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So, have you ever called an employee in to give them a corrective action, counseling or maybe even to end their employment and received a genuinely blank stare, like they did not understand what was happening? Or have you ever been that employee before? It happens all too often and it’s our own fault. Yes, whither we’re the employer or the employee, it’s our fault. Confused yet? I’m Marty and your back with Warehouse and Operations as a Career. We’ve been talking about Leadership the last two weeks and I’ve enjoyed all the questions and comments. It’s exciting to see so many young associates interested in all the front-line management positions and being so open to those new responsibilities.
So this week I wanted to talk about Carousels and mezzanines, I toured a production and distribution facility and found their small parts departments interesting, so I wanted to throw some ideas out there to the group. However, earlier this week I had a warehouse manager come to me wanting to suspend an associate for being tardy 7 times this month. Last week I had heard from a supervisor that was upset with an associate because he had taken off 3 times on a Friday to fly back home and have a 3 day weekend. He said it’s becoming a monthly thing. And then today I had a manager share with me that he was upset at a manager under him that he felt like had failed to direct his employees sufficiently for a project to be successful. My question to the first two was, “When did you sit the employee down and explain his or her behavior was hurting the productivity and you wouldn’t be able to accommodate those behaviors going forward? They both said something like come on, common sense tells you that you have to be at work when scheduled and be on time! I agreed with them but pointed out that they had allowed the behavior. 7 tardies was excessive. But I explained he had allowed it for 7 times, why was this time different? In the employee’s eyes, and yes, they knew they were wrong, but in their defense, you can’t just jump to suspension after allowing it. And the supervisor had never spoken to the frequent flier at all. I asked him what was he upset about? He’s approved all three days off!
And the manager who was upset that the project wasn’t going as planned? I asked him if he had gone and set in on any of the planning meetings or overseen any of the new programs being put in place. Was he up to speed on his managers struggles or all his new duties? The answer was, well, no.
And the employees? They all knew they were doing wrong. You’ve heard me talk about human nature before. I think this is a prime example of Human Nature at work. As a human, if we get away with something enough, it’ll become accepted to us. Now it may only be accepted by us, but we will accept it as our new norm!
Why do we get upset when we clearly have not done our jobs as leaders? And as an employee, why do we get upset when we’re corrected for something, we know is wrong? I think it’s easier to accept a perceived failure with others than it is a true failure on our part. Whither we are an employer or an employee!
So, let’s talk about being an effective leader today, I think this is a great way to wrap up our leadership thoughts for a while!
I think as a leader we have to Communicate clearly at all times. In order to present your expectations to your team in a way that they can understand, you must communicate clearly, both in written and verbal forms. Listening to your team members is also a crucial aspect of good communication. We talk about communication so often here at WAOC because it’s hard. It’s difficult to take time to communicate, but it’s an important medium in the warehouse. It is our job as a leader and as an associate.
As a leader we will need to possess or develop strong organizational skills.
We’ll need to plan objectives and strategies to ensure that our team is working towards set goals in an effective manner. We need to understand our team’s achievements.
We talked about confidence last week, are you confident in your abilities and decisions? Our teams will pick up on any doubts we have, in our selves or in others. It’s so important that we are confident in our teammates. We trained them, right? Believe in them and they will believe in you.
Next, I want to say Be Respectful. Respect for your team is important. Encourage them to offer ideas of their own. Listen closely to what they have to say and use their input whenever possible. It means a lot to them. And this goes for us as leaders and us as associates. We’re professionals.
And I think it’s important that we train ourselves to be fair and kind. As an associate this is hard because we’re working, sometimes competing for those cases or positions and as leaders it’s hard to separate our opinions and remember that giving so and so all the hard tasks just because they always come through for us is wrong and not fair at all. Treat all of our team fairly. Recognize and reward them when they have performed well. And we have to be consistent when reprimanding team members. Avoid showing favoritism.
Ever heard of the word integrity? Leaders that excel are honest and open with the other members of their team. Gaining their trust is incredibly important and this tactic will encourage them to be open and honest with you as well. And being an associate, being recognized as an employee with integrity is a great way to impress your management team as well!
Are you comfortable with making decisions? When you make effective decisions and can communicate this to your team, you’ll gain their confidence. This will help ensure that your team is equipped to meet the goals that have been set by the company.
Lets see, what else have I written down, oh, hares a good one. Delegate. You are only one person, so from time to time, you will have to delegate important tasks to other team members – essentially giving them the opportunity to lead their own small teams. If you have gained the trust of your team and are confident in their ability, then this should not be too hard. We talked two weeks ago about how we must become skilled in the art of delegation. We have to develop our teammates. I mean they have the best teacher there is!
I think a great leader has to be a strong facilitator. Your team must be able to understand what it is that they are being asked to do. That is your job as their team leader. Be able to organize an action plan to ensure that each one of your team members understands the objectives and is able to meet the goals efficiently. I think this is something the manager we spoke about earlier could work on maybe. Its so easy to think others see our visions. There only in our heads unless we’ve written them down and communicated them to others clearly.
Do you consider yourself a negotiator? Well I think to be a good leader we’ll need to pick up a few of the skills. As a team leader, you will need to be an expert at helping to resolve workplace conflict. Learn to negotiate with your colleagues to achieve the best outcomes for everyone involved. Would it have helped the young manager and supervisor we spoke about earlier if they had better communicate with their associates and worked to find a common ground regarding tardies and days off?
Leadership skills are important in the workplace, especially if you want to further your career. Whither you’re a member of management or an associate, learning these skills will benefit our careers.
Well, this will wrap up Leadership for a bit, I’m excited to get a few questions answered and share some thoughts about manufacturing and production facilities. And can you believe we’re in week 44? We need to start working on our 2021 plan pretty soon!
Until next week, let’s all work on one of our weaknesses, come on, we’ve all got at least one. Let’s pick something and work at improving that skillset! And it should go without saying it, let’s all be safe out there!