Leadership in Manufacturing and Production - Selecting and Developing Team Leads and Plant Managers

"The employees that we�re moving into leadership roles are unsuccessful and it�s affecting our bottom line.�

Many manufacturing and production organizations agree that selecting and developing leaders is critical to the success of their business. Often, promotional opportunities or succession planning will focus on how well a person performs in their current specialist role and their tenure with the organization. The problem is that success in a specialist production role does not always guarantee success in a team lead or plant manager role. Technical knowledge and skills are still important for leadership roles in manufacturing, but as a manager rises in the organization a whole new skill set is required for the challenge of leadership. Being an effective team lead or plant manager requires the following unique set of skills:

Ability to make quick decisions in crisis situations
Building and maintaining trust with direct reports
Being approachable
Leading new initiatives and taking risks
Ease of interacting with people at all levels (front line to senior level)
Imparting technical information to non-technical stakeholders
Inspiring and motivating a diverse group of production associates

"How can I evaluate my high potentials against these critical leadership skills?"

Thomas International’s Job Evaluation process can help you identify and select the best employees for team lead and plant manager roles. In many cases organizations have often defined the technical skills required for leadership roles but the soft skills or behaviors for leadership roles are not clear. The Job Evaluation process begins with HR and Senior Management completing a DISC based job assessment to gain clarity on skills and competencies for success in the team lead and plant manager role. The next step is to measure current team leads and plant mangers that are successful in their roles using a DISC based personality test. The job assessment completed by HR and Senior Management is meshed with the results from the personality tests completed by current team leads and plant managers. With the Job Evaluation process complete, organizations have a Job Standard to measure high potentials against.

Organizations can utilize the team lead or plant manager Job Standard in succession planning as well as training and development.

Succession Planning: high potentials can be assessed against the Job Standard for any strengths and possible limitations or gaps.

Training and Development: individual and group wide training and development plans can be created to ensure high potentials are set up for success before moving into leadership roles. Current team leads and plant managers who are finding their roles challenging can also be set up for success using the Job Standard. Any possible challenges can be closed with specific training to target their performance gaps.

Interested in our Manufacturing and Production assessment tools? We want to hear from you.

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Trylon TSF
By using both TST & PPA there is a clearer understanding of fit so it helps greatly in the job interview preparation process.

Arizona Chemical
Arizona Chemical had a critical need related to leadership behaviors with our Leadership team at the plant in France. The Corporate HR team in Jacksonville, FL wanted to deliver an impactful Leadership Workshop session to walk the plant Managers through a “People Management” Strategy session. The key objective was improving the Managers’ interaction and communication as a leadership team; ultimatelycontributing to improved team cohesion and effectiveness.