset

Empowerment. It’s a word often said, a goal, a value, a hallmark of modern leadership. Yet it may be one of those leadership principles that can be misunderstood and difficult to put into action. Especially, when we are talking about empowerment at work.

Create an empowering environment by fostering trust and respect. An empowering leader is a wise teammate. They create the space where great work gets done. To become a teammate, leaders must truly know your team members, their goals, and their strengths. They must understand their sense of purpose and work to support them in achieving it.

For employees to be empowered, they must be part of the conversation. Employees must participate in discussions on achieving current goals and setting new goals. Doing so will enable them to develop a personal stake in these goals and successfully fulfill them. Employees should also be encouraged to participate in shaping new ideas and strategies.

By being part of big-picture conversations, employees feel worthy and valuable to the team's success.

Align individuals to organizational goals. An organization still has a “why” that drives the work and value of the organization. Empowerment derives from having relevant information.

To bolster empowerment at work, ensure team members understand the goals of the organization. Enable them to connect their contributions to these goals. Show them how and why their work matters.

Provide feedback so they will know when they have been successful. Aligning individual and organizational goals means coaching team members to unleash their strengths in service of organizational goals.

Redefine accountability. Individual accountability is at the core of empowerment, but how we define it is important. 

Accountability here means a commitment to achieving organizational goals. But it also allows for risk-taking and new approaches that might lead to temporary setbacks and failures. Accountability includes supporting team members in learning from these moments. It means refocusing their efforts towards the goals using new knowledge and experience.

Practice self-awareness. A leader may discover she feels uncomfortable with releasing power to others.  Feelings like “what if they get it wrong?” or “I don’t feel like I’m adding any value” can be challenging for leaders who may then inadvertently act in a disempowering way.  Empowering leaders know themselves well. They keep tabs on their inner dialogue to guard against disempowering actions.

Employee empowerment in the workplace is the key to unlocking the full potential of your organization. Empowered employees are more productive, engaged, and committed to achieving their goals. In addition, they feel valued and respected, which creates a better work environment for everyone. To create a workplace empowerment culture, you need to start by clarifying roles and responsibilities, providing necessary resources, delegating authority effectively, and cultivating a flexible work environment.

How To Cultivate Employee Satisfaction for Optimal Business Success

Image Source: Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/photos/GFrBMipOd_E)

You need happy and satisfied employees to have a successful, long-lasting company. How your employees feel about work can affect how they operate, and if they aren’t satisfied or don’t have the proper tools, it can affect your customers. Ultimately, if your employees are fulfilled in their roles, your customers benefit from the productivity and higher standards your staff brings to their work. Let’s talk about how to make this happen.

Make Sure Employees Are Satisfied

You shouldn’t assume your employees are happy and satisfied with their work. You must ask them how they feel. You can get feedback from your employees anonymously through surveys. Or bring them in for one-on-one meetings. If you do, ask them how they like their job and the changes they’d like to see to be happier at work so they can pass those feelings on to the customer base.

A happy employee will be more engaged, they’ll show empathy, and they’ll want to go above and beyond to assist because they know it’s for the betterment of the company. You want employees who are happy when they show up for work each day. So ask them what you can do to get them there.

In addition to being happy, your staff also needs to be motivated. If you get the sense that they’re not there yet, then the office environment may be to blame. Are the leaders in your organization going above and beyond to show the employees that they’re appreciated, and are you providing some sort of initiative for them to give 110%? Consider providing recognition and rewards for a job well done, including physical rewards like gift cards and meaningful perks, such as the chance to move up within the company when they meet certain thresholds.

Some employees may want more challenges to help work feel less monotonous. These employees are great for your company. Give them the chance to take part in research and development (R&D), or provide them with tasks outside of their wheelhouse. Make sure these new tasks can contribute to customer satisfaction as well, such as creating a new help desk user interface. Furthermore, you could even consider funding professional development courses for employees who want to learn new skills. 

Give Your Employees The Tools They Need

The next step is to provide your staff with the proper tools to ensure customer satisfaction so you get positive reviews. In addition to giving them a good computer with a reliable connection, you also want to provide the tools to help them get through any interaction. Implement a ticket or help desk system to escalate service needs that may be new to them.

Also, provide a knowledge base of helpful information, including documents, how-tos, and other guidance they can access with a few mouse clicks. While text can be helpful, try to also mix in some videos and screenshots because they can give the employees a better picture of what they need to know. Finally, provide the staff with a way to report bugs in the system when they come across them. Often, your customers need to use these same systems, so ensuring that they work properly can keep everyone satisfied.

It’s also vital to continue to develop your employees over time because there are many perks to doing so. When they know that their hard work will pay off and that they could be promoted in the future, they’re likely to show more effort. Not only that, but they’ll likely stay at your company for longer and refer other top-notch employees who will further satisfy your customer's needs.

Just ensure you follow through on the development aspect instead of providing empty promises in the hope that you’ll see a bump in their production. Sit down with each employee, outline the steps they’ll need to take to be promoted, and provide guidance on achieving those goals. If they do the work, then follow through on your word. Your employees will appreciate that you appreciate them, and they’ll go above and beyond to meet the customer's needs.

Determine If Your Customers Are Satisfied

There are multiple stages in the customer’s journey. Most, if not all customers buy a product or service because it solves a problem they have. If your employees are doing good work because they’re happy in their roles, your product/service should work well from the get-go. This is the first stage at which customers can be satisfied.

Thereafter, customer satisfaction is directly influenced by customer service in the event that something goes wrong with your product/service. Their satisfaction may also be influenced by how your brand portrays itself online and elsewhere.

Throughout these stages of the customer’s journey, seek feedback to determine if your employee satisfaction efforts are lending themselves to business success.

You can gauge customer satisfaction in many ways, starting with capturing feedback immediately after a sales or service transaction. Once the customer has been assisted, the employee can offer them a chance to fill out a survey and answer honestly about how satisfied they are with what transpired. It’s wise to get their opinions immediately after the interaction so the details are fresh in their minds.

Examine client data and look at metrics such as satisfaction score and social sentiment analysis to determine their satisfaction level. You can also determine the satisfaction of your customers by looking at your return on investment. Are they returning to you after their first visit and spending money? If they’re not, then you may need to make some changes. 

Social media presence is also important because it’s a great tool for marketing your products and services. However, you must meet your customers where they are. Before you do a full-scale marketing push, research and survey your customers to see the platforms they frequent most so you know you'll reach them. Once you figure that out, engage with them regularly.

You can learn much about your customers and your employees based on how they act on social media. Most people will have no problem voicing their frustrations when they receive a broken product or get lousy service, and you can help them when you see their comments. You can also pay attention to how your staff acts on social media. Do they also complain about their job? Are they curt when the customers complain? If you’re seeing friction, then you have work to do. 

The point is that you can’t properly service your customers if you don’t have content employees, so you need to work on doing what’s best for both parties. Properly motivate your staff and then survey your customers to see if they’re satisfied, and continue to make tweaks until you get it just right.nsure your teams, business, and consumers genuinely thrive as the landscape continues to evolve.

About the Author: Luke Smith is a writer and researcher turned blogger. Since finishing college he is trying his hand at being a freelance writer. He enjoys writing on a variety of topics but technology and business topics are his favorite. When he isn't writing you can find him traveling, hiking, or gaming.

Lean Quote: Top 10 Ways to Motivate Employees

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.

"People work for money but go the extra mile for recognition, praise and rewards."   —  Dale Carnegie, Leadership Training Guru

Motivating employees presents a challenge to even the most experienced managers and executives. Couple that with a small or non-existent budget, and it can feel climbing Mount Everest. There’s relief, though. Most employees are motivated by non-cash, not-so flashy rewards. In fact, many employees stay on top of their game when managers and leaders give sincere, deserved recognition and rewards with small or no price tags.

To jump-start motivation today, it’s important to know what motivates people. Then apply proven, inexpensive or no-cost strategies that will keep your employees motivated at work.

Recognizing good work is the No. 1 way to motivate employees – by their own admission in several studies. But that alone won’t sustain motivation.

Instead, managers can mix up motivation tactics from the top 10 things employees say keep them happy and interested in work.

1. Public praise and recognition. One note of caution: Make sure employees aren’t embarrassed by public recognition before you single out anyone at a department or company event.

2. Opportunity to show off a great job. Most employees like to share their successes. Bonus: Others can learn from and be motivated by them.

3. Hearing about the positive impact they have – on the company, their boss, co-workers, a project, a customer, etc.

4. Earning extra time off. Employees usually enjoy earned time off more than time off that is just handed to them.

5. Training and development opportunities. This report will give you low-cost ways to train employees.

6. Being treated with respect by managers and co-workers. So managers need to check that employees treat each other well.

7. Opportunities to mentor new hires.

8. Inclusion in projects and decisions beyond their normal job tasks.

9. Receiving and being trained to use top-notch technology. This report will give tips on how to offer technology at lower costs.

10. A relaxed open work environment can be a huge motivator. If everyone is feeling comfortable, they’re not afraid to throw out ideas. Even if an idea doesn’t work initially, that doesn’t mean it won’t lead to the solution that wins in the end.