Libsyn Directory

Resilience for Frontline Supervisors: Building High Agency to Navigate Adversity and Improve Team Performance with Vickie Lanthier #165

Release Date: 03/04/2026

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,...

Why Productivity Problems Start at the Top: Manufacturing Leadership and Employee Retention: #168

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. In this episode of Manufacturing Greatness, we break down why manufacturing leaders plant owners, operations managers, and production managers continue to struggle with employee retention, manufacturing productivity, workforce engagement, and frontline performance on the shop floor. Even after...

Leadership Resilience in Manufacturing: Leading Under Pressure with Dr. Marie-Helene Pelletier #167

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 demanding manufacturing environment, frontline supervisors and plant leaders are expected to deliver higher production efficiency, stronger quality management, and better manufacturing productivity often while navigating workforce pressures and constant operational...

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!

In this episode, Vickie Lanthier author of High Agency Human: Navigate Adversity and Live Big and former military leader with four deployments shares practical strategies for building personal agency in high-pressure environments like manufacturing. Drawing from her 14-year military career and entrepreneurial experience, she connects resilience and intentional decision-making directly to the realities of operations management, production management, and modern plant leadership.

You’ll learn why running at constant surge capacity undermines production efficiency and long-term manufacturing productivity, and how building operational “buffers” strengthens performance management, process optimization, and sustainable KPI management. This conversation is especially relevant for frontline supervisors and shift supervisors navigating daily disruptions while trying to maintain results without burning out their teams.

Vickie breaks down how proactive leadership development, intentional management training, and practical coaching skills improve workforce development, talent retention, and employee satisfaction particularly as the millennial workforce and Gen Z manufacturing professionals step into larger roles. She also highlights the connection between personal wellbeing, safety leadership, and a strong safety culture, reinforcing that operational excellence starts with healthy, prepared leaders.

This discussion bridges the gap between human performance and operational excellence, showing manufacturing leaders how to move from reactive firefighting to intentional change management, stronger problem solving, and more resilient plant leadership.

2:00 – In operations management and production management, adversity is daily, making strong plant leadership essential to move from reactive firefighting to intentional execution.

04:30 – High agency thinking equips shift supervisors and frontline supervisors to lead proactive change management instead of blaming systems or circumstances.

06:12 – Building buffers during stable periods strengthens operations management, improves production efficiency, and supports long-term manufacturing productivity.

07:19 – Financial discipline at work reinforces responsible production management, smarter resource allocation, and stronger KPI management across departments.

09:44 – When leaders model financial clarity and career pathways, they support workforce development, talent retention, and engagement across the millennial workforce and Gen Z manufacturing employees.

14:00 – Promoting for readiness rather than desperation strengthens leadership development, improves performance management, and builds a sustainable bench for plant leadership.

16:27 – Prioritizing health, boundaries, and burnout prevention improves employee satisfaction, supports work-life balance, and protects overall manufacturing productivity.

18:33 – Investing in mental health awareness and proactive check-ins strengthens safety leadership, reinforces a positive safety culture, and improves team-level conflict resolution.

22:30 – Pulling the “emergency brake” during overload enables smarter change management, clearer problem solving, and better long-term process optimization.

25:09 – Running at 110% capacity without systems thinking undermines production efficiency, weakens quality management, and signals gaps in sustainable operations management.

27:00 – Clear contingency planning enhances production management, stabilizes KPI management, and improves responsiveness in high-pressure environments.

30:30 – Practicing skills during calm periods strengthens management training, sharpens coaching skills, and drives measurable gains in manufacturing productivity.

33:49 – Distributing responsibility beyond supervisors accelerates leadership development, strengthens communication skills, and supports long-term workforce development.

35:00 – Empowering junior team members to lead drills reinforces safety leadership, improves problem solving, and embeds resilience into everyday plant leadership.

36:30 – Sustainable high performance comes from disciplined operations management, intentional performance management, and continuous process optimization, not relentless pressure.

38:00 – Leaders who model high agency behaviors improve employee satisfaction, strengthen talent retention, and elevate overall production efficiency and manufacturing productivity.

Connect with Vickie Lanthier:

Find her online at https://www.vickiemlanthier.com/ and https://www.vickiemlanthier.com/high-agency-human

Connect on LinkedIn

Find her on Instagram: @highagencyhuman

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