Feb 26, 2020
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!
The legendary Brian Skerrett joins the podcast to share wisdom from his 40 plus year career integrating mindfulness and leadership development.
In this episode, we explore manufacturing leadership, emotional intelligence, and authentic leadership for Operations Managers, Production Managers, Manufacturing Managers, and Shift Supervisors.
Brian shares practical insights on self awareness, communication skills, and growth mindset, plus how making small individual changes today builds stronger leaders, deeper trust, and more fulfilled teams on the shop floor.
1:50 The beginning of Brian’s career. Listen as Brian talks about his experience meeting the one and only Stephen Covey and the mindfulness journey.
- 4:00 Pushing yourself into a pretzel! Brian talks about the purpose of mindfulness and how it is meant to quiet the mind and create a healthy body.
- 5:40 EAP and the connection to mindfulness. Both management and employees were hurting, conflicts not being resolved, creating anxiety and frustration. That's when I introduced mindfulness practice and where do you put your attention.
- 8:20 You gave me a gift that I never opened until many years later. Trevor talks about meeting Brian and the approach to mindfulness. Brian talks about how most people have to go at mindfulness and come back to it many times until they grasp it.
- 12:16 Leaders intentionally creating conflict. What do you tell Leaders who operate this way? Creating an uncomfortable environment does not create a better environment. Brian shares how stress harms the body and the effects it has on us. Fight or Flight? Mindfulness allows us to avoid this type of behavior and not get hooked by the conflict and be present.
- 15:36 You’re not chained there. You have options in how you handle things. It’s only a gong show if you buy into the gong show. Mindfulness is key.
- 17:16 The speed of technology. Brian shares his experiences with technology over the years and how mindfulness plays into it.
- 19:00 Emotional Intelligence, it takes courage to embrace and stick with something. Learn how to adapt and advance your culture.
- 22:35 The sizes of our enterprises. The large companies have a hard time adapting to challenges and mindfulness. Working with the highest level and having an impact on the organization. Brian shares some great quotes and perspectives on leadership.
- 25:48 The bosses who listen to feedback. Brian explains the importance of a boss allowing others to give feedback to them and the impact and the need. Today it doesn't happen often enough.
- 27:42 It’s around trust. It's a fundamental piece if a solid team, how do build trust, maintain trust and this is something that is sadly lacking.
- 29:22 Mistakes and failures. Brian talks about the leadership style of making mistakes and the learning opportunity. It’s important in terms of people learning.
- 31:28 What things are like at home versus what things are like at work. Brian talks about the connection between home life and work life and the importance of these two. People have to have a life of their own and have a balance. Spending too much time working and not enough time at home.
- 34:35 Legacy. Brian describes what legacy means to him. How companies can push you until you are dry, and some are more in tune to the employees needs and got good results, they cared.