A number of years ago I was in a meeting with a high-profile Tier 1 automotive CEO. The subject was leadership on the plant floor. His premise was that there are leaders throughout our companies, but we — the chairmen, managers, and supervisors — don’t see them. To make his point, he told those of us in attendance, “The other day I walked around one of our plants and randomly interviewed machine operators. I asked them about their activities outside of work. To my amazement, most of the associates with whom I spoke had ‘leadership roles’ in their communities — they were Little League coaches, subdivision presidents, PTA presidents, deacons at their church, or owned small businesses.” He went on to say, “We have untapped talent already on our team, and we need to get better at engaging them.”

You may want to re-read my June 12th newsletter, entitled “Levels of Leaders”, and then ask yourself this question: Do I have a way to determine if my associates are working at their highest level? Do I have a future plant supervisor or even a plant manager already on the team?

What can you do to discover the potential leaders in your business?