Pete, a sheet metal field foreman for a large general contractor in eastern Washington, told Session 9A of the Leadership Development LAB:

“Yesterday I had an opportunity with one of my crew members to practice Turbo Leadership Systems™ 3-step onthe- job training model. I took a young apprentice off to the side and showed him a simple process for laying out a field offset. I had been working on the 3-week goal I set at Session 7 of writing a manual for field offsets. I had no idea how soon I would be able to put it to very practical use. The first thing I did was carefully go over the field offset section of my new manual with the apprentice. I showed him the key elements of any field offset, then I took out paper and pencil and drew up the layout. I was careful to explain to him what I was drawing as I drew it out. Then I gave him the pencil and paper, and as I explained it to him, he drew up the layout process. Then I asked him to draw the layout one more time as he explained what he was drawing to me. I was amazed at how well this young, new apprentice picked it up, much faster than I have ever seen an apprentice grasp the conceptual part of our work.

We attract young people who want to be hands-on, action oriented, ‘just do it’. The planning and conceptual

part of the job has seemed in the past to be a little hard for them to grasp. He got it, even down to the finest details that we had gone over at the beginning of the process. I could feel his confidence grow as his face lit up.

The lesson I learned from this experience is how easy and effective the Turbo 3-step on-the-job training process is. When I use it, take the extra steps, even though it seems counterintuitive and may take three times longer up front than the slam-bam way I used to use to train an apprentice in a new task, it saves countless hours and frustration for me and the trainee in the long run. The action I call you to take is to stop, take the time to train your team members thoroughly on new tasks. Use Turbo’s 3-step training model. Be very conscientious of the steps you take as you tell and show, have them do the task as you tell, and the third time, as they do the task, have them explain what and how they are doing it. The benefit you will gain is you will add more depth to your high performance team, and as you build their confidence, your confidence in them will grow. When you give them assignments, you will be able to walk away confidently knowing that you don’t have to worry about having to do the job over a second time the right way.”