Name: Mark Graban

Title: President

Organisation: Constancy, Inc.

Mark Graban, a senior advisor to KaiNexus, is an internationally-recognized author, speaker, and consultant. His latest book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation, is available now.

Mark is also the author of the award-winning book Lean Hospitals: Improving Quality, Patient Safety, and Employee Engagement and others, including Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More.

He serves as a consultant through his company, Constancy, Inc. Additionally, Mark hosts podcasts, including “Lean Blog Interviews” and “My Favorite Mistake.” Education: B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University; M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, and M.B.A. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s “Leaders for Global Operations” Program.

Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Leadership!

I hope Mark's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jonno White

1. What have you found most challenging as a leader?

One of the most challenging things I've faced is keeping command of my emotions, reactions, and body language when I don't like something or when things aren't going my way.

I would make a terrible poker player.

I'm better at watching what I say, but the look on my face often gives away how I'm feeling, and people notice that.

Emotional intelligence means being aware of our emotions and the impact that they can have on others. What I might view as passion and a belief that we can make things better might come across as impatience and criticism to others.

I've tried to get better at not just being aware of that but acting in ways that helped me be more effective as a leader and a change agent.

2. How did you become a leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

I think starting in high school, I found myself gravitating toward or being looked to to take leadership positions in different school organizations.

When I had part-time jobs in high school and going into college, I observed how different managers operated and behaved, and I was starting to draw my own conclusions about what I thought the more effective leadership styles were and which ones were dysfunctional. Thinking about how I reacted as an employee allowed me to start thinking about what type of leader I want to be.

I made a lot of mistakes in these early leadership roles, and that includes my time in college through the marching band and other groups. I'd like to think I learned from my mistakes, but I try not to dwell on some of them even to this day.

What really solidified my passion for leadership was my first job out of college, when I joined General Motors in 1995. For the first year, our plant had very traditional command-and-control-style leaders who yelled and blamed people when things went wrong. These leaders weren't really taking accountability for their role in any of the plant's poor performance.

But thankfully, after a year, our plant got a new plant manager who had a style that could be described as a polar opposite. This new plant manager had started his career at GM but then had an opportunity to learn directly from Toyota at the joint venture plant in California called NUMMI.

This leader listened more than he talked. He wasn't yelling and blaming people. He knew the plant could be turned around, and he told everybody that that would happen with a different Management style.

"The era of blaming the workers for everything is over," he said.

Within a few years, that plant went from being literally at the bottom of the barrel in quality and productivity metrics in the industry to being one of the top performers. In sports or at work, you usually can't fire all of the players on the team, but replacing the head coach often makes a huge difference.

That experience really strengthened my desire to study leadership, be a leader, and help others lead.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

As somebody who's usually working in a solopreneur mode, one thing that I enjoy is that every day is different. There are different needs and demands, and my priorities are always in flux.

That said, I try to build in routine as often as I can, and I know this is something I could actually improve upon.

For about the past four years, I have made "yin yoga" part of my daily routine, even though I don't always do it at the same time each day. The slow, floor-based stretching brings me a lot of physical benefits (for my middle-aged back) and mental benefits that help me calm my mind. That's something that I wish had been part of my daily structure a very long time ago.

I don't have strict boundaries between when I'm working and when I am taking advantage of a flexible working schedule. I guess I tried to think in terms of "work-life integration" rather than "balance." But that works for me. I'm passionate about my work, and I'm lucky to enjoy what I do.

4. What's a recent leadership lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of?

One thing I really learned a few years ago, and get reminded of pretty often, is the need to react in a kind manner when somebody makes a mistake — that's true whether it's an employee, a colleague, or somebody serving you at a business.

When something goes wrong at work, we might want to push immediately into a blame-free, problem-solving, and improvement process. But I've learned that even if we aren't saying anything that would blame or punish a person for human error, people still put a lot of blame on themselves. And that can cause a lot of internal hurt that makes it difficult for a person involved in a mistake to jump right into analysis mode.

So even if we've shifted from asking "Who messed up?" to "What went wrong?," it's still helpful to first ask the person or people involved in a mistake, "How are you feeling?" Yes, you want to work on problem-solving as soon as possible, but sometimes you need to give a person space and time to get back into a calm state when they can really participate in those next steps.

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

"Understanding Variation" by Donald J. Wheeler is my favorite book because it transformed how I interpret data and make decisions.

Building on W. Edwards Deming’s work, Wheeler provides a clear, practical guide to statistical process control (SPC), helping managers avoid common data pitfalls.

The book teaches that data must be understood in context, that two points don’t make a trend, and that tables of numbers are less effective than visual charts.

Most importantly, it differentiates between "common cause" and "special cause" variation, preventing wasted effort on meaningless fluctuations.

This book has been invaluable in my Lean consulting work, allowing me to focus on real improvement rather than reacting to noise.

These lessons also led to me writing and publishing my book "Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More in 2018 (with Dr. Wheeler writing the foreword).

6. If you could only give one piece of advice to a young leader, what would you say to them?

Be a learn-it-all facilitator and coach instead of a know-it-all boss.

That means listening more than you talk. That means serving others instead of making it all about yourself. That means helping people develop and achieve their own personal purpose. In addition to meeting the company's goals.

Lead by example and say things like, "I don't know," "I was wrong," and "I have an idea, so let's test it." That sort of humility and vulnerability sets a great example for others and leads to more success together.