Are you ensuring success when promoting from within your warehouse?
Internal Promotions And Expectations
One of the biggest myths when we are promoting from within is that everyone knows what is going to be required of them.
It is best if you can promote from within, we strongly encourage this as it creates this sense of progression, growth, and opportunities for your people.
If they have been managed and led by others, then they are going to know what it takes to be a good leader, right?
Unfortunately, that is not the case.
When team members transition to a leadership role, they will begin to impact 80% of the workforce in most companies. Yet they only receive 20% to 30% of the development investment and time, in order to make them effective in their role.
The Disadvantages Of Untrained Leaders
Are you disadvantaging frontline leaders by not equipping them with some of the skills that they need, after you have decided to promote them?
When making these promotion decisions, instead of just looking at the technical proficiencies of the people and their abilities to hit their numbers, you really need to consider a few other areas.
Failed Leadership
We worked with one client that had promoted two supervisors into their departments. They did so mostly based on their length of service, and ability to hit the numbers.
Then they watched as the performance of work groups deteriorated with those two leaders in place. It was only then that they realized that those leaders had been communicating with their team members very disrespectfully.
The leaders had almost put themselves in the situation of competing with the team members that were there to generate the results. It became very dysfunctional and the two team leaders had to be replaced. The client realized that promoting people based on their technical skills and never training them on how to lead effectively, was not the right choice.
How Do You Increase The Success Of Promoting From Within The Warehouse?
Here are three questions to ask when considering someone for promotion:
Number One: Do They Set A Good Example?
When we say “example”, it does not just mean in their technical proficiency and ability to hit the numbers. Ask yourself, “Do they set a good example with their behavior and how they interact with other people?”.
If they are not doing that as a coworker, then what makes you think that they will suddenly do that when they are the team leader?
Number Two: Are They Good at Teaching Others?
We all know people that are great at doing a certain task. Not only that, but they can teach others to do the task as well, or even better than they did.
You do not need to be the top performer in terms of the actual skill sets to be a great teacher.
The best thing you can do is to find and promote team members who are naturally good at teaching others.
You do not need to be the top performer in terms of the actual skill sets to be a great teacher. Share on X
Number Three: Do They Communicate Respectfully?
People can sometimes be overly sarcastic, cynical, or negative. You should consider if you want that propagation through your teams. Do you want people who are good at remaining respectful, and mostly positive in their communication skills?
You should be able to already see that even before you send them to any of the training that they might need.
Making good promotion decisions within the warehouse usually involves making sure you have promoted people who set a good example. Make sure they are good at teaching others, and that they can communicate respectfully.
Increasing Leadership Skills and Capabilities
Once you have figured that out, you might decide that there is more to leadership learning than just those three tips.
That is where we come in at Unique Training and Development and Front Line Leadership Systems.
We have this great Front Line Leadership Program, which is six half days of content to cover all the essential skills that your people need to be successful. Your training can be delivered on site or virtually through our state-of-the-art virtual training studio.
It all begins with you checking us out on our website at uniquedevelopment.com, and then a conversation with us to see how we can partner with you to increase the effectiveness of your frontline leaders.
