The way to intrinsic leadership according to Marco Workel (Tata Steel)

I actually grew into this through a number of jobs. I studied Applied Physics and graduated in Mechanical Engineering in the UK. Then I started work with Corus Research and Development. After a few years, I got my first managerial role, in a research group. A number of years later, I moved over to the production and maintenance side. And now I head up the whole process at one of the 10 factories in IJmuiden.

My KPIs cover the whole spectrum, from health and safety and the environment to profitability, volume, availability and quality. Plus also asset investments and the longer-term roadmap. My most important challenge in fact is the people area, ensuring that the 600 staff in my factory can really work properly. To ensure that for everyone, I first of all focus on creating a culture where it is normal for people to improve themselves on their own. . To do this, I am making improvements in the ICT, following Industry 4.0, to make the work easier and simpler. Finally, for me the long-term vision is very important in terms of installations and product development.

I know for sure that we are not doing well enough yet. We are quite a hierarchically structured company, with many formalised paths to improvement. I can see that this does not create enough effective improvements. We are too far up on the scale towards over-bureaucracy. While a certain amount of freedom would lead to autonomy, more enjoyment of work and the drive to improve your own workplace.

That does not have to involve improvements costing millions of dollars. The question is how to make the work more enjoyable. Just sweeping the floor and putting the screwdrivers back in the right place for the next shift is sometimes enough. We can go a lot further in this way, I believe. I talk a lot with operators and team leaders and see plenty of autonomous ownership. But often this is focused purely on their own job, not looking over the wall at the next one. With continuous shifts that is really necessary. On the one hand, you need to clean up your own mess, and on the other hand you need to talk to the earlier shift if they did not do so. Show ownership.

Over the last few years we have been very preoccupied with the question about how we can make the move from a reactive organisation to a structured organisation. We have always been an organisation with experts, people who are really good at a tiny piece of the whole process.

Copying organisations like Toyota, we started with standardisation and practical problem-solving. Now we have a large group, maybe about 100 out of 600 people, who are working in this way, and the challenge is to now also convert the remaining 500.

Working with a consultant, we have looked at how we need to set up the organisation if we want to change to move towards more self-reliance and autonomy. Communication is crucial in this. What exactly is each person's role and responsibility? What can we expect of each other? And, really important: how do we coach management in this process and ensure that we are setting the right example in our behaviour? Right now we are busy specifically with these changes in one part of the factory, and we expect that in the course of the next year it will need to spread like an oil stain.

The company has a specific, hierarchical culture, where we as senior managers are used to telling people what they need to do, and always knowing more. Exactly the right way to kill off any seeds of initiative at birth. This year, we are also starting an improvement programme for ourselves, to teach management what questions we need to ask, and how we can learn to trust that our people are really well able to solve things and do things.

My style of leadership is rooted in my own intrinsic values. I want to manage in a way that creates enthusiasm and addresses the long-term, not just the next task. Defining the frameworks and then ensuring that the detail is filled in lower down the organisation by my team. Right now, my behaviour does not always match what I would prefer to be doing. I have been working in production for 15 years, and you acquire baggage that also shapes you. The form of self-management we are seeking is not yet typical for the organisation in which I have been "reared" for the last 20 years. So it is also true for me that I have things to unlearn.

We started a training course in Tata Steel for upper management about what good leadership is today. That included a module called Deep Democracy. That was a huge AHA moment. I often sit at a table as the chairman, the hierarchical manager. Everyone looks to me to take the decisions and I also feel that I need to do so.

During this module, that was up for discussion. Are you as the manager necessarily the best person to take the decision? Or are you the chairman, who needs to ensure that the best decision is taken? Agreeing a solution with the group is much more effective. You can then ask any dissenters what they would need in order to implement the decision properly. In this way, as manager you offer direction, but the group itself initiates the changes. That is a much more intelligent way of managing.

That was a long time ago in the UK. I was the head of a pretty demotivated maintenance department there. The results were not good, costs were getting out of control and there were too many breakdowns. When I came in I thought – from my Tata culture – about just clearing out the whole organisation, these people out, others in. But first of all, I spent three months going round and asking questions. It then appeared that the history was the biggest issue. People had lost their motivation over the years due to changes and feeling undervalued.

The only thing they really needed was someone to say to them, now and again: "This is what we're going to do, I'll back you up and you'll be busy." I mainly covered their backs, made sure that the offices were well organised and started a monthly newsletter with the successes in the department. The result? These people found new energy and were happy to be using their expertise again! Over the last two years, all the KPIs improved every one of the 24 months. And I didn't really make that happen, they did it themselves. I learned from that to ask myself: is something really the person's fault, or have we pushed someone into a corner or an environment that means they can no longer function?

Start with a question, not an answer. We are inclined to give people instructions. And often they make no sense, because the people themselves have already tried all the options. You will do better by asking questions: "What is the problem?" "What have you tried so far? "What do you think yourself might be another possible solution?" Asking questions motivates people and delivers better answers than when you start by giving your opinion.

The story of the Four Minute Mile by Sir Roger Bannister. He was the first person to run a mile in less than four minutes, at a time when people believed it was physically impossible. In doing this, he broke one of the most iconic barriers of sport. Scientifically, his explanation of how appears to be nonsense, but it is a very inspiring story.

I also think that if you truly believe in something and think it must be possible, then your mindset helps you to achieve it. As a manager you really have to start with yourself. "What do I really want, and am I convinced that it is possible?" If you start out thinking that something is not possible, then it won't succeed. People notice your doubts, for example, in your choice of words like provided, but and maybe. So make sure you yourself are really convinced of your own choices, then it is easier to convince others.

Marco Workel has now been working for about 20 years at Tata Steel and from 2014 until September 2019 was general manager of the Cold Mill factory with about 600 FTEs. This is one of the factories in the integrated steel site within Tata Steel IJmuiden. Health and safety, operations (24/7), engineering and technology, HR processes and capital investments are the things that keep him busy.