Top 5 Challenges For Manufacturing Supervisors: #3 Performance
Among our plant supervisors, I see some consistent patterns that represent performance shortfalls. All manufacturing supervisors face similar challenges but unless they are trained and coached how to overcome these challenges, performance shortfalls may not be of own their fault. Most probably, your supervisors give you great daily effort, but maybe they just don’t have the knowledge to overcome the leadership challenges they face. In this series of articles, I outline and discuss the top five of these common challenges, from the least impactful to your business to the most impactful to your business. Explore these points for yourself and see how your supervisors stack-up against these challenges.
Top 5 Challenges: #3
3. PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT:
Managing Employee Performance Issues
Nobody enjoys talking to an employee about their subpar performance. That goes without saying. But trained leaders do it effectively and untrained leaders do it very poorly or simply avoid it all together. However, when supervisors avoid those uncomfortable performance conversation, it spells T-R-O-U-B-L-E for your plant’s results.
Often in our manufacturing plants, the frontline leaders are staffed internally. It’s common that when frontline leadership positions become available, skilled operators get tapped on the shoulder to fill those openings. Ideally 50% of the supervisor roles in a plant are filled internally. I am all for these internal promotions from shopfloor operators to production supervisors, but training plans need to be in place that support these moves. Especially critical for our production supervisors is performance management training. They all really struggle without it.
As managers, we need to understand how uncomfortable it is for promoted operators to manage the performance of employees who were once their peers. If production supervisors are not effectively trained in the mechanics and techniques of employee performance management, they just simply won’t do it, or they won’t do it well anyway. Without the proper training, internally promoted operators, those promoted into supervisor roles, tend to make employee performance management a personal issue. This causes conflict and stress between the employees and their supervisor. They don't know that the need to take a step-back and disconnect from the potential emotions that can be involved with employee issues. They don't understand that performance management is a defined process of which emotions plays no part.
When a leader avoids addressing poor performance they create a toxic work environment. You see, a poor performing employee makes every other employee’s job more difficult. This in turn creates frustration and resentment. When a supervisor doesn’t confront performance situations, other employees will eventually blame their supervisor for not improving it and then the supervisor loses their leadership credibility and effectiveness.
As the saying goes, “One bad apple spoils the bunch” and when a supervisor doesn’t address a problem, this statement becomes validated. Ignoring performance problems spoils department morale and tanks the results. However, if a supervisor has not been trained in effective performance management, you can’t expect them to know what to look for and how to appropriately address it.
Good manufacturing leaders at every level are trained in performance management. They know how to put the monkey where it belongs, that being on the shoulder of the poor performing employee. Strong leaders demonstrate skills with good written documentation, calm delivery and empathic responses. When done correctly, poor performing employees get the message. They clearly understand how their poor performance is effecting company results, they understand the expectations and the understand the consequences if they fail to improve (most probably progressive action, up to termination of employment). Trained leaders communicate in a professional manner and in a way whereas employees never feel personally attacked by their supervisor. All of this is a skill that requires formal leadership training.
Whenever I hear a supervisor complain about one of their employees, it is a red flag for me. It tells me that that supervisor needs performance management training. Whenever a leader complains about the performance of one of their own employees, what that are saying is that they don’t know how to address employee performance problems. They are avoiding doing it themselves and are indirectly asking for someone else to address the issues for them. When a leader complains about an employee, they need formal leadership training!
If you notice that a supervisor is avoiding those uncomfortable performance conversations or is simply just bad at delivering them to employees, consider enrolling them in CML100. CML106 covers the topic of “How to Address Minor Conflict” and CML107 covers “Employee Corrective Action”. These sessions will provide your supervisor with the right skills to professionally address performance issues.
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