The Best Boss I Never Had

Written by Aneil Mishra, Department of Management, Thomas D. Arthur Professor of Leadership

Bob Lintz is the best boss I never had.  If I had worked for him, I would have likely stayed longer at GM.  Nevertheless, I have been privileged to have worked with him for the past 25 years as part of my ongoing research on trustworthy leadership.

When I first met Bob in the late 1980s, he was in the middle of a transformational change effort he was leading at a stamping plant in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio.  The General Motors stamping plant in Parma’s future had been in doubt in the previous decade because at that time it was one of GM’s worst plants in terms of productivity, quality, cost, and labor relations.  By building a trust-based culture at Parma, involving the local United Auto Workers (UAW) leadership, rank-and-file union employees, and Parma’s managers, Bob created a team-based system, which empowered employees to improve their own work areas, collaborate to develop innovative solutions to long-standing conflicts, and partner with customers and suppliers to reduce costs while simultaneously improving quality.

Bob Lintz with his wife, Karen.

In the decade and a half after I met Bob, the results of this organizational change effort would be significant.  Productivity in terms of output per employee improved almost 10-fold, while quality improved even more dramatically.  This was all due to marked and sustained increases in employee engagement based on mutual trust.  Bob’s example as a trustworthy leader, and his commitment to building trust throughout the Parma organization, stood in contrast to developments elsewhere at GM.  It is no surprise that in 2014 Parma is one of the best-performing stamping plants in the world, and as a result of Bob’s leadership, several thousand well-paying jobs were saved.

Bob also owned the original Ghostbuster’s ambulance, restoring it to its original condition, complete with the four proton packs worn by Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson. Bob used it raise money for cancer research among other philanthropies.

Having retired from GM, Bob is busier than ever, helping The Cleveland Clinic’s transformation from a system organized around physicians to a team-based organization centered on patients.  Bob will be discussing how he is applying his insights and experience about employee engagement, world-class quality, and safety as a top organizational priority as part of his leadership work with The Clinic.

I am delighted that ECU will be hosting him as the 2014 Cunanan Leadership Series Speaker at 3 PM on November 12^th at ECU’s Hendrix Theater.

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