Some 40 industry professionals led by company owner-operators shared ideas in a TRSA virtual roundtable July 27 to guide general managers in ensuring the effectiveness of their direct reports. They recounted experiences identifying middle managers they promoted or hired, and reviewed tactics that such successful leaders have practiced that kept employees productive and happy.

A McKinsey & Co. document, “What Is Leadership?” guided the idea exchange, positing that traditional management, if not dead, is dying. In today’s labor force, the industry faces fierce competition for lower-paid workers, putting operations who emphasize command and control tactics at a disadvantage. McKinsey, the $15-billion worldwide consultant to corporations and government, espouses replacing these with “servant leadership.”

According to this concept, leaders maintain a strong results orientation while focusing on how to make lives of their team members easier – physically, cognitively and emotionally. Managers display more empathy, compassion, vulnerability, gratitude, self-awareness and self-care.

Roundtable participants recalled how they suspected employees could perform as such and gave these budding leaders the opportunity to prove it. McKinsey describes such opportunities as “placescapes” – novel experiences, like exploring wilderness trails, practicing performing arts or writing poetry. “Generally, developing leaders is about creating contexts where there is sufficient psychological safety in combination with enough novelty and unfamiliarity to cultivate new leadership practices in response to stimuli,” the consultant says.

Participants were urged to consider using TRSA’s new LevelUp program for such leadership development. This series of digital sessions, or cohorts, unites a group of supervisors for three months of interaction to prepare them to rise to the next level of management. Among the topics they work on are communication, motivation, organization, problem-solving, decision-making, performance management, conflict resolution and coaching.

As the first cohort draws to a close, most students have completed the final training module and are about to finish their final action assignment, proposing a tweak or minor modification to their plant or operation. The next cohort is scheduled to start after Labor Day on Sept. 5 and will last 90 days.

Another chance for GMs to empower one of their direct reports: sending production managers to the 2024 iterations of the Production Summit and Plant Tours. There these professionals can join peers on panel presentations discussing their recent everyday challenges. GMs whose facilities are local to the following cities or would fly their PMs there can contact Salita Jones to recommend them for the Summit panels on these scheduled dates:

  • Las Vegas, Jan. 25
  • Milwaukee, May 1
  • Newark, NJ, Oct. 15

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