In last mile it is not enough to tell someone "work better". They have to understand what "better" means.
That is why the standards had to be very concrete. Loading had to stay within target. Drivers had to stay in their own area, not crowd around the Shift Leader's desk. After loading, the gate was closed. Chilled and frozen were scanned in their own areas. When a bag was missing, nobody carried on as if everything was normal: the problem was reported. Safety, cleanliness and order on the ramp were part of the standard. Damage, incomplete orders, delays and loading time were measured every day.
We also had a system of consequences when rules were broken repeatedly. The standard was not a poster on the wall. It came with expectations, checks and accountability.
But for me something else mattered too, something that is often forgotten. A person has to know the standard before you judge them for not following it. You cannot hold people accountable for a rule nobody ever made clear.
That brings me to the question that perhaps shapes how you lead people more than anything else: when something goes wrong, is it the process's error or the person's?
If a delivery came out incomplete, I did not automatically start from "the driver made a mistake". We looked at the process. Was the bag already missing in the warehouse? Had it been put in the wrong trolley? Did it have the wrong label? Were the bags mixed? Had the scanning been done properly? Had the complete route left the loading area? If the problem had started earlier in the process, it was not fair to turn it automatically into a performance problem of the driver.
On the other hand, if the process was in order, the standard was clear, the tools were there and the person still did not follow the procedure, then individual responsibility began.
The question was: did the system create the possibility of the error, or did the person not follow a process that worked and that they knew?
That changes completely how you talk to the person. In the first case you have to fix the process. In the second you have to work on behaviour and accountability. And sometimes you have both at once.
The same logic applies when pressure comes from above. I tried to turn the pressure about KPIs into an operational problem. What happened? Where did it happen? Which cases keep repeating? What do we check today? Who takes the action? If damage, delays or incomplete orders went up, I needed to understand the reason, not find someone to blame.
I do not want to turn this into a heroic story, as if I always protected the team from management. The reality of operations is more complex than that. What I can say is this: pressure can be fair. Humiliating people is not a management method. A standard can be very strong without treating a person as a number.
The hardest part of this philosophy came when my own position changed.
After about five months, I moved from Team Leader to Area Manager. As Team Leader I was very close to the daily execution: dispatch, the drivers, the live problems, the shift's performance. As Area Manager I also had to lead the people who ran the operation: four Shift Leaders and eight dispatchers, with indirect responsibility for around 250 drivers.
I could no longer be the person who walked in and solved every problem himself. I had to ask the Shift Leader to take responsibility. The dispatcher to make the decision. The problem not to always come all the way up to me.
That is a real change in leadership, especially when you are promoted from within. Yesterday you may have been the person solving the problem together with your colleague. Today you have to tell the same person, in words or by the way you work: this is now your problem to solve. I am here to support you, but I will not do the job in your place.
When you are promoted, you should not suddenly become a different person just to prove that you are the boss now. But you cannot carry on as if nothing had changed either. You have to keep the relationship with people, and at the same time ask of them things that yesterday it was not your responsibility to ask.
For me, this is also the definition of respect at work. Respect is not never holding someone accountable. Respect is making the standard clear to them, listening to them before you judge them, and, when the responsibility is theirs, not hiding that from them.