They are often thrown into their jobs head first.
They typically know their stuff, but are lacking in certain skill sets that directly relate to their new responsibilities.
Worse, they don’t get a lot of guidance from their bosses before they dive in.
Sound familiar? This is the usual story for a first- level supervisor – the person directly overseeing the personnel who serve customers, make the widgets, or code the software.
And therein lies what I consider the missing link in building a perfect team – the proper training of these supervisors.
More specifically, the leadership training.
It’s very often a forgotten part of the curriculum at that level, and it really shouldn’t be. All too often I see new supervisors struggling mightily with the idea of actually “managing” a staff – setting priorities, communicating the company vision, motivating, holding people accountable, and delivering the necessary coaching and corrections.
Delivering such training can be expensive, because this is typically the largest management group in most organizations. Plus, taking these critical cogs in the wheel out of circulation for even a few days can certainly be a burden on the operation.
Consequently, a lot of companies take a pass on any organized programs and let on the job training do most of the work for them. Some supervisors figure it out fast enough, and fend for themselves very well. But a lot of them do not, and that leads to lot of unnecessary upper management intervention.
Worse, it leads to turnover, which costs time, money, and critical continuity.
On the other hand there are many examples of companies who make this commitment, and prove that the investment is worth it.
One I’ve always admired is the Zingerman’s chain of delis and bakeries in Michigan. They take training very, very seriously, especially for their supervisors. In fact, they got so good at it that they formed a training company called ZingTrain and now share their accumulated knowledge with other companies (how’s that for a side benefit of finding the missing link!).
Great companies like Zingerman’s also spend a lot of time on the hiring side making sure that applicants have the necessary personality, temperament and common sense needed to be on the front lines, typically using personality tests and other profiling to get a good “read” early in the process.
There’s one more thing that might even be more important than the formal training and the pre-screening- there absolutely needs to be a frequent feedback loop between the supervisors and their bosses. It just can’t all be nuts and bolts, and numbers and metrics. They must talk about the soft stuff – how the supervisor is progressing as a leader, and determining areas of follow up and additional learning.
And not just once a year. Constantly.
So yes, this all costs money. And yes, it takes time away from the regular course of business. But it must be done. We must devote more time to our front-line supervisors. As companies like Zingerman’s so vividly illustrate, it is indeed the missing link to building the perfect team, and thus, a great company.
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I think leadership training is very important and doesn’t get enough attention in most companies. Taking the top management once every year to a training program and then hoping for the best does not qualify as leadership development for me. This is where awareness of the benefits leadership skills provide comes in.
Yes and yes. As our company has grown to actually have a team, I’ve had to put myself through an intense curve of leadership training over the last two years. And it hasn’t been easy. I wish there was someone who could teach me this stuff.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of leadership training available for folks who are growing companies from single person efforts into small organizations.
But mostly I’m just happy that you pointed me to Zingerman’s on Twitter and the internet. Ever since reading about them in Bo Burlingham’s Small Giants book, I’ve been fascinated with what they’ve done.
Thanks!
Mark
Seems so obvious but clearly it is not because so many companies/nonprofits aren’t doing any of it (training/communicating about soft stuff) or they are doing it so minimally as to have virtually no impact. And what a profound difference there is when leadership training (ongoing!) takes place! We have all had those positions where we are left to “figure things out” for ourselves. And we are pretty good at it so things work out. But there is always this feeling of not really being supported or appreciated in the organization-and not wanting to ask for help on anything because you might be interrupting important work. With ongoing training and communication, staff at all levels feel appreciated and supported.
Thanks for pointing this out Terry!
Dear Terry,
I got a weirdest idea: what if a company establishes a “deputy” position for every supervisor and manager position it has. “Deputy” is a person who was picked from employees’ rank and file and being coached (gradually and informally) by his/her respective supervisor or manager to be able to step immediately in supervisor’s/manager’s shoes if the said supervisor/manager gets sick, promoted, takes a vacation or decides to quit the job. This way the company will always have a pool of ready, home-made, trained in company’s culture cadre for every managerial position. Just a thought…
Thanks Eduard, Mark, Heidi and Peter for your comments.
Eduard, absolutely, once a year is not going to cut it.
Mark, I loved Small Giants – that’s how I found out about Zingerman’s as well. Also, I understand your situation and I wish there were more resources for folks like you.
Heidi, I agree – leadership training is especially important for non-profits, because I really believe those are tougher jobs, since they typically involve many “bosses” (boards and such).
Peter, I kinda like your idea – I’d prefer to think of it as a mentorship program – which in hindsight I really should have added to this post. Thanks for adding it on this way!
Thanks again to all of you, and all the best!
Terry
Terry,
Great post but I just wanted to emphasize your statment “making sure that applicants have the necessary personality”, because it is so critically important to the success of any mentoring/training program a company wants to put in place for this!
So many times in my career, I have seen managers choose supervisors for the wrong reason. Managers today need to understand that just because an employee is the best technically at what he/she does, this does not mean that they will be the best supervisors. It is a different skill-set they need to look for before they promote and train. Knowing their stuff technically is important, but their ability to supervise a group of “people” should be the priority.
If they need to go outside to a program like Zingermans, great but perhaps this should be an eye opener to take a look at their management line as well….At least making decisions this way now will provide the best return on their training investment and perhaps create a new generation of good managers.