Kevin Burns Blog

At a mining camp in Canada's Arctic, a team of big city consultants was dispatched to determine the effectiveness of the safety messages throughout the mine site. The walls at the mine were plastered with so many mixed messages that the employees nicknamed them "the wallpaper." Too much noise, too many competing thoughts. 

First, let's admit it—generic messages like "Safety first" or "Be safe" don't cut it. They become a punchline, undermining the real priority. And in the end, the mission gets lost in "the wallpaper."

I want to discuss a concept, not just straight out of the movies, but deeply rooted in supervisor roles. It's about how to better understand your role in the grand narrative of your team.

Management guru, Tom Peters, at a live event, was extolling the virtues of training managers in proper leadership and management skills. One senior manager asked, “What if we train them, and they leave? He responded, “What if you don’t train them, and they stay?”

Training in leadership skills is a gamble. Leadership training is not proprietary. It is personal. If a supervisor decides to leave, the training leaves with them. Leadership skills are personal skills; as are skills in communication, coaching, empowerment, career development, team building, motivation, caring, and mentoring. But they are the skills that employees expect supervisors to have.