One of the first things I learned after I moved from running a press to training on and implementing Lean Manufacturing initiatives nearly 25 years ago was how labor efficiency rates were set. In most cases, the number of widgets that were expected on an hourly basis from any given process was...

About a dozen years ago, I was offered a position with global responsibility for the behavior-based safety process within the company I worked for. The fellow who had been in the role for more than a decade was retiring and since I had supported him by working with most of our facilities across...

If we really want our investment into leadership development to make a visible difference on productivity over the long haul, there’s a hurdle we cannot afford to stumble over! Even after making sure expectations have been clearly communicated and the necessary support has been provided to...

Every single time Cindy and I kick off one of our Emerging Leader Development courses, whether it’s tailored and delivered on-site for a specific organization or in a public session with folks from multiple different organizations, we open by setting the expectation that they identify the...

As we started looking at whether or not Leadership Training Is Worth It, I shared the story of the construction crew getting the fancy new tool they had been asking for then leaving it in the box the next time they performed the task the tool should have been used for… I also explained how...

Now that we’ve looked at what we’re up against when we can’t find anything in the budget for developing our leaders and we’ve worked through some things we need to consider to make sure any leadership training we do provide is really worth it, let’s start closing the...

If we need measurable results from anything we do to develop our leaders, and I can’t think of any reason for doing it if those results don’t matter, who delivers the initial training and how they go about it is critical! If they can’t earn credibility with our team or...

When the organization I worked for started the initial rollout of a new safety initiative in 1998, everyone being trained to participate in even the basics of the process went through a three day workshop. The folks who were to be part of the steering committee” went through an additional...

Now that we’ve identified multiple areas where there really is room in the budget to invest in leadership development, let’s answer a more important question: Is Leadership Training REALLY Worth It?

Several years ago, I was with a friend of mine who owns a construction company. A few...

Lower turnover… Increased productivity… Both sound great, but what if we still just can’t find anything in the budget for leadership development? I mean, what if we’re not able to actually capture real dollars even if we do have improvements in both the areas we’ve...

But Wes, you’re not hearing me… It’s just not in the budget and that’s just the way it goes with turnover, we’ve got to keep our focus on doing the work that pays the bills! I know that feeling all too well… Heck, that was the reality I lived with every day...

Having recently worked through The Lasting Impact of Positive Leadership, and what that can mean in the lives of team members we’re responsible for, I can’t imagine you’re reading this right now if you’re not convinced of the value… That said, no one magically...