5 Leadership Lessons for Tradies from Diesel Mechanic and Workshop Manager Matt Gilbert

Guest: Matt Gilbert

Episode: Season 1, Episode 2

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Matt Gilbert didn't set out to be a leader; he just kept getting handed the job. From diesel mechanic in transport to workshop manager at a large civil mining company, he had to learn on the fly how to get the best out of others.

Here's what he's picked up along the way.

Lesson 1: Finding Your Own Leadership Style

Matt stepped into leadership unofficially long before he had the title, filling in as a leading hand when someone was on leave, before getting the nod from management to make his leadership role permanent.

Early on, he tried to lead the way the managers he respected had led him, copying their style rather than finding his own.

"There was something not right about my leadership, but I just couldn't quite put my finger on it. It was that I just wasn't really being myself," Matt says.

It took stepping back and dropping the act before things clicked. "My leadership, I'd say, just turned a new page," he says, adding that once he stopped performing a style that wasn't his, leading actually got easier.

Lesson 2: Dealing With Rebellious Team Behaviour

When Matt first stepped into management, he inherited a handful of tradies determined to test him, pushing back hardest in front of the whole crew at pre-start meetings, seemingly intent on undermining him as a new manager.

The harder he tried to guide them, the more they pushed back, and it took a genuinely stressful few months before he found the turning point.

Sitting down for a direct conversation, he discovered these were people who'd been let down by promises previous managers never kept.

“There were a lot of things previous managers said they would do for them and never did," Matt says. Once he addressed the broken promises directly, the attitude shifted.

Lesson 3: Critical Communication Skills for New Supervisors

Now several rungs away from the workshop floor, Matt has to work harder to stay close to what's actually happening onsite. Rather than issuing directives from behind a desk, he leans on his leading hands for information. He makes a point of starting conversations from curiosity rather than accusation when something's gone wrong.

"I know nothing about this, just give me the rundown, what happened in your own words," Matt says his opening line usually is.

He's careful to make checking in not feel like standing over someone. The goal, he says, is rectification, not reprimand, because people open up faster when they don't feel blamed.

Lesson 4: Building Apprentice Confidence on the Job

Matt sees a consistent pattern across every workplace he's worked in: a shortage of experienced staff to properly supervise newcomers, leaving apprentices to largely figure things out in the dark.

He makes a deliberate effort to pair newcomers with experienced tradespeople, even on complex jobs where the extra pair of hands isn't strictly needed.

"A lot of it's not a lack of experience as such, it's a lack of confidence," Matt says.

Involving apprentices in demanding work early, he's found, signals trust in a way that talking about it never quite does.

"It goes to show that I trust them, and I'm willing to throw anything at them," he says.

Lesson 5: How Women in Trades Shift Management Workload

Matt is candid about the "boys clubs" that can form in male-populated crews, where competitiveness and banter sometimes spill into genuine conflict. He's seen it go as far as people wanting to punch on in the carpark.

He's noticed the shift in dynamics the moment women join a team.

"I have found that the presence of women in the workplace makes the workplace a more respectful environment," Matt says. "It changes the professionalism of the environment."

He's also found women tend to ask more questions and take less at face value, a habit he puts down to diligence rather than distrust. For a manager, that combination adds up to less time chasing down corner-cutting and defusing egos, and more time spent on work that gets done right the first time.

It's less about changing the culture for its own sake, Matt says, and more about the practical difference a more balanced team makes to how smoothly a workplace actually runs.

Matt’s Advice on Everyday Leadership

Matt's advice is simple: "Lead by example. If you say this has got to be done, then make sure you do it."

A shortcoming he's seen in plenty of managers is asking their team for things they're not prepared to do themselves. Beyond that, he points to consistency and an open door, where employees need to feel safe and confident enough in their manager’s word to actually tell him what’s going on.

Catch the full conversation with Matt Gilbert on Tradies Who Lead for more leadership lessons for tradies, out now wherever you listen to podcasts.