People who assume these positions are often looking at them as a “step up the
ladder,” a temporary requirement, or rite of passage on the way to more important
and lucrative opportunities. Certainly it seems that more talented or ambitious
people have no desire to stay “in the trenches.” Given the inherently long devel-
opment period of leaders deeply skilled in TPS, this creates challenges within
Toyota and other companies.
Unfortunately, in many companies today the front-line leader (middle man-
ager or supervisor) is often viewed as a “traffic cop,” or worse, as a “babysitter.”
True leadership, it is believed, must come from higher levels, where intelligent
decisions can be made and passed down. The supervisor only needs to attend
to minor problems and to keep everything under control. This shortsighted
view creates a belief that the front-line leaders are an indirect cost—and thus
should be maintained at minimal levels. Supervisors are thinly spread and the
responsibility is far reaching (we’ve seen supervisors who had responsibility for
over 60 people spread over multiple shifts).
Toyota has a completely different view regarding front-line leaders andplaces
a much greater importance on them. They are viewed as crucial elements of the
Toyota Way, and they must live up to much higher expectations than in most
companies. Because it’s expected that the group leader (supervisor) will per-
sonally develop and mentor every team member in the group, the ratio of group
leaders to team members is most often one-to-20, or possibly as high as one-to-30.
In this chapter we will review some essential skills that leaders must possess
or learn, and we’ll look at the leadership structure at Toyota. In Chapter 20 we will
focus on top leadership, but in this chapter the focus will be on the neglected
middle level, sometimes negatively referred to as the “frozen middle.” The buck
stops at this level, where leadership from the top is translated into action. The
middle managers get frozen because they are often stuck between the edicts and
visions of the top and the realities of production on the front-line war zone.
Importance of Leadership Within Toyota
Toyota has a relatively flat organizational structure without many layers of
management. Leaders do play a key role in the success of the company, but
excessive layers of leadership are not necessary because the leaders develop and
mentor others to do many of the tasks often done by leaders within other com-
panies. While Toyota has few layers the span of control of leaders at the bottom
of the organization is very small leading to more work group leaders than in
competitors. The Toyota philosophy is to disperse responsibility to the lowest level
possible. There is a high expectation for production associates, team leaders
have a large scope of responsibility, and a group leader runs a “minibusiness.”
Because all leaders are expected to have a high level of responsibility, the selec-
tion and subsequent development of leaders in your organization should be one
of the most important considerations.