As the saying goes, “attitude reflects leadership.” Putting it into terms that are relevant to your manufacturing company, the choices executives make in leadership roles can be expected to have a trickle-down effect. This means that whether or not a business can identify the right leaders for its goals, short and long-term, can truly make or break achieving them.
Ensuring that the right people are placed in the leadership roles best suited for them can hugely benefit a manufacturing business. It can affect company culture, product quality and employee longevity, among other things. Going so far as to invest in these leaders after they are identified is the best way to ensure that they remain beneficial to the business.
Here are the best ways to find and invest in the right leaders for your manufacturing company:
1. Promote from within.
The positive effects that internal promotions have on a company’s leadership potential are limitless. Your manufacturing company should never shy away from building a company culture that includes internal promotion because it promotes longevity and increases motivation for employees. Employees will be more driven to succeed if they know there is a chance of pay raise or “leveling up” of sorts.
Internal promotions are a good way to reinforce specific traits in employees. For example, a desire to learn more about the company and its operations beyond what is expected in their current role is a great indicator of dedication. Executives should search for leaders who have experience within different departments because they can better relate to those they manage and are more likely to be able to solve specific departmental problems.
Though taking the time and resources to bring in new talent should never be criticized, statistics seem to favor internal promotions for leadership roles over external hires. The failure rate for those brought in from outside is actually higher, at 22 percent, while internal promotions only have a failure rate of 14 percent.
2. Make diversity a goal, not a byproduct.
Company culture asserts itself from the top down. The way to set the tone as to what that will look like is to closely examine those in leadership roles. Diversity in business is an asset in so many different ways; the benefits extend greatly past simply ethical implications.
The manufacturing industry as a whole still has a lot of ground to make up. Data from 2015 reports that the percentage of American manufacturers who were either black or Hispanic was 26%, respectively. In 2016, only 29 percent of American manufacturers were women. Going along with diversity, remember to review this blog post which discusses how top leaders can empower women in manufacturing.
However, in order to attain this “diversity goal,” there should not be a set quota of certain demographics that need to be represented in leadership roles. Instead, keep in mind what diversity in leadership does for a business as a whole: bringing different perspectives to company operations. Leaders with different backgrounds will have different ways of approaching situations, handling conflict and motivating their employees, all of which will benefit a manufacturing company in the long run.
3. Identify different types of leadership.
When it comes to the leaders that are right for your business, there should be no blanket statement for what they each should bring to the table. Though leadership roles indicate a certain degree of executive power, the leaders at your company should have different strengths that balance each other out, ultimately contributing to the greater good of the business.
Business scholars are drawn to examining “leadership brands” or strategies to determine exactly which type of leadership works best at a specific company. For example, some leaders might thrive at problem- solving and function best in the face of conflict. Others’ capabilities might be more production-oriented, meaning that they know how to manage workers and machines in such a way that benefits the supply chain.
“High-performing organizations might have something distinctive going on in their leadership behaviors, and not just their marketplace offerings,” says a Harvard Business Review article, reflecting on firms like GE and Proctor & Gamble. Good leadership entails not only tailoring these different behaviors to your brand, but making sure that diversity is present in leadership ability as well.
4. Plan for the future.
Investing in the right leaders for your company requires looking ahead. It entails identifying those in leadership roles that are most likely to provide the best service and value to your manufacturing company. Longevity is of great value in any business, but even more so is the willingness to grow, regardless of someone’s career stage. The leaders that should be invested in are those who acknowledge that they still have something to learn from those around them, even as they climb the corporate ladder.
The leadership role should be a valued position, and leaders should feel valued in their company. Some manufacturing companies might offer help in sending those in leadership roles back to school to get an advanced degree, or to go through training that benefits the company. In our digital era, IT workshops are useful for a field manager to be educated on how to best implement digitalization into everyday work.
Plan ahead and create a company culture that fosters young talent and creates future leaders. In American manufacturing, there are so many opportunities to do this: internship programs, mentoring workshops and scholarship programs are among the most popular.