Libsyn Directory

Strategic Leadership in Manufacturing for Plant Leaders: Playing to Win on the Factory Floor with Joel Block #144

Release Date: 05/28/2025

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...

Manufacturing Leadership Development: Why Connection Drives Productivity and Retention with Morag Barrett #169

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! In today’s manufacturing environment, the biggest barrier to productivity, talent retention, and employee satisfaction isn’t equipment or process, it’s connection. Organizations may invest in lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, and process optimization, yet engagement,...

More Episodes

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!

What does successful manufacturing leadership have in common with winning big at the casino? It comes down to becoming an advantage player and learning how to make smarter decisions under pressure.

In this episode, Joel Block, former professional blackjack player turned Wall Street strategist, shares insights on manufacturing leadership, mindset, and team performance for Operations Managers, Production Managers, Manufacturing Managers, and Shift Supervisors.

Joel draws from his experience in blackjack, venture capital, and hedge funds to explain how leaders can improve strategic thinking, boost employee

1:26 – There are many lessons from card games like blackjack that can be applied to business and manufacturing
2:58 – To succeed, learn how to Think, See, and Act (TSA) differently
4:40 – Many people stay busy without actually accomplishing meaningful work
5:00 – The difference between average performers and advantage players is that advantage players seek out and create opportunities
8:33 – All organizations can find ways to improve, even top-performing companies
11:50 – To change your strategy and find more success, schedule time to step back and gain perspective
12:15 – Use “high limit questions” to push thinking forward
15:51 – In business, advantage players learn how to anticipate workforce needs
18:37 – Everyone has a role to play when it comes to a team’s success
20:07 – Motivate your team by making sure everyone is connected to a meaningful goal
21:20 – When you’re successful, it lifts your business, family, and community

Connect with Joel Block
Visit his website
Connect by email at joel@theadvantageplayer.com
Subscribe to his newsletter

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