Engagement for Frontline Supervisors: Leading from the Shop Floor to Build Trust and Improve Daily Performance with JC Wilkinson #6

Welcome to Manufacturing Greatness with Trevor Blondeel, where we work with organizations to manufacture greatness by leveraging resources you already have to achieve greater retention, productivity, and profits. To learn more, visit www.manufacturinggreatness.com and click here to subscribe to Trevor's monthly newsletter. Now, let's jump in! Today we're joined by JC Wilkinson, VP of Business Transformation at Vivid Impact, to share practical insights from two decades of operational, financial, and consulting leadership. In this episode, JC joins the podcast to talk manufacturing leadership, strategic thinking, and authentic leadership for Operations Managers, Production Managers, Manufacturing Managers, and Shift Supervisors. We explore communication skills, accountability, and growth mindset, plus how operational discipline, continuous improvement, and people-focused leadership come together to drive better decisions, stronger engagement, and measurable results on the shop floor.   1:10 Transformation.  Growing a company on what matters most and what matters least.  Listen how J.C. explains the challenges of execution and how everything starts with the Leader.  Leadership is commitment, devotion and alignment.   5:35 Leadership, hours on the floor.  It's important the leaders are on the floor.  J.C. explains how the process of tracking the number of hours each leader dedicates to the shop floor.  He talks in detail about leading with humility and developing a culture of respect.     8:40 Language and people.  We start at the top and establish a cascading effect right through to the operator, linkage is very important.   10:57 Measurement drives behavior.  Safety, People, Quality and Cost, the people are super critical, the hiring of the right people in the hiring process is the most important thing.   13:34 Turnover.  Check first to see, am I treating my external customer better than my internal customer?  J.C. explains the impact the book, "The Dream Manager" had on him and how they incorporated this into their work place.   15:04 Emotional connection.  We asked the team members, what are your dreams, what are your aspirations?  We put out a culture survey to capture data, with questions such as, "what can the organization do to help you be a better version of you"?   17:10 Leadership alignment and consistency.  Common challenges, managing through the chaos and fighting fires.  J.C. explains the importance of standard work and how that helped to bring clarity and control to the work day.   22:15 People wanting leadership positions.  Clarity, expectations are so important to people seeking leadership positions.  When we are faced with problems, we always bring it back to, "how is this helping our customers"?   24:20 What do you look for in an employee?  We established a criteria matrix comprised of skills and behaviors.  We use a role descriptor not a job description and a team-based hiring approach.  We quantify each candidate.