The Productive Leadership System with Tom Moriarty
With us, today, to talk about the Productive Leadership System (PLS) is Tom Moriarty. PLS is essential in getting maintenance and reliability principles to work.
We will tackle:
- What leadership is
- What is PLS
- How to improve leadership within the organization
- How to begin the journey to having good productive leadership in your organization
What is leadership?
Leadership is getting things done through other people. It is the ability to communicate the desired results. Besides that, it’s also setting missions, visions, values, and objectives. It’s making the necessary assets available, while also authorizing and implementing the methodologies. These help in the deployment of assets to achieve that end state. Providing guidance relies on:
- Policies
- Process
- Plans
- Procedures
- Measures
People in leadership positions need to be accountable to execute. Good leaders get things done by encouraging team members. It brings about good morale, low turnover, and better safety awareness. Weak leaders, on the flip side, do not manage to complete their tasks. Their team members suffer from lower morale. That leads to more turnover and problems with quality and safety.
What is PLS?
PLS is a system that creates a framework within which proper leadership can get enabled. The organizational reliability and productive leadership model generate part of this system. The productive leadership development program then completes this framework. Thus, allowing you to train and execute leadership.
What is the organizational reliability model?
The organizational reliability model assigns accountability within each level of an organization. It’s an asset management system. The top half of the model is the Proactive Improvement Realm. With this, the senior person is accountable for proactive improvement. They assess internal strengths, weaknesses, external opportunities, and threats (SWOT). These get assessed against the organization’s mission, vision, values, and objectives.
Next comes the Define Phase. Here, you apply things like Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM), root cause, or defect elimination to develop a response to the SWOT. It’s also where a solution gets vetted. It’s then written down into a policy, plan, process, procedure, and measure. Training then occurs, resources get procured for easy availability. You then move to the lower half of the model called the Control And Stability Realm. The aim here is to have compliance or adherence to guidance.
At the bottom half of the model, accountability shifts to a subordinate. The senior person is no longer in charge. They then become accountable for executing current guidance with current assets. It differentiates between authorized guidance and access and current guidance and access. Thus, the subordinate now communicates matters on the ground to their seniors. This keeps the company productive.
As a subordinate, how do you get your seniors to react?
There are ways that a subordinate can influence their seniors to make decisions. One way is by taking the initiative and informing your seniors of the available options. If they do not respond, use the phrase, “Unless otherwise directed.” It forces them to either reply or not. Even by not responding, the addition of that phrase means that they have agreed to your terms.
To use this phrase, you must first gauge the amount of responsiveness the senior person has. You also need to be aware of the amount of trust and respect between the two parties. Higher trust and respect levels are likely to make the senior more responsive to the request. To create that trust and respect, explain yourself with clarity. Thus, helping the seniors relate to what you’re recommending.
What is the productive leadership model?
Productive leadership refers to how a leader executes their control and stability accountabilities. It applies to both senior and subordinate leaders. A leader must want responsibilities that allow them to lead others. They must also have personal missions, visions, values, and objectives. These should get satisfied through them becoming leaders. When it comes to leadership roles, attributes, and skills, there are five of each.
- Leadership Roles
These refer to where a leader spends their time throughout the day. They are:
- Expert technician
- Manager administrator
- Coach
- Systems thinker
- Visionary
Leaders should also spend their time on personal development and having free time.
- Leadership Attributes
These refer to the leader’s characteristics. They help your subordinates know how to act during different situations. These attributes include being:
- Consistent
- Attentive
- Respectful
- Motivational
- Assertive
- Leadership Skills
These are the leadership skills you’ll come across often with leadership training sessions. They include:
- Time management
- Communication
- Empowerment
- Giving and receiving feedback
- Conflict management
Power Bases
There are two bases of power, that is personal power and position power. Position power refers to authority delegated to you from your seniors. Personal power is how you interact with other people. It’s given to you by your seniors as well as your peers and subordinates. It’s based on how virtuous and truthful you are, as well as how you conduct yourself.
The preference is in having personal power. But, position power becomes necessary in situations where you need to compel compliance. That is, especially when people don’t want to do something.
How to influence others
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs gets applied here. It implies that you can’t meet higher-level needs before meeting lower-level needs. You can only influence others by knowing the needs that motivate them to do something. There are three different needs theories:
- Maslow’s
- McClelland’s needs theory
- Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory
Setting Goals
You need to be able to motivate team members to progress towards a goal.
Leadership development programs
Organizations need to think about their structure as well as:
- How to assign accountability
- How to deal with proactive improvement
- How to make sure they have control and stability in what they do
To apply these, you need productive leaders. That’s where productive leadership programs come into play. Elements within the program include:
- A policy statement signed by the senior-most individual in the organization. It’ll outline how they’ll promote leadership. It should also specify the criteria for when you onboard people.
- Using the organizational reliability model.
- Setting productive leadership standards.
- Having ongoing training programs to train people. That will be on the organizational reliability model and leadership that’s consistent.
- Surveys to identify how leaders view they’re doing. That is versus how their team members see they’re doing.
Leadership training within your organization should be every two to three years. You’ll start noticing average to above-average motivation scores among your employees.
What improves leadership within an organization?
There are three points in the leadership process. The first focuses on accountability, which guides the organization’s leadership. The second looks at organizational reliability. Finally, the inner circle is productive leadership.
Without accountability, you can’t execute the systems you have in place. It’s essential to foster accountability on all levels.
How can you start to make a change in your organization?
The key to improving your organization is to start learning more about leadership. And not only for yourself, but for your team members as well. Get different leadership materials to guide you through the various processes. Learn your craft as a leader to enable you to adapt to different situations faster.
Eruditio Links:
- Eruditio
- HP Reliability
- James Kovacevic’s LinkedIn
- Reliability Report
- Eruditio Supports: www.help.eruditio.com
Tom Moriarty Links:
- Social:
- Link:
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