Turnaround Leadership of a Sinking Logistics Team

Being the chief of logistics of a military supporting organization. I was called to negotiate with a medium-sized logistics depot under my command. The warehouse operations department (25 supervisors) has failed to meet deadlines for important shipments in the past three months. The repercussions were harsh. Two of the key units it supports had lost confidence, and the third provided a formal breach of contract notice. The management felt that there was an operational issue, that they needed new software or employees. I did not agree and was going to show why.

Challenge

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By the time I arrived, there was a mess that was posing as hard work. All supervisors worked individually. The regulations of the shifts varied, and there was no common system of leadership among the 25 supervisors. The issues gave rise to a blame culture. No one among the supervisors took the blame for a shipment not being received on time, and they all blamed each other instead of brainstorming ways to solve the problem. The nature of the issue was that the promotions were done based on individual job performance. Therefore, the most competent forklift operator would be turned into a supervisor, and the quickest inventory receiver would be turned into a supervisor. Nevertheless, they were not given any special training in managing logistics operations. They had technical skills but were never trained as supervisors.

Approach

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I never thought I knew every answer. I had to undergo all these processes that were documented on paper and then spoke to 25 supervisors one by one. I knew that they would not be so open with their peers present or with their command staff. I came up with anonymous listening forums where supervisors would raise their grievances concerning frustrations without the fear of retaliation. It was now that the truth started to come out. Managers felt that they were being set up to fail. They wanted to be successful but did not have the tools. No one had trained the supervisors how to lead a shift, how to coach an employee who was not performing well, or how to properly hand over shifts.

Details of the Case

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The group had been working under various shifts, day, night, and weekend shifts, and most of the supervisors had over ten years’ experience in the various positions they worked. At first, all the supervisors were on the defensive, some of them openly hostile to me, as they supposed that I was sent from the headquarters to punish them. The depot lacked a leadership development program for its employees. Newly promoted employees who get the new supervisor are provided with a clipboard and expected to learn how to use it on their own without being trained or having guiding materials. I was allowed 90 days to change the culture. The supervisors cannot undergo group training unless it is possible to stop the daily operations. The training was required to be done for all the supervisors separately. As such, time would be my greatest hindrance, but even more of a hindrance than a time constraint would be inaction.

Analysis

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The Peter Principle is useful in the military logistics organization. The principle states that people rise to their level of incompetence. An experienced warehouse operator understands how to maneuver supplies and inventory. The same person may be unaware of how to advise a non- performing employee or how to do a successful shift-to-shift transfer. Leadership is not technical expertise; the two are different skills. The issue of blaming each other for wrong things only contributed to the problems. Supervisors would leave things to get to a breaking point before raising them. The implementation of new software or introducing new employees may appear to be a light at the end of the tunnel, but the actual issue that needed to be addressed was the lack of leadership skills.

Solutions

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I chose to be a coach, not critical. The moment I started to hear people in the anonymous forums, I did not judge or punish but only listened and built a relationship, developing an atmosphere of trust. The second big project I started was designing a 6-week leadership training curriculum from the ground up to fit into the unrealistic hours of the work schedules of our workforce. I was forced to apply a blended training model, and I developed it in the following way:

• Day Shift Group Training once a week.
• Training night shifts as a group every week.
• One-On-One Coaching for the Weekend Supervisors.

Each of the supervisors was given something that they could apply on coming back to work after each training session, no theoretical constructs, just tools that would work in the warehouse.

Results

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We were able to exceed all our expectations. We reduced the number of shipments that failed to meet their deadlines by 65 percent. I had an initial goal of 50%. We beat that target well. The number of employee grievances reduced by 40%, and the number of employees voluntarily leaving the company was reduced by 15% in the first six months after implementing these changes. One of the units that did not renew its contract with us came back to us with a renewed contract. Promotions were made for three supervisors based on their improvement since the implementation of the new processes. However, what I can say about the deliverables of this project is that the depot will adopt my leadership curriculum as the starting point of the onboarding of all future supervisors. The change is here to stay, not a temporary measure.

Conclusion & Recommendations

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These are some of the important areas that should be known by the logistics leaders.

• Firstly: With poor-performing teams, they normally need leadership development rather than equipment or fresh personnel. That is nearly always the missing element of a compromised supply chain.
• Second: Do not necessarily advance your most successful individual employees to leadership roles without training them. It is through impaired preparedness that the Peter Principle affects performance.
• Third: Have anonymous listening groups where you can receive truthful feedback among your employees; they will provide you with vital information. Supervisors are aware of what is not working; however, they might be reluctant to communicate that information to you openly due to a lack of motivation and confidence.
• In addition: Design training to accommodate the changeable shifts. The day-shift workers are no more important in the operation than the night-shift and weekend-shift workers.
• Lastly: When any logistics unit fails to meet its deadline, then the first concern should be how the supervisors are being trained to lead before any concern about software or personnel.

A depot is run on a process, but a logistics team is a team run on leadership, and this can only be attained by training.