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58 The PCB Magazine • October 2016 2. What you (the employer) perceive their value to be. This part requires a bit of introspection. Do you honestly think he/she is being fairly com- pensated? If not, can you afford to give them a raise? If the answer to that question is no, is there another way to show them they are important to your company such as the ones mentioned above? These are all questions that, when answered honestly and applied accurate- ly, will allow you to leverage value into profit. 3. The company's value to you. In the manufacturing world, leaders general- ly have so much at stake, usually large amounts of equity, that this generally isn't an issue. How- ever, for the purposes of leadership in general (and the outliers) this truth still holds. If you don't care about the company, you will not be a very good leader/manager. Regardless of wheth- er or not you have equity, you have to care. At the end of the day, everybody is in this to make money; therefore, everybody is essentially sell- ing something—tangible or intangible. If you don't have faith in whatever it is you're selling, you won't be profitable. Although the volatility of the manufactur- ing sector, especially for PC boards, is relatively low, we all know the market can turn on you any second—especially when you get too com- fortable. Being overly comfortable can lead you to taking things for granted—especially your workforce. Leaders tend to rely a bit too much on the adage "everyone is replaceable." Although it's true, some people are less replace- able than others. Your department supervisor who has been there for 20 years and doesn't need to be told anything to do his job properly needs adequate upward movement in his/her compensation and position in order to main- tain a semblance of self-worth and dignity. At the end of it all, leadership comes down to balance: a balance between delegation and micromanagement, over- or underpaid, overly attached or undervalued. As leaders, to remain apathetic—to a degree—is one of our most im- portant characteristics. In enables us to make rational decisions free of emotional influence. Pragmatism will always be your best friend. Last—but certainly not least—be open to suggestions. Colin Powell once said, "The day the soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership." Although it is impossi- ble to equate our brave servicemen and women with civilian employees, the underlying prin- ciple about leadership still remains. PCB Sam Sangani is president and CEO of PNC Inc. THREE KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL LEADERSHIP The production of new au- tomobiles equipped with data connectivity, either through a built-in communications module or by a tether to a mobile device, is forecast to reach 12.4 million in 2016 and increase to 61 mil- lion in 2020, according to Gar- ner Inc. "The connected vehicle is the foundation for fundamen- tal opportunities and disruptions in the automotive industry and many other vertical industries," said Research Director James Hines. "Connected vehicles will continue to generate new prod- uct and service innovations, cre- ate new companies, enable new value propositions and business models, and introduce the new era of smart mobility." Connected Cars to Introduce a New Era of Smart Mobility