As a manufacturing leader, you’re challenged every day to improve performance and deliver results. Sometimes it means inciting an individual employee to go the extra mile. Other times, you have to inspire entire teams to raise the bar.

There’s no magic bullet for stimulating team creativity. You need a flexible, creative approach of your own to consistently make it happen.

Shoot for Purpose – Not Just Profit

Of course, it’s all about making ticket and boosting the bottom line for today, this week, this month and this quarter. But instead of continually preaching to employees about why they need to perform better, focus on explaining how their contributions help solve organization-wide issues – and on what success means to them.

• Employees are more likely to step up their game when they can connect their role to the greater good. The third-shift worker who spends all night loading filthy rubber components into a mixer needs to relate his role to the finished tire rolling off the line or better yet, being fitted onto the newest model hybrid auto or RV. Show them the outcome of their collected efforts. It will inspire pride, confidence, creativity, and the desire to take that one extra step toward enhanced productivity.
• Tap into employees’ individual passions. Get to know them as individuals. Building relationships helps increase knowledge sharing and build trust. Understand their unique tendencies, strengths and behaviors so you can motivate each one. There’s no cookie cutter approach.

Trust Ignites Creativity

Inspiration and its byproduct, creativity, stem from leadership behavior that consistently makes employees feel that they matter and you care. It comes from shared ownership.

• When you trust someone, you believe in them. This is a two-way commitment between you and your workforce. Empower your employees to make choices as needed to serve both internal and external customers. Allowing them to call the shots based on what they believe is in the best interests of the team and your business. Stay close, facilitate and tactfully steer as needed. Use the end results of a project to customize your future approach to inspiring a particular employee or team to long-term creativity and productivity.
• When given the right resources, the best employees challenge themselves. They instinctively strive to be more innovative and thus, they perform better. And if you honestly and confidently assign them mission-critical work, they’ll want to prove to you that you made the right decision. They won’t let you down. The long-term benefits can be game changing.

 
Do you need further ideas about keeping your team on track? The workforce development experts at Magellan Search & Staffing can partner with you to develop and implement your best strategy for ongoing creativity and success. Read our related posts or contact us today to learn more.