leaders, and we have added a sixth, which may be the most important—will-
ingness and desire to lead. As strange as that may sound, we do see people in
leadership roles who don’t have a desire to lead and are only filling the role as
a path to another job. Without a desire for leadership, any of the other skills will
go largely unused.
These are the five characteristics of a leader as defined by TWI, with a sixth
added by us:
- Willingness and Desire to Lead
This first characteristic may seem obvious, however, there is a differencebetween
a desire to have a job or position and the desire to truly lead. The remaining
characteristics are necessary to be a great leader, but a person need not possess
all of these characteristics when they first get the job. They only need to have
the desire and willingness to learn and to develop the other skills. The role of
the leader today is much different than the role of “supervisor” in the past. The
leader must motivate and inspire people to achieve great things.
- Job Knowledge
This refers to the specialized kind of information and skills required to perform
the work in an area. Leaders should be knowledgeable about the materials,
machines, tools, and production steps. They should also possess the technical
knowledge of each operation in their area, and know the correct way each oper-
ation should be performed. Without this ability, the leader cannot ensure that
the work is being performed correctly to standards. This requirement is often
missing from leaders outside Toyota, with the implied assumption that general
management skills can overcome a lack of in-depth job knowledge.
- Job Responsibilities
A leader must know his or her role. That is, they must keep abreast of company
policies, procedures, health and safety regulations, plans and interdepartmental
relationships. Leaders must understand the policies and procedures, communicate
them to their team members and ensure that they are followed.
- Continuous Improvement Ability
A leader must constantly analyze the work of the area, looking for ways to com-
bine, rearrange, and simplify tasks to make better use of materials, machines,
and manpower. The major part of a leader’s role is to encourage his or her
people to develop continuous improvement in thinking and action. The major-
ity of people within the organization report to the group leader, and therefore
most of the improvement and benefit comes from the group leader promoting
activity within the team. It is more important to have many small daily improve-
ments than to have few major improvements.
Chapter 10. Develop Leaders Who Live Your System 225