New team leader position... looking for advice

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I got a position as a team leader in the machine shop that I work at, this puts me in charge of 14 people (in theory, we are short a few at the moment). Anyhow there where communication problems between be and my co-workers which resulted in me being taken off the possition. This lead to a 3 month process in which I had to prove my aspergers diagnosis and they had to decide what to do about.

There was an inservis in the plant, and as of monday (Oct 27th) I'm back in the possition. So now I need to figure out how to bridge the communication gap with the NTs I'll be working with.

Now that being said, the technical aspect of the position comes compleatly natural to me, dealing with the people is what is tricky. I have upset several people without intending to and there had been complaints that I am intimidating them (although if I keep shaved I think they will be able to read my expressions better so that may take care of that aspect)

When I was taken off the postion I know that several people from the shift where pretty upset so I haven't alienated everyone and there are new people there who I helped train over the last few months while on another shift.

Any advice would be welcome, any comments or questions... that's fine to.

Perhaps ask them to tell you when they are upset and why, in a calm manner (them and you), so that you can learn to recognise it better. Perhaps to also tell them that you may say stuff that upsets people but that it is not your intent to upset them.

If you are taller than a person that you have to correct, make sure that they don't feel cornered (and if it's a big issue not to say it in front of the persons other co-workers). Also if someone does something well, to recognise it and say that it's a good job. A communtication skills course may help too.

I used to work on a production line and I got a job as "line lead" supervisor - it was a disaster

It was basically your situation - I was really good at training, and doing the jobs myself, but I just didn't know how to supervise people. When they were lazy I got all over their case, then they hated me, and if I left them alone, I'd get yelled at by upper management for not getting them to perform better.

After I left that job I realized that the number one thing I did wrong was not give positive reinforcement to them. Being a cheerleader is part of leadership. Also, an effective leader is really engaging. You have to form relationships with people because the more they like you, the better they will do their job (because they want to show their appreciation) - as an aspie, I found it REALLY hard to do this convincingly in my subsequent jobs when my bosses promoted me, so I just stay away from supervisor positions altogether now.

I hope that helps! One thing I will say is that I think I would have done much better if I had known that I was autistic. So you can think of your diagnosis as your friend (don't judge yourself too harshly if you have a bad day with the people, and also, you can be on the lookout for aspie tendencies that cause problems with the people so you can focus on, and practice other behaviors that will be more helpful.)

There is a book titled "The One Minute Manager" which you can find in the business section of any bookstore. Its a quick and easy read, and provides insight into how to deal with people when you're the supervisor. Best of luck!

Thank you all for your responces... The thing that made this most difficult the first go around is I wasn't really aware of some of the problems the first go around. Makes things more difficult.

Am already looking into communications classes although I'm in a pretty rural area so I either have to traval or wait and work is talking about doing a management seminar for ALL team leaders/supervisers. But not sure how quickly that will happen either (corparate can be just as slow as government sometimes )

Will look into "The One Minute Manager" but will have to wait until payday.

Will post on how things go.

I may be a bit late on this but here's my 2 cents:

When I was promoted from regular agent to Team Leader of 6 people (later expanded to like 30 people in different overseas offices) my biggest problem was how to communicate the WHY I was assigning people to certain tasks.

Because I was in a position where I could see the work of all agents not just mine and because I had become responsible for their performance and improvement of; I had set a series of small changes to make the overall workload be finished faster so that the whole team wouldnt suffer and at the same time, put more 'work' on the hands of some agents than others.

To the individual team members it seemed that I was making some work harder than others unfairly and that the changes I had done had no purpose. So some became upset at me and that became a low profile complaint that my manager made me aware of a couple of weeks later.

I knew my changes would work (and they did!) but while I had done well on the 'operational' side I had done poorly on the 'morale' part. My manager suggested I talk with each individually and find out their perspectives and all that jazz.. but to me that seemed a waste of time so I simply called them all to a quick meeting and explained to them that the why the changes were done and that those who had received additional workload really didn't because I had taken small but time consuming things off their hands and given it to another person to process.

Tensions after that were lightened but it wasnt until two months later when the backlog of work was cleared and everyone started to go home on time with less stress that they really understood the why I was doing all that.

Took me about a year more to be better at communicating stuff to team members and for them to get used to the way I worked.

This was all before I even knew I had AS or that AS existed. If I had known back then I wouldve told them in that meeting I had AS and thus had certain difficulties in group communication.

So I can only suggest you be as clear as you can with them and be sure to tell them the WHY of things. If they dont know you have AS then you may consider informing them of the communication difficulty so that they know its not you being inconsiderate of them.

...and finally, the biggest lesson my manager gave me: baby bribes work. She called baby bribes the act of every now and then (at random) do something cool for the team. Bring 'em donuts .... or a pizza ... or talk with the manager to add a 'morale' program to boost employee happyness and thus productivity (things like those who exceed goals get an extra hour of paid time off or get to come in late or leave early one day paid, etc). That not only breaks a lot of the ice with the team but makes your staff happier as a whole and it dont cost the company much.

Almost to weeks into it and things SEEM to be going alright.

Everyone is aware of my condition at this point and for the most part seem to be ok with it (the one problem is moving to another department next week, and was doing so anyhow).

As far as the "Baby Bribes" idea I've already thought about that sort of thing, it will have to come from my pocket though as the company wont pay for that sort of thing. (Used to but over time thay've been slowly cutting back on it)

The trick is expaining stuff without expaining to much but I'm working on that.

Ain't that the truth! Yeah, I too can be an over-explainer. It helps me with my writing. But in other areas, probably not so much. So, I'm trying to broaden my repertoire of skills.

When I was the manager of a small university photocopy center, I would leave a list for my asst. manager (and one permanent staff member!), and when I got there, most of the things were done. You just ask them. Don't make a big deal out of it. People want to have things to do.

More philosophically, show heart. Care, but don't over-care.

Dantac's experiences, with more 'work' on the hands of some agents than others . . . I would classify that as a scheduling issue. And employees are very sensitive about schedules. And I guess that's alright. We'll asking them to work, and yes, we should take their time schedules seriously.

My advice, if it at all varies from week to week, make the schedule as early as you can and then keep it in your desk drawer. That is, keep it private. A couple of days later, take a fresh look at it.

'John, you got to submit it in writing. All schedule requests need to be in writing'

That's what I'd recommend saying. And way under-promise as far as what you can deliver.

And yeah, The One Minute Manager is okay. Take it with a grain of salt. It's like anything with us complex human beings. Nothing works all the time! To good ideas, you have got to add feel and texture as you go along.

Best wishes!

> I have upset several people without intending to and there had been complaints that I am intimidating

I had such a problem at one time when I was teaching. Principal told me my students were afraid of me. I am not very good about showing "the right" expression. So, after that I erred on the side of extra nice and pleasant. It was an effort but it was safe. You could probably be a little nicer without going overboard and find the just right spot.

It's an art, being pleasant but relaxed. I work at it. I pay attention. Listening helps.

Good luck.

It's a machine shop so things are pretty constant. What I do, is work out weekly (or daily as needed) job postings. I generally know what I want to do ahead of time but generally have to change things based on how orders change. I think I'm getting better at keeping people calm about some of this last minute stuff.

If they do need to do some sort of schedule change (for appointments or whatever) the company policy is that is must be in writing atleast 24 hours ahead of time. So that isn't a problem.

[quote=Ladarzak]
It's an art, being pleasant but relaxed. I work at it. I pay attention. Listening helps.
[\quote]

I actually got alot out of "How to Win Friends and Influence People" of all places. The relaxed but is hard... I'm actually pretty high strung. This is (the whole pleasant but relaxed bit) something I probibly need work on... I can be pretty blunt.



I've gotten through week 2, and as far as I can tell things seem to be going fairly well. Did have a problem tonight with someone who put a part into the furnace wrong and caught up the belt. It wasn't moving for probibly 10 minutes (which isn't to bad). I got the part out and got things going and told the people who where running it to keep them on the belt. (It was less then a 16th of an inch over that caused the problem). The person who's side it was on asked if it was her part. I told her 'Yes'. Then she argued about it. Not sure I get that. If you don't want to know the answer, why ask the question?

'Susan*, it's fine. We solved the problem.'

Underplay it. Let her be upset. Let her be irrational (momentarily, whatever)

That is, the skill of giving space without first deciding if the person needing space is "right" or not.

Or, even simpler . . .

'Susan*, it's okay'

Then walk away and go on to your next task

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As far as why she asked and then argued (besides people being strange and quirky, all of us, ourselves fully included!), well, a likely reason is that people have grown up in authoritarian families and schools and many workplaces, and being "wrong" and being blamed and being doghoused is a pretty bad outcome and is often unfairly inflictly, or overly inflicted for whatever human shortcoming we all share.

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Man, I still think you're making it too difficult and some of the advice here is making it harder, is over specific on what you have to do.

You mainly need to be well organized, be proactive. I hope you're getting there 10 minutes before everyone else (or if some people get there way early, maybe 15 minutes before you're scheduled to start), that way, you're ahead of your game all shift long. And if you make mistakes, well, even the best football coaches in the world make mistakes, just kind of hang in there, all part of the texture of the game and you might still end up winning it! Or maybe 5 minutes early, and just walk in there casual and easy.

Almost the worse boss is the individual who is outwardly "nice" and then unexpectedly pounces on you. I'd much rather have someone who's formal and businesslike and you know where you stand. Well, I'm Aspie. But I think a lot of people would rather have someone businesslike where you know where you stand.

The point is, you don't need to attempt to make drastic changes in your personality or who you are as a human being.

Engagement, not conformity.

The problem is I've already had problems from all of this. (Allthough the, likely, major source of the tenson no longer works there) and so am a little paranoid about peoples reaction.


I've spent alot of time trying to conform... It's only as I've gotten (realitively) good at it that I've began to except myself as I am. I THINK I'm doing good with most of the people on the shift. I'm just not so good at the social problems that can arise and am poor at reading people. In truth I think things are going pretty good.