Leader Feeder by Unique Training & Development

Hosted by Unique Training & Development

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Episodes

Latest episode

Aug 2026

Language

EN-US

About the show

Join our leadership experts for bi-weekly advice on how to develop consistent, capable and confident Supervisors, Managers and Team Leaders who drive safety, productivity, quality and team member engagement. In this series, we will highlight some of the key elements of the Front Line Leadership Training. This comprehensive approach will ensure a lasting change in the leadership approach and culture of your business to support high performance. As the number one choice for supervisor training in manufacturing, distribution and operations, learn more about how we can help you: uniquedevelopment.com

Listen to episodes

39 recent

August 24, 202612 min

Most Workplace Conflict Isn’t Personal

Two team members who can't stand each other? It's probably not personality. Kirk breaks down the reasons conflict keeps showing up on the floor.

August 10, 202617 min

5 Ways Supervisors Play Favorites Without Knowing It

Ask any supervisor if they play favorites, and they’ll say no. Ask their team, and you might get a different answer. That gap is where favoritism lives, and in manufacturing it almost never looks like a supervisor openly rewarding their friends. It’s quieter than that. In this Leader Feeder, Kirk breaks down why […]

July 27, 202610 min

Why Your Open Door Policy Isn’t Working

Your door is open. Your team still isn't walking through it. In this episode of Leader Feeder, Kirk breaks down why the open door policy is one of the biggest myths in manufacturing leadership, and why saying "my door is always open" almost never leads to more communication from your team. If you're a frontline supervisor, line lead, or plant manager trying to get your team to actually bring you problems, questions, and ideas, we think this will help. In this episode: - Why the open door policy fails on the manufacturing floor - The behaviors that build real trust and respect with your team - 3 things to do instead of announcing an open door policy - How to build a team that brings you problems before they become bigger issues

July 13, 202613 min

The Shift Handoff That Destroys Morale

Ever walk into a shift and get handed someone else’s mess with zero warning? That’s a shift ambush, not a handoff, and it’s quietly draining morale on your floor. Kirk explains why skipping (or half-doing) the shift handoff creates a cycle of blame between shifts, and lays out the 6 things a handoff […]

June 29, 202611 min

We Tested 4 Leadership Styles — Here’s What Works

What’s the best leadership style for frontline leaders? We put four leadership styles head-to-head in a real simulation — run hundreds of times with frontline leaders across manufacturing, logistics, and production environments — and the results are consistent every single time. Most frontline managers assume getting results requires pressure, control, and top-down authority. […]

June 15, 20267 min

How to Deliver Management’s Message Without Losing Your Team’s Trust

You're stuck in the middle — management wants the new policy implemented, your team thinks it's stupid, and somehow you're the one who has to make it work. In this episode, Kirk breaks down why the best frontline leaders act like ambassadors — and the two skills that keep trust intact on both sides: filtering messages constructively and staying open-minded to change even when you're not sold on it yourself. Visit uniquedevelopment.com to book a discovery meeting and grow your frontline leadership team.

June 1, 20269 min

How to Build Accountability Without Killing Morale

Accountability is one of the most requested — and most avoided — topics in leadership. In this episode of Leader Feeder, Kirk breaks down why accountability gets a bad reputation, why feedback conversations aren’t happening in most organizations, and exactly how to change that without deflating your team. If you want to build […]

May 19, 20268 min

Why Your Team Resists Change (And How Frontline Leaders Can Fix It)

In 1878, people predicted electric light would never catch on. They said the automobile was just a fad and we’d never make it to the moon. They were wrong, and Kirk uses these famously bad predictions to dig into something every frontline leader deals with: how we respond to change. In this episode, […]

May 4, 202611 min

Why Your Best Operators Become Struggling Supervisors

Kirk dives into something we see all the time in the organizations we work with—the gap between promoting a great technical operator and actually setting them up to succeed as a frontline leader/supervisor. When someone starts as a new operator, we’d never just put them in front of a machine and tell them […]

April 20, 202615 min

Tried Empowering Your Team… and It Failed?

What do you do when you try to empower your team… and it doesn’t work? Kirk breaks down one a common leadership challenge: You give someone responsibility… and they don’t meet expectations. So what happens next? Most leaders take the work back.And that’s where things start to go wrong. In this episode, you’ll […]