LEAN: New Approach, New Leadership Style
With the LEAN approach, organizations of any size in any industry can implement change more easily, overcome complex and unexpected problems, optimize workflow to maximize quality and minimize interruptions, and much more.
Moving from a traditional approach to a LEAN one certainly involves the company changing its methods.
Find out more in our article, LEAN Management: How Does It Improve Your Business? It covers the 5 key principles of continuous improvement, as well as 4 proven methodologies that are among the most widely used.
However, the transformation isn’t limited to work. Implementing LEAN principles also requires management to change their leadership style.
Supervisors become trainers and coaches.
Managers become inspiring role models.
It’s a whole new mindset and a different way of leading!
What distinguishes the LEAN leadership style? Let’s find out.
LEAN leaders promote transparency
LEAN leaders who practise candid communication openly share information about the company’s mission, vision, values, objectives, performance, and obstacles. Transparency supports an environment where everyone is informed and understands their role and the impact of their work.
LEAN leaders get information right from the source
While productivity and profitability reports still have their place, when it comes to getting accurate information, there’s nothing quite like asking the right people. LEAN managers seek out customer opinions to better understand their needs and use the feedback to improve the company’s products or services.
They also regularly spend time on the ground observing the operations first-hand and talking to employees in an effort to understand their situation and the challenges they’re facing.
LEAN leaders coach more than they lead
Like coaches, LEAN leaders rally their team around a common goal. That goal guides every effort and every decision.
It also fosters team autonomy and empowerment by encouraging team members to solve problems on their own and take initiative, rather than simply following orders. LEAN leaders provide advice and direction when the situation requires, but they mainly rely on their team’s skills, knowledge, and experience to achieve the goals that have been set.
LEAN leaders foster an environment of continuous improvement
There are many ways to create a climate that’s conducive to continuous improvement, including asking questions to provoke reflection or open up new possibilities, supporting the team when they test a solution, celebrating improvements in performance and processes, and encouraging learning from failures.
LEAN leaders also provide their employees with the tools they need to succeed. These might be Kanban boards to easily visualize the progress of tasks and bottlenecks or daily stand-up meetings to discuss the status of a project, current or anticipated problems, and solutions.stand-up meeting) to discuss the progress of a project, current or anticipated problems and possible solutions.
Clearly, implementing the LEAN approach in a company inevitably leads to a change in leadership style. In their ongoing quest for operational excellence, LEAN managers become true leaders and sources of inspiration for their team.
Are you in the process of implementing the LEAN approach in your organization? Do your management team members need guidance to learn the new skills required to become LEAN leaders? The experts at the Bernard Gagnon Group are here to support you every step of the way.
