What is the importance of leadership commitment to team-based continuous improvement success? And if it is important—and this latest episode leaves no doubt that it is—what constitutes commitment? How much is enough?
In this episode of Behind the Curtain: Adventures in Continuous Improvement, co-hosts Professor Mohamed Saleh and John Dyer delve into the characteristics that define a committed leader, one who supports and propels team-based improvement success. They also warn against long-standing hiring and promotion practices that work against developing leaders who embrace team-based continuous improvement.
One point the continuous improvement experts make early and often is that a committed leader is not the here-and-gone leader who drops in to kick off a training session or speak at the start of a kaizen event, only to disappear and think their job is done.
A committed leader “has skin in the game,” notes Saleh. Indeed, adds Dyer, the committed leader is “willing to do whatever is necessary for this to be successful, including changing yourself, changing your behavior, changing your style, changing … how you interact with others.”
The two discuss:
- The importance of guiding principles to drive desired behaviors and the need for leaders to continually reflect on whether their own behaviors align with those principles.
- Examples of guiding principles to drive team-based continuous improvement, such as respecting every individual and leading with humility.
- Age-old criteria still used by many to hire and promote “leaders”—extremely busy; exerting complete control over all their resources; making all the decisions themselves—they say are wrong for team-based organizational success.
These criteria, says Dyer, are “180 degrees different than what you just described as the characteristics of a good leader in a team based improvement.”
Stay tuned: This episode kicks off a series on the topic of leadership.
