Do Your Actions as a Leader Reflect Your Intentions?
Aug 7, 2019
I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
Be aware of how you present yourself to others, and things are less likely to blow up in your face. Have you ever been on the receiving end of a tirade from a superior? Remember that feeling of delation and defeat? Do you even remember what was said? Most likely not. Leadership can often get lost in the translation of these kinds of emotional outbursts.
Think about it: does an "iron fist" approach really motivate your employees and transform them into more productive and fulfilled human beings? Of course not. Let's use a Manufacturing Leadership Model to discuss a better way of getting your point across as a safety leader. It starts with the Leader. The highest level of the organization turns the main gear on the model shown here, and that affects the rest of the organization. If that gear blows out, the rest of the model shuts down. Is your temperament causing you to literally blow a gasket on the whole machine?
Next, consider your actions.
It was 11 p.m. one Friday. I was 25 years old, just out of university, running an onsite logistics service at Ford Motor Company. One of my main responsibilities as a supervisor was to ensure all parts arrived on time and that the lines were not at risk of shutting down because they were late.
On this fateful evening, the manufacturer who was producing the seats for the cars got behind and we had some confusion among our own truck drivers. We were within minutes of the line shutting down. As I stood anxiously waiting for the seats, the night superintendent took notice. Hardened by 30 years of experience, he was not a guy you wanted to mess with! He proceeded to give it to me while the line waited for the seats to plod down the conveyor, ever so slowly.
I have no idea what he was yelling at me, not a clue, even then. What I can remember from that night is his foot going up and down while he was talking at me, stomping on the concrete floor as each word seemed to get louder and louder.
I will never forget how deflated and defeated I felt.
I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
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Trevor Blondeel | Aug 07, 2019 - It was 11 p.m. one Friday. I was 25 years old, just out of university, running an onsite logistics service at Ford Motor Company. One of my main responsibilities as a supervisor was to ensure all parts arrived on time and that the lines were not at risk of shutting down because they were late.
On this fateful evening, the manufacturer who was producing the seats for the cars got behind and we had some confusion among our own truck drivers. We were within minutes of the line shutting down. As I stood anxiously waiting for the seats, the night superintendent took notice. Hardened by 30 years of experience, he was not a guy you wanted to mess with! He proceeded to give it to me while the line waited for the seats to plod down the conveyor, ever so slowly.
I have no idea what he was yelling at me, not a clue, even then. What I can remember from that night is his foot going up and down while he was talking at me, stomping on the concrete floor as each word seemed to get louder and louder.
