How Leaders Can Take Their Team From “Average” to “Amazing”

What’s the difference between an “average” team and an “amazing” one? That was the exciting question behind my recent Mindfulness Manufacturing podcast, where I was joined by my friend Dustin E. James.

Dustin shared some great stories about his past experiences, turning them into lessons leaders can use to connect with their teams, find new inspirations, and take their entire organization to the next level of greatness. Here are just a few great tips you’ll hear on the podcast.

Average to Amazing, Tip #1: What Makes Your Team Tick?

To build a healthier and stronger team, Dustin recommends leaders get to really know and understand each individual member of their team. What makes them tick? What motivates them to do a better job? What’s their goal? To find the answers like these, stay curious. Show up everyday ready to be present and connect with your team. You never know what kind of interesting answers you’ll find.

Average to Amazing, Tip #2: Your Team is Doing the Best They Can

Another way to “manufacture greatness” is to understand that sometimes, your team members are doing the best they can. Instead of immediately jumping to pushing someone to change their behavior or improve their results, take some time to understand their situation. Then, work with the team member to find the best way to move forward. This builds trust and shows empathy, plus saves energy on trying to change someone’s behavior when it might not need to be changed.

Average to Amazing, Tip #3: There’s Always a Lesson

As a leader, you and your mindset also play a role in taking your organization from average to amazing. To help leaders improve their mindset, Dustin shared a great story about a time when he was having a bad day on the job, which soon turned into a great lesson about the value of his work and made him realize his work was helping others. He uses this story to show that there’s always a lesson to be learned . . . even on the most difficult and challenging of days! As a leader, don’t be afraid to face challenges. Instead, approach them as an opportunity to learn a lesson. You just might find a new way to inspire yourself and your team.

Average to Amazing, Tip #4: Don’t Show Up to Be Second!

Above all, taking your team from average to amazing means you must show up. There will always be challenges or complications. As a leader, you need to show up every day ready to grow and inspire. By giving your best every day, you show your team they’re part of an amazing organization. This will motivate them to take their own steps to become much more than average!

Learn More on the Podcast

To hear more fascinating stories from Dustin E. James, check out his episode of the Mindfulness Manufacturing podcast here.

At Manufacturing Greatness, Trevor Blondeel works with manufacturers to connect the top to the shop floor. If you’re ready to improve your own organization, contact Trevor to learn how Manufacturing Greatness can help you build stronger leaders and develop a dynamic, high-performing workplace.

Mindfulness Manufacturing

Our show is about providing listeners with real stories that come from a place of experience, transparency, and authenticity. Most importantly it’s about what we learn from these stories and applying Mindfulness in our everyday work and personal lives.
Our intention is to create an environment where people can learn through open honest discussions on how we apply Mindfulness. Although our experiences and stories come from time in a manufacturing environment hence the title “Mindfulness Manufacturing”, we still see our discussions and topics relatable to any organization or profession.

When a mistake occurs on the plant floor, your mind might jump to one question: who caused this issue, and should I write them up for their mistake? But there’s a more productive approach you could be taking—and in this episode of Mindfulness Manufacturing, guest Dr. Jake Mazulewicz breaks it all down!

With a background as a firefighter, EMT, and military paratrooper, Jake knows the challenges of high-hazard industries, and works with organizations to reduce errors and create safer, more reliable workplace environments. In this episode, Jake shares why you can’t procedularize everything, including the way you handle errors and accidents, and offers great insights and stories about how to use connection and curiosity to improve safety, address errors, and strengthen your organization.

3:35 – Procedures and policies are the work that is imagined, and on the floor is how the work actually gets done

4:19 – The work as-done is almost always radically different than the work as-imagined

5:20 – Even when you have standards and people show up wanting to do a good job, you can still see issues that need to be addressed

6:44 – There will always be areas that absolutely need to have procedures in place

8:02 – There are also adaptive jobs, which leans less into procedures and more intro troubleshooting and tacit human knowledge

10:56 – In an ideal environment, both mechanistic and adaptive models are used and respected and needed

12:11 – There are four levels, ranging from strict procedurals to looser guidelines that show what to do, but not how to do it

15:36 – Tacit knowledge gets shared through conversations

16:22 – A way to share important information is to have frontline experts record videos sharing their insights to problems, especially those that are not covered in procedures

19:44 – Through conversation and connection, more knowledge is shared

21:58 – Debriefing also plays a central role

23:45 – If you have strong discipline, you’ll find more freedom

25:31 – In most situations, errors are signals, not defects

27:07 – When an error occurs, be curious and find the deeper cause of the problem

Connect with Jake Mazulewicz

Find him on Linkedin

Visit his website