Every leader carries a toolbox filled with tools they collect over time. I have been on my leadership journey for some time now and have filled my toolbox with the tools that work best for me. They include Stephen Covey’s Speed of Trust, a focus on communication and organizational effectiveness, the marriage of disciplined decision-making and objective critical thinking, Jim Collins’ Built to Last, and most recently, Tugboat Institute’s® framework of the Evergreen 7Ps®. And through my work with each of these tools, there is one more that I have developed myself, over time. I call it the Six Lanes of Logic.

I joined Schaeffer Manufacturing Company as President with the objective of ensuring that this 183-year-old company was in position to last another 180 years or more. My first step was to assess Schaeffer’s readiness to meet this objective. During my first four months, I embarked on a listening tour, and I assessed that trust throughout the organization was low. There was a lack of clarity of roles and no clear communication. As a result, organizational effectiveness and engagement were low. Employees did their jobs without a clear understanding of the larger purpose of the company and how they fit into it. Schaeffer was not in a ‘Built to Last’ position. Thanks to my toolbox, I had the tools to address these issues, so I set to work.