When I arrived in Mexico in 1996, I recall the focus on results that the plant manager had at the time. It was 24 X 7 results, results and more results. We had midnight staff meetings. We measured everything from on-time shipments to electricity usage. We took corrective actions at the slightest sign of unfavorable trends in our endless metrics. We spent a lot of time making sure that everyone impacted knew the “score”… not that there’s anything wrong with that. It was critical at the time to focus on results. After all, we had just moved a product line to Mexico from Canada into a plant without resources in place and without an established Enterprise Requirements Planning (ERP) System. It was hard work to say the least getting all the moving parts in place.

Although success was achieved through acceptable results in the first year, the business turned when we also started to find ways to “balance” the approach. We started to celebrate successes. We publicly recognized employees that went above and beyond to get the results we were after. We tied bonuses to productivity. Once the employees saw the leaders as “buena gente” (“good people”), they started to make strides unlike before. They became more willing to get things done, fixed or improved. With this environment, ideas to improve product cost for example tripled year-over-year. Performance metrics improved at a pace twice that of before.

In the end, leaders can find success by driving to the metric and making sure employees are doing what they need to do to obtain results. That success will be short-lived unless the environment to sustain it fosters a partnership between the leaders and the employees. That partnership will ensure that the employees are willing to work to find ways to get the results the organization needs to compete in a tough market.