Easing the Transition to Utility Safety Leadership

Our industry’s frontline workers are commonly promoted to supervisory positions in rapid fashion. Some struggle with the transition as they discover that their new role involves far more than increased compensation, a fancier title and the keys to a company pickup truck. This installment of “Voice of Experience” addresses important points about lineworker leadership transitions learned through my decades of professional experience.

What Prompts Worker Promotions?
Lineworkers are not necessarily promoted based on their years of field experience or company seniority. Often, the move is both recognition and reward for an employee’s current technical skill set. That is understandable. Utility organizations in the past sometimes promoted employees for reasons other than technical merit; reorganizations in particular could be highly problematic. Employees with little to no construction or maintenance work experience were appointed to foreman and even area supervisor positions. They were at a severe disadvantage, and their crews knew it, rightfully feeling that such inexperienced leadership was unsafe and inappropriate. Supervisors without the technical acumen to lead crews will almost certainly fail to earn credibility or respect.

During my 40-year tenure with an investor-owned utility, I spent over 15 years as a journeyman before the company named me a crew supervisor. Now, some journeymen are promoted to similar roles in just two to four years. Simple math tells us that supervisors of the past often had considerably more real-world frontline experience than many of today’s supervisors do.

Even with all my years as a journeyman and the wholehearted belief that I was prepared to be a great supervisor, I quickly realized that overseeing employees is far more challenging than building a job. Management skills training and a transition period are essential to success; without them, new leaders are much more likely to struggle.

Supervisor Development Program
Fortunately, not long after I was promoted, the utility launched a supervisor development program. Management identified future supervisors and enrolled them in the program’s multiweek classes, which they completed while still working as journeymen. This turned out to be a wise company investment.

At the time, I was chosen to be a program adviser. I worked with several other relatively new supervisors to identify the topics that most needed to be addressed before or during a journeyman’s transition to leadership. The development program prioritized team communication, with an overarching goal of helping new supervisors effectively establish themselves in their roles. Supervisor trainees typically had a great deal of field experience, but some lacked the skill to effectively transfer their knowledge to others. The program’s interpersonal communications class was extremely helpful in that regard.

Readers should note that supervisors who are knowledgeable about and easily adapt to generational and personality differences tend to have an easier time establishing rapport with their crews. Every human being communicates and receives information a bit differently. Supervisors who don’t willingly adjust to their employees will experience related challenges.

But we’re not finished yet. Electric utility leadership also demands that supervisors be fair and trustworthy, with excellent time management skills and proficiency in human performance principles and industry regulatory rules. In my opinion, too many of today’s recently promoted supervisors do not recognize the full scope of their responsibilities. It is imperative that they understand the potential impact of their role, including tort liability exposures.

Highly Skilled Journeymen
A former co-worker and I used to talk about how a top-notch journeyman could reconductor a mile of three-phase line with single pots, three-phase banks, and riser and junction poles without any customer being the wiser (unless they looked out a window). I still truly believe that a highly skilled journeyman can reconductor a line and keep everything hot without any intentional outages.

Our industry’s supervisors – each and every one – should be able to illustrate reconductoring and other relevant work processes to crews as needed throughout job planning and execution. They should be equally skilled at anticipating possible challenges and offering solutions.

One of my mentors told me long ago that good supervisors are where the rubber meets the road. Their technical expertise combined with their management authority means they can take ownership of job-related issues until they are successfully resolved. My mentor also memorably explained that a supervisor can tell they have arrived when crew members begin asking them for their honest opinions. Those wise words remain true today.

A Word of Thanks
In closing, I want to thank each of the diligent industry supervisors currently working in the field. I deeply appreciate what you do, and I’m always here to share a word of support or advice should you need it.

About the Author: Danny Raines, CUSP, is an author, an OSHA-authorized trainer, and a transmission and distribution safety consultant who retired from Georgia Power after 40 years of service and now operates Raines Utility Safety Solutions LLC.

Learn more from Danny Raines on the Utility Safety Podcast series. Listen now at https://utilitysafety.podbean.com!