Let’s Get Started

Today’s programme is going to be taught to you by Steve who has been a warehouse worker for the last 10 years. Steve is 35 years old and is married with two children. He is reasonably happy in his job but feels that he could do better and has recently considered applying for promotion to a team leader role.

Anyway, let Steve tell you his story.

Introduction

Hi, my name is Steve and I have worked in a warehouse for the last 10 years. Speaking to my partner recently, we both decided that it was time that I moved up the ladder. The next role for me to have a go at is team leader. This will mean looking after about 9 warehouse workers and could start in around 6 months time when the current team leader retires.

Two months ago I spoke to my line manager and asked him what chance I had of becoming the new team leader when Dave retired. He said, the problem I had is that I had been working in the warehouse and although I knew it back to front, I had limited management skills and this will be important if I was to take over from Dave.

Anyway, a friend of my wife was a management trainer and she said he would have a chat with me and explain what I needed to do to have a chance at this new job. I am going to explained what he advised me to do and I hope this will be useful to you if you are thinking of developing your knowledge, skills and abilities whether it is to go for another job like me, just want to do a better job if you are already a team leader or are thinking of moving to another company.

Our First Meeting

When I met John he said, “it’s so easy to go with the flow and do the best you can with the knowledge, skills and abilities that you already have. An awful lot of people do this. It’s also easy to get caught up in the fire fighting that a lot of organisations are doing at the moment to stay alive in these turbulent times”. That was certainly true for my company as we had lost a few customers and had to reduce our prices over the past 12 months to remain competitive.

John said that is it not unusual for people not to notice that their knowledge, skills and abilities are slowly getting out of line with what is required of because reaction is normally based on things changing quickly or dramatically. For me, Dave was retiring in 9 months time and I did not want to wait until that sudden change and found out I am not qualified to even apply for his job!

John indicated that it doesn’t have to be that way though and if I wanted to be in control of my management career, then be in control! Why not decide what you want out of life and go and get it rather than wait for it to come to you? In a way, I had already started thinking about that because Dave’s job would not be available for 9 months and I knew I fancied doing it.

I was given a little job to do by John which involved gathering some information on what I thought I currently knew and could do and bring that back to him in a weeks time. John suggested that I think about my career history, education and qualifications, job responsibilities, future career plans and skills and abilities.

One Week Later

John told me to make a list of what I thought I was good at and what was not so good. He also ask me to see if I could identify any opportunities I had at work and any threats that could affect my plans. Below are just a few of the things I included in my lists so you get the gist of it:

Strengths

Know the warehouse back to front
Actually designed some processes
Good at organising
Good at planning
Like by warehouse staff

Opportunities

Current team leader is retiring soon