Lesson 1 of 4

From team member to team leader

Yesterday you were one of the team. Today your name is on the roster as team leader, and the people who laughed with you at tea break now look to you for answers. The work looks the same. Your job is not.

What changes when you become a team leader

As a team member, you are judged on your own work: the parcels you pack, the trips you drive, the orders you pick. As a team leader, you are judged on what the whole team gets done. If your team misses a delivery slot, it is your miss, even if you were not the one holding the clipboard.

This is the hardest part for new supervisors. You were promoted because you were good at the work, so the pull to jump in and do it yourself is strong. Sometimes you will need to. But if you spend the whole shift packing, nobody is watching the dock, the roster or the paperwork.

How the job changes Two boxes joined by an arrow. On the left, a team member does their own tasks and is judged on their own work. On the right, a team leader gets tasks done through the team and is judged on the team's results. Team member You do the task yourself Judged on your own work Your result is yours Team leader The team does the task Judged on the team's results Their result is yours too
Moving up means moving from your own results to the results of the whole team.
Example

A new team leader at a small courier depot spends the morning packing parcels beside his team, because he is the fastest packer. At 11:00 a driver tells him the van has been waiting for its load list since 08:00. Nobody checked the dispatch list, because the one person who normally does it was packing. His own packing was excellent. The team's morning was not.

Four jobs of a team leader

This course follows the four jobs that fill most of a team leader's day.

  1. Run the shift. Know what must be done, who will do it, and what is going on while it happens (Lesson 2).
  2. Communicate. Make sure people understand what you want, and that you hear what they tell you (Lesson 3).
  3. Talk about performance. Raise small problems early and praise good work (Lesson 4).
  4. Report. Tell your manager what happened, including the problems (Lesson 4).

Leading people who were your friends

Many new team leaders lead people they used to work beside. You can stay friendly, but you must be fair. Apply the same rules to everyone, including your friends and including yourself. If you arrive late, the team notices. If you skip a safety step, the team will skip it too.

You are the link

You sit between the team and the manager. You pass the manager's plans down in plain words, and you pass the team's problems up early, with facts. A team leader who only does one of these is only half doing the job.

Key points
  • A team leader is judged on the team's results, not only on their own work.
  • Doing the work yourself all shift leaves the leading undone.
  • Be friendly, but apply the same rules to everyone, including yourself.
  • You are the link: plans go down, problems come up early.