It is 3:00 PM on a Friday. Your high-speed inserter just threw a critical error code. You have a 6:00 PM presort pickup for a customer mailing, and your lead operator is losing control after a grueling week.
In that exact moment, what is your default move? Do you “armor up,” and start barking orders from a distance? Or do you have the grounded confidence to step directly into the chaos and lead your team through it?
For in-plant managers the daily grind is defined by relentless pressure. You manage hourly staff, aging equipment, and unforgiving service level agreements (SLAs). When structural shifts and fast-moving organizational changes add layers of uncertainty, the job gets even harder. True operational resilience does not come from the machinery or the software. In a high-volume environment, the strongest ground is not the concrete floor, it is the trust and resilience of the people standing on it.
Dr. Brené Brown, a leadership researcher and bestselling author, spent six years interviewing 150,000 leaders across 45 countries. Her work focuses on vulnerability, courage, and leadership, highlighting how grounded confidence helps professionals navigate dynamic environments. The leadership strategies in this article are based on concepts from her newest book, Strong Ground, The Lessons of Daring Leadership, the Tenacity of Paradox, and the Wisdom of the Human Spirit. Brown notes, no one is completely fearless; instead, successful leaders are disciplined in their courage. They make conscious choices to trade bravado and ego for humility and alignment with truth. For an operations manager, this means understanding the stark difference between armored leadership and daring leadership.
The Knower vs. The Learner
When a machine goes down or a deadline is missed, the natural human reaction is to self-protect. We put on operational armor from years of experience. In leadership, Brown calls this adopting the stance of “The Knower.” The primary goal is defending authority, proving status, and asking, “Who is to blame?”
When you lead from a place of armor, you demand strict compliance. The result is predictable: your team shuts down, hides mistakes, and may wait for things to fail just to prove a point. You might get temporary compliance, but you lose long-term commitment and uptime.
In the book, she contrasts daring leadership – which requires shifting from being a knower to being a learner. The learner’s goal is to understand the operational challenges, solve the root cause of an issue, while building trust with your team. Instead of seeking a person to blame, a daring leader asks, “What is the process flaw?” This stance requires curiosity, practice, and the willingness to look at a problem without pretending to have all the answers.
Scenario: The Legacy Team Resisting a New Workflow
Consider how these two styles play out during a common operational challenge: upgrading technology.
Imagine you just invested part of your budget into a new piece of intelligent inserting equipment or automated tracking software to speed up processing. Your senior operators, who have run the shop their way for years, push back. They continue running the old, slower machines, claiming the new system does not work and will cause missed SLAs. An armored leader doubles down. They call a meeting and declare, “This is the new standard operating procedure. If you cannot hit the metrics on this machine, we will have to look at disciplinary action.” The team gives up, does the bare minimum, and watches the new machine error with an attitude of, “Told you so.”
A daring leader takes a different approach. They step onto the production floor during the shift, stand next to the lead operator, and say, “I see the throughput numbers are dropping on the new inserter, and I know you guys are stressed about the afternoon deadline. Walk me through exactly what happens. What is this machine doing that the old one didn’t, and what am I missing?”
By becoming a learner, you uncover the real issue. Perhaps there’s an issue with the paper stock or the moisture level is causing issues for the new rollers, or the software interface is clunky. By setting aside the need to be right, you solve the actual mechanical or systemic problem together. The team feels respected rather than replaced, and the operation builds genuine resilience.
Grounding Your Leadership
Leading with grounded confidence means staying steady when the operation is in trouble by anchoring your actions in core values rather than reactive anxiety. Managing people is difficult, and it requires a daily commitment to learning and effective communication that builds trust.
Think about the changes you have implemented in your operation over the past year. How did you help your team find the courage and willingness to change? How did you show you were in it together? True strength comes from standing on solid ground, being curious and vulnerable.
In my next post, I will explore Brené Brown’s grounded confidence strategies to plan for tough conversations, and the daily practice of providing your team with radical clarity. You can learn more from her successful approaches in her books and podcasts.
Lois Ritarossi, CMC®, is the President of High Rock Strategies, a consulting firm focused on sales and marketing strategies, and business growth for firms in the print, mail and communication sectors. Lois brings her clients a cross functional skill set and strategic thinking with disciplines in business strategy, sales process, sales training, marketing, software implementation, inkjet transformation and workflow optimization. Lois has enabled clients to successfully launch new products and services with integrated sales and marketing strategies, and enabled sales teams to effectively win new business. You can reach Lois at https://www.highrockstrategies.com/ or Lritarossi@highrockstrategies.com