How can HR and manufacturing leaders help frontline supervisors excel?
After our Front Line Leadership training, we have what is called an impact meeting. This is where we sit down with the management team after our project wraps up, and discuss any observed change and improvement that they have noticed since our training.
Recently, in an impact meeting, the Director of Operations from a company that we had trained said that what he noticed most was that he had fewer phone calls and texts from supervisors about how to handle specific things. This was a product of helping his leaders excel.
Here are three strategies on how you can help your frontline supervisors excel:
Strategy #1: Empowerment Through Skill Development
Empowerment helps frontline supervisors become more self-sufficient. By empowering them to tackle issues, it helps them realize that they do not always need to escalate issues to management.
They will feel empowered to take on risks and make decisions on their own.
Strategy # 2: Decision-Making and Support
Often, managers say that they would love for their team to make more decisions on their own, but their teams do not always know that they have that permission.
Take the time to sit down with your team and let them know that you trust them to make decisions, and you can expand their responsibilities as they prove to be more capable.
Strategy #3. Transforming Conflict Management and Communication
Inability to manage conflict effectively leads to people becoming defensive, aggressive or passive aggressive. This behavior will then usually get escalated to HR.
Conflict is not always bad. In fact, sometimes it can be good because it drives innovation and helps us identify problems. If supervisors had the tools to navigate conflict effectively and constructively, they would be able to become more competent and manage issues in a more respectful way.
Empowering Supervisors with Training
As HR and manufacturing leaders, the path to excellence lies in investing in the development of frontline supervisors. By empowering them with the tools to navigate challenges independently, providing the support and communication necessary for decision-making, and creating a culture of constructive conflict resolution. The result? Increased self-sufficiency, reduced conflicts, and a stronger, more confident team of supervisors.
It all starts with a conversation on our website. We can help you build an organization of high performance.
