The challenge of recruiting and retaining workers at all levels in the logistics industry has been well documented over recent years. While HGV driver shortages have tended to grab the headlines, the difficulties extend across the sector from warehouse operatives to senior management positions.
Specific labour challenges vary from business to business depending on things like geographic location and local competition, but all cold chain operators have had to make significant changes to pay levels, working practices and benefits packages to keep workers and entice new recruits. On a wider scale, initiatives such as the CCF-supported Generation Logistics have done excellent work beginning to change the image of logistics as a career choice.
But as Generation Z expert Henry Rose Lee explained during last year’s Cold Chain Live! conference, emerging leaders value learning and personal development opportunities almost as much as financial reward. I think this is true for those of us who may be too old to qualify as ‘Generation Z’ too.
The CCF’s Emerging Leaders Programme seeks to provide bursaries for exceptional individuals – of any age – to embark on a yearlong development programme centred around the Leadership Trust’s Cultivate Programme.
But what does such a residential course entail? In November, I was lucky enough to head to deepest Herefordshire to find out.
Leadership Trust programmes are a little bit like ‘Fight Club’ in that delegates are only given essential information beforehand. This tends to focus on safety and what to bring rather than details of the course itself. This means everyone arrives open minded and eager to find out what lies ahead. It’s one of the many things that makes the Leadership Trust completely unique and also makes writing an article on the course without giving too much away quite difficult!
The courses all take place at an historic farmhouse in the Herefordshire countryside. On the week I attended there were around 20 delegates from around the world in varying leadership roles from wide range of industries. This is important because the ethos of the course is that delegates learn from each other, rather than teachers or instructors.
The week was focused on giving all delegates a chance to lead, or take supporting roles, in increasingly elaborate, often pressured and time limited practical tasks, some taking place across many kilometres of the local countryside. Then follows a period of group reflection and feedback on the effect of certain decisions. There were also short theoretical sessions on the elements that make up effective leadership. The days were long, but hugely thought provoking and while often straying beyond ‘comfort zone’ territory, the environment created by the course meant it felt a safe place to open up and not hold back.
Spending time actually considering what makes an effective leader, or how my behaviours are perceived by others are not things I’ve often taken the time to do. This and the opportunity to observe my fellow delegates’ differing leadership styles and career experiences made the Leadership Trust programme a richly rewarding experience.
Read more news and features in the latest Cold Chain News Magazine.
