Training warehouse supervisors must increase their effectiveness to sustain changes over time. There is a current perception that there is never enough time to participate in training. Certainly not enough time to do a proper follow-up to reinforce those leadership skills.
The opposite is, in fact, true. It is not a matter of not having enough time in a day, but rather, a matter of commitment of importance.
Management decides the order of importance, and those tend to have increased time spent with better results. Time needs to be dedicated to developing your leaders over time.
Introducing New Training, Not Reverting To Already Learned Fundamentals
The president of one of our clients grew from 50 to nearly 2000 employees after we worked with them. Our trainers worked with their front line supervisors and team leaders. We continued to train them again the following year based on the success they had as a result.
It occurred to us that it would be more beneficial to these leaders to expose them to new training materials rather than repeating the fundamentals we had previously worked on.
Our client expressed that though they understood our desire to provide more value, content, and topics, they were more concerned about practicing the fundamentals than sharing those concepts differently until it became second nature to their leaders.
There was value in this feedback. Most of the time, leadership requires a core set of skills and behaviors that must be mastered to achieve maximum impact. This was evident in their business results.
Encourage Behavior Change After Training
Tip One: Do Fewer Things Well
Most of our clients appreciate that we have a wide variety of topics in our training programs. Still, most would be better off if they selected a few topics and then explored them deeper. This approach would allow them to practice their new skills so that they become confident in deploying those skills back on the job.
One of the top reasons people hesitate to put their newly acquired training into action is insecurity over not having mastered the skills and publicly embarrassing themselves if it does not translate effectively on the shop floor.
Our training program offers a portion we call the leader behavior builder. It allows our trainees a chance to set one commitment of putting one leadership practice into action and reinforcing it for up to 30 days before they move on to applying another course concept.
Tip Two: Practice New Skills
Providing time in the training program can allow people to get a chance to try the activities with one another and witness each other performing them to obtain a greater insight into the reality of incorporating that into their leadership practices.
Most training still focuses an excessive amount of time on the “what” and the “why.” Not realizing that it would be more successful if we took more time to focus on the “how.”
Tip Three: Use Positive Peer Pressure
You have heard of peer pressure. It occurs when an individual displays actions or behaviors because they believe that is what their associates think they should do or become susceptible to their influence. What if we could change the narrative and make this a positive?
Addressing Resistance To Change
Consider for a moment that one or two of your leaders genuinely want to apply and practice the concepts taught in a training program. However, some members are skeptical and avoid putting those ideas into action.
As the manager, we encourage you to bring all your leaders together and have a conversation. Bringing everyone together can result in those who are excelling with the newly learned skills to inspire those who have yet to apply them.
If the resistant leaders witness newly learned skills that seem to work for their colleagues, it can encourage them to make an attempt.
Creating this positive peer pressure allows us to talk about what we learned and what we are putting into action. This can help reinforce the successes and get the hesitant parties to apply those course concepts back on the job.
Establishing Future Success For Your Leaders
Once you have established effective training strategies for your warehouse supervisors and extended the value, you can focus on the next steps for future success.
Our Front Line Leadership Program can help deliver the support and training your leaders will need to help the business meet and exceed expectations.
Training is offered in a variety of configurations.
This includes:
- Module Topics
- Training Onsite, In Person, Virtually, or On Demand
- Offered in English, French, and Spanish
It starts with a conversation by visiting our website uniquedevelopment.com. From there, we can discuss your needs and develop a custom-tailored solution that will drive the leadership behaviors that will increase your corporation and organization’s success.
