It may seem a no-brainer for an employer looking to fill a supervisory position to offer the job to one of the nonsupervisory stars in the organization. Promoting from within can be a smart choice for many reasons, but the transition from underling to supervisor also can be problematic if management doesn’t take steps to ward off trouble before it hits. 
Human resources consultant Mary Anne Kennedy with MAKHR Consulting, LLC has advice for employers that she passed along during a recent Business and Legal Resources webinar titled “Suddenly a Supervisor: Surefire Tactics to Shape New Managers into Star Leaders.”
No. 1 on the list of issues management needs to consider: Be aware of the potential problems that can come up. For example, sometimes a top performer isn’t interested in taking a leadership role but is promoted to supervisor anyway. That’s why employers need to have regular career dialogues with employees so that management doesn’t make assumptions that lead to problems later on.
“It has to be about conversations,” Kennedy says. “It has to be about a vetting process that includes the person that you’re considering along with the management for those roles.”
Avoiding common pitfalls
Even employees who aspire to supervisory positions can find the changed workplace relationship difficult. “The coworkers who used to be the peers are now the employees that report to that person,” Kennedy says. New supervisors may try too hard to keep the friendships going even though the relationship has changed, or they may try to micromanage their onetime coworkers. Either way, “it can get really ugly.”
Also, the transition to a supervisory role can be complicated if the newly promoted employee hasn’t been involved in the overall company strategy and, therefore, isn’t able to communicate what the employer’s overall strategy is. Without training, that inability to communicate goals and job responsibilities can be a problem.
Another problem common to newly promoted supervisors centers around the supervisor’s lack of experience or expertise in coaching, mentoring, and developing team members. Also, a new supervisor may be conflict averse or passive aggressive. “There’s a comfort that you have to get to be able to provide honest feedback,” Kennedy says. When supervisors avoid conflict or manage it poorly, problems get pushed to the side where they fester.
New supervisors also need to be trained to delegate. Too often they think the work will be easier if they do it themselves, Kennedy says.
Tips for the transition
To guard against the problems common to newly promoted supervisors, Kennedy suggests using what she calls a new leader integration process, which should take place after the new supervisor has been in the role long enough to have gained an appreciation for what the job entails, maybe 30-60 days.
Kennedy says the new supervisor and team members should gather together along with a facilitator, either someone from human resources or an outside consultant. The new supervisor will explain that he or she will leave the room while the facilitator asks a series of questions. The supervisor should urge team members to be open and honest and assure them that their responses will be confidential. The purpose of the meeting is to help the supervisor understand concerns of the team and to give the team a clearer idea of who the supervisor is.
The five questions Kennedy suggests are:
- What do you already know about the leader? For example, employees may know that their supervisor sends emails at 3 a.m., and that tells them something about what work-life balance is going to look like under the new supervisor.
- What don’t you know about the leader that you’d like to know?
- What is going well that you don’t want to see change?
- What is not going well that you would love to see change?
- What advice would you give the leader to help him or her be successful?
The facilitator will write the responses on large sheets of paper and post them around the room. Then the team members go out and the supervisor comes in and does a “gallery walk” around the room reading the comments and preparing to respond to them. Then the team is brought back together and the new leader responds to the comments.
“People walk out of the room feeling like, ‘OK, I think we’re on the same page,’” Kennedy says, and “‘OK, I think I can trust this person more than I did a couple of hours ago.’”
Compliance training
Another crucial part of preparing newly promoted supervisors relates to compliance training. Kennedy stresses the importance of making new leaders aware of the federal, state, and local regulations that relate to employees. Too often supervisors are completely unaware of laws related to equal employment opportunity, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations, the Affordable Care Act, Department of Transportation regulations, etc.
Kennedy also stresses making sure new supervisors are trained on what to do when employees bring up conflicts or make complaints. The following procedure can be followed in most cases, she says.
- Listen to the complaint from the accuser’s point of view. Gather facts and document them.
- Be sure to indicate that the company takes all issues seriously and will investigate.
- Contact human resources and allow them to conduct a full investigation with the supervisor as an active participant.