Libsyn Directory

Workplace Recognition in Manufacturing for Plant Directors: Why Being Seen and Seeing Others Builds Stronger Teams with Corban David Jenai #102

Release Date: 10/18/2023

The Most Important Leader Has No Title with Jason Hopper │ Manufacturing Team Leadership From the Floor │ Ep. 179

🎁 Free: 10 great questions to ask your leadership and drive engagement → Connect with Trevor: LinkedIn 👉 Website 👉 What if the most important leader on your shop floor doesn’t have the title? Trevor sits down with Jason Hopper, a thirty-year manufacturing veteran who rose from the floor into team leadership and then chose to go back to the floor, on what good leadership actually looks like to the people being led. They get into the trap that catches almost every leader, why safety has to mean stopping, and the coaching, trust, and patience that keep...

Three Questions That Turn "We Told Them" Into "We Got It Done" | Manufacturing Team Leadership | Ep. 178

🎁 Free: 10 great questions to ask your leadership and drive engagement → Connect with Trevor: LinkedIn 👉 Website 👉 Have you ever walked past your visual management boards and still not been able to tell if your team is winning? Trevor takes you inside a global food company where executives kept saying "we told them the standards" and supervisors kept saying "we need more clarity." Both were right. Neither was fixing the board. Inspired by Shane Zutz's High Impact Leadership newsletter, Trevor unpacks why accountability is usually a clarity problem in...

The Unwritten Rule That Quietly Ran His Whole Plant with Ryan Forte │ Manufacturing Team Leadership │ Ep. 177

🎁 Free: 10 great questions to ask your leadership and drive engagement → Connect with Trevor" LinkedIn 👉 Website 👉 What if the hardest person to lead in your plant is you? Trevor sits down with Ryan Forte, Owner of Jefferson Metal Products, whose team had quietly built one unwritten rule: keep the boss happy. Ryan introduces the five-step curiosity model — a new way to think about manufacturing team leadership that starts with getting curious about yourself first. When Ryan made that shift, his culture changed, his people grew, and turnover at the plant dropped...

Why Write-Ups Break Trust and What to Do Instead | The Accountability Gap | Ep. 176

🎁 Free: 10 great questions to ask your leadership and drive engagement → Connect with Trevor: LinkedIn: Website: Have you ever written up an employee and felt sick the second they walked out of the office? Trevor unpacks the third gap in the Manufacturing Greatness framework: the Accountability Gap. He walks through what happens when leaders skip the conversation and go straight to progressive disclipine, and the three questions that turn pressure into partnership.

Culture of Ownership in Manufacturing: How Owners Stop Being the Bottleneck with Josh McKain | Ep. 175

🎁 Free: 10 great questions to ask your leadership and drive engagement → When was the last time you went on vacation and didn't check your phone? Trevor sits down with Josh McKain, founder of Throughput Mastery, to unpack why manufacturing owners get stuck putting out every fire, and the three-part framework for building a culture of ownership: create the environment, model the standard, install the system. Ownership isn't a personality trait. It's a structural condition you can design for. Connect with Josh: LinkedIn: Website:

When 'You Should Just Know' Stops Working | Communication Skills #174

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 and to subscribe to Trevor’s monthly newsletter. Have you ever assumed your team should just know what you expected, and watched the project go sideways anyway? In manufacturing, the expectation gap between what leaders think is expected and what teams actually understand drives missed deadlines, rework, and six-figure mistakes. Most of...

Silencing Self-Doubt and Leading with Confidence with Jenn Donahue #173 I Labor Shortage in Manufacturing

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 and to subscribe to Trevor’s monthly newsletter. Now, let's jump in! What if the biggest threat to your production efficiency, workforce development, and manufacturing productivity was not a supply chain disruption or a failed kaizen event — but the voice inside your own head? On this episode of Manufacturing Greatness, learn more with...

Workforce Development and Leadership Development: The Showing Up Gap That Is Undermining Your Manufacturing Productivity #172

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 and to subscribe to Trevor’s monthly newsletter. Now, let's jump in! Most manufacturing leaders believe that if they were clear, the message landed. But there is a gap that almost no one sees — the distance between how you think you show up and how your team actually experiences you. In this episode of Manufacturing Greatness, Trevor...

Lean Manufacturing Leadership for Plant Managers: Why Kaizen Fails Without Curiosity with Dr. Debra Clary #171

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 and to subscribe to Trevor’s monthly newsletter. Now, let's jump in! What if the biggest obstacle to your lean manufacturing results isn't the process at all? It might be the person leading it. In this episode of Manufacturing Greatness, learn more with Debra Clary, author of The Curiosity Curve, about one of the most overlooked blind...

Manufacturing Leadership Development: The 3 Conversations That Fix Accountability, Alignment, and Results #170

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 and to subscribe to Trevor’s monthly newsletter. Now, let's jump in! If you’ve ever thought “I already explained this” but still are not getting the results you expect, the problem may not be effort, it may be alignment. In this episode, Trevor Blondeel explores how gaps in communication skills and unclear expectations impact...

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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!

Strong relationships drive curiosity, connection, and performance on the manufacturing floor.

In this episode, Corban David Jenai, entrepreneur and Chief Hope Officer at HopeGuide, shares insights on manufacturing leadership, trust building, and employee engagement for Operations Managers, Production Managers, Manufacturing Managers, Team Leaders, and Shift Supervisors.

Corban explains how vulnerability, intentionality, and authentic leadership strengthen communication skills and accountability. You will learn practical strategies for difficult conversations, growth mindset, and feedback delivery that support workforce retention and create manufacturing cultures where people feel seen, valued, and motivated to perform.

3:14 – Talking about ourselves and real aspects of our lives is a way to kick off strong connections

4:00 – Vulnerability is a path to connection

4:23 – By listening and getting to know others on your team, you build a sense of trust, which in turn leads to greater results on performance, quality, safety, and more

5:03 – To show others that you care, you have to actually care

6:36 – To build connections, think about what is important to you, and work with the assumption that others might have feelings similar to yours

8:23 – While modern society gives us the chance to connect with many people, we don’t always have the time or capacity to form meaningful connections with every person we encounter

10:15 – By connecting with smaller groups, we have the chance to be a witness to others, and they can be a witness to hear, see, and feel us as we are

11:06 – By investing in others at a deeper level, you can improve productivity and results

12:56 – Being vulnerable and open with your team allows them to see your humanity as a leader

14:38 – By looking at someone and actually seeing them, you can make a major difference, even if you don’t have a solution to their problems

16:51 – When people feel seen and heard, they are more likely to show up for you and your organization

20:06 – Even small moments of connection, like making eye contact, go a long way when forming connections

25:54 – Being a witness can help you show up better in all your relationships

Connect with Corban David Janai

Find Corban online at his website

Learn More About HopeGuide here

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