A Vision of Leadership

Mentoring

2021-03-09T10:46:00.001-05:00

One-on-One Teaching

One-on-one teaching takes many forms. Each layer or level of individual helping has a unique set of dimensions. Mentoring, perhaps, requires the most "knowledge and experience" along with a strong sense of caring. That is not to say that the other roles are any less significant. I think to be a great mentor you need to be a good teacher-tutor-coach-counselor also.

As the picture suggests each one-on-one

Objective - objectives

2021-02-11T14:01:00.001-05:00

Objectives are statements that will have specific outcomes. Objectives can be set at all levels of a company and can build upon one another from lower to higher level corporate functions. They are often set at the corporate level and then each lower business unit creates a set of Objectives to help support and meet the corporate objectives. Sometimes they are in financial terms, especially at the corporate level. At lower levels in the company they may take many different forms, but must always have some statement(s) focused on financial results.
Objectives are part of the hierarchy of terms which help set and shape the strategy of a business or unit....

Corporate objectives are set by executive management and provide the focus for setting more detailed objectives at each functional level in the business. The corporate objectives relate to the business as a whole. Your objectives will line up with the corporate objective(s) and support it or them, however they will also be specific to your organization.
For example:

Corporate Objectives - Market share percent
Functional Objectives - Sales per customer
Unit Objectives - 5% increase in sales of product y

Objective examples:

Create delighted customers
Increase revenue to your division by 10K.
Decrease cost per unit of (your widget).
Increase market share to 51%
Bring xyz product to market on Dec. 5th, 2 months before competition
Provide learning opportunities to 25% of employees by end of second quarter
Have MS SharePoint on line within 90 days
Consolidate to three manufacturing locations by 2015
Provide new computers to sale force over the next 24 months
Hire 10 new engineers by Dec. 1st.
Initiate TQM for manufacturing Unit #1 on June 1st.
Move to new customer focused corporate office in by end of 3rd quarter
Reduce product waste to 10% on Jan.1, 5% on Dec.1, and 3% within 24 months
Cut energy consumption on Machine #20 by 5%
Increase factory Y's output 2% within 6 months
Eliminate waste to landfill by 2016

Business Quote - 2

2012-07-28T16:47:00.000-04:00

This is the second of many Business Quotes that will appear over time on this blog: A Vision of Leadership. They will all be listed under the Business Quotes tab and appear every couple of weeks. The frequency is set to give you time to internalize each one before the next is published. Please follow or subscribe to this blog to get the latest updates. If you know of, or have a great business quote of your own please send it to me for inclusion. Please include author or if it is your quote, include your complete name and contact if you want your name and organization published. When you use these quotes please give credit to the author.

Back to Business Quotes Tab >

Leadership

2012-07-21T10:39:00.000-04:00

Leadership

What is Leadership?

Leadership is a unique trait that only a few people possess. Leaders are enablers. They have the ability to see things other people don't. They can see through mounds of unrelated data and see a path to success. They are looking at the big picture and want to help everyone achieve mutual success. They can 'read' people. People want to follow them. People want to learn from them. People trust them. They (the leaders) want to serve the organization and the people in the organization, not the other way around where poor leaders (not really leaders at all) think that the organization and people must serve the leader.

Good leadership in the 21st Century Company requires attitudes and behaviours that relate to humanity. Of course leadership involves decisions and actions relating to all kinds of other things as well. However it is unique in its special relationship to people - the people who follow leaders. The leader is always serving these people and looking out for their welfare and the company's. Leaders' followers trust and respect them (the leaders) rather than the skills they possess. Skills are important but not the most important factor.

Leadership traits can be learned to make you a better manager - but only a few people actually possess the true innate ability to be leaders. When you are going about your everyday work look for the people who seem to automatically become the team leader on any team they are assigned - they rarely possess any more skills related to the assigned task than most other team members. So why are they chosen to or automatically assume leadership of the team? Or how about the person that you feel you can trust or that their organization seems to be always ahead-of-the-curve? Or the 'manager' who is more concerned with their people than with his/her standing in the organization? These are people in your organization that need to be sought out and moved into roles where they can feel comfortable helping people and the company succeed. They are the visionaries. They have a positive attitude that is infectious. They are the enables to success. They look for mentors that can guide them, not manage them. They must enable, that is what they must do or they will move on to other companies where their rare talent may be used by your competitor to negatively affect the fortunes of your company.

Leadership is absolutely essential to the success of any company today! There must be one or more leaders to lead the managers and every successful company will have, must have, one or more leaders in the C-suite. A company led by managers will not be successful in the long term. Generation X and Y employees need managers with leadership skills and love to work for Leaders versus Managers.

Leading, Coaching, Praising - R. Hibbard

Business Quotes - 1

2012-07-18T11:20:00.000-04:00

This is the first of many Business Quotes that will appear over time on this blog: A Vision of Leadership. Since it is my blog I have the previlage of listing one of my own quotes first that I have used a number of times at international conferences. The quotes will all be listed under the Business Quotes tab and appear every couple of weeks. The frequency is set to give you time to internalize each one before the next is published. Please follow or subscribe to this blog to get the latest updates. If you know of, or have a great business quote of your own please send it to me for inclusion. Please include the author or if it is your own quote, include your complete name and contact if you want your name and organization published. When you use these quotes please give credit to the author.

Back to Business Quotes Tab >

Change Drivers - Quality Issue Resolution

2012-07-16T11:04:00.001-04:00

Quality - Who's Responsible

This is an example of a Change Driver Process - Improved Quality

This example of a Leadership Process is focused on the suggested activities to be undertaken by a person – designated as Vice President, Processes. The person needs to hold a senior management or executive management title to be effective in resolving the current company quality crises on a short and long term basis.

This example is based on a corporate quality issue faced by a company in Ohio. It is the result of a three hour on-site consultation visit hosted by key corporate management personnel. The following is a preliminary outline of suggested action items for the business team. As you will see there are many, many focus areas that will need attention if there is any hope for a long term resolution of the problem. The underlying business operations are in need of immediate attention. These actions are based on limited information but will give the management team a preliminary road map for actions and will help prioritize the approach.

The company manufactures industrial and commercial hardware products for the food industry containing large amounts of welded product and control system hardware. The company is well respected in the industry but its reputation is rapidly slipping due to a wide range of quality issues experienced by their customers. After a three hour visit to the company the following observations are made:

The factory is old and outdated
The IT (Information Technology) system is early 1980's
There are no formal sales to factory processes in place
Lots of verbal communications take place for the specifications for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment with only limited documentation formality
Communication channels are at 1960's business levels
They do not really know what the customer expectations are for the products
Sales is not well organized with clear processes in place for complaint resolution
The factory is only loosely and poorly supervised - again it is 1950's in technology and organization
The factory is dirty and cannot be used as a sales tool to present food industry products or bring in customers to see their custom built products under construction

With these observations in place a basic outline of action items can be established. The situation here is one of almost overwhelming proportions to the current business leaders. When you are reading this please keep in mind all of the areas for potential failure in the change process. There are two major steps to take - one is to resolve the short-term customer concerns in order to buy time to implement the longer term process changes. Of course it goes without saying that the biggest problem for the Process Change Leader will be the: "We've always done it this way." The training and education of the work-force in modern business methods and customer requirements will be the most challenging.

The objectives are: Short Term - Eliminate the quality shortfalls seen by the customers.

Long Term - Re-establish the company's leadership status

The first observation is that QUALITY to the customer is not isolated to one business process. [The view by the management team is that it is a factory issue.] Today - quality must be inherent in everything the company does. Quality isn't something that is tacked on at the end of the manufacturing process or checked by inspectors. It is built into the process and becomes the 'normal' way business is conducted with the customer as the only reason for being in business.

Quality from the Customers Perspective

Now we need to look at what should the new Process Leader do? Where should the focus be placed? One suggestion is to break the work into Focus Areas. I am suggesting five areas. These areas will be expanded into more detailed tasks during the initial ninety days of 'The Project'. As we will see later this 'quality issue' will turn out to be a "Portfolio of Projects" managed by a "Program Manager"(perhaps the Process Leader) with a number of Project Managers (may be exiting company personnel) working on individual projects. The five areas are shown in the following slide. One of the areas is the Process Leader's function- since it is a new position at the company - along with other business processes.

Focus Areas for a Quality Issue

These areas can be broken down into three other groups: Company, Supplier, and Customer items. Since the major short-term issue that must be addressed is perceived quality by the customer there is a whole group of customer facing items that must be looked at.

Qualtiy Action Items

Focus Area One is the initial action items for the "Vice President of Processes" or Process Leader.

Here it will be important for the person to get to know, understand, establish expectations, and define the job scope for their position.

· “Get to Know”

o Personnel

o Processes

o Customers

o Products

· “Understand”

o Issues

o Personnel

o Company Vision

o Relationships

· “Establish Expectations” for…

o Position

o Facility

o Goals

o Training

· “Define”

o Approach/Style

o Methodology

o Initial plans

o Job Requirements

o Support Personnel

o SCOPE of the task

o Funding of initiatives

Focus Area Two are The Customers.

What are those things that must be done immediately and what are areas for later development. Must establish the corporate customer image. Clearly determine the fundamental, current issues, and initiate plans to minimize the problems while long term solutions are implemented. Here are eleven suggested action items.

1.Define links to Quality issues

2.Establish current customer state of mind (general for all customers)

3.Define Customer Base

4.Determine 80/20 issues

5.Review market

6.Look at sales process (for each channel to market)

7.Determine Customer priorities

8.Establish desired state for every customer (not individual customers); satisfied, happy, delighted, business partner, sole supplier, etc.

9.Establish project approach and methodology from initial customer contact to customer acceptance

10.Establish short, medium, long term focus

11.Develop training program

Focus Area Three is Quality.

Again, the first step is to clarify the issues. What is the customer really saying? The Process Leader must meet with personnel from multiple customer sites and listen. No judging, no solution presentation, no excuses, just fact finding. Only assurance to customer is that all of their concerns will be addressed and they will be kept informed and be part of the solutions. There are ten suggested action items.

1.Clarify issue(s) as seen by Company personnel.

2.Clarify issue(s) as seen by Customer personnel – site visits required.

3.Clarify issue(s) with Suppliers – site visits required.

4.Quantify issues

5.Initial Brainstorm session at Company – 2 hr. max.

6.Prioritize issues – 1 hr. max.

7.Create focus groups

8.Establish short, medium, and long term priorities for items

9.Establish actionable items with completion dates.

10.Develop Training Program

Focus Area Four is The Plant.

What is needed? How can it be turned into a competitive advantage? In my opinion it is a given that the plant must become a lean manufacturing process. There are so many safety, process steps, and other issues that a methodical 20 Keys approach will be needed over perhaps a three year period. The plant will need strong leadership and significant training to become an asset for future business development. Here, again, there are eleven suggested action items.

1.Establish reference point for factory

•Best in class?

•Cleanest?

•Most organized?

•Most efficient?

•Best Trained?

•Etc.

2.Establish Links to Quality Issues

3.Establish objectives for facility (desired state) for example: facility becomes sales tool, facility is competitive edge, becomes focused factory, etc.

4.Create a Vision for innovation

5.Develop Safety Program (OSHA?)

6.Housekeeping/Work Environment

7.In the “Food Business” shouldn’t the factory look-the-part?

8.Move from “Old” manufacturing to “New” manufacturing

9.Define Priorities

10.Establish short, medium, and long term focus areas

11.Develop Training Program

Focus Area Five is The IT Infrastructure and Systems.

The flow and availability of information is absolutely critical to the success of a business and any strategic programs undertaken. Instant communication with the customer, sales, plant personnel, and management is essential. Collaboration tools and knowledge management is critical in this business due to the market. Competitive advantage is knowledge based for this company. The IT system must support the business and be easy to use by EVERYONE. Here are eight potential action items.

1.Define current concerns

2.Establish links to Quality Issues

3.What would you like? ( for example: customer, production, sales, financial, executive, welder, supplier, receptionist, etc.

4.Determine “as-is” system

5.Establish “desired” system

6.Create plan to go from current to desired over “24 month” period

7.Establish “check-points” or “gates” to implementation

8.Develop Training Program

This is just a preliminary look at one possible path to follow to address a major customer issue that is threatening to undo years of leadership. However, as I have said in the intro to this blog: "Everything can change in the blink of an eye." The business processes must be ready and able to respond to internal or external threats to success.

Tools - 5"S" (Workplace Organization)

2012-07-01T10:43:00.000-04:00

5S Workplace Organization

5S is the name of a workplace organization method that uses a list of five Japanese words: seiri, seiton, seiso, seiketsu, and shitsuke. When transscribed into English, they all start with the letter "S". The method is normally applied to manufacturing workplaces but could just as well apply to a store, an office, or technical department where critical methods, hardware, and tools need to be closely monitored. The list describes how to organize a work space for efficiency and effectiveness by identifying and storing the items used, maintaining the area and items, and sustaining the new order. The decision-making process usually comes from a dialogue about standardization, which builds understanding among employees of how they should do the work. 5S is one of the foundation tools for Lean Manufacturing.

Sorting (Seiri)

Eliminate all unnecessary tools, parts, and instructions. Go through all tools, materials, and so forth in the plant and work area. Keep only essential items and eliminate what is not required, prioritizing things per requirements and keeping them in easily-accessible places. Everything else is stored or discarded.

Stabilizing or Straightening Out (Seiton)

There should be a place for everything and everything should be in its place. The place for each item should be clearly indicated.

Sweeping or Shining (Seiso)

Clean the workspace and all equipment, and keep it clean, tidy and organized. At the end of each shift, clean the work area and be sure everything is restored to its place. This makes it easy to know what goes where and ensures that everything is where it belongs. Spills, leaks, and other messes also then become a visual signal for equipment or process steps that need attention. A key point is that maintaining cleanliness should be part of the daily work – not an occasional activity initiated when things get too messy.

Standardizing (Seiketsu)

Work practices should be consistent and standardized. All work stations for a particular job should be identical. All employees doing the same job should be able to work in any station with the same tools that are in the same location in every station. Everyone should know exactly what his or her responsibilities are for adhering to the first 3 S's.

Sustaining the Practice (Shitsuke)

Maintain and review standards. Once the previous 4 S's have been established, they become the new way to operate. Maintain focus on this new way and do not allow a gradual decline back to the old ways. While thinking about the new way, also be thinking about yet better ways. When an issue arises such as a suggested improvement, a new way of working, a new tool or a new output requirement, review the first 4 S's and make changes as appropriate.It should be made as a habit and be continually improved.

There are many tools available in the marketplace to help you with these areas. The key to the implementation of 5S is employee understanding and buy-in. Training is always a major component of success. Do not overlook its importance. 5S is one of the foundations of Lean Manufacturing and must be in place before you can move into other areas.

Simplified: SORT - STRAIGHTEN - SHINE - STANDARDIZE - SUSTAIN

First Step: SORT - Clearly distingquish needed items from unneeded and elimate the latter

Second Step: STRAIGHTEN - Keep needed items in the correct place to allow for easy and immediate retrieval

Third Step: SHINE - Keep the workplace neat and clean

Fourth Step: STANDARDIZE - The method by which Sort, Straighten, and Shine are made habitual

Fifth Step: SUSTAIN - Maintain established procedures

Back to Process Tools Page >

Causes of Failure for Change Drivers within the Business Infrastructure

2012-06-28T09:10:00.000-04:00

You are all excited about the results and business improvements you are going to achieve as you implement your first process change or embark on the development of a new market. As you move down the road things do not seem to be happening the way you thought they would. What went wrong?

To avoid the bumps - opportunities for failure - you need to know what to watch out for and when to take action. There are five major reasons that Change Drivers fail due to the business infrastructure. Please look at these areas carefully because they will be some of the most difficult obstacles to overcome on your road to Leadership and Lean Practices! They must be dealt with head-on and may require a change in your business culture, procedures, IT, and information dissemination, etc. Look at how these areas will affect the possible outcome of your Change Process or Organizational Innovation Process.

Remember: Failure is not an option!

Failure could mean the loss of your competitive edge, revenue losses, etc. It must be avoided and the only way to avoid it is with an open, enlightened environment of collaborative personnel at all levels.

In today's 21st Century Organization knowledge is a valued commodity. Knowledge is something you must retain and manage. We will speak in more detail about knowledge management in future posts. Every organization has a vast amount of knowledge about their processes, products, and customers. Keep that in mind as you look at the five most common reasons for failure for Change Drivers within the business infrastructure: (O'Sullivan, 2002)

Poor knowledge management (of people, processes, products, customers)
Poor organization of company infrastructure
Poor communication within the company in general
Poor empowerment of individuals to do the job
Poor leadership of the change and the company, division, unit, etc.

Causes of Failure within the Change Driver Process

2012-06-23T15:07:00.000-04:00

On your road to Leadership and the implementation of Lean practices leading to the implementation of process changes there can be many bumps in the road. The objective is to miss as many of these bumps or opportunities for failure as possible. Aside from the possible reasons for failure in the businesses' cultural infrastructure there are a number of reasons for the effort to fail due to causes within the process change itself.

Leading change is not a casual project - it can be costly in time, money, and even competitive advantage. The desired business change must be carefully managed to result in a successful outcome.

Remember: Failure is not an option!

In general, there are five common causes for failure. These are obvious once you know them - but did you consider them before you jumped into your process changes? Are you prepared to invest the necessary talent and time to ensure success and avoid the five things?

When you look at the five items below you will note their similarity to failures on any Project. Think about large capital projects or the implementation of new management procedures, etc. The five most common causes of failure within the Change Driver Process are:

Poor scope or goal definition for the process change
Poor definition of actions and their alignment to the stated goal(s)
Poor (or wrong) participation in the teams to accomplish the goal
Poor performance indicator monitoring of the results achieved
Poor communication of, and access to, the necessary information to accomplish the goal

Change Drivers for Organizational Innovation

2012-06-21T10:58:00.000-04:00

Every division, department, or organization in the 21st Century Company(TM) must undertake programs to maintain its competitive advantage or to meet other corporate objectives. In today's business climate these programs may be focused on environmental stewardship, quality issues, costs, etc. In general, there are 10 major Drivers of Change. Of course, all of these items have been around for years - this is not something new! These are not things that companies have never heard about. I believe the main emphasis must be that these Drivers are constantly evaluated and a systematic approach be undertaken to ensure results are achieved when any one of them is undertaken. A key skill to success is Project Management with Leadership skills.

Process change programs undertaken by companies can be distilled down into Ten Drivers of Change(TM):

Reduced environmental damage
Reducing energy usage
Conformance to government regulations
Developing new markets
Reduction in raw material usage
Improving manufacturing processes
Expanding a product line
Replacing products or services
Providing higher quality products and services
Minimizing labor costs

These ten can be sub-divided into many other more specific items. There are others including financial areas, construction, etc. However, these are the most often undertaken.

With any program there are many opportunities to fail. You MUST understand the reasons many programs fail if you hope to succeed. Some of the reasons may require significant cultural or process changes within your business if you hope to succeed at any of the listed Drivers above. Some of these reasons for failure will be presented in other blog posts.

See also:
- Causes of failure within the Change Driver Process
- Causes of failure for Change Drivers within the business infrastructure
- Example of a corporate Quality issue and suggested leadership approach

The 10 Customer Facing Characteristics of 21st Century Businesses

2012-06-20T11:01:00.001-04:00

The 10 Customer Facing Characteristics of 21st Century Businesses*

Highly trained work force - focused on continuous learning to quickly respond to customer needs
Knowledgeable sales people who understand the customer's business
Lean manufacturing programs to produce high quality products at competitive prices
Leaders focused on leading, coaching, and praising to ensure a customer-centric business
Managers focused on ensuring the business goals are met so customer expectations can be met
Employees empowered to make informed decisions that lead to customer satisfaction
Vision, Mission, Objectives, and Goals aligned to meet customer requirements
An enlightened, diverse work environment with personnel representing all generations to better understand the wide variety of customer types and expectations.
Business principals based on sustainable qualities that meet all stakeholder expectations equally to ensure the business is there to serve it's customers, not the expectations of outside investors looking for short term gains.
Long term thinking led by senior management that maintains a close relationship with key customer personnel.

Throughout this blog are ideas and tools to help you become more competitive, cost effective, and focused. Please post your comments and ideas - and please subscribe to receive the latest posts and so that I will know there is interest in additional posts. Thanks for your support.
* Trade Mark of Hibbard Associates LLC

Where do I Start? THIRD of Series

2012-06-16T14:47:00.001-04:00

What do I NEED to consider? Kind of a basic question with lots of possible answers. You need to know what you need to know to accomplish whatever task you have defined that you want to complete. Therefore at each stage of your journey to your organization's Vision you will have to obtain the necessary skills and knowledge to accomplish the task. You may wish to learn the knowledge for yourself, buy the knowledge, or utilize the knowledge your team has. Normally it will be a combination of all three.

The knowledge, skills, and tools needed to realize your Vision will be a composite of past experience, current skills, and future learning events. Take an assessment of your own skills, your team's skills, tools you own or can acquire to determine your "knowledge state" and compare those with what is thought to be needed.

Some of the basic 'need-to-know' are shown below and can be found on various posts on this blog. Check out the page tabs for quick links to them.

NEED TO KNOW:

Your personal style - are you a Manager or a Leader?
What task(s) are to be accomplished.
Key business strategy factors.
What you do not know.
Why am I doing this?
Who knows what, in your organization.
Who can help.
Do you plan to go it alone or with consultants.
What's in it for me.
Can we afford it.
What knowledge needs to be purchased.
What tools to consider.
Is the organization and leadership committed.
How do you enlist support.
Where to obtain the knowledge and tools needed.

See also:

Where do I Start? FIRST
Where do I Start? SECOND

Competitive Advantages - What? How? Knowing?

2012-06-07T12:13:00.001-04:00

Sharpen your pencils - everyone has one or more competitive advantages. Businesses, departments, private organizations and any host of other entities have (or should have) some competitive advantage. If you do not have one or any you better come up with some! You generally need more than one. You must be constantly looking for your 'killer-app'. Even if you are in a commodity market you want to have some differentiator(s).

What are some differentiators?

We have all live (verses dead or robo) phone operators.
Six distribution centers across the country verses three for the competition.
Triple redundancy for power supplies at our co-lo facility verses two.
All personnel are Microsoft certified in each of our service offerings.
We serve only fresh beef, produce, etc.
Our factory is in full compliance with Six Sigma standards.
We are ISO certified.
Each of our doctors has done post-graduate work at the Mayo Clinic.
We offer the product in ten colors.
Each of our recruiters is focused on a specific industry and skill set.
My hand-to-eye coordination rate is in the top one hundredths percent in the world.
Our food servers have more than 30 hours of customer service training.
etc.

How do I determine what mine or our competitive advantages are?

You could start with a SWOT analysis. A focus team and BRAINSTORMING session will be very useful. You should have a cross-functional team if you are looking at a business area, product, delivery, etc. Look to have at least sales, marketing, production, quality, training, service, and even financial on the team. It can be amazing what types of advantages can be discovered and then exploited as a result of these team efforts.

Knowing your real competitive advantages is critical?

Things like more sales personnel may or may not be an advantage, for example. True competitive advantages must be sought out on an on-going basis. Once you know your advantages you must take action to make them tangible to your clients and customers. In other words you must act upon them. Build on your strengths. Build products or services based on these advantages - in that way your competitors are at a disadvantage. It is always good to keep in mind that your competition has competitive advantages too - how do you circumvent them?

Where do I Start? SECOND of Series

2012-05-22T11:59:00.000-04:00

There could be many 'first' items you may want to know. Yet there are only a few you really need to know to get started. Over time you will want to learn as many of the process tools as you can. You should consider looking at and learning something new every week until you are comfortable with a path to follow. Do not try to learn and apply too many things all at once. You want to gradually move into the realm of lean leadership principles and processes. Taking on too many things will only confuse your teams and cost money and resources without achieving the expected results. Focus is always the best approach.

So what are a few things that are on the "What do I need to know?" list?

Read all the material in this blog.
Keep in mind that all organizations supporting and promoting Lean Leadership, Six Sigma, TQM, etc. are in business to make money. Some are better at making money than actually helping you to succeed. Individuals and groups that have a vested interest in you are the ones to seek out for support. If you are not seeing results discuss this with your team and move on. Some organizations will give you guarantees and/or base a portion of their fees on results you achieve.
You need to decide if this lean leadership process is something you want to do. Once you have made the decision to pursue this process then you must get fully committed, but remember to take a slow methodical approach to implementation until everyone is comfortable with the process and you build up momentum.
Determine if there are real opportunities for improvement. (There are always opportunities, but are they necessary to your current success?) There are few, if any, organizations that will not benefit significantly from process changes. For example almost everyone has some 'quality' issue that needs to be addressed. This is an area where there are usually many opportunities to expand the lean leadership principles and processes into many of your organizations while addressing a fundamental issue.
Discuss your ideas with your team(s) and solicit input.
Look over the material in this blog to get an understanding of the path to follow.
See the process tools section for ideas on which tools may fit your current need.
Find someone in your organization that has project management skills and is preferably a certified PMP (Project Management Professional) from the Project Management Institute (PMI). If you are starting small (recommended) then find someone with good people skills that you can train to be your Project Manager.

Meaningful Success Factors

2012-05-17T11:23:00.001-04:00

Call Me!

What are those things in your business (company, division, unit) that you believe will help you achieve a successful outcome to your business strategy? They may be related to cost reduction, corporate objectives, new technology, process changes, etc. What will help ensure your success? They may be unique to your business or new products for your customers. The standard things for a successful business are adequate capital, cash flow, good employees, and customers. These are not the success factors for your business - they are the result of your success factors. Again, you need to establish the key success factors that will complement your business strategy. What gets the customer to choose your product and - call you; browse your web site; meet and buy from your sales person; or come into your store?

Business Success Factors fall into several categories:

Set realistic business objectives and goals
Understand your unique value proposition
Evaluate your competition
Articulate your value proposition
Focused marketing and sales teams - everyone is in sales
Invest in the future
Knowledgeable work force

These categories will help you establish the key success factors you need today. Keep in mind that these factors will change over time and must be constantly evaluated. What is successful today may not be successful tomorrow! Staying focused, compassionate execution, and speed are critical.

The ABC's, DEF's and G's of Success Factors:

Success Factor A: Your vision, mission, objectives, and goals must stretch the organization utilizing reasonable milestones and performance indicators that fall within company investment and budget plans.

Success Factor B: Clearly establish your value proposition that identifies your target customers and why your product/service is better than anyone else in the market.

Success Factor C: Do a SWOT analysis on your competition. Then do yours and compare yourself against the results. Once done you will have differentiation points for your marketing programs.

Success Factor D: Invest in marketing! Your marketing strategy is very important to articulate your value proposition. Once you have your marketing strategy and approach defined along with the product message and, points of differentiation you are ready for an "everyone involved" program to integrate this market strategy into your product development, manufacturing, and sales organizations.

Success Factor E: Everyone in your company is in 'sales'. Everyone must understand this, it has been said over and over - Nothing Happens Without Customers. A very critical factor is a symbiotic relationship between marketing and sales - one cannot exist without the other. Goals, milestones and objectives must match.

Success Factor F: Prudently invest in the future. Invest in productivity tools, people, ideas. Strategic investments should be made in people, marketing, and sales to build a solid business infrastructure. Look for learning everywhere in the organization. Closely manage your cash-flow. Be open to creative hiring practices that have a win-win outcome for your company and the individuals.

Success Factor G: Keep in mind your competitors are looking for weaknesses. Never underestimate the speed at which a competitor can overtake you. Execution of your strategy is everything. You must stay focused and lead your organization to success through enlightened execution. Everyone in the organization must be on-board, trained and knowledgeable about the business plans and objectives. Only through wide-spread adoption of the vision by the organization can the company (division or unit) ensure success in the marketplace. Invest in training and education.

Success Factor Examples:

Restructure to create customer focus
Establish strategic business centers
Create programs to meet division objects
Implement new delivery methods
Develop market theme for product 'x'
Invest in new supply chain for fresh produce
Sales force has access to latest market analysis
Establish presence in India for product 'y'
Define new hire strategy for software development

Castles, Customers, & Leaders

2012-05-11T09:51:00.002-04:00

Building castles and business leadership are similar!

Building castles in the middle ages was big business. Seems like everyone had to have one! Designs and capabilities were constantly changing to meet new challenges. At the time they protected your "business and customers" from "outsiders". (Your throne, peasants, merchants, subjects - users of your kingdom - from invading hordes.) Not much different than today. Today your company is constantly being "bombarded" by competitors. They move quickly, they scale the walls that you built up over the years with your customers through great customer relations, great products and services you thought could not be duplicated. You thought you had twenty meter thick walls around your customers. What happened? The walls are breached and all your hard work is gone in the blink of an eye.

Unless your "troops" are ready and waiting to take corrective action your castle could be lost! Maybe your competitors are utilizing some tools and processes that you need to acquire. Hopefully your customers are not unhappy with you - they just want to obtain the best return possible for each purchase they make. They expect total quality, knowledge support, and a fair price. That is why you must be the one to supply them with these things and the solution to their problems or needs before they know they have a problem or need! You must deliver the highest quality product to exacting customer expectations. You must be a lean, mean machine that is ever changing to meet the expectations of your customers in the shortest possible time at the most competitive price and at the highest quality. The only way to do this is to be flexible, understanding, motivated, lean, leading, competitive, cost aware, creative, trained, knowledgeable, quick to respond, and - by the way - very good at selling. You need an organization based on Lean Leadership principles.

Instead of stone walls 20 meters thick you need to build walls with The 10 Customer Facing Characteristics of 21st Century Businesses*:

Highly trained work force - focused on continuous learning to quickly respond to customer needs
Knowledgeable sales people who understand the customer's business
Lean manufacturing programs to produce high quality products at competitive prices
Leaders focused on leading, coaching, and praising to ensure a customer-centric business
Managers focused on ensuring the business goals are met so customer expectations can be met
Employees empowered to make informed decisions that lead to customer satisfaction
Vision, Mission, Objectives, and Goals aligned to meet customer requirements
An enlightened, diverse work environment with personnel representing all generations to better understand the wide variety of customer types and expectations.
Business principals based on sustainable qualities that meet all stakeholder expectations equally to ensure the business is there to serve it's customers, not the expectations of outside investors looking for short term gains.
Long term thinking led by senior management that maintains a close relationship with key customer personnel.

Once you put these walls in place they are going to be more difficult, if not impossible, to scale by outsiders. Even if your competitors "lob a few" at you, you will be positioned to move quickly and counter attack! Throughout this blog are ideas and tools to help you become more competitive, cost effective, and focused.

* Trade Mark of Hibbard Associates LLC

Leading vs. Managing

2012-05-08T10:34:00.002-04:00

Both Leaders and Managers are needed. Often a combination of the two skill sets are needed to effectively handle a job function. Project Managers routinely use both sets of skills. This is one of the reasons why superior Project Managers are hard to find. The balance between the skills and when to apply each skill requires excellent judgement. Project Management is a key resource in the execution of your corporate or unit's Vision. Senior management positions should always be held by people with a Leadership skill set. Operations Managers can be more effective with an extensive Manager skill set.

Leading involves establishing direction.
Managing is about producing key results.

Here we have some descriptors for each:

LEADING PEOPLE	MANAGING PEOPLE
team-building	reporting
taking responsibility	monitoring
identifying the need for action	budgeting
having courage	measuring
consulting with team	applying rules and policies
giving responsibility to others	discipline
determining direction	running meetings
explaining decisions	interviewing
making painful decisions	recruiting
defining aims and objectives	counseling
being honest with people	coaching
developing strategy	problem-solving
keeping promises	decision-making
working alongside team members	mentoring
motivating others	negotiating
doing the right thing	selling and persuading
taking people with you	doing things right
developing successors	using systems
inspiring others	communicating instructions
resolving conflict	assessing performance
allowing the team to make mistakes	appraising people
taking responsibility for mistakes	getting people to do things
nurturing and growing people	formal team briefing
giving praise	responding to emails
thanking people	planning schedules
giving constructive feedback	delegating
accepting criticism and suggestions	reacting to requests
being determined	reviewing performance
acting with integrity	time management
listening	organizing resources
sharing vision with team members	implementing tactics

Leader?

2012-05-05T11:17:00.001-04:00

What is a Leader? (In other posts we will discuss a Lean Leader and Lean Leadership.) Here we want to look at the idea of a Leader and make some comparisons to a Manager and why do we need both? You can then take a look at how you perform your work function to see which position fits your style.

Definition of Leader: (from Dictionary.com)

lead·er/ˈlēdər/

Noun:

The person who leads or commands a group, organization, or country.

A person followed by others.

Synonyms:
chief - head - conductor - guide - director - captain

The Leader is the focal point of any organization. The person is responsible for a specific set of actionable items. These items are generally different for leaders and managers. Think about people you know... are they leaders or managers? Do you want to be a leader or a manager? Generally speaking there are many more managers than leaders and some people exibit characteristics of both. Organizations need both skills to be successful. Leaders do not function well as managers and managers are not able to lead as well as leaders. So what are the characteristics of a leader?

Leaders are innovative, creative and collaborative.

See Leading vs. Managing for additional information.

Where do I start? FIRST of Series

2012-05-05T10:39:00.001-04:00

How can I implement Lean Leadership principals and programs with limited or no consulting services?

So many great ideas fail because of execution, not because the idea was bad. It is the same with Lean Leadership principals and programs. There are many opportunities for success - pushing your business to new heights with record profits. There are also opportunities to add cost without seeing a return. I have seen how six-sigma programs, TQM, Leadership Programs and other processes have both helped and hindered companies. As the leader of your organization you must be sure you understand and internalize your path to success. This blog is intended to help you understand the areas to focus on, the tools needed, where to find help, and to recognize when you really do need to seek expert advise. This blog and its many posts can help you follow a path to understanding. Along the way you will learn many things, however be ever aware that few can go it alone! We can always learn from the experts and often they are the only ones who can push us along to achieve our goals. The path to "Lean Leadership" is not a walk in the park. However there are many opportunities to take advantage of principals and tools which can be implemented in a logical order over a period of time. Keep in mind that Lean Leadership is a process, not a single action. You need to start somewhere, why not here.

Training and continuous Learning are the keys to success. Everyone in the organization must be challenged constantly. Training and Learning opportunities must be made available to encourage new thinking. Implementing the ideas in this blog along with support and training where needed will get you on your way to success with limited costs. Try for some small successes before taking on a complete culture or organization change. Look for some 'quick fixes' to use as learning opportunities.

The main thing is not to take on too much until you and your organization have a solid foundation in the process tools you will use. There are so many "tools" out there that you can get lost in the process. Be careful when hiring consultants to help you. Many of them are great and are really there to help... because they enjoy seeing people and companies succeed. However, others are there to just generate cash flow for themselves or their company. There are many one or two person consultation groups out there at very reasonable costs to work with you. These individuals will have a personal, vested interest in your success. Give the 'new guy or the lone consultant' a chance to provide you with the services you need. These folks often have very reasonable daily/hourly rates that can be one half of the big guys rates and will provide focused results. They will not have all the fancy 'glossies' but will have the knowledge.

Try out some of the principals and processes outlined in this blog such as those shown on pages:

These pages will link you to many other posts that will show you the path! It is also important to review many of the archived posts and subscribe to this blog to get the latest posts on your path to success.

Also see:
Where do I Start? SECOND
Where do I Start? THIRD

Lean?

2012-05-03T11:50:00.001-04:00

What do you think of when you hear the word lean? Lean muscle? Lean meat? Lean protein? Lean cuisine? Lean manufacturing? Lean leadership? Since this is a blog about Visions of Leadership you should have thought of Lean Leadership. A lean body and lean leadership have a lot in common. Like the guy pictured, this is how you should visualize your business - lean, muscular, agile, strong ethics, handsome. This picture represents your customer's expectations of your business - value, stability, flexible, integrity, great image.

So let's look at how lean is being applied.

What is the meaning of the word lean?
What is meant by this term in business?
Why is it in use today?
Why associate it with leadership?

The word lean has a number of meanings. It can refer to 'moving toward', as in she is leaning toward this candidate. It can refer to something which is tilted, like a tree or building is leaning. However in the case of business processes it seems to refer to thin, sparse, to-the-point, minimum, no waste, only what is needed, pure, like lean muscle!

The word lean would seem to take on the meaning - that only the essential elements are to be considered and utilized, that there is no waste, no fat in the approach to manufacturing processes or recently in terms of leadership.

It has become fashionable today ( and essential to stay competitive) to think in terms of lean methods, or to adapt many of the processes pioneered in Japan to your business. The lean process used by Toyota Motor Company focused on the customers needs and desires, which in turn required a re-think of how things were manufactured to allow for more variety, lower cost, and fast changeovers. As with everything in life... overindulgence can produce unpredicted outcomes such as Toyota recently faced. The focus on the customer must be maintained. As Toyota moved from total customer focus to a focus on becoming the largest car manufacturer in the world they missed the point. By staying focused on the customer they would still have achieved the 'world title' it just may have taken a little longer. Most car buyers want zero failure, stylish cars that meet their transportation and/or psychological needs. If you provide cars with the customer's need in mind better than any other car manufacturer you will become the the number one car manufacturing company. Toyota only went a little bit astray but it cost them billions to correct.

The lean concept has moved from the manufacturing process to the management/leadership process over the years due to the need for a new kind of leadership approach to business. Lean manufacturing requires 'out-of-the-box' thinking to be successful. It requires managers with special skills to see and effectively lead a lean organization's ongoing changes needed to stay competitive. Lean in terms of leadership refers to a focus on the key elements of personnel styles, traits, and needs to effectively motivate personnel and maintain the focus on the company's goals. It is a - 'just what is needed'; 'just enough'; 'at just the right time'; and an 'agile and flexible' approach. In other words a to-the-point, consistent, and supportive approach to leading.

Look for additional posts that provide more insight into each of the areas outlined here. Follow this blog to obtain the latest posts on the subjects you need to incorporate lean into your business operations.

Mission Statement(s)

2012-05-01T10:30:00.000-04:00

Your mission is the nuts and bolts of your vision. A mission statement concerns what an organization is all about.

It answers three questions:

What do we do?
For whom do we do it?
What is the benefit?

A mission statement gives the overall purpose of an organization, while a vision statement describes a picture of the desired future. Your mission statement explains what you do, for whom, and what is the benefit. The vision statement describes how the future will look if the you achieve your mission!

An example:
"We build the finest castles for the world's billionaires. Our castles are eco-friendly, made out of all natural materials and meet all local energy conservation standards. We strive to mazimize our client's return as much as possible while taking into account all possible threats ."

The differences:

Vision: Defines where the organization wants to be in the future. It reflects the optimistic view of the organization's future.
Mission: Defines where the organization is going now, basically describing the purpose, why this organization exits.
Values: Main values protected by the organization during the progression, reflecting the organization's culture and priorities.
Strategic Planning: Saves wasted time, every minute spent in planning saves ten minutes in execution.

Vision Statement

2012-04-30T11:05:00.001-04:00

Vision statements can be a few words or a paragraph. It is advisable to keep the statement as short as possible so everyone in the organization can internalize it. This is perhaps the most significant statement a management team can make to inspire everyone to stay true to the company's identity. This can also apply to a division, a team, a department, etc. Vision statements apply equally to companies, government entities and non-profits, as well as, individuals.

"Blue skying it" is important. Your vision is an idealized state for your company. It is the view of what you want for the future and encompasses your mission, values, goals, and objectives. It is what the organization wants to become. If possible, try to summarize your vision using a powerful phrase in the first paragraph of your vision statement. This will enhance the effectiveness of your vision statement. Vision statements also define the organizations purpose in terms of the organization's values rather than bottom line measures. The vision statement communicates both the purpose and values of the organization. A vision statement describes how the future will look if the organization achieves it's mission. (See Mission )

A couple examples:

Microsoft's vision: "A personal computer in every home running Microsoft software."
Centers for Disease Control vision: "Healthy People in a Healthy World."

Or this one:

Renssalaer Research Libraries: "As Rensselaer moves towards its goal of achieving prominence as a top-tier world class technological research university, the Libraries' vision is to support the Rensselaer Plan by providing seamless access to the widest possible spectrum of information resources relevant to Rensselaer's research and learning communities and to be a distinctive campus facility serving a variety of community needs."

I find this one wordy... to me it is way to hard to remember and too convoluted to be internalized easily. In my opinion a potentially better vision statement is actually buried in the preceding paragraph. The other 'stuff' can be in the mission and goal statements. A statement such as the following would seem to convey the same meaning and impact and be more memorable...

Renssalaer Research Libraies' vision: "Seamless access to the widest possible spectrum of relevant information resources."

The key to a successful and relevant Vision Statement is brainstorming what you want to be when you grow up! What is possible and what is in line with your products and capabilities.

The differences:

Vision: Defines where the organization wants to be in the future. It reflects the optimistic view of the organization's future.
Mission: Defines where the organization is going now, basically describing the purpose, why this organization exits.
Values: Main values protected by the organization during the progression, reflecting the organization's culture and priorities.
Strategic Planning: Saves wasted time, every minute spent in planning saves ten minutes in execution.

Translation of a Vision into Results

2012-04-28T14:07:00.001-04:00

The translation of your Vision Statement into actual business results requires diligence, focus, project management, and desire. If you just have a fancy vision statement without a strong commitment to support it then you have the wrong vision statement for your company (department, etc.) or you are not serious about what your vision is. Your employees and customers will quickly become disalusioned. You and everyone around you must have a passion to succeed.

Lean Leadership Translation of a Vision into Results...

See other posts for additional information:
- Focus for Success
- Vision Statement
- Mission Statements
- Objective - objectives
- Meaningful Success Factors
- Competitive Advantage
- Strategic Actions
- Key Performance Indicators

Focus on Success

2012-04-28T09:34:00.001-04:00

In order to achieve Business Success you must follow new roads. You must aggressively focus on four areas ALL the time. New ideas - new roads - must always be followed. You must be organized with an eye to the future while managing your processes.

FOCUS on:

Customers and Markets
Internal Processes
Innovation
Employees

To ACHIEVE:

Volume Growth
Margin Growth
Optimization of Invested Capital

By UTILIZATION of:

Lean Leadership
Lean Manufacturing
Six Sigma
TQM
Project Management

Path to Lean Leadership

2012-04-27T11:25:00.001-04:00

Lean Leadership has its foundation in programs that have been developing since the 1960's. During the late seventies and eighties quality became a corporate priority. Then during the nineties six sigma methodologies started to be introduced around the world. The six sigma methodologies were comprised of many other tools from TQM and process management, along with the concept of controlling defects to 6-sigma standards. Today Lean Leadership is a management process focusing on people utilizing old and new process tools.

A Vision of Leadership

Mentoring

Objective - objectives

Business Quote - 2

Leadership

Business Quotes - 1

Change Drivers - Quality Issue Resolution

This is an example of a Change Driver Process - Improved Quality

The objectives are: Short Term - Eliminate the quality shortfalls seen by the customers.

Long Term - Re-establish the company's leadership status

Focus Area One is the initial action items for the "Vice President of Processes" or Process Leader.

Focus Area Two are The Customers.

Focus Area Three is Quality.

Focus Area Four is The Plant.

Focus Area Five is The IT Infrastructure and Systems.

Tools - 5"S" (Workplace Organization)

Sorting (Seiri)

Stabilizing or Straightening Out (Seiton)

Sweeping or Shining (Seiso)

Standardizing (Seiketsu)

Sustaining the Practice (Shitsuke)

Causes of Failure for Change Drivers within the Business Infrastructure

Causes of Failure within the Change Driver Process

Change Drivers for Organizational Innovation

The 10 Customer Facing Characteristics of 21st Century Businesses

Where do I Start? THIRD of Series

Competitive Advantages - What? How? Knowing?

Where do I Start? SECOND of Series

Meaningful Success Factors

Castles, Customers, & Leaders

Leading vs. Managing

Leader?

lead·er/ˈlēdər/

Where do I start? FIRST of Series

Lean?

Mission Statement(s)

Vision Statement

Translation of a Vision into Results

Focus on Success

Path to Lean Leadership