Operational leadership is the art of delivering every day what the organisation promises the customer. It is the leadership of team leaders, department heads and operations managers: the people who stand between strategy and execution. Where operational management is about the system you steer with, operational leadership is about the leader’s behaviour within that system.
The gap between promise and reality
A common problem: what the organisation promises doesn’t match what operations can deliver. Marketing promises delivery within 24 hours, while a quarter of orders arrive later. The customer is disappointed, the reputation suffers, and internally fire-fighting starts: rush orders, exceptions, overtime.
The operational leader stands precisely on that bridge, as shown in the image at the top of this article. Their job is to make the gap visible, adjust course daily, solve bottlenecks together with the team, and say honestly what is feasible. That last part is often the hardest, and the most important: a promise operations can’t keep is a problem you pass on to the customer.
The methods
- Lean shows where waste and waiting time sit. In the 24-hour delivery example: where does an order get stuck?
- Six Sigma makes the process reliable by reducing variation. Not on time on average, but every time.
- Agile helps test solutions on a small scale. If customers complain they don’t know where their parcel is, start with a simple track-and-trace and improve it based on their reactions, instead of an IT project lasting months.
- An Obeya brings the goals, figures and actions of different departments together in one room, so bottlenecks between departments surface quickly.
What an operational leader does every day
Operational leadership is above all a rhythm. The overview below shows an example of a day.
This is one of the tools you learn to apply in the Green Belt training.
- Daily stand-up. A short daily stand-up with the team: where do we stand, what needs attention today?
- Gemba. Going to see where the work happens, with questions rather than judgements. Read more about the Gemba walk.
- Coaching. Helping a team member solve a problem themselves, instead of taking it over. The Coaching Kata gives this a fixed form.
- Alignment. Tackling bottlenecks with other departments that the team can’t solve alone, for example in an Obeya.
- Follow-up. Escalating what has to be decided higher up, and reporting back to the team on what happened with their points.
Taiichi Ohno, the architect of the Toyota Production System, sometimes had new managers stand in a chalk circle on the shop floor for hours, until they saw for themselves what was going wrong. The lesson still holds: you can’t lead a process you only know from reports.
Leadership: direction, example and change
An operational leader gives direction, but is also an example. Someone who takes time for the stand-up every day, is present on the shop floor and takes problems seriously shows that improvement matters. The role also requires skill in change management: explaining why something must change, and involving staff from the start.
How to develop a culture of continuous improvement as a manager is covered in Lean leadership.
A mindset
Operational leadership is more than a job title. It is an attitude: the customer first, collaboration across departmental boundaries, and a little better every day. It delivers satisfied customers, motivated staff, and an organisation that does what it promises.
Want to know more about operational leadership, or how we support teams and managers in it? Email [email protected].