Category: Personal Development

Leadership, Lean and Continuous Improvement, Personal Development

Prioritized Leader Actions are for, well, EVERYONE!

Glenn Sommerville
Prioritized Leader Actions or Leader Standardized Work

This post is a revision from a previously popular post.

I’ve never understood why so few leaders use Leader Standardized Work (LSW). Talking with many leaders over the years, the explanation I hear most is that they don’t have standard repeatable work or tasks. Baloney! All leaders have regular actions that they must or want to take on an ongoing basis. Examples include budget reviews, team member 1:1s, Gemba (go to the workplace), submitting your monthly business expenses, and many others. So if the “standardized work” wording is a barrier to using LSW, in HPL’s new fall ‘Lunch and Lead’ program called “4-steps to Time Shifting – making time for the things that really matter“, I’ve rephrased it to “Prioritized Leader Actions” or PLA. Ultimately, I think it more accurately reflects the intent relating to leadership responsibilities. Leaders are too often ‘fighting fires,’ and I believe a significant cause of this is that they are not proactive enough! Yes, it’s only a name change, but unfortunately, I think the name LSW casts a negative perception on many to the point that they don’t even consider it. So, let’s talk about Prioritized Leader Actions (PLA)!

I’ve found PLA to be a great tool to help me be a more consistent and effective leader. I’ve used PLA for years. For me, it’s my little voice reminding me of the most important things I need to do or that I want to do to be successful when leading. These are my priorities. Regardless of your responsibility, there is an inevitable component of it that is repeatable; therefore, Prioritized Leader Actions are for, well, everyone! It’s not just a manufacturing thing!!!

Here are some key points I found helpful when it comes to PLA:

1. Set up PLA with a designated section for daily, weekly, monthly and Mid-long term (quarterly, semi-annual) based on the frequency of completion of the task or action.

2. Place tasks in the PLA that are important to YOU that you must get done and those that you want to complete, check, or confirm because they are essential to you or your business.

3. Set your PLA up on a monthly basis, refreshing it at the beginning of each month.

4. Have a method within the PLA to indicate which days you are on vacation and identify when you are out of the office on business. Doing so will help you plan more effectively when you complete tasks, or it will provide you with the opportunity to delegate if necessary.

5. PLA should be dynamic, not static. It’s OK to add and remove items from your PLA. However, as priorities change, new systems develop, metrics improve or degrade, you may find that you need to adjust what you’re doing or what you’re checking and confirming.

6. PLA is for you, not anyone else. It’s OK to show people your PLA, but I don’t advocate posting it. It’s more effective if you carry it with you at all times to help you execute it versus showing others. As a leader, you should also check your team’s PLA periodically.

7. If you’re not getting to something on your PLA, don’t beat yourself up; instead, find the root cause for not getting it done and determine what you need to do differently to achieve it. After all, the items on your PLA were put there by you because you either need to get them done as a core responsibility of your job or they are most important to you. Then, use it to improve your self-discipline, motivate you, or remind you to just do it!

8. PLA must be integral to your planning system and routine. It must integrate with your schedule, follow-up system, and to-do lists.

9. Print out your PLA for the month, update it daily as you complete tasks daily, and “pencil” in additional PLA tasks as you’re thinking of them throughout the month.

10. When you get busy, that’s when you need your PLA the most. Please don’t abandon it, then. Instead, use it to help you get the most important things done. Then, when you can’t do everything, use it to make an informed decision as to what will and will not get done.

I use an Excel spreadsheet for my PLA. To make things easier, I’ve added some conditional formatting for the visibility of weekends, business travel, or when out on vacation. I prepare the PLA for the month, print it out, and then use it daily by marking tasks using a pen. PLA is integral to my daily, weekly, and monthly planning system.

Check out our ‘Tools‘ page to download a template of my PLA to use for yourself. Then, modify it as necessary to make it work for you.

I hope you found this helpful. Are there any key points I’ve missed or, in your experience, you feel are most important?

Contact me:

For additional information on High Performance Leaders Inc., click here.  Or follow on LinkedIn.

You can email me with any questions at glennsommerville@hotmail.com, find me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/glennsommervilleL2R/, or on Twitter at  https://twitter.com/gsommervilleL2R.

If you are enjoying my posts and find the information useful, please “Follow” me by entering your email in the follow box on the right-hand menu of my website www.glennsommerville.com

Gemba, Lean and Continuous Improvement, Personal Development, Problem Solving

The conflicts of line trials

Glenn Sommerville

One of the things I’ve always loved is the simple kaizens (continuous improvement). I was reminded of this recently working with RAB Design Lighting when the team there was conducting some line trials. Having coached the team on the importance of detailed trial planning and real-as-possible process set-up, but also the need to be balanced with simplicity, low cost, and high flexibility, I was thrilled to see their creativity and ingenuity that met these two potentially conflicting criteria. See examples in the pictures below.


The two criteria mentioned above is important because you want a trial to simulate the real line conditions as much as possible, however, things will definitely change as you learn more. So you don’t want to invest time and money building/buying a lot of things that may not actually be used in the permanent line or that may require several iterations of changes to get just right.

When conducting line trails careful planning is necessary. Planning such as: Clearly defining the purpose of the trial is critical. Determining what are you trying to prove, disprove or discover. Setting up the line to simulate as close as possible what the actual real line will look and feel like. Protecting the trial from “noise” or other things that can negatively impact or distract from the purpose of the trial. Although some of these things maybe real, you should try and isolate them from initial trials if they are not directly related to the purpose. There is a time and place to allow real time disruptions and abnormalities but not in early trials. Identifying and defining the number of trial observers, their roles, responsibilities and tracking needs. Deciding on what metrics to track and measure throughout the trial and who is going to do that. Scheduling, taking into account breaks, lunches and shift end, is also important.

Trials are to experiment and learn. They can also be a great deal of fun along the way! 

Congratulations to Denis Arsenault, P.Eng. and the RAB Design Lighting team for the successful trial this week! I’m looking forward to the next one!

Contact me:

For additional information on High Performance Leaders Inc., click here.  Or follow on LinkedIn.

You can email me with any questions at glennsommerville@hotmail.com, find me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/glennsommervilleL2R/, or on Twitter at  https://twitter.com/gsommervilleL2R.

If you are enjoying my posts and find the information useful, please “Follow” me by entering your email in the follow box on the right-hand menu of my website www.glennsommerville.com

Leadership, Personal Development

Time Saving Tip!

Glenn Sommerville

One of the best time saving, and perhaps even life saving things I did was implement 50 minute and 20 minute meetings. The emphasis was on 20 minute meetings as the rule and 50 minutes an exception.

The old saying “the fish grows to the size of the fish bowl” applies to meetings. Most people schedule 60 minute meetings. Why? It’s the default setting in most scheduling apps. What happens? Meetings extend to the length of time that the meeting is scheduled! Funny how that is, eh!

The obvious benefit of 50/20 minute meetings is more effective meetings and staying on topic, however, the real reward is that you get 10 minutes between each meeting, for, well, whatever you need. That maybe a coffee, a washroom break, checking and responding to emails, making quick calls, conversations, preparing for your next meeting.

Try it! It’s simple but GREAT!

Leave a comment with your best time saving or personal planning tip.

Watch for High Performance Leaders Inc. time management and personal planning workshop coming this fall.

Contact me:

For additional information on High Performance Leaders Inc., click here.  Or follow on LinkedIn.

You can email me with any questions at glennsommerville@hotmail.com, find me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/glennsommervilleL2R/, or on Twitter at  https://twitter.com/gsommervilleL2R.

If you are enjoying my posts and find the information useful, please “Follow” me by entering your email in the follow box on the right-hand menu of my website www.glennsommerville.com

Leadership, Personal Development

Goals and Objectives Eat New Year’s Resolutions for Breakfast, Every Time!

Glenn Sommerville

Whether for personal or business purposes, with every New Year, there is an opportunity for all of us to make a fresh start! Are you prepared to take it in 2022?

Personally, I’ve never really been a fan of New Year’s Resolutions.  There are many statistics out there with some studies indicating that up to 80% of resolutions fail.  Why?  My view is they are usually just statements made without any real plan to achieve, lack support mechanisms, or don’t have new habit formation actions, to mention just a few.

I’ve set annual goals and objectives both personally and within my businesses for many years now.  I’ve learned a lot over the years and have developed what I have found to be a pretty good process.  Often due to our busyness or just plain procrastination, the hardest part is to get started, so I thought I’d try and assist you by providing some of my previous posts on topics that I think can be very helpful at this time of year. 

Getting yourself organized – Time management & weekly personal planning

6 Must have’s for any planning routine – If you are in need of getting yourself better organized so you stay in control and get the right things done, these 6 key points to incorporate in your planning process will be helpful.

An effective leaders to-do list – We all have “things” we need or want to get done on a regular basis, but often we lose track of them and they fall off our radar. This article gives an over view of a very powerful leader tool, that is sadly too often overlooked, not understood, or assumed to be only for manufacturing. Not giving it away here so as not to discourage you from checking it out first!

Free personal organizer/planner download – Free down load of the template I use for my personal organizer and weekly planner. If you don’t have one, this should give you a good starting point that is ready to use, or you can easily revise to fit your personal needs.

28-Day Habit Tool – Forming a new habit is always challenging.  We’ve worked with many people over the years to help them form new habits using the 28 Day Habit Tool.  Set a new habit and track your progress.  Reflect daily as to the barriers and challenges you faced completing the new habit and keep at it.  If you miss any day… don’t despair, but rather reflect, come up with mitigation, and move forward with the habit, BUT… reset the 28 days and start again.  Continue until you achieve 28 consecutive days of the new habit.

Leadership Hacks – Getting your stuff together – a 2.5 hour live virtual seminar with over 50+ proven tips and techniques to get yourself organized and stay in control without having to spend a career figuring it all out.

Setting goals and objectives – Personal or for business

Reflections vs Resolutions – A critical step before setting annual goals and objectives is to first reflect on the previous year. In my opinion, reflection is far more important than any resolution. In this post we discuss why resolutions typically fail and the steps to conducting a good reflection.

Setting Personal and Professional Goals and Objectives – Mission Statements – Whether it’s for personal use or professionally, having a defined mission is very important. This article walks through what a mission statement is comprised of and provides a couple of personal examples to help demonstrate.

Setting Personal and Professional Goals and Objectives – Goals & Objectives – Providing both personal and organizational examples, this article outlines how to create strategies, goals and objectives.

Setting Personal and Professional Goals and Objectives – Tactics or Action Plans – Once again providing both personal and organizational examples, we review the steps to take to develop robust actions to achieve your goals & objectives.

If you’d be interested in a complimentary Lunch & Lead Series topic on Setting Personal and Professional Goals and Objectives, leave us a comment or contact us to let us know your interest.

HPL also facilitates the annual business planning process for our clients.  If you’re interested and want to learn more, please contact us to discuss your needs.

Contact me:

For additional information on High Performance Leaders Inc., click here.  Or follow on LinkedIn.

You can email me with any questions at glennsommerville@hotmail.com, find me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/glennsommervilleL2R/, or on Twitter at  https://twitter.com/gsommervilleL2R.

If you are enjoying my posts and find the information useful, please “Follow” me by entering your email in the follow box on the right-hand menu of my website www.glennsommerville.com

Leadership, Personal Development

Lunch & Lead Series – Protect the Core – Increase the capacity of your team

Glenn Sommerville
High Performance Leaders is hosting our next FREE 50 minute Lunch & Lead Series event on Friday, June 25 at 12:05PM EST / 9:05AM PST on the topic of “Protect the Core – Increase the capacity of your team”.

Register Now!

We are consistently hearing from leaders that they are concerned for their teams with the amount of distractions and unplanned work they are experiencing. Teams and leaders are becoming overwhelmed with what they have on their plates. At this Lunch & Lead Series we will provide some tips and techniques leaders can use to help protect their teams giving them more capacity to focus on their top priorities.

Register now and on June 25 at 12:05 PM EST / 9:05 AM PST, grab your lunch (or breakfast as the case may be) and join us for this Lunch & Lead Series!

We hope you can make it and look forward to connecting with each other!