As we grow up, we often get wonderful gifts from mom and dad. Gifts such as intelligence, passion, communication and leadership skills. We also get gifts from different mentors, which can complement the ones from our parents.
As adults, business leaders bring these childhood gifts — or lack thereof — to the companies they lead. And sometimes, a company stops growing when its leader’s gifts are no longer enough to effectively manage the business.
It’s no surprise then that one of the biggest impediments to a healthy business is poor organizational health, which stems from poor leadership. When a culture of blame and excuses permeates a company, it can paralyze it.
In one case, the spouse of a plant manager often asked her husband what he was going to accomplish at work each day. He told her he couldn’t possibly plan because he “had no idea what he was walking into each day.” This uncertainty is almost always a direct result of a lack of leadership.
Poor leadership is a common problem in business today, including in manufacturing. But it can be improved, and a company can thrive if deep-rooted behavioral changes are made. Changing company culture is a huge challenge, partly because it must start at the top. The leadership team must modify its behavior first if they want their employees to follow.
That means moving leaders from their “stress-self” to their “leadership self.” Stress-Self exists when blame and excuses for why things don’t get done permeate a company. Leadership-Self occurs when people are on their game, where good decision-making and measurable achievements are the norm.
Moving from stress-self to leadership-self can be accomplished in four key steps in this leadership model:
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