Gary Convis on Lean Leadership: Manage as if You Have No Power

Here is an outstanding profile of Gary Convis, the President of the Toyota Georgetown (KY) plant and the highest-ranking American executive in the company.

I've written about Convis before and have seen him speak at a Lean conference. He really seems to exemplify what you would want to see in a “Lean leader”, in his words and his manner.

From the article — Battle Creek Enquirer – www.battlecreekenquirer.com (article no longer online).

Convis, who relaxes by playing golf and riding a Harley Davidson, describes his management style as leading by example and not asking others to do what he wouldn't do himself.

“You respect people,” he said. “You listen to them, you work together. You don't blame them. Maybe the process was not set up well, so it was easy to make a mistake.”

He won't give up one activity that dates back to his early days in the auto industry: walking the manufacturing floor.

“It's my favorite time of the day,” he said. “It's where I grew up and that's where we add value. I like to say that the rest of us are all overhead. If I don't add value, there's no reason for me to be there.”

Peggy Ferris, a conveyance manager in the Georgetown plant who has known Convis since he came to the plant in 2000, said he's a president who connects well with workers.

“To me, Gary is always teaching,” she said. “He's a president that's very involved in the daily activities and projects. When he sees you're at a stumbling block, he offers support and follow-up, and then follow-up on that support to see if it's helped you.”

Convis said it's not about being a boss, but about being a facilitator and a coach. When he became a vice president at Toyota, his supervisor told him to manage as if he had no power.

“I thought about that and I thought ‘My goodness — what an amazing approach.' And I thought at the time, would a North American executive in a similar type of business ever say that to a newly promoted person? Never. So I've never forgotten that.”

What Happened Next

Convis was named chairman of Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky in 2006 and retired from Toyota in 2007. He later served as CEO of Dana Holding Corporation during the recession and as chief operating officer at Bloom Energy, and he co-authored The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership with Jeffrey Liker in 2011.

Reading the profile again, three things hold up.

“You don't blame them. Maybe the process was not set up well.” That's Respect for People stated as an assumption about cause, not as a value on a wall.

“The rest of us are all overhead.” That's a harder claim than it sounds. He isn't saying leaders should visit the floor. He's saying a leader who isn't adding value there has no reason to be there.

And the advice to manage as if he had no power. That's the line I've come back to most. It asks whether people would follow your direction if they didn't have to.

None of this tells us how consistently he behaved that way. It's one newspaper profile plus my own impression from hearing him speak. But the ideas are worth borrowing regardless.