Many in the industry claim not to have the time to worry about staff development, but failure to spot the good leaders and to give them the tools and support required to help them develop will have a detrimental effect on a business. This is not just in terms of the bottom line, but also morale, staff retention and productivity. At a time when print is going through one of the worst recessions in history, neglecting staff needs can be the difference between staying afloat and sinking into trouble.

It was with this is mind that Totnes-based Kingfisher Print made effective team leading a key part of its business development strategy. Over the past four years, managers at the commercial litho and digital outfit have been focusing much of their efforts on improving their team leaders and the firm says this investment in time and resources has been well worth the effort.

Kingfisher is a family-owned business with 36 staff and a turnover of £3.2m. It uses a mix of conventional litho and digital presses to produce high-quality commercial print for a wide range of local and national customers.

Kit investments
Established 25 years ago, the company has spent millions over the past four years on the very latest print and finishing equipment and ensuring environmental best practice. But unlike many others, it has put management of staff alongside kit and the environment at the top of its list of priorities.

Kingfisher says the secret of its success is down to its staff. The company has a balance of long-serving, experienced staff and new recruits from a variety of industries and its managers strongly believe that the benefits of investing in the latest kit pales into insignificance when compared to its investment in its workforce.

"We have got good equipment here, but so have many other print companies in the UK - it's our people that I believe separates us from the rest," says operations manager Paul Gamble.

Although the company has invested in kit over the past couple of years - namely a Heidelberg Stitchmaster ST350 and Stahlfolder Ti 52 - Gamble says that the quality and service the company gives comes through its people.

"We have five managers who drive and run the business," explains Gamble. "For example, we have a manager who heads up the sales team, a manager for the pressroom and a finishing manager. We have a good balance, but we wanted to give them more responsibility and help them develop as individuals."

All the team leaders have real technical expertise, says Gamble. They also bear plenty of responsibility. Effectively, each of the five teams are mini-businesses. A budget is allocated and they're allowed to negotiate with suppliers. For example, the studio manager is allowed to negotiate with plate suppliers.

"We have a strong management team who can make their own decisions," says Gamble. "The approach has really helped us to control costs and, as they are specialists in their own area, they have the technical knowledge to make these decisions."

The leaders head up teams of no more than eight, a conscious decision as the number of people that each manager looks after is important. "I don't believe that you can effectively manage a team that has more than eight people," says Gamble. "If it's a number as high as 20 then the standard of management drops significantly. In my role at Kingfisher, I have the five managers reporting to me; if anything it's the classic pyramid structure."

It's not just a structure that should apply to small- to medium-sized companies, according to Gamble. He points out that he worked at a firm that had a staff of around 1,000. Despite the considerable step-up in size, the company still had the same philosophy - managers managed teams of no more than eight.

Small but effective
The approach makes perfect sense: a small, lean and tight-knit team allows the manager to know everyone well and spot any problems before they have an adverse effect on morale. And in the event of that manager leaving, Kingfisher ensures there is someone ready and waiting in the wings through promoting career progression.

Succession is an area that's taken very seriously and if anyone at the company shows an interest in taking on more responsibility, then they are actively encouraged. As a result, today's press minder could become the team leader of tomorrow, says Gamble. The opportunities are there for the taking throughout the food chain.

"Each manager is actively developing a deputy," he explains. "It means that should there be a managerial change we are developing replacements who have grown up through the business. For example, if a print minder is showing a desire to do more then we would give that individual more tasks; this might involve having more responsibility in ordering inks."

But there is a difference between buying consumables and heading up a team. And to do that, you don't necessarily need to have natural ability to lead from the front. The first point, as explained in Vision in Print's course on team leading, is to manage yourself.

Skills acquisition
"It effectively looks at your own time management," says Gamble. "In this industry, people tend to be extremely busy, but they need to ask themselves ‘how effective am I being?'. What ViP has done for our company, is give managers the skills to lead their own team. We want our managers making decisions and we have a strong structure that allows them to do that."

Gamble adds that Kingfisher staff have been on the ViP course for the past four years and the results have shown that it's been time well spent. The company is now able to tap into the specialist knowledge of its managers and offer them the opportunity to further their careers by handing them greater responsibility.

Gamble concedes that there are reasons why many companies might shy away from taking time out and investing in moulding the team leaders of the future, the main one being the fact that the recession has focused many firms attention purely on survival.

But Kingfisher's example shows that part of this survival process should be investment in staff, as coaching and encouraging managers of the future helps secure the long-term survival of a company in the same way as a new press or an environmental accreditation.

While having the latest technology with all the bells and whistles can help, the people in a business can really drive it forward. Spotting potential managers and handing them responsibility can pay dividends in the long term.

BEST PRACTICE TIPS: BEING AN EFFECTIVE TEAM LEADER
Traditionally, team leaders were simply the longest serving members of staff or those with the most expertise in running particular machinery, or often both. However, in today’s business environment, a much wider range of skills is needed to be an effective leader. Here are a few of the key skills required:

Initiative An effective team leader must be put in a position to take the initiative in resolving issues and implementing improvements. Equally, they need to know when to escalate exceptional issues that require higher level input and ensure that the required support will be forthcoming – the alternative is that they will  simply ‘pass the buck’, or worse, ignore the problem.

Respect of peers, subordinates and superiors Many individuals find that, when stepping up to become a team leader, there is a difficult transition to be made from being one of the lads (or ladettes) to an effective manager. It can take a lifetime to gain respect and you can lose it in a day, so consistency and level-headedness is important. Staff will not enjoy the emotional rollercoaster of their manager blowing hot and cold without justification. It can also be challenging for them to meet the needs of their team, while also delivering the performance levels and objectives required by the business. Being liked by everyone all the time is not always possible. Being able to manage by ‘fact’, ie tangible measures, is important in gaining respect, rather than relying on ‘gut feel’ or instinct alone. A good team leader also knows when to ‘manage upwards’ and escalate issues. If their objectives, targets and levels of authority are not clear to them, how will they be clear to their team? So an effective team leader has to be an effective communicator at all levels.

Delegation and time management Most team leaders find there are simply not enough hours in the day. Prioritising which tasks are critical, and which can be picked up at a later stage, is crucial. There are also team leaders who attempt to do every single thing themselves, which probably means most of the things that should get done, don’t. The effects of this can be a failure to develop the capabilities and skill sets of the team, along with the organisation failing to identify future potential team leaders.

Jean-Paul Wheater is Senior Process Engineer at Vision in Print

COMMENT
The team leader role is probably the biggest poisoned chalice in any organisation.

Team leaders must swim in the shark-infested waters of key performance indicators, quality and environmental standards and enough employment and health and safety legislation to make anyone want to go and lie down in a darkened room.
If they are even more unlucky, they have a manager who thinks that because they were a superstar in their chosen field, then people management skills will somehow come instinctively to them.

Yet, to my mind, successfully converting team leaders into continuous improvement champions probably has the biggest impact of anything that business owners or leaders might do in their business.

Some of the most exciting times in my career in print have been when there was no money to invest in new hardware and we have been absolutely reliant on improved operational performance to boost the bottom line.

I am often asked if it’s better to run in-house programmes, or for team leaders to attend externally run courses and I think there are pros and cons for both. In-house programmes can really sharpen up the whole organisation while the ‘knowledge sharing’ benefits of external courses can help challenge the status quo and reap even greater rewards.

Whichever route you take, the one thing I am sure of is that neglecting your team leaders is an extremely risky business, but then maybe you like to live dangerously.

Kathy Woodward is executive chairman of BPIF Training