(Part 26 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams...Ch. 26 Leveraging the Team: Focus on strengths; develop weaknesses. “Instead of focusing on weaknesses, give your attention to people’s strengths. Focus on sharpening skills that already exist. Compliment positive qualities. Bring out the gifts inherent in them. Weaknesses can wait unless they are character flaws. Only after you have developed a strong rapport with the person and they have begun to grow and gain confidence should you address areas of weakness...and then those should be handled gently and one at a time.” ~ John C. Maxwell

(Part 25 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams...Ch. 25 Lead the Team: Unleash the team's potential. “All leaders know there’s a huge gap between what the team has to do and what the team is capable of doing. High impact leaders close the gap. Low impact leaders widen the gap.” ~ Mack Story

(Part 24 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams...Ch. 24 The Power of How: The best leaders ask the best questions. “When you want to persuade, you’ll always get further by asking a question than by making a statement.” ~ Dorothy Leeds

(Part 23 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams...Ch. 23 Where's the Problem? Go see, demonstrate respect, and ask questions. “Lean managers pose questions to their problem owners about the nature of the problem and the best available counter-measures. Doing this automatically transfers responsibility for the problem...closer to the problem.” ~ Jim Womack

(Part 22 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams...Ch. 22 High Impact Delegation: Delegate results not methods. “The more decisions a leader makes, the further he or she is away from leading a high performance team. Make too many command decisions and you’ll doom yourself and your team to mediocrity.” ~ Mark Miller

(Part 21 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams...Ch. 21 Avoid Answering Questions: Don't make decisions; facilitate decision-making. “Some people assume we stumble onto our success, but the path of discovery is paved with interesting questions.” ~ Bryan Cioffi

(Part 20 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams...Ch. 20 Questions Transfer Responsibility: Lead with questions not directions. “When you initiate change, you take responsibility. Initiating change requires a proactive approach and only proactive people will do it. Initiating change requires you to say ‘I will’ instead of ‘I wish.’” ~ Ria Story

(Part 19 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams...Ch. 19 Prime the Pump: Prepare the team for the dream. “Vision does not ignite growth, passion does. Passion fuels vision, and vision is the focus of the power of passion. Leaders who are passionate about their call create vision.” ~ Ken Hemphill

(Part 18 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams...Ch. 18 Be a Leader: Processes and things don't think and feel, but people do. “Managers change behavior. Leaders change the way you think without you realizing it.” ~ Daniel Burrus

(Part 17 of 30) Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean and Lean Teams...Ch. 17 The Key to Buy-In: Learn to leverage the meeting before the meeting. “The individual in your organization who communicates the clearest vision will often be perceived as the leader. Clarity is perceived as leadership.” ~ Andy Stanley