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Ever wondered why your best operator struggled with their promotion to frontline leader?

You have just promoted your best operator to team leader/supervisor/shift manager with high hopes of them stepping into the role with the same level of success. However, as time goes on, they are not progressing as expected and instead of taking on additional tasks expected of them (continuous improvement, strategy, projects etc.) they keep gravitating back to former responsibilities on the production line. Sound familiar?

This is a common occurrence and something we have termed the ‘hourglass phenomenon’. In the absence of understanding good leadership skills, your best operator reverts to doing what they know best – operating. 

Hourglass Phenomenon

The skillset required to be a good leader is vastly different to being a good operator – hence the struggle to transition easily.

USING A DIFFERENT SIDE OF THE BRAIN 

A good operator uses a ‘Black or White’ approach to decision making and has technical and mechanical skills from experience operating equipment. A good leader requires a whole new skillset from the opposite side of the brain – using intuition and creativity to deal with ambiguity, as well as having communication skills required to manage people.

Left Brain VS Right Brain

TAKING A ‘HANDS OFF’ APPROACH

Formerly a strong team member, your best operator is now required to be less hands on and instead be at the front coaching the team. Again, the skills that made them a great operator; problem solving, getting immediate results are replaced with a new skillset; leadership and facilitating.

Coming from a fixing mindset, coaching can initially seem counterproductive – in most cases it is easier to fix something yourself, rather than coach your team to do so. Therefore, a new frontline leader without the correct guidance will revert to fixing, rather than coaching.

Fixing VS Coaching

LEARNING TO MULTITASK

It’s no longer one task that needs maintaining and perfecting, but a list of priorities and goals that impact multiple stakeholders. Without the ability to set / prioritise goals and develop a team to delegate tasks this can quickly become overwhelming.

Single VS Multi-tasking

BRIDGING THE KNOWLEDGE GAP

Pollen Academy recognised this gap in the market and teamed up with productivity expert Ishan Galapathy to co-create an industry specific program that teaches the skills required between ‘great operator’ and ‘confident frontline leader’. 

Over a six-month period, candidates will learn theories that have been tried, tested and tailored to apply instantly on the shop floor. The program uses a blend of classroom theory at Pollen HQ and site tours where the candidates can share examples of ‘what good looks like’ and lessons learnt. 

The program uses handpicked tools to teach the 3 key areas of the ‘Head, Heart & Gut’ framework required to become a confident frontline leader: 

  1. The Head – Clarity. Before you can lead your team, you need to have a clear idea of where you want to steer them. 
  2. The Heart – Compassion. Teams are made up of people and no two are the same. Understanding how to motivate and get the best from each individual is essential. 
  3. The Gut – Courage. You need to give feedback, have difficult conversations and make decisions without all the facts. 

Head, Heart & Gut Framework

For more information on the confident Frontline Leader programme: Ashley Darley; Director: Pollen Academy – ashley@pollenconsultinggroup.com / 0459432823

Read more about the Frontline Leader programme here.

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