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Leadership Energy in Manufacturing for Division Managers: Igniting Momentum Instead of Managing Burnout with Sara Canaday #89

Release Date: 04/19/2023

Be Curious Rather Than Furious | Manufacturing Team Leadership and Culture with Karin Lindner | Ep. 191

Karin Lindner has spent fourteen years trying to make manufacturing attractive to the people who work in it, and she says it is still not there. Her new book, Making Manufacturing Sexy, argues that most manufacturing leaders are not leading. They are surviving, stuck in a system that rewards firefighting. Karin and Trevor both worked at Magna. In this conversation they get into what actually changes a plant, and it is not the equipment. Karin shares the coaching tagline she uses with every client, be curious rather than furious, and the story of a general manager who described himself as...

You Cannot Recruit Your Way Out of This │ Manufacturing Recruiting │ Ep. 190

What if the reason nobody applies has nothing to do with what you pay? In new research across the United States and Canada, concerns about physical safety ranked as the number one barrier to even considering a job in manufacturing. Pay came in fourth. Trevor assumed that was a perception problem, an old black-and-white picture nobody had bothered to correct. So he went looking for proof, and could not find any. The people closest to the industry name safety right alongside everybody else. What he found instead was a gap inside the plant. Employees named physical safety at forty percent....

Why Nobody Pulls the Cord with Dr. Michael Gillespie │ Leadership Decision Making │ Ep. 189

When was the last time somebody stopped your line and you thanked them for it? Toyota built the andon cord into the line decades ago and most plants still treat pulling it as a failure. Dr. Michael Gillespie, organizational psychologist at the University of South Florida and co-author of Distancing with David Marquet, studies why the person closest to a problem is often the least able to see it. Being locked inside your own point of view is the default setting, not an occasional lapse, which is how five people can walk up to one stopped line and each honestly see a different problem. Nobody is...

Nobody Inspects the Culture │ Safety Culture │ Ep. 188

You inspect for hazards every single day. When did anybody last inspect the culture? In new research across the United States and Canada, a toxic or unhealthy work culture ranked above unsafe or hazardous working conditions as a reason people would leave a new manufacturing job inside the first three months. Forty-seven percent against forty-three. Most leaders hear that and file it under the soft stuff. Trevor takes a different position. Four points apart is not two problems, it is one. Culture is a safety system. A plant where people do not speak up is a plant where near misses go...

Your Best Worker Is Already Halfway Out the Door with Darcy Eikenberg │ Employee Retention │ Ep. 187

Your best people rarely quit in a dramatic moment. They leave a little at a time, and by the time they give notice the decision was made weeks ago. Gallup ties about 75% of voluntary turnover to the manager, and our own national research found that 35% of workers open to manufacturing have never had a single one-on-one development conversation with their manager. You can't keep people you never really talk to. Darcy Eikenberg, executive coach and author of Red Cape Rescue: Save Your Career Without Leaving Your Job, joins Trevor to turn the retention problem around: instead of replacing the...

Why Your Best Technician Fails as a Supervisor | New Leader Onboarding | Ep. 186

Why do six in ten of your people feel unheard at work? Trevor goes one level up from the first-week mentor: the new leader nobody onboards. He unpacks why a badge and a shift turn your best technician into a command-and-control boss, what the study of 1,250 manufacturing workers with Crossover Solutions and The Center for Generational Kinetics says people actually want from a leader, and what to build into a new supervisor's first 30 days so the concerns keep coming. 🎁 Free: 10 great questions to ask your leadership and drive engagement → and get bonus content in our...

Why Your Plant Manager Can't Solve Complex Problems | Time Management for Manufacturing Leaders | Ep. 185

What if the only machine in your plant with no maintenance plan is you? Trevor sits down with productivity expert Marcey Rader, author of Reclaim Your Workday, to bring health-powered productivity to the shop floor: the red headphones rule that protects deep focus without an office door, why burnout comes from lack of recharge rather than workload, the burn-it-down audit nobody runs on the supervisor's role, and the rule of three that separates relentless prioritization from endless optimization in manufacturing team leadership. Connect with Marcey: Website 👉 helloraderco.com Book 👉...

The Week-One Blind Spot Costing You New Hires | New Hire Onboarding | Ep. 184

What if your newest hire decides whether to stay in their very first week? Trevor opens a new solo series built on a national study of 1,250 manufacturing workers, run with Crossover Solutions and The Center for Generational Kinetics. The frontline wants a first-week mentor far more than the leaders who sign off on one, and that blind spot is feeding turnover. He names the Expectation Gap and shares the near-zero-cost move in manufacturing team leadership that closes it before your next hire walks in the door. 🎁 Free: 10 great questions to ask your leadership and drive engagement...

A Reporter Calls Me Every Week Asking Who's Laying Off with Jason Bates │ Manufacturing Community │ Ep. 183

A reporter calls Jason Bates every week looking for the big layoff story. The five-hundred-people-let-go story. Jason keeps telling him the truth: layoffs are happening, in small numbers. So is hiring. But the catastrophe the headlines want isn't what he sees across hundreds of Ontario plants every day. Trevor sits down with Jason, Manufacturing Consortium Manager at EMC, Canada's largest manufacturing consortium, to unpack what's really going on, the plants that are quietly adjusting and diversifying, and the peer community most owners haven't tapped into. Growth doesn't sell papers....

Every Time You Say Yes, You’re Saying No to Something │ Manufacturing Team Leadership │ Ep. 182

When’s the last time you said yes when everything in you wanted to say no? Every yes is a no to something else, usually the work that mattered more, and we end up drowning in our own yeses. Trevor breaks down the hidden math of saying yes, why productive beats busy, and how to say no without burning the relationship, even when it’s your boss asking. You don’t refuse, you reframe: I want to help, here’s what I’d have to move, which option works best. It comes down to capacity and priorities, the heart of manufacturing team leadership. 🎁 Free: 10 great questions to ask your...

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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!

In today’s fast paced manufacturing environment, leaders are feeling stretched thin as expectations around productivity, performance, and people continue to rise.

In this episode, Sara Canaday, author and leadership development coach, shares insights on manufacturing leadership, resilience, and employee engagement for Operations Managers, Production Managers, Manufacturing Managers, Team Leaders, and Shift Supervisors.

Sara explains how emotional intelligence, communication skills, and growth mindset help leaders manage stress and prevent burnout. You will learn practical strategies for strategic thinking, trust building, and workforce retention that support productivity, strengthen relationships, and create manufacturing cultures where leaders and teams have the energy, focus, and accountability needed to perform at their best.

2:16 – Leaders are meant to ignite fires, not constantly put them out. If you’re a leader who finds yourself constantly acting as a firefighter, it’s time to reconnect with the meaning of your role.

3:22 – We’re conditioned from a young age to be productive and to feel like we’re only valuable if we’re doing something, which impacts the way we lead and show up in the workplace

4:40 – Even when you’re doing nothing, your mind is still very productive, which is why it’s important to take a strategic pause to declutter your mind, find more clarity, and make better decisions and better serve your team

7:43 – Deep discovery and creative problem-solving can’t fully happen when we’re multitasking

8:26 – It can be helpful to reach out to others and let them add structure to your thinking and gain a broader prospective

9:40 – You have more control and agency over your own time than you think you do

10:00 – To gain more control over your time, dig deeper into your schedule and challenge yourself to think about what is the most important. For example, you could start skipping meetings that you don’t really need to be at, or send someone else to takes notes for you.

10:25 – Instead of just thinking about your to-do list, consider starting a list of things you can stop doing or delegate to someone else on your team

10:48 – As a leader, you have an obligation to think about how your can use your time in a way that best serves your team and your clients

11:43 – A change in scenery, like a stop at a coffeeshop on your way to your plant, is a great way to shift your mindset and build productive new habits

13:50 – Leaders should be responsive, but they also have to clearly show their priorities to themselves and the rest of their organization

15:05 – Leaders deal with exponential and even sometimes unrealistic expectations, especially when it comes to solving problems and facilizing productive conversations about important issues like social justice and employee mental health

16:08 – Leaders are doers and drivers, but they are also human beings and there’s only so much they can do

16:30 – There are many things team and organizations can do to support their leaders, including thinking about the most important priorities or even hiring someone to help with some of the leader’s other tasks

17:39 – Instead of impressing others, spend more time on thinking about what they really need to feel support and healthy in their role

20:00 – Shifting your mindset starts with putting aside your own biases and anything else that is clouding your judgment

20:43 – After putting aside your assumptions, spend more time discovering new, time-saving solutions by staying curious and seeking out productive, unbiased conversations with others

22:43 – If you’re not sure about something, don’t be afraid to just ask

23:00 – It takes courage to ask for what you need, but it’s important to find ways to protect your time and energy

23:42 – Leaders deserve a better experience, and a good experience can create a domino effect that positively impacts the rest of their team

Connect with Sara Canaday

Website

Sara’s LinkedIn Learning courses

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