Using “The Four Cs of Leadership” to Take Yourself From Manager to Leader

What’s the difference between a manager and a true leader? In his experience as a corporate trainer and speaker, recent Mindfulness Manufacturing podcast guest Dr. Andy Nellie has found four characteristics that make the difference between a leader and a manager—and they all begin with C!

#1: Character

If you want to be a good leader, you first have to be a good person. If you show up on the manufacturing floor every day and exhibit bad management or negative behavior, like blowing up at your team over small issues, you’ll quickly lose the respect and goodwill of your team. You’ll show you’re not a person people want to work with, which can lead to low productivity, high turnover, and an unhappy work environment. On the other hand, a leader with good character can inspire their team, set a powerful example, and create an organization where everyone feels valued and empowered.

#2: Conviction

Even for leaders with great character traits, leadership isn’t always a walk in the park. Being a leader means stepping up to daily challenges, whether it’s delivering tough feedback to an employee or shifting your mindset to tackle an issue on the floor. As a strong leader, you need to have the conviction to step up and face challenges with bravery and curiosity. It’s your responsibility to take care of issues and look out for the bottom line of your organization, even when it means having hard conversations or taking steps to improve your own mindset or behavior.

#3: Competence

As a leader, you represent the rest of your team. This means you should always put your best foot forward. For example, if your team sees you shunning challenges instead of stepping up to overcome them, they might start to doubt your competent and confidence as a leader. Showing competence is also especially important when it comes to helping your team members grow and thrive. If you write off a team member as unfixable, you lose your ability to act as a leader for them. But if you make a decision—whether that decision is to help them grow or let them go—it proves you’re willing to lead, rather than sit back and manage.

#4: Covenant

Many leaders love to say their team is like their family. But while it is important to show support and respect for your team, you still have a commitment to production goals, profits, and the outward facing responsibilities of your organization. Since a family doesn’t have outward facing goals, this means an organization is never technically a “family,” according to Dr. Andy’s podcast. However, you can still form bonds with your team and show your appreciation—and commitment to them—by offering genuine feedback, extending grace after mistakes, and giving them the support, they need to grow.

Learn More on the Podcast

To hear more stories and insights from Dr. Andy Neillie, listen to his 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