About
I still work the floor.
My first job wasn't really a job. It was my grandfather's auto parts shop, where "work" meant learning that people come in with a problem, not a part number. Find the problem and the part takes care of itself. Took me about twenty years to realize that was a root cause lesson.
Promoted without a manual.
Years later I was a line worker. Not long after I transferred in, they made me the first-shift leader. Nobody handed me a playbook. They handed me a radio, a headcount, and a production target, and wished me luck.
So I learned leadership the way most front-line leaders do: the expensive way. On second shift. In root cause meetings that ended at "operator error." In a few conversations I'd very much like back.
Fifteen years, a lot of floors.
Since then I've led people and fixed processes in heavy manufacturing, e-commerce fulfillment, food and beverage, retail distribution, and cold storage. Different products, same three problems everywhere:
- Feedback that's too vague to change anything
- Problem solving that stops at the first easy answer
- Good work that goes unseen by the people above you
I wrote a book for each one: The Leadership & Culture Playbook, The 5-WHY Forest, and The Roses You Were Never Told to Plant.
Tools, not theory.
Everything in this store comes out of those books, built for use on shift, not on a bookshelf. Print it. Write on it. Tape it to the line-side board. If it doesn't survive a real Tuesday, it doesn't belong here.
How I lead.
I grew up with one rule: you don't leave people behind. That's the whole philosophy. Your team's success is your scoreboard, and nobody gets written off because the system set them up to fail.
Who this is for.
Supervisors, team leads and operations managers who got promoted for being good at the work, then discovered leading the work is a different job. You respect earned authority, not a wall of credentials. Good. Me too.
MBA, Supply Chain · Lean Six Sigma Green Belt · ISO 9001 Internal Auditor · Certified ScrumMaster. For what it's worth.