The steady growth of Toyota, from a small company to the world's largest automaker Toyota owes a large part of its success to the creation and implementation of a lean manufacturing framework called Toyota Production System (TPS), which was based on the idea of preserving (or increasing) value with less work. According to this famous lean philosophy anything that doesn't increase value for the customer should be considered waste, or ‘Muda', and every effort should be made to eliminate that waste.
Seeing the spectacular success of Toyota countless organisations across the world have applied and leveraged the lean philosophy in some shape or form with varying degree of success. In the last 30 years, the practice of lean enterprise and the pursuit of lean transformation have evolved from being a competitive advantage to a necessity of survival for all businesses across sectors. Indian automobile industry's application of lean principles is a case in point. Being one of the largest industries in the world with a growth rate of over 8 percent, contributing at 7.1 percent to India's GDP, ably supplemented by the Government's policy push, a resurgent middle class and substantial exports it has its own challenges as players find new ways to earn and expand their market share.
For organisations to learn and leverage the lean principles it is imperative that managers are oriented on how to build and sustain a culture of continuous improvement that is accepting of good ideas from others. Also, research shows that most managers want to spend more time coaching their team members since coaching creates value by building capability in team besides creating competence and confidence in the team members. In reality, however, a large part of a manager's time goes in ‘managing' others. What complicates this further is the fact that most managers themselves receive little or no formal coaching / support as they transition to a managerial role. It is assumed that they will learn the ‘tricks' on the job. That is a costly mistake.
So what is it that organisations can use to enable Leaders become better coaches to their teams?
Make Talent Management a business priority: In recent time many organisations have come around to the fact that talent being the only real differentiator in today's competitive world it is too important to be left to human resources (HR) department alone. Research by DDI conclusively proves that organisations that outwit their peers on various parameters of performance are led by leaders who are driving an organisation wide talent strategy. These leaders first articulate their business and cultural priorities for the organisations and then assess the readiness of their leadership, across levels, to deliver on those priorities. This ensures that business priorities sync well with the availability and readiness of talent at all levels in the organisation.
Focus on Developing EQ of Managers: Manufacturing organisations puts a lot of emphasis on hiring candidates that demonstrates high level of conceptual & technical proficiency - and that is indeed important. However, equally important, if not more, is the Emotional Intelligence side that often gets marginalized. As leaders transition into senior roles EQ becomes even more critical in deciding their effectiveness at senior leadership roles. The good news is that unlike IQ, EQ is not static & can be developed and leveraged.
Involve the Manager of the Managers: Research shows that the manager of the leader is essential to ensuring that newly developed skills are transferred and applied back on the job. Without leader support or without an environment that supports and reinforces practice of the newly acquired skills, they won't ‘stick,' the investment in learning is sub-optimised and possibly even wasted, and you have what is known as ‘scrap learning.' To avoid this—and more importantly, to drive lean—managers of leaders need to step up as role models, coaches, mentors, and teachers; they need to accept and be accountable for ensuring new skills and lean leadership principles are applied. However, many interpret this as developing great technical skills; but it's so much more than that. It's also about developing broader skills in coaching, engaging, delegating, holding others accountable, and inspiring teams.
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