LEAN LEADERSHIP LEGACY | LBCC 2.02

I believe that Leadership requires more than a badge, title, or promotion. It is a combination of patience, kindness, confidence, grit, and intelligence. What’s your experience? What about in your personal life?

The WHY: we are surrounded with opportunities to lead or be led. Leadership and leadership legacy impacts every aspect of our lives…From our workplaces to our families and personal relationships. So what leadership style is best?

The WIIFM: If we are surrounded by opportunities to lead or be led, our leadership style directly impacts our personal and professional relationships. If we get the right combination of patience, kindness, confidence, grit, and intelligence; we have the opportunity (and I would dare to say OBLIGATION) to lead.

my Advice: I don’t believe there is one right way to lead. Everyone is different and our personalities play a large role in our leadership style. Some people will like to be led and others don’t. Some will like our leadership style and others won’t. That’s normal. But if we continue to reflect, correct and try again; we should be improving our unique individual style. So, KEEP TRYING!

LEAN LEADERSHIP, I believe, is a unique mixture of: patience, kindness, confidence, grit, and intelligence. These folks are willing to fail and are quite resilient. The legacy they leave behind is worthy of following and is often mimicked by their followers/Subordinates.

• PERSONALLY: It might seem weird to think about a “Lean” Leader in a personal setting. But they do exist. Mostly because a true Lean professional doesn’t differentiate between their personal or professional lives. They are just as lean at home as they are at work. Although the application may look quite different. (We more than likely won’t have a 5S evaluation of our kitchen for example). These individuals are hyper-Aware of the Culture in both arenas and are constantly evaluating the health of said culture. This evaluation of course looks different in a personal setting from a professional one. But they are sensitive to the situation of their loved ones and are always checking in with them. You may be thinking, “yeah, maybe, but you don’t have to be lean to lead like that”. And you’re absolutely right. For some people this type of caring comes naturally for them. For others not so much. So the inclusion of what they have learned from their lean training assists them in their personal leadership style development.
• PROFESSIONALLY: I believe that Lean environments have an advantage over non-Lean environments in terms of culture change and inclusion. Having worked in both types of environments, I can say that I felt more heard, cared for, and had more opportunity in the Lean environments than I did in Non-Lean. I also feel like the Lean Environments encouraged the type of leadership legacy I wanted to learn and emulate. Were all of the leaders examples or great leaders? no, but the differences between great leaders and okay leaders was more apparent in the Lean environments. It was almost as if a poor leader had a harder time “hiding” in a Lean environment and most often felt uncomfortable or exposed. The great Lean leaders that I admired weren’t perfect either, they all had flaws. But the resilience they learned and showed through their own continuous improvement journey was something I wanted to learn from and emulate.

There is no “magic potion” to being the greatest leader the world has ever seen. We are human, we all have flaws and imperfections. But if our desire is to try, try, try and learn from those flaws and mistakes; we are headed in the right direction! A Lean Leader is a combination of patience, kindness, confidence, grit, and intelligence. They pick themselves up again when they fall. They Learn that failure is just an opportunity to learn and try again. Is there one right way to lead? Of course not! and the millions of published leadership books proves that. But if I were to chose one way or method to emulate, I would choose to be a lean Leader. the Skill-Set earned through process improvement and culture change really does change the individual. You learn how to be more patient with the process and others. you’re kinder to yourself and others as they learn and make mistakes. your confidence grows with each individual win and by overcoming failure. Grit is earned with each dusting off from falling down. and intelligence is gained through trial and error.

If you or your organization are looking to develop or improve your Leadership style, feel free to contact Leanbrella to learn more about your Culture Climate and Leadership Style. We would be more than happy to support you in your efforts…