When accepting my job at ClosetMaid right out of college, I was eager to work within the scale of a Fortune 200 subsidiary (at the time Emerson Electric owned) but with the ability to affect change quickly within a smaller organization. Instead of being typecast as a career engineer, I wanted to prove I had the people skills many engineers lacked, so I took a supervisor role right out of the gate. At age 23, I was managing 60 people across six departments and was the only salaried personnel on the shift. I quickly demonstrated my capabilities by taking control of the lack of communication and increasing information flow which I put to good use with my shift. I want to highlight some of my key findings at this pivotal transition point in my career. I utilized the knowledge I had amassed through several profound readings. One that rang true was Jim Collins’ “Good to Great”. He says, “you have to get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seat.” Since we were in middle-of-nowhere Maryland, trying to attract the “right” people was definitely challenging, but I knew we had a lot of talent on the shift. However, the supervisor that I replaced (due to being fired after displaying a fit of rage towards the plant manager) was a blue-collar worker who was promoted internally. I was now tasked with supervising his colleagues. On top of this individual’s lack of management experience or know-how, the internal promotion led to lax authority over the shift. Now I inherited an unruly shift with more bad apples than could be initially counted. So, what did I do? I got the wrong people off the bus! It is always a challenge that managers have to face; if I resort to firing, am I not fulfilling my role as an effective leader? However, it’s important to keep in mind that you have different levels of engagement with individuals. Some workers are actively engaged; they will work hard to excel in their job and attempt to improve what they can in their circle of control. Some are simply engaged and will do the job but rarely go above and beyond. Some are disengaged, where they really do not get any joy out of their work and are not performing to their talents. But the worst are actively disengaged employees. These types are those employees that will go out of their way to cause chaos or bring down the mood of their coworkers. When Stephen Covey says to get the wrong people off the bus, these actively disengaged employees are what to target first! Because of the lack of leadership on this ship, attitudes had turned sour. The disengaged individuals were allowed to fester, bringing down the productivity of everyone around them. Now you shouldn’t just go willy-nilly laying people off. You want to give everyone a chance to perform. You need to lay out clear expectations and identify what an ideal future would look like for your team and for the individuals. Many times, the disengagement is present because they feel like they have no control in their position and every day is firefighting and not building towards a better future. As a leader, you need to ensure all your employees have the tools they need to perform their job as best as possible. Then you need to fully dedicate yourself to allowing your employees to do their jobs and minimize the firefighting and ensuing chaos as much as possible. Now once you lay out these expectations and show positive momentum and display your dedication in helping the employees work effectively, there is no excuse for active disengagement. If employees are still misbehaving, it is time to document and talk to them to let them know precisely how they are falling short of the new expectations. I had to do this with a total of six individuals on this unruly shift. That amounted to 10% of the workforce on my shift! I documented along the way, being sure to follow HR protocols, but sure enough, these individuals created their own demise. They essentially walked themselves out. And you know what happened? The shift became more productive! Even without backfilling the positions within six months, the shift had doubled their output! This shows how much the engaged individuals wanted to perform but were being held back by the negativity around them. So, after getting the wrong people off the bus, I had the right people on the bus, and I made sure to highlight excellent performance and put them on a path to promotion. I had a shift lead and assistant supervisor who were big supporters of mine since they knew that I was there to support them first and foremost. This early victory became the foundation of successes to come. Key Lessons:

• Do not let bad attitudes fester in your organization
• Be quick to get the wrong people off the bus
• Demonstrate to your employees your dedication to success
• Be clear about what success looks like as a team and for the individual
• Remember, your role as a leader is to remove all obstacles for your employees and ensure they have the tools and are properly empowered to do their jobs as effectively as possible