Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/735567
56 The PCB Magazine • October 2016 It is often easy to lose sight, particularly in the manufacturing sector, of your most valu- able resource: people. You can't take purchase orders, operate equipment and develop new strategies all on your own. With so much focus being driven toward quality, margins and cus- tomer satisfaction, upper management devel- ops a tendency to forget what keeps all of those things in the positive. It is not that upper management has a bla- tant disregard for the people working for them; but when you are in the business of making things it is easy to forget the people that actu- ally make them. Good leadership and management will al- ways hinge upon the value of three things: 1. What the employee perceives their value to the company to be. The most common way to measure this value is by compensation. However, it is not al- ways the most accurate. We all see examples of over- and under-paid people all the time. There are other ways to manage what level of con- tribution someone thinks they are giving to a company. For example, you would be surprised how far verbal acknowledgment can go. You'd be even more surprised how much further it goes when it is done with others listening. This serves the double purpose of not only recogniz- ing one employee's efforts but also incentiv- izing those listening to improve their level of performance in the hopes of receiving similar treatment. Regulating this perception inside your em- ployee's mind is undoubtedly one of the most important traits of a good leader. You need them to feel important but you never want them to feel irreplaceable either. No matter how hon- est and full of integrity they are, letting them feel overly important will breed mental lethargy and a lack of focus. by Sam Sangani PNC INC. Three Keys to Successful Leadership FEATURE COLUMN: THE SUM OF ALL PARTS