Amir’s Story

In 2004, after 19 years of experience and with several culture-related business turnarounds under his belt, Amir took over responsibilities as the Plant Manager of a manufacturing facility that was undergoing significant change in demand and complexity and had quickly become the worst performing plant in the company. The situation seemed quite hopeless, as morale was at an all-time low, the team was divided into silos, and technical experts had been relegated to being button-pushers and “gophers.” As a first-time Plant Manager, Amir was thrust onto “the court” for the sake of his job security, his sanity, and the sake of all of the employees who were now counting on him to make a change.

Calling on over two decades of hands-on experience in leadership and organizational development, as well as a lot of introspective work, Amir began the process of engaging and empowering the team, which led to breakthrough results and a strong, fulfilling culture. He started by holding himself accountable—for the problems he had created, the problems he was contributing to, and the problems he was tolerating—to build trust within the community, to role-model a new vision for the plant’s culture, and to establish a worthy cause everyone was inspired to rally behind.

Within 18 months after this shift, the plant was delivering industry benchmark results in safety, quality, cost, and many other key performance indicators. Additionally, team members’ confidence in their abilities, their level of influence, and their quality of life improved to unprecedented levels. The collective boost in morale supercharged all of the other improvement efforts and fed the virtuous cycle of enacting a transformative vision for the organization.

Read more about Amir’s turnaround story here, as captured by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

One of the many ways that Amir was able to unify his team was to introduce the idea of being “on the court” versus “in the stands.” When you’re on the court, you’re playing the game, and when you’re in the stands, you’re talking about the game. The people at the plant took this idea to heart and ran with it.

Most journeys with a happy ending don’t feel like it along the way, and Amir’s story was no exception. In 2016, he decided to leave his 31-year corporate career to broaden his reach and guide leaders, no matter their position on the organizational chart or their industry, who found themselves in a similar situation to his own. His mission is to help leaders transform their workplaces, their communities, and their lives — to boldly declare a vision, courageously pursue it, and abundantly achieve the extraordinary.

In 2015, Amir published The Transformative Leader, which has been purchased and used by leaders in over 30 countries, and founded The Ghannad Group. Amir has also taken his story on the speaking circuit since 2011 to share his learnings with other leaders around the world.