In my time in supply chain, I’ve found there’s a few personalities that keep popping up. Some of them show up in every supply chain team I’ve ever been a part of. Some only show up in the larger teams, and some of these people definitely show up in non-supply chain teams as well. I have been some of these people, I have definitely worked with all of these people, and I have managed these people. 

I hesitate to write this post, because it’s likely controversial and hopefully not offensive, so take it with a grain of salt and as a bit tongue-in-cheek (how many other terrible metaphors can I come up with?) and view it with a bit of humor. Today we’re going to talk about the people you find in supply chain with some thoughts on how to supervise them.

In Every Supply Chain Team

Aggressor

The Aggressor is legendary for their negotiation skills and creating leverage where there isn’t any. They have low empathy and grace for team members or internal customers, don’t have time to help anyone, and would rather the internal customer not join supplier conversations because they “screw it up.” The Aggressor posts the highest savings/cost avoidance as a percentage of spend. They don’t understand why they can’t break into the executive ranks. 

How to manage: Give this person the toughest suppliers to crack and let them go. Be ready to field angry/emotional phone calls from internal customers the Aggressor has offended. You can sometimes soften their edges a little, but you won’t ever change them. So put them where they can use their class A negotiation skills and keep them away from internal customers as much as possible.

The Very Important Person

The Very Important Person is not the actual boss, but has to have the most spend/most suppliers/most critical categories to the business. They constantly tell everyone they have the most spend and are therefore very busy, post the biggest total savings numbers, never attend internal customer meetings (unless forced), and re-source anything quoted by internal customers. They never attend non-work events like parties or potlucks unless required, and somehow talk suppliers into things (like 3% reductions each year) no one else can seem to get.

How to manage: The Very Important Person is tricky because they tend to sow strife in a team. If you cannot have them exit the organization, use them with the very large suppliers for whom you are a small customer with little leverage. Their ability to get concessions out of those suppliers will be helpful, and don’t force them to socialize with the team or attend non-work social events. Be very careful about promoting this person into a people management role as they tend to be terrible supervisors.

Technical Guru

The Technical Guru can make Excel/Tableau/PowerBI do things no one else dreams of. You can point them at a new metric you have no idea how to measure and they will give you a beautiful dashboard showing all aspects of that metric in days (assuming they have access to data). They have memorized the spend amounts for the top 20 suppliers and constantly propose new metrics to measure.

How to manage: Give the Technical Guru as much data access as you possibly can. If your IT team will allow it, get them administrative access to the ERP system or at least to the mirror of the system that is updated frequently. Keep giving them new things to go find or uncover or track, but be careful that everyone on the team isn’t bombarding them with requests. If possible, funnel data requests through one or two sources (such as their supervisor) to prevent overwhelm.

Old Guard

The Old Guard is near retirement and hates change. They secretly change everything back when they are given new processes to follow and continue to do things “the old way”. The executive for their primary internal customer team/department periodically calls the supply chain leader about some ball they dropped or a mismatch in priorities, so the supply chain leader has to spend time unruffling customer feathers. They can cut a PO faster than anyone on the team, but no one knows what they do all day. They have the most entertaining procurement stories.

How to manage: Pair the Old Guard with the Newbie or an intern who is good at taking notes, and assign that person to just gathering all the information possible from the Old Guard. Some company transition or transformation will eventually have the Old Guard retire, and you don’t want all their knowledge of the company to leave with them. They also often like telling their stories, so pair them with someone who wants to listen.

Steady Eddy

The Steady Eddy keeps the lights on and the material flowing. They show up right on time and leave right on time, just doing what they need to do and no more. Their metrics stay pretty much the same year after year no matter what their category/market is doing, the business likes them and never calls the supply chain leader about them.

How to manage: It’s easy to forget the Steady Eddy is there, so don’t take them for granted. Figure out how they like to be shown appreciation and then show that appreciation regularly. If you’re lucky, they will stick around forever and keep the team stable. 

Ambitious One

The Ambitious One wants to be the supply chain leader some day very soon. They are convinced they do more work and work longer hours than anyone else in the department, and they read supply chain or business books in their spare time (or are working on a degree). They volunteer for every project, especially if it involves getting to be around company executives. The Ambitious One will probably be your boss someday, but it will take them longer than they want it to.

How to manage: Usually The Ambitious One is very coachable and will incorporate your thoughts into their everyday work. Keep teaching compassion and empathy at the forefront, because it’s likely they are already very good at transactional work but lack these softer skills. Give them practice leading smaller teams and projects to learn how to manage people who are difficult or less ambitious than they are (which is almost everyone). Watch out for if you have two of these people on your team as they will often clash.

In Larger Supply Chain Teams

The Lost

The Lost seems to only understand about 90% of why they do what they do, nodding along but not really grasping it. They follow processes and instructions well and are willing to seek lots of help with exceptions or “weird” requests. They are kind and caring and empathetic, and generally well-liked in the team.

How to manage: The Lost can also be tricky to manage because they may or may not ever really get to the point of autonomy. If you have extremely transactional work to do, assign it to The Lost because they are not likely to get bored with that work over time. If they cannot keep that work under control, they may need to exit the team or company and find something that suits them better than supply chain work.

Bustler

The Bustler knows everything about every business unit, understands the office politics, and is constantly willing to help others. However, they have the lowest metrics and struggle to meet their monetary savings goals. They get excellent non-monetary value in negotiations (perks, extra customer service, etc.) when they stop and focus on it and are excellent at editing messy scopes of work. They are always coordinating the non-core work (lunches, parties, trainings) and tend to be polarizing in the team – some like them and some don’t. 

How to manage: The Bustler needs endless empathy and to be given the categories that are especially “fuzzy” like HR, finance, and compliance services. That way they can use their ability to get non-monetary value to make their internal customers very happy. Give them opportunities to plan non-core work as it tends to fulfill them, but don’t let them get too disappointed if the team isn’t as excited about the work potluck as they are. Don’t reduce their goals or targets, instead figure out a way to convert their non-monetary savings into value so they can meet those metrics.

Quietly Competent

The Quietly Competent is just that – someone who is quietly competent. You don’t even know if that person is there or not and they are the first person to leave every day. They hardly ever show up on late PO/invoice hold/unfinished contract reports, no one knows much about their personal lives, their desk is almost totally empty, and they somehow always get it all done. When they finally go on vacation the person who covers for them discovers their workload is actually huge and they’re doing the work of two or three people. Note that the Very Important Person will always think they are the Quietly Competent and people who are truly like this are incredibly rare.

How to manage: The hard part about managing the Quietly Competent is you don’t know they are overloaded until they crack and suddenly leave the organization. Keep a close eye on their true workload and figure out which tasks they dislike most. Try to quietly move those tasks off of them (or automate those tasks) so the Quietly Competent doesn’t burn out. 

Newbie

The Newbie is fresh out of school or otherwise new to supply chain work, and usually knows they have a lot to learn. They ask the questions everyone wants to know but aren’t willing to ask and often have fresh information about market forces in “the outside world.” They are full of energy and will usually take on whatever is given to them.

How to manage: Give the Newbie the categories that need a fresh look because they are particularly stale and pair them with the Old Guard for some mentorship. Make sure, however, that they also get mentorship from others in the team so the Old Guard doesn’t make them cynical. Figure out what the Newbie likes best and then point them that direction to learn. Keep lots of contact hours with more senior members of the team and your own time so they don’t get lost in the shuffle.Those are the roles I see in supply chain teams, which are always such a unique mix of personalities. Which one are you? Which ones am I missing? If you’d like to talk to me about the dynamics of your company’s team, let’s chat.