Balancing an Open Door Policy with Respect for Chain of Command
We’re going to look at the open door policy, the chain of command, and how you respect that. As a fron tline leader or a senior manager, you want to encourage people to come and talk to you about a variety of different subjects. That’s the open door policy, anyone can talk to anyone at […]
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Better Business Bureau Radio Show Interview
I recently sat down with Ask BBB hosts Jim Swan and Linda Smith to talk business, books and more. The following is a transcript of our interview: Greg Schinkel So here we are, taping the BBB course radio segment, with Jim Swan and Linda Smith from the BBB. Jim Swan I’m Jim Swan. Greg Schinkel […]
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What To Do When You Disagree With Management
As a front line supervisor or manager, you might find yourself in this predicament: you’ve been told by the management team to take a certain message down to your team, but you disagree with it. You’re not buying in personally. How can you handle this? Ask for more clarification. Maybe you don’t understand the background of […]
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Sexual Harassment in the Workplace
Creating a Respectful and Inclusive Workforce Sexual harassment is a serious subject and if you’ve been anywhere near the news lately you’ve seen high profile figures, men of power, who have been accused of sexual harassment. What does this mean for you, as a leader, manager or supervisor in a manufacturing environment? You must take […]
Read MoreCreating a High Performance Team
Ingredients to Make a High Performance Team Think about some of the teams you either lead or belong to. Do some of those teams have a better feeling than other teams? Do the teams that feel better tend to perform better and generate better results? Most people say that teams tend to perform better when […]
Read MoreHow to Avoid Micromanaging
Three Tips to Help You Avoid Micromanaging No one likes being micromanaged but many people report being micromanaged. So how do you, as a leader, ensure your team achieves the desired results without having to supervise every little detail? If you’ve ever gone on a road trip with young children, you’ve likely had them ask […]
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Developing a Vision for Your Team
Some people say the job of a front line leader is pretty easy — as long as you have all your team members report for work with the necessary skills, your machines, and equipment work properly, your raw materials are good and the production schedule is stable — it’s a piece of cake! Right? Most […]
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Increasing Trust and Respect as a Leader
Two of the most important ingredients in any relationship are trust and respect. When a leader loses the trust and respect of his or her workgroup, it will cause morale and attitude to decline and negatively impact your organization’s results. In his book The Speed of Trust, Stephen M. R. Covey defines trust as being […]
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How to be Consistent with your Fellow Leaders
When leaders aren’t consistent with one another, it can have a negative impact on team morale, the company’s performance and on fellow leaders. The most frequent areas of inconsistency are the enforcement of company rules, policies and procedures and the way the leaders interact with their teams. Some supervisors tend to come across as heavy-handed […]
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How to Solve Problems as a Team
Getting your team to help solve problems together tends to yield better solutions and greater buy-in when it comes to implementing those solutions. In some of our leadership modules, we have used a survival simulation where leaders can experience, in real time, the pitfalls that impact the decisions teams make. There are two dynamics happening […]
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