I was put into a leadership role very early in my career. My first day of supervision was when my GM approached me and said, \u201cWe\u2019re shut down. We don\u2019t know for how long; we\u2019re having issues with our cappel on top of our man hoist. Fix it. I need you to be the supervisor.\u201d My first action after that conversation was to figure out what a \u2018cappel\u2019 was.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not about how much experience you have; it\u2019s about leveraging the skills and experience of the people who report to you.\u201c<\n\nWhen I was first given that supervisor role, my work experience consisted of the six months I\u2019d been on the job plus four years teaching English in Japan. It was a crew of 10, with the average age about double my age at the time with over 300 combined years of experience. It was my job as a supervisor to build relationships and draw out the team\u2019s knowledge to make the right decisions as my experience grew.\n\nThis story is a typical one for new supervisors.\u00a0 Often we\u2019re selected to be a supervisor or leader because we were the best at what we do in our previous role in engineering, in the trades, or as an equipment operator. Unfortunately, being effective in those roles doesn\u2019t mean we understand how to be an effective leader, and most often, we\u2019ve never had training in how to deal with people, how to set up processes, set expectations, and all of those elements that make up the toolbox of an effective leader.\n\nMy goal in creating OMS Lead was to help supervisors understand these elements of effective leadership, and that starts with \u2018knowing what you don\u2019t know\u2019 because that\u2019s the first step in learning. We begin with teaching basic skills, communicating, and connecting with people from an emotional perspective. Coaching these leaders on communicating\u00a0Why\u00a0<\/i>they need their people to do things and inspiring them to want to do it allows the entire team to work towards a common goal.<\/p>\n
Coaching the Coaches<\/b><\/p>\n
In addition to the coaching of front-line Supervisors, the OMS Lead program works with Managers and Superintendents to develop \u2018Day in the Life\u2019 of documents, guidelines and sets of expectations for the different roles reporting to them. This step is so critical because it\u2019s easy to accept any behaviour if we don\u2019t have an agreed expectation for behaviour. Once this is established, we work with the managers to communicate these expectations to their front-line supervisors. This standard creates consistency in approach and clear expectations from the manager right to the shop floor.<\/p>\n
After successfully executing a program like this, there is a base of processes, structure, and tools. As a result, decisions are driven down to their appropriate level, because trust and accountability have also been driven down to that level. The supervisors are making day-to-day decisions, managing personnel conflicts, and firefighting. The managers can now focus on vision and strategy for the next six months to two years because their supervisors have the skills and are empowered to make decisions and lead their people.<\/p>\n
Learning to love the job<\/b><\/p>\n
For me, coaching and mentoring leaders is a lot of fun. There\u2019s a joy in sharing my experiences and helping supervisors remove the stress from their work and learn to love their jobs. I get a lot of satisfaction when I see leaders have those \u2018Ah-ha\u2019 moments. These are the moments when the lightbulb sparks in their brain, and they realize, \u2018If I implement these processes, if I create this structure, if I empower my people, then managing becomes easy.\u2019\u00a0 For me, as a supervisor, the less I improvise and \u2018wing it,\u2019 the easier my job is, and I have more time to focus on the parts of the job I enjoy and less on the parts I don\u2019t.<\/p>\n