At just 23, Oliver (Ollie) Morley is a Store Supervisor at Tool Station, balancing the complexities of retail management with the challenge of leading a team. His story highlights how a CMI Level 3 Team Leader apprenticeship provided the technical foundation and professional confidence needed to move from ‘one of the team’ to a respected supervisor.

Overcoming scepticism

Stepping into a supervisory role at age 21, Ollie faced immediate scepticism from his colleagues. The barriers weren't just about his age, but also his close personal friendship with the store manager. “Some colleagues deemed that I was too young to take on a managerial role. The store manager is a good friend, so they thought he was doing me a favour by promoting me,” recalls Ollie.

To make matters more challenging, he had previously been on the same level as the people he now manages, and had to gain their respect when he became their senior.

Ollie chose to address the friction with transparency and hard work. When a team member confronted him directly about their doubts, he used it as motivation to consolidate his position. “It took me by surprise, but it was better to deal with it head-on. I had to remind myself that I wouldn’t have been given the promotion if I wasn’t good enough. I made sure I was at the top of my game for those first few months and beyond, to prove that their uncertainty was unfounded.”

Choosing a different path

This desire to be a good manager led Ollie to pursue a CMI Level 3 Team Leader apprenticeship with Leap Apprentices And Early Careers. Reflecting back, he feels that this decision was largely shaped by the disruption of the pandemic. 

After finishing school during the lockdowns, he found his motivation for traditional education had vanished. “During Covid, my interest in education was non-existent. Classes were all online and I knew I wasn't going to university, so I didn't try that hard.”

The CMI apprenticeship offered an alternative route, one that allowed him to formalise his knowledge. "Originally, I was thinking about leaving to go traveling. My manager suggested that I do the CMI apprenticeship first, so that I’d have some formal training to fall back on when I returned."

The apprenticeship gave me something solid on my CV and opened more doors. Now I could move into other business areas because I have a much broader view of what’s possible.

Adapting to learning styles 

One of the most impactful tools Ollie gained from his CMI apprenticeship was a deeper understanding of how to adapt his management style to individual team members. He recently applied this when a new starter struggled with picking orders correctly.

“The CMI apprenticeship made me realise that my team learns in different ways. With most of them, you can just tell them where they've gone wrong, but this particular person needed a visual style of feedback," he explains.

“I showed her the receipt of what the customer was meant to get and a photo of what they actually received. She said that if I had just told her, she likely would have forgotten, but seeing it visually helped her take it in. It was a relief to get that right because I was worried it might seem patronising, but it was actually just what she needed.”

The CMI apprenticeship also opened Ollie’s eyes to different ways of communicating with customers.

It taught me how to interact with the people who visit our store, and to be aware of unconscious bias. There’s a stereotype that the building trade has a more challenging or exclusionary culture, which I don’t find to be true, but learning about inclusivity and developing soft skills has been really valuable.

The power of self-praise 

Ollie encourages young leaders to be their own biggest supporters when facing the pressure of a new role. “You’ll make mistakes and you’ll also do things right. You will probably hear more about the things you get wrong, but as long as you give yourself that bit of self-praise for what you do well, you’ll be fine. Whatever happens, you can just go home and pick it up again tomorrow.”