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What is leader standard work?
A practical introduction for individual leaders.
Make recurring leadership work visible
Leader standard work is a deliberate set of recurring leadership activities. It helps you decide what deserves regular attention and return to it consistently, even when the day fills up.
Where it fits in Lean operations
In Lean, Leader Standard Work gives leaders a repeatable way to observe work, support problem solving, and follow through with people. A routine is useful when it creates time to learn what is happening in the process and respond to it. The Lean Enterprise Institute’s introduction explains this connection to developing people’s problem-solving skills.
Start with the work you already do
List a few activities that help you understand the work and support people: a short check-in, observing a process, reviewing an issue, or following up on a commitment. Choose a frequency that makes sense for each.
Separate the routine from the next action
“Review open issues each morning” is recurring work. “Ask Morgan for the updated handoff checklist” is a specific task. Keeping the two distinct makes a routine easier to repeat without losing its follow-through.
Keep it small enough to use
Start with three or four activities. After a week, look at which ones helped and which need adjusting. A useful routine should support judgment and conversation, not replace them.
A small routine in practice
A department leader might spend ten minutes each morning observing one handoff, ask the person doing the work what made it difficult, and revisit yesterday’s agreed action. On Friday, they compare what they saw and choose one obstacle to investigate. These are example activities, not a required schedule.
If the observation reveals an unclear checklist, the routine stays “Observe a handoff.” The separate commitment becomes “Ask Morgan to walk through the checklist on Tuesday.” Next week, check whether the change helped the handoff rather than counting the task alone as success.
Your starter leadership routine
Print this page or save it as a PDF using your browser’s Print menu. Write on the lines, or copy the prompts into your own notes. Nothing entered on paper is stored by this site.
Week of: ____________________
- Purpose: What do I need to understand about the work?
- Observe: Which activity will I repeat, and how often?
- Connect: Who will I listen to?
- Follow through: What action did we agree on, and when will I revisit it?
- Learn: What helped this week, and what should change?
Put it into practice
In Lean Operations and Lean Manufacturing, use your routine to observe work, notice recurring obstacles, and follow through on improvements. For Lean Six Sigma teams, the same habits help keep agreed actions visible between reviews. Start with a few useful routines, look for gaps in consistency, and adjust based on what you learn.
You do not need a formal improvement program to benefit. Leaders and executives in any workplace can use this framework to make time for people, review priorities, and follow through on commitments. It can also complement an existing Six Sigma program without requiring one.
Cadence LSW brings recurring activities and tasks into a daily view, with people follow-ups and notes alongside. The invite-only beta is designed for individual leaders building this kind of rhythm.