We can start by taking a look at the confidence levels of the front line leaders responsible for interacting with most of the people in your organization.
The Falsehood of Confident Manufacturing Leaders Being Universal
Something that is untrue but commonly believed is that anyone in leadership must be confident in their abilities to support and develop their employees.
However, here’s what we know for sure: According to Gartner, 45% of managers do not feel confident in their ability to develop the skills employees need today.
According to Gartner, 45% of managers don't feel confident in their ability to develop the skills employees need today. Share on XThink about that.
We think everybody has what they need – that they are good to go. But many leaders themselves do not actually feel that level of confidence.
Engaging Confident Manufacturing Leaders for High Performance
We once worked with an organization whose manufacturing logistics leaders lacked in three key areas:
- Confidence levels were not high when it came to employee interaction.
- Leadership capabilities also did not have much competency or consistency.
- They created pockets of both good and weak leadership.
As a result, employees saw these inconsistencies and became doubtful of their own leadership.
Using front line leadership training, however, we increased their leaders’ confidence, competencies, and consistency. This created higher performance within the organization. That confidence level comes from knowing that you are doing the right things and doing them well consistently.
Your confidence level comes from knowing that you're doing the right things and doing them well consistently. Share on XTips on Creating Confident Manufacturing Leaders
Here are a few tips for how you can increase and create confident manufacturing leaders:
Tip Number One: Provide Training
If you are not investing in the leaders, who drive the performance of most of your employees, the question is, “Why not?” They should deliver, and they should receive some training, and it should be delivered well.
Tip Number Two: Build New Habits
We have noticed in our training is that people seem to enjoy building new habits.
Their feedback told us that they:
- Find it useful
- Look forward to it
- Recommend it
- Come back and attend it again
The difference is that training is only effective if it results in an increase or application of those skills to drive up performance.
Let us apply this to one of our programs: We recently introduced the Leader Behavior Builder. This program allows participants in our training to set a commitment.
From here, the system reminds them or nudges them for a 30-day period so they can track how well they are doing at building that new leadership habit.
All we need to do is build those new habits.
Tip Number Three: Build on Your Gains
Leadership development and training should not be a one-and-done.
Even if you do it well with an organization like ours, you will probably be like most of our clients: You start with a project and build on it because your feedback has been positive.
You also start seeing a difference in the leadership capabilities of your team. That is going to reflect in your operating performance. When you experience that kind of outcome you will want to build on and add to it.
Building on the gains through additional training sessions can give your leaders a chance to share their successes on how they are growing with one another.
How Front Line Leadership Can Build Success
If your goal is to build on your leaders’ confidence, we recommend checking out our Front Line Leadership training program. You can do that by visiting our website at uniquedevelopment.com. This is where you can see topics that form the core of our program.
It is a three-day or six half-day program. It can be delivered all at once, however, we recommend spreading it out a bit into chunks and phases so that people have a chance to develop a true mastery of these leadership skills and capabilities.
You can also connect with us on one of the many social media channels.
And once we have that conversation, you will find us to be a tremendous partner and resource in your ongoing leadership development.
One conversation can create the difference between a mediocre, less engaging organization and one that is high-performing and highly engaging.
