Achieving optimal organizational performance hinges on strong leadership. On the Accelerating Operational Performance podcast, we explore the connection between leadership development and operational excellence, highlighting how they can reduce stress and drive success. Megan Barder, Head of Organizational Development at Votorantim Cementos North America (VCNA), a global building materials company known for developing its people and processes, was a recent guest.
Megan’s 15+ years in HR, with a track record of driving change and fostering excellence, offer invaluable perspectives on future-proofing people practices. Investing in leadership can directly enhance operational performance, building a resilient, high-achieving organization. You can watch the episode here or listen to it here.
The Power of Mentorship and Sponsorship
Effective leadership development often starts with mentorship. Megan highlights a pivotal early career experience where a manager became a lasting mentor, guiding her and recognizing strengths she hadn’t yet seen. This mentorship steered her toward HR, solidifying her belief in her potential. Beyond advice, mentorship includes active sponsorship. Her mentor championed her in meetings she didn’t attend, boosting her confidence and career. A particularly memorable lesson imparted by this mentor stands out to her.
“It’s nice to be important, but it’s important to be nice.”
This deeply resonated with Megan, and she says it consistently rang true in all of his communications, both in meetings and elsewhere. This adage vividly illustrates the enduring impact of a mentor’s values on their protégée’s personal and professional ethos, emphasizing both competence and character in leadership.
For organizations committed to both leadership development and operational performance, fostering an environment where leaders champion the growth of others is key. Individuals must conduct themselves and achieve results in ways that inspire others to “speak kindly of you behind closed doors.” These private conversations are often where critical decisions are made regarding “who’s ready for a new assignment, who should we consider for this?” Consequently, fostering an impression that elicits positive endorsement from at least one, if not multiple, people, is incredibly valuable for career progression. Sponsoring the growth and development of others, providing encouragement, acknowledging that professional careers involve bumps and successes, and offering steadfast support during both positive and challenging times will help sustain individuals on their developmental journey.
Key Takeaway: Early career mentorship and active sponsorship are crucial for building an individual’s confidence and shaping their professional trajectory.
Strategy: Organizations should cultivate an environment where current leaders champion the growth of others, fostering positive endorsements and providing consistent support for sustained developmental journeys.
Impact: Such support solidifies belief in one’s capabilities, drives career progression, and ultimately bolsters operational performance by ensuring a continuous pipeline of developed talent.
Global Leadership: Navigating Cross-Cultural Development
Operating globally integrates diverse cultures and work methods, presenting opportunities and challenges for leadership development. Megan shared a success story: building a global career path for their technology team. This required navigating diverse cultural perspectives to create a unified framework, which, in turn, impacted global operational performance.
The challenge was unifying cultural values for one way forward. Agreeing on a job title, for instance, can vary across regions. Success stemmed from a deep understanding of “what was important to them” across cultures, facilitating discussions to find solutions that fit everybody together. The result was an amazing global career path, achieved with hard work and respect. Effective global leadership demands cultural intelligence and collaborative problem-solving to align diverse teams.
Managing talent across borders requires understanding “culturally relevant” operating methods. Megan referenced Geert Hofstede’s work on cultural organizations, which provides a deep dive into different regions and their respective operations. Recognizing these distinctions before critical conversations enables leaders to facilitate discussions with cultural nuances in mind. A direct communication style that is effective in one culture may be perceived as disrespectful in another, thereby impacting feedback and operational performance. Tailoring talent management to local contexts is crucial for successful leadership development in a global enterprise, ensuring that initiatives are effectively adopted across diverse teams to achieve cohesive global performance.
Key Takeaway: Developing effective global leadership requires profound cultural intelligence to unify diverse values and operating methods for cohesive worldwide operational performance.
Strategy: Leaders must have a deep understanding and respect for varying cultural perspectives, leveraging resources such as Hofstede’s work, to tailor talent management and communication approaches that resonate locally.
Impact: This adaptable and culturally intelligent approach ensures that developmental initiatives are globally embraced, fostering aligned teams and significantly enhancing overall operational performance across international borders.
The Direct Link: Leadership Effectiveness and Operational Performance
There is a connection between effective leadership development and superior operational performance. While production outcomes are measured by Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), the people element—leader motivation—often goes unquantified.
Motivation from a leader is essential for reaching production targets. This people element includes motivation, encouragement, and recognition—all great traits of leaders. Without these leadership skills, operational strategies can falter.
Solely pursuing KPIs without strong leadership development in communication and motivation risks achieving results but leaving a trail of destruction as far as culture goes and turnover. Organizations must assess if KPIs fulfill operational potential. The crucial element, according to Megan, is balance
“To balance both, to not just prioritize one over the other, but to do them both at the same time.”
Effective leadership organically leads to better KPIs and outcomes. While market conditions and logistics influence performance, the leader does have an impact. A holistic approach integrating leadership development with operational targets is not to be overlooked for sustainable success.
Key Takeaway: While operational outcomes are measured by KPIs, the often-unquantified “people element” of leadership—motivation, encouragement, and recognition—is directly essential for achieving production targets and organizational success.
Strategy: Organizations must balance the pursuit of KPIs with robust leadership development in communication and motivation, ensuring leaders foster a positive culture that organically drives results.
Impact: A holistic approach that integrates strong leadership with operational targets leads to sustainable success, preventing negative cultural consequences and maximizing an organization’s full operational potential.
Continuous Improvement and Technology: Modernizing Operations
Organizations are continually seeking efficiency and investing in Lean and Continuous Improvement (CI). While these methods have merit, actual returns often fall short, despite significant investment in training. How can organizations maximize the value of CI, especially in the face of rapid technological advancements and the need for strong leadership?
Megan stresses technology’s role in efficiency today. There is a constant learning curve to keep up with the latest and greatest technologies. To unlock efficiency, organizations need a digital readiness assessment to leverage new tech for efficient processes, task automation, and enabling people in more strategic ways. Integrating technology amplifies traditional Lean, boosting operational performance.
CI effectiveness is deeply tied to leadership development and employee empowerment. A common challenge we often speak of is decision-making waste, where site leaders are overly involved in every aspect, indicating a lack of team empowerment. To accelerate CI, leaders must delegate decisions, freeing their time for strategic direction. This empowers teams, allowing CI to flourish more organically from the ground up. We encourage you to make this shift in leadership effectiveness for maximizing CI impact and operational performance.
Key Takeaway: Despite investment, traditional Continuous Improvement (CI) can often fall short; its full potential can be realized by strategically integrating technology and empowering leaders to delegate effectively.
Strategy: Organizations must conduct digital readiness assessments to leverage new technologies for process efficiency and automation, while leaders proactively empower teams to reduce “decision-making waste” through delegation.
Impact: This dual focus on technological integration and leader empowerment amplifies CI efforts, fosters organic bottom-up improvements, and significantly boosts overall operational performance.
Breaking Down Organizational Silos for Enhanced Collaboration
Organizational silos, where departments focus solely on their own interests, hinder operational performance and leadership development. Megan calls breaking them down a “million-dollar question.” Silos are perpetuated by internal structures that incentivize departmental focus over collective goals. The challenge is shifting this mindset, expanding the employee perspective beyond functional boundaries.
Rotational programs are highly effective for breaking silos. Megan explains that employees stuck in their silos don’t always know that there’s a bigger picture. Exposing individuals to what’s happening in other areas of the business is important for holistic understanding. Our training programs, for new hires or experienced leaders, foster a “big picture” mindset: “it’s not us and them, it’s us together.” This boosts leadership development and operational performance through cross-functional understanding.
Friction often arises between corporate support functions (COEs) and operational units. COEs, designed to help, often have their own objectives, directing operational units and making site leaders feel out of control. The solution is balancing corporate strategy with production realities. Megan explains why it’s important to maintain a pulse on the business, understanding operational units’ busy times to avoid burdening them with too many initiatives. Some organizations pre-clear initiatives at the executive level, allowing only three or four initiatives in a year to ensure successful execution. This mindful approach ensures that corporate initiatives support, rather than hinder, operational performance.
Key Takeaway: Organizational silos, stemming from departmental focus, significantly impede overall operational performance and leadership development by hindering cross-functional collaboration.
Strategy: Implement rotational programs to broaden employee perspectives beyond their immediate functions and establish “pre-clearing house” processes at the executive level to balance corporate initiatives with operational realities.
Impact: These strategies foster a “big picture” mindset, enhance cross-functional understanding, and ensure corporate support genuinely bolsters rather than burdens core operational units, leading to improved overall performance.
Learning from Setbacks: Resilience in Leadership Development
Leadership development is rarely linear; it involves challenges and learning from unexpected outcomes. Recognizing and learning from difficulties can help improve future operational performance. Megan was kind enough to share a significant early career experience.
She led a technology implementation but despite significant effort, the team realized they were not ready. This meant postponing the launch, regrouping, and communicating the delay to stakeholders. Megan describes this as a little bit of not failure, but it helped her learn how to be resilient and maybe not over-promise.
It’s a common project management pitfall: making firm commitments to dates without understanding the domino effect. Complex projects are prone to delays. A key takeaway for those earlier in your career is the tendency to underestimate the moving parts or optimistically assume lost time can be recovered. Leaders must provide honest, realistic timelines. If delays are unavoidable, a good explanation is imperative. Transparency and realistic communication builds trust, supporting effective, sustainable operational performance.
“Leaders often over-promise because we’re trying to make other people happy, but people truly want some version of the truth.”
Key Takeaway: Leadership development is a non-linear process where recognizing and learning from project setbacks is crucial for building resilience and improving future operational performance.
Strategy: Leaders must avoid over-promising by realistically assessing project complexities and, when delays occur, communicate transparently with meaningful explanations to build trust.
Impact: Cultivating resilience and honest communication directly supports more effective, sustainable operational performance by fostering trust and realistic expectations within the organization.
Demographic Shifts and Employee Engagement
The workforce’s demographic shifts bring together multiple generations with distinct expectations and motivations. How much do these shifts influence employee engagement, and is this a significant concern?
Megan affirms the impact of generational differences. Leaders must identify what is the motivating factor for each of these different groups. Understanding what is important to them and how we can make them feel recognized with the rewards they expect, or want, and are motivated by is crucial. There’s a clear shift in how we do recognize, motivate and reward, with more flexibility being desired. This indicates a trend toward personalized talent management, crucial for enhancing operational performance through improved employee engagement.
While broad assumptions can be made about certain tendencies across demographic groups, stereotypes do not provide a complete picture. Effective leadership development requires leaders to understand the interests of each person on their team. Although trends exist, a personalized approach to employee motivation is paramount. Individualized attention fosters a deeply engaged and productive workforce, directly contributing to stronger operational performance by ensuring employees feel understood, valued, and motivated.
Key Takeaway: Generational shifts in the workforce can significantly impact employee engagement, necessitating a deep understanding of varied motivations and expectations.
Strategy: Leaders must move beyond broad demographic stereotypes to identify and cater to the individual interests and desired recognition and rewards of each team member.
Impact: A personalized approach to talent management and motivation fosters a more deeply engaged, productive workforce, directly contributing to enhanced operational performance.
The Universal Nature of Leadership Potential
“Everybody in an organization has that leadership potential and capability.”
Leadership is often narrowly seen as formal titles. However, Megan champions a broader view. She believes everybody is a leader, no matter what role they have. This empowers individuals to focus on their values and strengths, enabling them to make informed decisions. Being authentic to one’s values and leveraging strengths is fundamental to effective leadership, regardless of title. This fosters widespread leadership development, positively impacting operational performance.
While personal values might sometimes seem off-kilter for what the organization needs, most people have strong values about right and fair. It’s crucial to tune into what those values are every once in a while, making sure that you’re aligned. If something feels a bit off, acknowledge and reflect on it. Without an internal moral compass, it’s harder to remain ethical and kind. Living one’s values visibly fosters integrity, benefits the organization, and makes a leader more magnetic. This alignment between personal values and professional conduct is a cornerstone of impactful leadership development, contributing to a positive culture and enhanced operational performance through trust and strong relationships.
Key Takeaway: Leadership potential resides in everyone, regardless of their formal role, emphasizing that authentic leadership stems from living one’s personal values and leveraging strengths.
Strategy: Individuals should regularly self-reflect on their core values and align their actions with them, while leaders should foster an environment that encourages this personal integrity.
Impact: This widespread cultivation of authentic, values-driven leadership contributes to a more ethical and positive organizational culture, building trust and significantly enhancing overall operational performance.
Paving the Path to Sustainable Excellence
Leadership development and operational performance are critical areas for organizations seeking to optimize results. From the foundational impact of mentorship and the complexities of global talent management to the direct link between effective leadership and key performance indicators (KPIs), Megan’s insights provide a roadmap for organizational excellence. Key focuses include empowering leaders through strategic technology integration to drive continuous improvement, fostering collaboration by eliminating silos, and cultivating resilience by learning from failures.
If you need help exploring these areas further, we are here to assist. It all starts with a conversation. Connect with us on social media, subscribe to our YouTube channel at unique.leadership, or simply visit our website at uniquedevelopment.com. We look forward to connecting with you to see how we can accelerate your projects, engage your teams, and help you achieve a stress-reduced path to success.
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