crew leadership history

Crew LeadershipA Look Back

Crew Leadership A Look Back

The Origins of Crew Leadership

The Egyptian slave drivers were widely known for accomplishing large projects

The most effective slave drivers treated their slaves better than other slave drivers


• The beginning of the generation and delivery of electric power

• Trial and error starts the building of experience

• Line foremen directing large crews with little or no experience

• Line foreman develop good rigging skills

• Line foremen using horses and mules to pull wagons, set poles and string wire


• The first motorized vehicles appear

• Derricks developed to assist in setting poles

• Foreman have more experienced workers on their crews

• The majority of the work is constructing new lines

• Early methods for “hot work” are developed


• Line crews performing more maintenance

• Voltage levels are increasing

• Foreman having to train crew members in “hot work”

• First lineman’s handbook published

• REA established-electrification of rural US begins


• Live line work starts to increase and becomes routine activity on voltages below 44kV

• Foremen using pickups to lay out the work

• Line crews starting to perform URD work

• More training of lineworkers is occurring

• Line trucks with digger derricks widely in use


• Live line on transmission voltages is occurring

• OSHA established

• Utilities requiring more paper work by foremen

• Aerial lift trucks are now being widely used

• Line crew sizes are being reduced


• Utilities confronted with deregulation

• OSHA established

• Company information systems are being computerized -crew leaders having to learn computer applications

• The amount of live line work is increasing

• Material handling aerial lift trucks improve productivity

• Safety regulations have increased and become more complex


Regularly exercised their authority to hire and fire

Did not seek input from subordinates -gave directives which were rarely questioned by subordinates

Drove slack employees continuously – “Drive the laggard”

Did not do much paper workTended to not share information and told

subordinates only what they needed to know for the task at hand

Good riggersGood planners -Got a lot of work done

Typically placed productivity above safety

Hawaiian Electric crew building a line through the rugged Koolau Mountain Range toward Windward Oahu


• Straw Boss • Bull Foreman• Gaffer• Foreman• Line Gang Foreman• Line Foreman


• Must lead by example and support the company and its mission

• Must place safety above productivity

• Must be customer oriented

• Must be good at paper work and record keeping using a computer

• Must have a greater technical knowledge

• Must clearly understand his/her authority

• Must be a good planner

• Must have greater understanding of subordinate personalities

• Must be able to delegate and clearly communicate


“To be effective today's crewleader needs to be moreknowledgeable and have moreSupervisory skills than ever before”

crew leadership history

Leadership & Management