You must set a definite work schedule and inspection plan, and set up daily goals or quotas. Plan "personal inspection to check at intervals the work being done and the progress toward meeting the goals. This will involve a spot check for accuracy, for workmanship, and the need for training.

Organization

As a crew leader, you must ORGANIZE. This means that you analyze the requirements of a job and structure the sequence of events that will bring about the desired results.

Develop the ability to look at a job and estimate how many man-hours are required for completion. You will probably be given a completion deadline along with the job requirements. Next (or perhaps even before making your estimate of man-hours), plan the job sequences. Make sure you know the answers to the following questions. What is the size of the job? Are the materials on hand? What tools are available, and what is their condition? Is anyone scheduled for leave? Will you need to request outside support? After getting answers to these questions, you should be able to assign your crews and set up tentative schedules. When work shifts are necessary, arrange for the smooth transition from one shift to another with a minimum of work interruption. How well you do so is directly related to your ability to organize.

Delegation

In addition to organizing, you must DELEGATE. This is one of the most important attributes of a good supervisor. The failure to delegate is a common weakness of a new supervisor. It is natural for you to want to carry out the details of a job yourself, particularly when you know that you can do it better than any of your subordinates. When you try to do too much, you can quickly get bogged down in details and slow down a large operation. On some projects, you may have crews working in several different places. Obviously, you cannot be in two places at once. There will be many occasions when a Builder needs assistance or instruction on some problem that arises. When your personnel have to wait until you are available, then valuable time may be lost. So, it is important that you delegate authority to one or more of your crew members to make decisions in certain matters. Remember that although you delegate authority, you are still responsible for the job.

Coordination

As a crew leader, you must COORDINATE. When several jobs are in progress, you are to coordinate the completion times so one follows another without delay. Your coordinating skills also play a very helpful role when you work closely with other companies. Coordination is not limited to projects only. You would not want to approve a leave chit for a crew member only to find that person is scheduled for school during the same time. For example, you would not schedule a crew member for the rifle range only to find the range coach unavailable at that time.

Production

The primary responsibility of every crew leader is PRODUCTION. You and your crew will be at your best by practicing the following guidelines:

Planning, organizing, and coordinating the work to get maximum production with minimum effort and confusion.

Delegating as much authority as possible but remaining responsible for the final product.

Continuously supervising and controlling to make sure the work is done properly.

Be patient. "Seabees are flexible and resourceful."

Safety, Health, and Physical Welfare of Subordinates

Safety and production go hand in hand since the only efficient way to do anything is the safe way. Production is sure to fall when your personnel are absent because of injury, your shop equipment is down because of damage, or completed work is destroyed by accident. Therefore, you must teach and stress safety constantly, and set examples by always observing safety precautions yourself. Teach safety as part of each training unit, and plan each job with safety in mind. Safety will be covered later in this chapter.

Daily Work Assignments

The assignment of work is an important matter. On a rush job, you may have to assign the best qualified person available to meet the deadlines. When time and work load permit, rotate work assignments, so each person has an opportunity to acquire skills and experiences in the different phases of their rating. When assignments are rotated, the work becomes