Supply chain group - Over the years I have signed up for multiple industry related share groups. You build relationships with other leaders in similar positions. When you are the head of your department you are expected to have the answers others don’t. Everyone needs resources they can ask questions too and any small detail could trigger a new idea to answer those questions. People come and go from these groups but the relationships tend to last forever. With the use of platforms like Linked In you can find these resources wherever life has taken them. Vendor/Supplier loyalty -In today’s world many people underestimate the value of loyalty to the relationships you build year after year. When you do stumble on that perfect vendor or supplier you treat them with respect and help them grow their business while you grow yours. Refer them to new connections, first chance at business when new business needs come up, pay on time and most importantly don’t always just look at price. Many times you get what you pay for. A good sales person can sell you things for the cheapest price while a loyal connection you’ve worked with for many years will get you the best option for the best price which is not always the cheapest. If you force your sales person into discounted commissions just to meet a price point the loyalty is usually not returned. If you treat your connections properly allowing them to make the commissions they deserve normally they will coach you from making bad decisions resulting in savings ten times over the lowest price option. Trade shows – In the Supply Chain World the value added shows I try to regularly attend would be Promat in Chicago, Modex in Atlanta and Food Shippers on the west coast. I choose my path wisely, ask lots of questions about new technology or thought processes. Take whatever literature and contact info I can find even if that particular service or technology is not something I have a present need for. You never know when a new need arises and you can use one or more of these vendors to save the day or project. Trade shows help you stay up to date on technology trends and keep your mind open to new ideas. This helps you stay one step ahead of many others while the world around us continues to evolve. The simplest answer of all - Utilize the skill sets around you to learn something new. Ask questions and listen to those you work with or meet along the way. If you are not learning something new about your industry every day you are not trying hard enough.

My formula over the years for building large scale effective teams. First, while interviewing look for the person and translate what they are really saying versus what a resume says. Lots of times people mislead on resumes which does show confidence in abilities and drive but sometimes sets them up for failure in a position they are not ready for. Once hired focus on the standardized company or location specifics during the training period, things all or most locations do the same. Do not overload or stretch to thin and cause a overwhelming panic. It’s a process not something that can be done overnight. During that first period learn as much as you can about the person to identify strengths and weaknesses to build on moving forward. Lots of face time learning about each other with a bit of a tight leash at first. Not to control or micromanage but enough to ensure you know exactly where the leader is at and when to push additional responsibility on them. As you start to identify weaknesses see where you can help the person develop and what traits in others you need to find to offset those weaknesses when hiring the team around them. If you have the benefit of a large team of managers from other locations use this to your advantage. During that first period of learning think through the traits of other managers in the company and who this leader could benefit most from as a same level mentor. Create that relationship with one or more mentors to give the new leader a comforting team of resources and contacts to utilize when not fully understanding the task or how to confidently ask for more training from the senior team. When you start to see successful results and understanding start to extend that “leash”. Without saying it directly show the manager with ownership, good decision making, and knowing when to ask for help they can control the amount of interaction and involvement from the senior leaders. As the senior leader we need to know the person, what makes them happy and how much time they actually want to spend with you when they are fully trained.

I am a big fan of standardized scorecards across the organization. Find a set of metrics that works for your companies vision and goals utilize them along with traditional criteria to measure the progress of your leaders. Ensure you create a solid mix with more positives than negatives when counseling for praise or improvement. Share success stories of other leaders within the organization for learning. Focus more on the what made it better versus the who but ensure enough credit is given to the who without embarrassing or offending that person. Some people like to be the center of attention others do not. It’s our job as leaders to fully know the individuals personality comforts and fears. My career mostly consisted of multi-facility operations. Managers typically like to see where they rank amongst there pears. To do this without directly calling out the poor performers I like to post the site scores in rank order without the facility or manager name. Each location knows only his or her individual score and where that scores ranks on the list. This shows the top performers where they stand and gives the reassurances some need without directly calling them out. More importantly, shows the manager at the sites who are struggling that they need to do better. Over the years with poor performers many times the message doesn’t get through that the site is not doing well. The scorecard is like a check in multiple times a year to remind the manager of how the senior team views his or her performance. The key to a successful scorecard is the detailed feedback portion. Whatever the scoring criteria, it typically has positives and negatives. Don’t just post a score and say here you go. Take the time to detail out why each category was scored the way it was. Help the manager understand why the score was given and how it aligns with the organizations vision and goals. The more detail you include the likely better response you will get from the manager. The high performers tend to be motivated by this and want to know how they can do even better. The higher the score on these sites the higher the overall bar is set for others to follow. Those that are at the lower end of the rankings it’s a wake up call to how the senior team views the locations performance. This detailed feedback can also serve as a performance improvement plan (PIP) step when you are unsure of that individuals future. Once presented watch closely to see if the manager truly tries to improve or things stay the same. Not all location circumstances are the same need to make sure we are measuring effort and ability as much or more than the score itself.

In a recent role I was tasked to help a new division in a very successful privately owned company get off the ground quickly. When I was first brought in that division had just eight employees and four clients. Over the next four years we were able to build that same division to over 100 clients and more than 350 employees. This company was named by multiple sources as one of the fastest growing 3PL’s in the US and one to watch for moving forward. The growth alone was amazing but we did all of this with zero lost time safety incidents during that four year period. We moved quickly without sacrificing safety along the way to achieve and exceed all company goals. In a different role with a different company we were again tasked to meet growth milestones 10X faster than the industry norm. The final year of this project the team moved over 1.5 billion pounds of a refrigerated food product with little to no complication or resistance. Goals were to get the product to the production line the same day of production and ship the finished goods to customers all over the U.S. within 48 hours of quality release. Early in my career I had a mentor manager I will never forget. I was in a mid-level manager position at the time. This manager had been one of the best in his role for over 27 years at that time. When the traditional format performance review came out year two I received a five out of five. This was the first time this manager had ever given a five to anyone in his career. It was such a large company to give a five he had to gain multiple levels of approvals from some of the top executives in that company who were spread out across the U.S. This may not sound like a lot to most but is still one of the proudest moments of my career.