Time on the floor

One of the most important things a leader can do is spend time on warehouse floors, cutting room floors, and factory floors. Not from a distance. Not through reports. But in person.

That’s where progress becomes visible. That where work actually flows. Where problems are really solved. Where team members speak the reality up close and personal.

I’ve been at companies where executives avoided the floor. Avoided the noise, the cold, the heat, the mess, and avoided the people. And it always showed. Because culture doesn’t live in boardrooms. It lives where hands touch product and decisions meet reality.

If you want to understand an operation, go where orders are picked, product is cut, and where assemblies come together. Go where mistakes are felt immediately. Go where people feel the stress of upstream decisions made without their input.

The floor tells you the "why". You don’t understand a supply chain - or its culture - until you’ve stood in the middle of it and listened. Leadership shows up best when it's real - not just slide decks.