Are you leading a team within your Freight Agent office and want to be a more effective leader? Do you often feel like you don’t have the time?

There may be issues with the way you’re running the team. I don’t mean to be harsh, and I certainly don’t mean to imply that you’re not doing enough. If you look at the bigger picture, the issue is probably the opposite: you’re probably doing too much.

For most leaders, their issues lie in the delegation. Delegation is one of the most crucial aspects of leadership. It can also be one of the most difficult because it’s tough to relinquish control when you oversee the bottom line.

What kind of habits do you have? What holds you back from delegating more?

There are three key reasons why you may struggle with delegating tasks:

You’re Not Sure That Your Team Members Are Up to It.

Leaders can struggle to believe that their Team Members are capable and willing to take on some of their tasks. However, your role is to push and uplift your Team Members to be and do more than they think they can do.

You’re Used to Doing Everything on Your Own.

Even if you’re used to doing everything yourself that doesn’t mean that’s the best avenue to take. If you don’t begin delegating tasks, you’re likely to burn out. Isn’t that why you hired your Team, to help support your business?

You Believe Your Skills are the Best for the Task.

While this may be true, you won’t know what your Team is capable of until you give them a chance. And even if they don’t quite have the same skills as you, skills can be learned. You want your Team to become experts at what they do, don’t you?

Take a moment for some self-reflection and see if any of these ring true for you. It could be one or a mixture of them all, but regardless of which specific reason is keeping you from delegating work, the overall theme is fear. You’re afraid of what might happen if you let go. But as Andrew Carnegie said, “No person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit.”

LEADING A TEAM POST-DELEGATION

Now that you understand why you should be delegating some of your work, let’s look at some strategies for supporting your Team after you’ve begun delegating tasks.

Prepare a Training Plan in Advance

Have you ever had a job where you had no idea what you were doing and all you ever heard from your supervisor was that you were doing things the wrong way? Most individuals have, and they usually don’t survive long in these occupations. Nobody likes to feel unsure and alone.

Typically, if you’re not recruiting someone who is an experienced professional, it’s always good to provide an initial training session for every new employee to shadow or watch you. Let them watch you and ask questions. They need to understand your expectations, work habits, and preferences.

This is something that doesn’t happen overnight. In most training situations, it’s recommended to devote two weeks to a month to this and allow your new employee to start doing their specific job when they are ready.

If you put in the time now, you’ll get a lot more later.

Allow Them to Own Their Responsibilities

We’ve already discussed your need to delegate work; now let’s talk about your role after giving a task. People are most devoted to and involved in something when they feel responsible for what they are doing. So, how can you make someone care about their job performance and feel accountable for it?

It all starts with trusting them. I’m not suggesting you won’t be available to help them when they need it, but you should be willing to give someone an assignment and let them see it through to completion.

This will result in three important outcomes:

1. Increasing your team’s self-confidence and helping them to continue progressing at a faster rate
2. Building trust with your Team
3. And most importantly, allow you to focus on your bottom line

Don’t Be High-and-Mighty

This one should be self-evident, shouldn’t it? But it may be difficult for you to see it. Again, we must consider many views and be very aware of our own actions. And, while I’m not suggesting you let your staff heavily criticize you, you should be open to input. As you gain their trust, your Team should feel comfortable enough to approach you with any concerns or feedback. If they’re not doing that, consider re-evaluating.

Show Appreciation and Celebrate Success

Morale is no laughing matter. One study says 69 percent of employees in an office said they would work harder and take their jobs more seriously if they felt more appreciated. Make employee appreciation a regular part of your weekly calendar. Think about it:

Feeling valued = confidence = working harder = learning faster = taking on more responsibility = leading an effective Freight Agent Team

Don’t Overwhelm Them

Delegation is a balancing act. You delegate jobs due to a heavy workload, but delegating too much work to others who are already overwhelmed puts vital items in danger of falling through the cracks or creating a burned-out team.

You must maintain track of each person’s workload, especially if you have numerous employees in your Freight Agent office, to ensure that everyone is working at their maximum potential. This necessitates first learning about each employee’s talents and capabilities.

If you aren’t already using task management software, I strongly advise you to do so. Task management software programs like Salesforce and Hubspot can show you how many tasks each team member has, their task timeline, and deadlines, so you’ll know how much you can assign them.

LEAD A SUCCESSFUL FREIGHT AGENT OFFICE WITH THE SUPPORT OF TRINITY LOGISTICS

Leading a team means going as a group rather than alone. As a team, you’re there to learn from each other and draw strength from one another. As a leader, it’s your sole responsibility to support your team, help them develop, set the direction, and remove obstacles.

“Delegating doesn’t mean passing off work you don’t enjoy, but letting your employees stretch their skills and judgment.” – Harvey Mackay

At Trinity Logistics, we know all the challenges there are for growing Freight Agent offices in leading a team efficiently and handling delegation. That’s why we have a whole Agent Support Team available to help. They’re a Team dedicated solely to the support of our Freight Agents to help you set and achieve your professional goals, provide constructive feedback to succeed in your business, offer learning opportunities to grow your skillset, and so much more.

Trinity Logistics has over 30 years of experience aiding in the success of our Freight Agent businesses, with many of our Freight Agents seeing a 50 percent increase over a two-year period from joining. If you’d like support and see a similar kind of growth within your Freight Agent business, then get connected with one of our Team Members to get started. 

Trinity Logistics, a leading third-party logistics (3PL) company, is proud to announce its earned recognition as a Top Company for Women in Transportation by the Women In Trucking Association for a fourth year. 

The Women In Trucking Association (WIT) is a non-profit organization with the mission to encourage the employment of women in the trucking industry, promote their accomplishments, and minimize obstacles faced by women working in the industry. Every year, WIT looks for companies with several characteristics that distinguish the companies featured on the list. These characteristics include company cultures that support gender diversity, flexible hours and work requirements, competitive compensation and benefits, training and continued education opportunities, career advancement, and other factors. 

“Trinity Logistics is a company that truly supports your growth and acceleration no matter your gender, race, or anything else,” said Amanda Ashford, Product Analyst. “Your value as a Team Member is based upon the work and effort you put in and your willingness to participate in the company’s collaborative culture. My past experiences have shown me that the grass is truly greener at Trinity Logistics.”

Trinity is proud to be a company that’s known for its culture and a place where Team Members can feel valued and supported. Trinity Team Members are offered flexibility in hours and work requirements, quality benefits for themselves and their families, many continued education opportunities to help support career growth, competitive compensation, opportunities to serve their communities through the company’s employee-run non-profit, and a company culture that is positive and family-friendly. 

“It is such an honor to be recognized by Women In Trucking,” said Jennifer Braun, VP of Kansas City Regional Service Center. “This recognition speaks to Trinity being a great place to work, regardless of gender. Trinity builds a strong culture through focus on continuous improvement. With countless resources, training, leadership development, and mentoring programs, Team Members are empowered to realize their full potential. It’s rewarding to see women flourish at Trinity and to be a part of such a worthy organization such as Women In Trucking.”

To date, Trinity employs over 400 Team Members across seven Regional Service Centers, with 49.5 percent of them women, and 19.6 percent of those women holding a management or leadership role, including our current President, Sarah Ruffcorn. Ruffcorn also serves as co-chair on the Women in Logistics Committee with the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA).

Trinity would like to extend their congratulations to all companies that earned recognition on the list. 

“Anyone can be a part of the logistics industry and part of improving the lives of those around us,” said Sarah Ruffcorn. “It really comes down to bringing more awareness to the logistics industry as a potential career path and making it easier to get creative, driven, and talented people started. Then, it is up to us to provide opportunities for them to grow to their full potential and be a place that people want to be a part of. The more we can do that, the more driven, creative, and dynamic people we can attract to logistics!”

Interested in working with an organization that is committed to you and your career growth?

About the Trinity Logistics

Trinity Logistics is a Burris Logistics Company, offering People-Centric Freight Solutions®. Our mission is to deliver creative logistics solutions through a mix of human ingenuity and innovative technology, enriching the lives of those we serve. 

For the past 40 years, we’ve been arranging freight for businesses of all sizes in truckload, less-than-truckload (LTL), warehousing, intermodal, drayage, expedited, international, and technology solutions.

We are currently recognized on Transport Topics’ Top 100 Freight Brokerage List, a Top 3PL and Cold Storage Provider by Food Logistics, and a Top Company for Women to Work for in 

Trinity Logistics takes pride in being a leading name among independent Freight Agents. We have many benefits to offer through our Freight Agent Program, but the one we’d like to talk about today is education. Continuous Improvement is engrained in our culture, so we ensure all Trinity Team Members receive educational opportunities, and this includes our Freight Agent network.

WHY CONTINUED EDUCATION IS IMPORTANT IN A FREIGHT AGENT PROGRAM

There are many reasons why continued education is vital to your success. When you look at the most successful people in the world, they know and understand that we never stop learning. Additionally, the logistics industry constantly changes; it is never stagnant. New regulations take place or newer technology makes waves. Continued education is needed for you to stay current with the latest developments, skills, technologies, and more. Continuing your education is the best way for you to stay ahead of your competition. Many other careers need continued education and Freight Agents are no different.

WHAT EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES DOES TRINITY’S FREIGHT AGENT PROGRAM OFFER?

CONTINUED EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES

Trinity has an in-house Education Team that provides you with many opportunities to continue your education and training on business strategy, industries, modes, sales, and other skill sets you may need. There are virtual classes held every month, giving you opportunities to increase your sales skills and introduce you to any new Trinity technology. Most importantly, we offer our Freight Agents the same opportunities as our Team Members. In addition, there are many virtual courses offered outside of our monthly classes through our learning management platform. These courses can be taken in your own time and cover an array of topics such as leadership, cybersecurity, and customer service.

TECHNOLOGY TRAINING

Through Trinity’s Freight Agent Program, we provide you with the technology resources you need to be successful while offering you support every step of the way. When it comes to technology, we make sure to maintain a competitive edge in the market, giving you, your customers, and carriers access to best-in-class applications. We also have an entire team of in-house software engineers who work hard to make our processes easy and data accessible.

We never want to leave you feeling lost or confused, which is why our Freight Agent program Provides you with thorough training on current and upcoming technology. Through communication from our Agent Support Team, you’ll consistently be updated on any changes, big or small. Should you need any extra help with learning any technology, you’ll have your Agent Support Team available for any training and support.

INDUSTRY NEWS AND RESOURCES

Trinity’s Freight Agent Program keeps you up to date on what’s going on in the freight market and other related industries. As a Freight Agent with Trinity, you’ll receive an email every day with Daily Industry news you might want to know. In addition, each month, through Trinity’s Freightwaves’ Sonar account and other resources, we curate a Freight Market Update in our blog. You’ll also receive a monthly Agent Support newsletter giving you insight into any Trinity news.

ONE-ON-ONE SUPPORT

Trinity has a Team dedicated to the support of our Freight Agents. Support Team Members will work with you to learn about your goals, offer suggestions, encourage you, and help you stay on track. Think you might need a little more help? We encourage spending one-on-one time through direct planning support and accountability reviews with our Agent Support leadership team members at Trinity. They have experience working with office structures of all sizes and can help dissect your business to get you closer to your goal numbers. They’ll be available to help recommend any educational opportunities and assist you with any of Trinity’s technology. You’ll never fall behind or feel unsure with the help of your own Support Team!

ANNUAL AGENT CONFERENCE

As a Freight Agent with Trinity, you’ll also be able to attend our annual Agent Conference. This year’s conference will be an all-day event held virtually on November 18th, 2021. You and your office are invited to hear from many speakers throughout the day, including members of our own Trinity leadership, sales directors, our Platinum Agents, and other industry professionals. In years past, we’ve had external speakers such as transportation economist Noel Perry and Transportation Intermediary Association’s Vice President of Government Affairs, Chris Burroughs.

This conference also includes workshops on the sales process and operations process for you to take part in and hone your skills and understanding. You’ll find technology and business resources available and even have chances to win some prizes!

PEOPLE MAKE THE DIFFERENCE

We can boast all day about the educational opportunities and benefits that Trinity’s Freight Agent Program offers you. But what really makes Trinity’s freight agent program different than others are the people behind it. It’s their commitment and dedication they have in helping you grow to be as successful as you want to be.

We realize you have a choice in who you’d like to partner with in your business. However, if what you’re looking for is a long-term partnership that is supportive of your growth, offers you continued education to remain competitive, and most of all, is made up of a Team of people who are passionate, dedicated, and striving for excellence, then Trinity Logistics may be the Freight Agent Program for you.

Take the first step today and get connected with Trinity’s Agent Recruiting!