Three Questions for Manufacturing a Sexy 2025
Just like that, 2025 is rolling! Did you make any resolutions for the new year? More and more, I hear less about resolutions—and maybe for a good reason! While many people like to start the new year with big, bold resolutions, most people falter early in the year. January 19th has been declared the unofficial … Read More
Why Judgement is Poison—and How to Find the Antidote
Judgement is like a poison. When you jump to judgmental or defensive conclusions about a team member’s performance or attitude, it can affect and corrupt your leadership and your entire organization. It might even eventually spread to create a culture of disconnected, low morale, and high turn-over. The Problem with Judgement: A Case Study In … Read More
How Deepening Trust and Building Curiosity Takes Teams from Good to Great
As Jim Collins describes in his book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t, the companies that thrive are the ones that work together. When teams are united, there’s stronger communications and decreased disconnect. This leads to better productivity, increased morale, and an overall better flow on the floor and … Read More
Your Guide to Finding the Curiosity Advantage
Imagine you come into your plant on a Monday morning and find that your team only completed half of the work they were supposed to complete. What would you think or say? You might immediately jump to negative and judgmental thoughts like: What a disaster! Someone should have raised the flag. This is going to … Read More
Three Actions for Navigating Setbacks and Building Resilience
Have you recently encountered a challenge or setback? You’re not alone! Throughout our lives, we all experience struggles and adversity. This includes career setbacks, like getting passed up for a big promotion or underperforming in a meeting, as well as personal challenges like a scary medical diagnosis or a breakup with a partner. I know … Read More
Manufacture Your Own Greatness: 3 Lessons From Our New Name
Last month, we made a big announcement: Operations Kickstart is now Manufacturing Greatness! This new name symbolizes our mission of guiding manufacturing teams into greatness by bridging disconnect, fostering curious dialogues, and sharing the tools for finding stronger leadership and more productive outcomes. Are you ready to manufacture greatness in your own organization? Here are … Read More
Welcome to Manufacturing Greatness: The 3 Reasons Behind Our New Name
Operations Kickstart is now Manufacturing Greatness! After years of helping manufacturing organizations combat disconnect by connecting the top to the shop floor, my team and I are excited to keep up the same work under a new name. Why The Change? While change can be scary and uncomfortable, this shift felt right for three big … Read More
Lessons Learned from 100 Episodes of Mindfulness Manufacturing
Winning starts with small steps! If you want to climb a mountain or run a marathon, you can’t get there just by thinking about the peak or the finish line. You have to put in the time, establish a routine, and put one foot in front of the other in your path toward success. This … Read More
The First Steps for Creating Must-Read Content
The First Steps for Creating Must-Read Content I recently had a blast doing a speaking event for the Louisville Society of Human Resources, and I credit much of my success to the hours I spent writing and preparing my speech. Before this event, I wasn’t the biggest fan of preparing, but as I worked on … Read More
How to Use a Personal Development Plan to Elevate Your Leadership
“How do I reduce turnover in my organization?” “Why do I keep losing my best team members to the competition?” “How do I grow the skills I need to inspire and guide my team?” As a leader in a manufacturing organization, questions like these might weigh on your mind every day. But you might struggle … Read More
Same Old, Same Old—Or Is It?!
An Everyday Reminder of Impermanence Earlier this month, I stayed at a hotel while I helped a client. After a few days, I built up a bit of a rapport with the manager working in the lobby. As I walked into the hotel one day, I asked her how her day was going. “Same old, … Read More
Three Steps for Staying Curious
In a recent article, I talked about why curiosity is a real superpower on the manufacturing floor. Even when a leader has great intentions or productive feedback, they may struggle to communicate with their team if they don’t have a curious mindset. Stay Curious or Shut Down Conversations?: A Case Study For example, look at … Read More
Your Team Doesn’t Need a Superhero: Why Empathy and Curiosity are the Real Superpowers
Who doesn’t love feeling like a superhero?! As a leader in the manufacturing industry, it feels great to be able to swoop in to solve a problem, offer a new solution, and get productive results. However, your team doesn’t always need a superhero. Oftentimes, what they need is an empathetic, curious leader who focus on … Read More
Good Intentions, Wrong Outcome: Stop Focusing on Changing behavior and inspire changes in thinking
“Put on your own mask before assisting others.” If you’ve recently been on a plane, you probably heard this phrase during the pre-flight safety instructions. If there is an emergency that requires oxygen masks, you’re encouraged to put on your own oxygen masks before helping others. If you lose consciousness from a lack of oxygen, … Read More
Creating a Stronger, Safer Culture: The Basics of Psychological Safety
On the manufacturing floor, you probably take steps to protect your employees from physical harm, like offering safety training on certain equipment or having clearly marked emergency exits. But are you doing enough to ensure psychological safety for your team, too? What Is Psychological Safety? The term “psychological safety” was first coined by Harvard business … Read More
Three Questions for Changing Behavior
On the manufacturing floor, there are always going to be dozens of different, diverse personalities. When people with different—or even conflicting—personalities need to engage with each other, and it can cause conflicts that drain the energy of the team, create frustration, and lead to low productivity or high turnover. However, it’s still possible for a … Read More
Connection Before Trust: The First Step is an Inside Job!
“My team just has too much connection!” Throughout my years of coaching and advising manufacturing leaders, this isn’t a statement I often hear. In fact, it’s usually the exact opposite. When there is a disconnect between leaders and their teams, it leads to communication challenges, poor culture, halted productivity, and a lack of trust throughout … Read More
Out the Window or Through the Mirror: Where You Should Look to Drive Productive Outcomes
When you have a big success as a leader, it’s all too easy to pat yourself on the back, congratulate yourself on a job well done, and take all the credit. On the flip side, it’s also incredibly easy to blame others at the first sign of trouble. If you find yourself taking credit for … Read More
Growing Your Mindset: The Steps it Does—and Doesn’t—Take
The Barriers to a Growth Mindset In a book I read recently, I learned more about the two types of mindsets: growth mindsets and fixed mindsets. It got me thinking about the importance of being opened minded, but how open-mindedness alone isn’t always enough to set you up for success. It can actually cause you … Read More
When Results Make You a Believer — Improving Your Culture, Part 3
“Emotional intelligence” has become a buzzword lately. With a growing emphasis on culture and shortages of supply of our talented workplace, curiosity about emotional intelligence is likely to grow. An interest in emotional intelligence is probably why you opened this article, so let’s dive back into our series on emotional intelligence and how it helped … Read More
3 Key Steps to Getting Your Team Engaged — Improving Your Culture, Part 2
Great, you have an indication that the culture you want to be working in is not what you desire. Congratulations, you can’t fix what you are not willing to expose, and it sounds like you have the first step well on your way! That is the first step, having data to start with. … Read More
The Emotional Culture Index – Improving Your Culture, Part 1
Do you know how your staff really feels about you, or wonder what you can do to retain great staff and attract new employees? There’s now a simple way to measure that! You may have a feeling or opinion about what your employees think of you, but what you see or think might not align … Read More
What To Know Before Beginning Executive Coaching
If you’re considering executive coaching, here are a few things that will simplify your decision-making process! Pain and Permission When I was certified with the Center of Executive Coaching many years ago, I learned—the hard way!—that there are two key elements that are required for successful executive coaching engagement: pain and permission. What Does Pain … Read More
Why No One Listens To You—and How To Change That With The Coach Approach
When you’re driving your car and a passenger is giving you directions—like turn left, take this exit, get in this lane, and turn right when we pass that old orange brick church—do you think you’ll remember how to get there by yourself next time? Heck no! Now, consider driving to the same location by yourself … Read More
There’s No Crying in Frames: Why Leaving Your Emotions at the Door Doesn’t Work
“There’s no crying in baseball!” Thanks to the 1992 movie A League of Their Own, where Tom Hanks plays a coach for an all-women’s baseball team, this quote has become famous and even came in at number 54 on the American Film Institute’s list of top 100 movie quotes. Like many others, I found the … Read More
Your Safe Has a Back Door: I Sealed Mine and You Can Too
When someone trusts you enough to tell you top secret information, it drives the connection we crave in relationships and confirms that others like us. But how do you know what you should or should not share? When it is gossip and ego urging us to impress others with what we know versus being authentic … Read More
Have You Been Riding your Emotional Waves or Tumbling into the Surf?
I got some news I was not expecting that put me on the emotional surfboard and I went for a ride! Not the fun kind, the more distracting and uncomfortable kind; like a rollercoaster you really did not want to go on, and once it started, you just wanted off. If you work in manufacturing, … Read More
The “Who, What and Why” of Productive Meetings
I am busy, lots of meetings, can’t get anything done! A surefire way to know a drastic change is needed. There was a standard production meeting in comfy chairs that usually ran over an hour every day. We had lots of data to review and had interesting discussions on what happened the previous day and … Read More
Does Emotional Intelligence Improve Safety?
Results from one large manufacturer bear further study. Trevor Blondeel JAN 08, 2020 At the 2019 Genos Annual Global Conference in Hawaii, participants from 17 different countries heard speakers around the theme of “Emotional Intelligence in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.” I was surprised to find that a session on the relationship between emotional intelligence … Read More
How are You Showing Up?
Turn Missed Targets into Better Results with Feedback. It was a typical day in high-volume manufacturing. Our $100 million+, 300-person operation had a new task at hand, one that needed to be completed right away. To get it done, I gathered the leadership team together and explained the task that we needed to accomplish. I … Read More
A Kickstart Edge for the New Year
One of my mentors Brian suggested I check out this guy Andrew Neitlich and his Center for Executive Coaching to build on my 3 Cs; Competency, Credibility, and Confidence. It exceeded my expectations and put me into turbo drive! First of all, Andrew is a unique coach and trainer, and I learned an incredible amount … Read More
Breaking the Golden Handcuffs
I didn’t even know I had them on. Just over a year ago, a recruiter called me about a very interesting opportunity which could have been a good fit. Through the conversation, we discussed what my salary was at that time. He sensed my concern in what the future position compensated. He then said to … Read More
‘I Believe In You’, and 4 Key points That Make it Real
A man almost lost his career and confidence in himself. My direct influence was pushing him one way or another. We may not be saving lives on the operating table, but I know we are shaping one’s worth. It takes two: Leader and the student; both have to have the courage to bounce back. I … Read More
Put Some Windex On It
Put some Windex on it; it will fix anything. Spending time with my wife means watching a lot of romantic comedies. It’s because she wants to watch them and I am so supportive. Honest. My Big Fat Greek Wedding has become one of my favourites of the genre. Gus Portokalos, the father of the bride … Read More
My Lean Journey Derailed, Here is How I am Getting Things Back on Track
It’s hard to believe I’ve spent twenty years in the automotive industry. For the last eight, I’ve held senior leadership positions in: Logistics, Material Planning, Trucking, Internal Material flow, Engineering, Maintenance, and Operations. And I never had a clue what I was doing. We had started doing great things before the financial crisis of 2008. … Read More