Transparency, Trust and Transformation: Eranga Weerasinghe on Leading People to Extraordinary Performance

Eranga Weerasinghe is a Lean transformation and operational excellence leader with more than two decades of experience across manufacturing, business transformation, digital change and people development. His career has taken him from engineering and Lean specialisation to plant and senior operational leadership at MAS Holdings, and now to his role as Head of Continuous Improvement at Gym Meals Direct in Canberra, Australia.

His leadership philosophy is both rigorous and deeply human: make strategy visible, measure performance honestly, bring problems into the open and develop people’s confidence to improve. That approach has been shaped not only by the factory floor, but also by elite sport. A former Sri Lankan national-level basketball player and Sri Lanka Schools captain, national Wushu captain and champion, international Health Qigong coach and three-time World Health Qigong gold medallist, Weerasinghe has learned to combine competitive courage with composure, discipline and care for people.

Business Now spoke with Eranga Weerasinghe about the experiences that shaped his leadership, why transparency is a performance system rather than a communication exercise, and how fighting spirit, inner balance and human purpose can turn operational change into lasting transformation.

1. You have moved through manufacturing, digital transformation, organisational transformation, sport and community work. What experience fundamentally changed the way you see life and leadership?

One principle that fundamentally changed the way I see both life and leadership is the relationship between honesty, integrity and trust. When leaders are candid, their actions match their words and people can see how decisions are made, transparency grows. Trust then gives people the courage to contribute beyond what is formally expected because they believe in the leader, the team and the purpose.

I saw this clearly while serving as General Manager of Operations at a large apparel manufacturing plant with more than 5,000 employees. When I examined performance closely, I realised that one of the most important gaps was not technical. It was the distance between management and the wider workforce. Information, problems and improvement decisions had largely remained within a small leadership group, leaving many employees disconnected from the organisation’s direction and reality.

To reduce that distance, I introduced a monthly reflection and progress forum for the entire workforce across two shifts. We shared performance openly, explained what the numbers meant, connected them to our objectives and discussed forecasts, targets and challenges. We held the forum every month without cancellation, including during difficult periods and throughout COVID-19, when candid communication mattered most.

The forum was also a place for recognition. We celebrated outstanding employees, team achievements, promotions, quality-circle successes and sporting accomplishments. Recognising promotions from the frontline through to senior management showed people that opportunity was real and that growth could be earned.

Over the following 18 months, the operation improved productivity by approximately 30%, while also strengthening Lean maturity and shared ownership. For me, the result demonstrated that transparency and trust are not simply cultural ideals. When people understand the reality of the business, believe that their contribution matters and feel trusted to improve it, those human conditions translate into measurable operational performance.

That experience confirmed my leadership equation: honesty and integrity create transparency; transparency builds trust; and trust releases the courage, commitment and discretionary effort through which ordinary people achieve extraordinary things.

“Transparency builds trust. Trust releases the courage, commitment and discretionary effort through which ordinary people achieve extraordinary things.”

2. You have experienced leadership as a professional, basketball captain, Wushu athlete, coach and Qigong practitioner. What has each role taught you about bringing out the best in people?

Whether we meet people in a workplace, on a basketball court, in a Wushu competition or in a Qigong class, people still look for belonging, inspiration and a reason to commit themselves. Each part of my life has taught me something different about creating the conditions in which that commitment can grow.

Professional leadership taught me clarity. People need to understand the purpose, the standard, their contribution and how progress will be reviewed. When performance falls, it is easy to focus only on the process, capability or metric. I also look at what I call a person’s ‘human fuel’—the meaning, belief and emotional energy behind sustained performance. A leader cannot manufacture motivation, but can help people reconnect their work with something personally meaningful.

Basketball taught me trust, timing and collective responsibility. A captain must understand each player’s strengths, create space for others and make decisions for the team rather than for personal recognition. Coaching taught me patience and adaptability, because the same instruction does not unlock every person.

Wushu taught me fighting spirit—but not aggression. To me, fighting spirit is the disciplined courage to face pressure, fear and adversity without losing control. In competition, you learn to read the situation, absorb pressure, adapt quickly and act decisively. You respect your opponent, but you do not surrender your purpose. Leadership requires the same courage: to face uncomfortable facts, enter difficult conversations and continue moving forward when circumstances tell you to step back.

Qigong brought balance to that fighting spirit. It taught me self-awareness, calmness and the importance of regulating my own energy before trying to influence others. A leader’s emotional state travels through a team. Courage without control can become aggression; calmness without courage can become passivity. The real strength is to hold both—to be composed enough to see clearly and determined enough to act.

Bringing out the best in people therefore requires more than direction. It requires trust, individual understanding, purposeful challenge and an environment in which people can develop both capability and belief.

“Wushu taught me that fighting spirit is not aggression—it is the disciplined courage to face reality, remain composed and move forward when circumstances tell you to step back.”

3. Was there a moment when you realised your diverse experiences had become one of your greatest strengths as a leader?

Yes. The realisation came as I moved from being a Lean specialist into full operational leadership. As a specialist, I could recommend improvements. As a General Manager, I was accountable for the whole outcome—people, delivery, quality, cost, customer expectations and culture. I could no longer view a problem through a single professional lens. I had to connect systems, behaviour and human emotion while making decisions under pressure.

That shift showed me that the different chapters of my life were not separate achievements; they had become one leadership system. Engineering taught me to understand how systems interact. Lean taught me to make problems visible and remove waste. Operations taught me that every idea must ultimately improve value for employees, customers and the business. Basketball taught me to trust the team and coordinate different strengths. Wushu gave me the fighting spirit to confront difficult realities and act decisively. Qigong helped me remain centred enough to listen and respond thoughtfully rather than react emotionally.

One of the clearest examples came when I helped lead a digital shop-floor transformation in a large manufacturing organisation. A digital system can surface problems immediately, but technology alone does not create improvement. If people expect blame or punishment, greater visibility simply teaches them to hide problems more skilfully.

We therefore built a management and coaching system around the technology. Leadership layers were connected through clear escalation routines, and surfacing a problem early became a request for support rather than an admission of failure. The response had to change from ‘Who is responsible?’ to ‘How can we become part of the solution?’ Leaders used the visual system at the workplace to understand both the operational issue and the capability gap behind it, and each leader was expected to develop the leader reporting to them. The technology became a vehicle for stronger leadership, faster problem-solving and a coaching culture, and the approach was subsequently expanded across a wider network.

This experience reinforced what I call ‘Seeing the Problems by Hand’. Leaders must go to where value is created, see the reality, listen without defensiveness and understand the work closely enough to help improve it. Relocating from Sri Lanka to Australia later tested the same lesson in a new context. Titles, industries and surroundings can change, but the ability to understand systems, connect with people, confront reality and keep learning remains transferable.

That was when I understood diversity of experience not as a collection of credentials, but as the source of my range as a leader.

“My diverse experiences taught me to analyse like an engineer, connect like a captain, fight with the disciplined courage of a Martial Artist and remain centred like a Qigong practitioner.”

4. You have spent years improving processes and systems, while sport and Qigong have taught you about discipline, consistency and people. What have you learned about improvement that cannot be measured through a KPI?

KPIs are essential. They tell us whether a process is stable, whether an experiment worked and whether the organisation is moving towards its objectives. But a KPI is usually a record of an outcome. It does not fully reveal the human conditions that produced it.

The earliest signs of transformation are often behavioural. A team member who once remained silent begins to raise a problem. A supervisor stops defending a poor result and asks for support. Functions that previously blamed one another begin examining the same problem together. People challenge an old practice because they care about the outcome, not because they were instructed to comply.

Trust, courage, curiosity, ownership and psychological safety are difficult to reduce to a single number, yet they shape the numbers that eventually appear in quality, productivity, delivery and cost. This is why leaders need to observe conversations, daily decisions and the way people respond when something goes wrong—not only review dashboards.

Sport taught me that a scoreboard records the result, not the preparation, sacrifice, trust and recovery behind it. Qigong taught me that improvement can begin internally—with greater awareness, calmer breathing and a more balanced response—before it becomes externally visible.

I use data rigorously, while also asking: Are people willing to make problems visible? Do they feel safe enough to tell the truth? Can they solve problems together? Do they understand why their contribution matters? Human emotion may resist precise measurement, but it often supplies the energy behind measurable performance.

“A KPI tells you what happened. The behaviour around the KPI often tells you whether improvement will last.”

5. After everything you have experienced professionally and personally, what advice would you give someone who wants to build not only a successful career, but a meaningful life? 

My advice is to build your life through three commitments: direction, dedication and discipline.

First, establish direction through a clear vision and sense of purpose. A career can provide position, recognition and measurable success, but meaning comes from knowing what kind of person you want to become and what value you want to create for others.

Second, dedicate yourself to that purpose. Whether you want to become an elite athlete, a respected professional or a positive influence in your community, aspiration alone is not enough. You must invest the time, effort and learning that the purpose deserves. Dedication turns a dream into a serious commitment.

Third, practise discipline. Discipline means doing today what the future requires, even when it is difficult, uncomfortable or not immediately rewarding. It is the bridge between intention and identity.

My move from Sri Lanka to Australia tested these three commitments more deeply than almost any previous chapter of my life. I arrived after more than two decades of professional experience, but without employment or certainty about how my career would begin again. I applied for more than 100 positions without securing an opportunity. It was a difficult period, but I refused to become discouraged. I remained vigilant, open-minded and prepared to embrace whatever opportunity came my way.

That opportunity was a casual front line production team member at the same organisation where I work today. I accepted it wholeheartedly. The work was physically demanding and required long hours on the assembly line, while many of its technical and operational aspects were new to me. I approached the work with humility, learned each task carefully and remained confident that consistent contribution would eventually create another opportunity. 

The experience gave me something exceptionally valuable: the opportunity to see organisational life through the eyes of a frontline team member rather than from the management side.

Working directly on the line helped me understand the realities faced by the people who create value every day. I began to recognise operational gaps, communication barriers and improvement opportunities that can remain invisible from an office or management meeting. It widened my leadership perspective and reinforced my belief in “Seeing the Problems by Hand.”

Drawing on these observations and my previous transformation experience, I developed a business-improvement proposal and presented it to the Managing Director, and owner. The proposal demonstrated both the opportunities I could see within the organisation and the outcomes that could be achieved. Following that presentation, I was appointed Head of Continuous Improvement and given the opportunity to work with the senior leadership team.

I consider this my second professional birth. Beginning again on the frontline did not diminish my previous leadership experience—it deepened it. It taught me that resilience is not simply waiting for circumstances to improve. It is continuing to learn, contribute and prepare while the outcome remains uncertain. 

That experience brought direction, dedication and discipline to life. Direction helped me remember why I had begun the journey. Dedication kept me learning and contributing when no outcome was guaranteed. Discipline enabled me to give my best to the opportunity in front of me, even when it was far removed from the position I had previously held.

It also reminded me that success requires both fighting spirit and inner balance. Fighting spirit helps us continue through rejection, uncertainty and physical hardship. Inner balance prevents those difficulties from defining us.

Ultimately, do not build your life only around what you want to achieve. Build it around the person you want to become and what becomes possible for others because you were here.

“Do not build your life only around what you want to achieve. Build it around the person you want to become and what becomes possible for others because you were here.”

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