Production Leadership Academy
A programme for people who were promoted from the line and started managing their former colleagues overnight. We teach them to lead a shift team so that standards are followed, people stay, and the leader doesn’t have to put out every fire alone. We work on situations from your shop floor, not textbook examples.
Who it is for and what problem it solves
Promoted from the line
The leader manages people they used to work alongside as equals and doesn’t know how to build authority without shouting or being everyone’s buddy.
Turnover and absenteeism
New operators leave in their first months, and absences disrupt shift staffing.
Standards and safety
The leader sees breaches of standards or health and safety rules but doesn’t react – or reacts too late and too harshly.
Cooperation between shifts and departments
Shift handovers, maintenance, quality and logistics – tensions at the interfaces between departments keep landing on the production manager’s desk.
What participants will practise
The leader’s role
- building authority among former colleagues
- situational leadership – adapting your style to the employee
- communicating decisions from above
Difficult conversations on the shop floor
- corrective and disciplinary conversations
- responding to lateness, absenteeism and breaches of standards
- talking to an employee whose negative attitude is affecting the team
Managing the shift
- shift briefings and handovers
- delegating and enforcing without micromanaging
- motivating people in shift work and under pressure for results
How the process works
Needs analysis
Interviews with management and HR, a survey or competency test for participants before the start, and gathering real situations from the shop floor.
A tailor-made programme
Modules selected on the basis of the needs analysis; role-plays and case studies built on situations from your plant.
Workshop modules
Short, practical sessions that fit around the shift schedule; lots of exercises, little theory.
Implementation tasks
Between modules, leaders apply the tools on their own shift and discuss the results at the next session.
Measurement and summary
A pre/post test or assessment, a report for HR and recommendations for further development.
What HR receives
Needs analysis report
A map of the leader group’s strengths and competency gaps.
Mini-report after each module
Attendance, participant ratings, key conclusions and risks.
Final report
Pre/post results, individual and group recommendations.
Materials for participants
A handbook, tools for working on the shift, and access to the platform after the training.
How we assess the outcome
Change in competencies
A pre/post test or assessment in the programme areas.
Team indicators
Agreed with HR: absenteeism, turnover of new employees, number of escalations – in the participants’ teams.
Implementation in practice
Completion of implementation tasks and feedback from the leaders’ own managers.
An example from one of our Leadership Academy programmes (pre/post measurement): communication from 40% to 98%, leadership from 32% to 92%, motivation and delegation from 64% to 91%, handling difficult conversations from 61% to 77%.
Who leads it
A sample line-up of trainers – the final team is matched to your company and group.
Anna Wodyńska
Works with Plant Managers and production management; her programme at an automotive company cut absenteeism by 23% in six months.
Adam Kołodziej
Develops production and operations managers; knows the realities of the shop floor, shift work and implementing standards.
Paweł Strycharczyk
Teaches leaders to make their teams more autonomous and to respond faster to non-conformities.
What does the first consultation look like?
A free, no-obligation conversation – by phone or online. All you need to know is what the problem is; we will work out the rest together.
You talk to one of our client managers, and a trainer joins if needed.
who the development is for (roles, number of people, locations), what problem you want to solve, what has already been done, timing and budget.
We investigate the problem thoroughly before proposing anything. We also use diagnostic tools such as the NESSE Competency Map®.
a programme proposal with a schedule, a trainer recommendation, a way of measuring results and a quote.
Call or write to us directly:
Let’s talk about your leaders
Tell us how many leaders you want to include in the programme and what they face on their shifts – we will propose the scope and a way of measuring results.