All posts by karynross

I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting lately. Even more than normal for me. With my son having been so sick with COVID, social unrest surrounding systemic racism and the pandemic, stress upcoming US election and Friday’s death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. So many of the people that I’ve spoken with are wrestling with all types of feelings. And that’s normal and okay. It’s a tough time for everyone. So I’m drawing and writing. What I do to process, reflect and relax. This is what came out today. Because in tough times it’s easy to get stuck in negative emotions, thoughts and actions. Towards ourselves and others. But although we can’t choose many of the experiences our life and world circumstances put us in, ultimately, through reflection and practice we can choose how to deal with them, feel about them, and act towards others and ourselves. So today, take some time, reflect on how you’re feeling accept those feelings, whatever they are, and work towards where you’d like them to be. The learning is in the journey, so be kind to yourself and others as we go through it!

Welcome to the Kind Leader Newsletter!

As a Kind Leader Newsletter subscriber, each week you’ll receive information on the research that I’m doing and updates on interviews and insights that I’m having as I write my new book The Kind Leader: A Practical Guide to Leading with Kindness.

You’ll also get a Practical Tip to use immediately and share with others. Because everyone can start leading with kindness right now!

Tip #1: Being kind is a great stress reducer!

There’s a lot of stress going around lately. With all the changes in work from COVID-19, layoffs and job losses, worries about health of family members and friends, and anxiety about politics and elections. Tempers are frayed and it’s easy to think, speak and act unkindly.

As a leader, you can help reduce the stress of people that you lead (and your own) by speaking and acting kindly. Ask people how they and their family are doing. Then take the time to listen fully to their answer. Don’t check your phone or look at your watch. Look them in the eye and pay attention. If there is help you can offer, offer it. If there isn’t, just simply taking the time to listen is a great – and kind – way to help!

That’s this week’s Kind Leader newsletter!

What do you think…

How do you and your leaders show kindness to help reduce stress?

What do you think leaders can do to speak and act more kindly to reduce team members’ stress?

Please share your ideas in the comments!

An exciting news today! I’ve just signed a contract for a new book and I’m writing again! The topic: Kind Leadership! Why? Because although ‘Kindness’ and ‘Leadership’ aren’t always synonymous, they need to be! Because leaders lead. And the way a leader leads – how they do what they do – influences those they lead. Today, in our increasingly fragmented, polarized and divided world, we need leaders who will bring people together, who value cooperation and collaboration, and who model ways to think kindly, speak kindly and act kindly to all. We simply need kindness to become synonymous with good leadership.

I’ll be starting a weekly newsletter called The Kind Leader where you can subscribe to receive practice tips on leading with kindness. All you need to do to receive your copy is to subscribe to my website and you’ll automatically get the newsletter!

Excited that my article on how lean can help us create new and better ways to work and care for customers and team members is in the July issue of ISE Magazine! Super proud to be able to tell the story of how Noah Goellner and my friends Hennig are fulfilling their purpose by using lean and creativity to make their community successful, and to give lots of other ideas about how organizations can use lean and their creativity during these challenging times. Lean isn’t just for removing waste, reducing cycle time and solving already known problems. It’s the way to create forward to a better future. Hope you enjoy the article! I always enjoy writing for ISE Magazine!
ISEJuly2020_Ross

Are you feeling discouraged that even after so much work, your organization hasn’t had a full lean transformation? And that you’re a failure if you haven’t been able to ‘make it happen’? Don’t be. Often, we get so caught up in the ‘ends’ the ‘BIG’ results we (or someone else) tells us is the only measure of ‘success’, that we lose track of the purpose: making things better. And that the way to make things better is to help people. So, instead of focusing on the ends, focus on helping people: the ‘means’. One person at a time. Single piece flow. Because when you help someone work in a more effective and efficient way, things will be better for the people they serve (their customers) and for them. And when you help one person, you’ve changed the world for the better. And that’s a huge success. So today, please focus on the process. Not on the results. Remember, ‘How we get there is as – or more important – than where we are going’. At work…and in life. Who will you help today?

I’m not a gardener. I’ve never wanted to grow a garden, but last year I was inspired by visiting a client who had a HUGE organic garden in her back yard. So I decided to give it a try. I bought seeds and used old flower pots to plant a small container gardener on a table. (We have lots of bunnies and I want to share the space kindly with them.) Guess what? Nothing grew. I was disappointed (but not too surprised, because I’m not a gardener), so decided to try again this year with a little PDCA!
1. I’m not traveling, so I can water every day as needed!
2. I have a new table with a perforated surface so water doesn’t pool at the bottom of the pots on the table after it rains!
3. I’ve changed my attitude! Instead of thinking to myself ‘I’m not a gardener’ I’m thinking to myself ‘I’m learning by doing!’ I learned a lot by doing from last year, and I’ll learn more this year! And as I pay careful attention to the process every day, I’ll learn even more! Maybe I’ll even have some radishes, green beans and spinach to eat too!
So, if you want to do something, and you hear that little voice in your head saying “I’m not a _________ “ … stop! And tell yourself instead, “I’m learning by doing!” Then get going!

I’ll keep you posted on how my tiny garden is doing!

I’ve had a lot of questions and discussion lately about process improvement and value stream mapping. And one thing I’ve noticed is that sometimes, in those discussions, starting from deeply understanding customer needs – what should be happening from the point of view of each of your customers – is missing! It’s easy to get caught up in internal process…what we are doing now…and what would make things easier and better for us! But if those things don’t help get your customer what they want, when they want it, right the first time – flow value to the customer – then they are missing the point! So, when starting to work on an improvement, or creating a value stream map, please first ask yourself: what should be happening for our customers? And then, if you find you don’t know (and most often we really don’t) please ask them! It’s easy to be focused on ourselves, but improving for our customers means starting with – and focusing on – them!