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Question Of The Month
Why does being values- rather than needs-driven as a leader matter?
Answer: There are two reasons why being values- rather than needs-driven is of paramount importance to the leadership of any enterprise.
Firstly there is a relationship between being values- versus needs-driven and TRUST IN MANAGEMENT.
Improving Employee Trust And Maintaining Customer Service Even As A Manufacturing Site Is Being Closed – ‘Last Shift, Best Shift’
By 2020, technology advances in automotive catalyst manufacturing, and competition from lower-cost new plants in other countries, resulted in one of the first plants to have produced the catalysts in the UK becoming uncompetitive. The whole sector was moving from growth to value. This prompted a new strategy from the UK company which involved the phased closure of one of its legacy plants.
For site management, a particular challenge given the length of the ramp-down, was how to make the phased closure as positive an experience as possible for employees, and how to maintain or even improve service to customers.
Leaders Get The People They Deserve
The statement, “In a democracy every nation has the government it deserves”, originally attributed to Joseph de Maistre (1976), is true. Those with voting rights choose or elect those who run the country. If the people become unhappy with their choice they can make a different selection in a subsequent election.
Society Needs To Choose – Safety Culture Or Blame Game
Over the past several months we have seen multiple conflicts between aircraft landing and taking off, and what seems like almost daily railroad train accidents.
The head-on collision of two trains in Greece resulted in immediate public protests and a rail station manager being arrested for manslaughter – all before the wreckage was removed. After a close runway incident in the US, an official responded to a media onslaught by saying, “I can assure the people our system is safe,” without explaining how.
Hearings have already yielded posturing by officials and calls for better safety cultures. Once again, we heard the question, “If safety is the number one priority, why hasn’t this already been done?”
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Question Of The Month
By Wendy Lambourne, Director, Legitimate Leadership.
Question: Why does being values- rather than needs-driven as a leader matter?
Answer: There are two reasons why being values- rather than needs-driven is of paramount importance to the leadership of any enterprise.
Firstly there is a relationship between being values- versus needs-driven and TRUST IN MANAGEMENT. When management compromises on what is the right thing to do in order to confirm their own interests, this becomes immediately apparent to their people. They instantly conclude that management is self-serving and as such can’t be trusted.
Conversely, when management contradicts their self-interest in order to do the right thing, they are experienced as sincere. Their people see them as values- rather than needs-driven, and therefore trust them.
Secondly the choices that leaders make, to be values- rather than needs-driven or the opposite, set the EXAMPLE for those down the line to follow. Organisations are ultimately a reflection of those at the top of the organisation. When those at the top do the right thing, those down the line follow suit. When those at the top pursue their own interests they cultivate the conditions whereby everybody is in it for themselves and, inevitably, values are compromised.
For an organisation to be values-driven requires those at the top to exemplify or role model the values. It also requires that there are positive consequences for those who live the values and negative consequences for those who don’t. Unless there are consequences, the organisation will never be values-driven, no matter how many values workshops people attend.
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Case Study: Improving Employee Trust And Maintaining Customer Service Even As A Manufacturing Site Is Being Closed – ‘Last Shift, Best Shift’
By Sean Hagger, formerly General Manager of the site; now a Legitimate Leadership Associate.
By 2020, technology advances in automotive catalyst manufacturing, and competition from lower-cost new plants in other countries, resulted in one of the first plants to have produced the catalysts in the UK becoming uncompetitive. The whole sector was moving from growth to value. This prompted a new strategy from the UK company which involved the phased closure of one of its legacy plants.
For site management, a particular challenge given the length of the ramp-down, was how to make the phased closure as positive an experience as possible for employees, and how to maintain or even improve service to customers.
In March 2020 the Covid-19 pandemic, which mandated lockdowns throughout the UK, as well as managing complications caused by Brexit, did nothing to improve matters.
The UK plant had been one of the first two sites to start manufacturing catalysts for the automotive industry and some sections of it were 20 years old. The productivity gap between n
Approximately 900 people were working at the site. It produced a complex product mix with over 600 different products over 15 work centres which included primary and secondary manufacturing processes. It also shared the whole site with the European Technology Centre for the same sector and two other business units for different sectors, as well as the global headquarters for the business.
Given the site’s proximity to the technology centre, it was used to receive new products and processes and had become a pilot plant of sorts. As the manufacturing of catalyst became better understood the site had gradually been left behind over the past 10 years as more modern sites were built globally. The site’s diverse mix of products and ageing facilities had sent costs and efficiencies in the wrong direction.
READ THE FULL CASE STUDY BY CLICKING HERE
Article: Leaders Get The People They Deserve
By Wendy Lambourne, Director, Legitimate Leadership.
The statement, “In a democracy every nation has the government it deserves”, originally attributed to Joseph de Maistre (1976), is true. Those with voting rights choose or elect those who run the country. If the people become unhappy with their choice they can make a different selection in a subsequent election.
The same cannot however be said to apply in the case of those in positions of authority in organisations. This is simply because, in the majority of organisations anyway, managers are appointed not elected. Employees therefore cannot be blamed or congratulated for the calibre of those in charge. But leaders absolutely should take responsibility for the nature and characteristics of their workforce.
One way to describe people at work is simply as “givers” or “takers”.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE BY CLICKING HERE
Article: Society Needs To Choose – Safety Culture Or Blame Game
By Tom Lintner, President & CEO, The Aloft Group.
COMMENT ON THIS ARTICLE, BY WENDY LAMBOURNE, LEGITIMATE LEADERSHIP: Tom Lintner has synthesised 50 years of experience of safety in the transport industry in this thought-provoking article. Two things stick out for me. First, you can have a blame culture or a safety culture, but not both. Second, a safety culture depends on the four human (not system) qualities of trust, honesty, fairness and accuracy.
THE ARTICLE: It took 50 years to write this article – or perhaps 50 years of aviation experience watching how we respond to accidents – to form opinions about society’s actions when things go seriously wrong. This article presents an unscientific view of the human behavior that works against safety. It offers no solutions, but introduces sensitive topics that need honest discussion in the interest of enhancing safety for all.
My first, and strongest opinion is that, except for a small number of dedicated people, most of society does not prioritize safety because they never think it will happen to them – until seconds after a disaster when they realize there are things that should and could have been done to keep the smoke from rising and quiet the screams in their head that they will never stop hearing.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE BY CLICKING HERE