From Buddy To Boss: Guiding The Transition Of Your New Supervisor Washington DC

TRANSITION. Noun. Definition: passage from one state or stage to another.

Welcome, good readers, to 2008. As always, everyone has a different opinion of what to expect this year from our economy. Too many people are sharing the gloomy "it's out of our hands" expectations within their organizations; creating the perfect self-fulfilling environment that virtually ensures a bitter result. Rather than play the depressing guessing game, let's instead concentrate on what we know for certain and, more importantly, what we can do about it.

We know: Our country will continue to add new jobs to the overall economy and the competition for the best workers will only grow more intense. The first wave of Baby Boomer workers are thinking about retirement or starting a new phase in their lives that leaves the five-day work week behind. There is a significant percentage of new workers who show gaps in preparation for the workplace (SF Oct '07). The most productive staff members are the ones that feel truly engaged with the people and the purpose of work (SF May '07). Your very best employees (the ones you'd be lost without, the ones who need continuing growth and new challenges) are quickly topping out on your pay scale. To keep them you'll have to continue carving out new career paths and promotions to satisfy their own entrepreneurial lust. If you ever had hopes of getting some time away from the madness of day-to-day business, you are going to have to delegate more and more critically important responsibilities to others you can trust. If you're like most businesses with whom I interact, some 25 to 40 percent of your gross revenue is used to fuel your total payroll (not counting other employee costs). Finally, the No. 1 reason for undesired employee turnover — issues with the manager or supervisor. (People tend to quit their immediate boss more than they quit a company!) What do these realities leave us with, and what have we learned?

• Recruitment matters
• Retention matters
• Retraining matters
• Relationship matters
• Recreation matters
• Return on talent investment matters

Most fabricating firms have at least one person with the formal responsibility of supervision (be it shop, office or field) — some fabricators have three supervisors or more. Let's not allow terminology or titles to get in our way. Some companies use alternate terms like manager, coordinator, leader or senior "something or other" but whatever you call it, if you pay someone more money because they have taken on the added responsibility of observing, coaching, reconciling and harmonizing the work of others, they are a supervisor! If you don't pay them more for that difficult extra work, I would suggest you open a spot on your driveway so the gods have somewhere to park their big karmic wheel of justice while they perform the "What Comes Around, Goes Around Dance of Irony."

Why Do New Supervisors Often Fail?

I've seen studies that show new supervisor failure rates as high as 40 percent — too high of a number to suggest that poor hiring and undeserved promotions are the sole cause of the problem. I believe that this is more than likely a training and transition problem than a hiring problem. Maybe not enough is being made of the significance of the career threshold that is being stepped across when one goes from being an employee responsible for one's own performance to that of a supervisor whose success is now significantly defined by the performance of others. A common scenario has the new "under boss" as a top performer of yours who has paid his or her dues — when an opportunity came along and they were selected and promoted.

Almost as common, is the tale of the motivated, results-oriented hourly worker who reached the top of the pay scale and received the promotion in an effort to reward and retain him or her. Too many companies find themselves in this tough spot. They "crown" the employee as a supervisor and hope for the best even though there's been little or no supervisory training. If the new supervisor came up through your ranks, there is a painful pattern you can expect: Usually a far-too-brief honeymoon period is granted to the newbie by their direct reports. These are the same people that used to be his or her lunch buddies and close friends. Just as the new supervisor is beginning to understand the job and all its traps, he or she begins to notice less eye contact, less casual conversation and less camaraderie; it is, in a word, shocking. The workforce has always been an "us and them" world; the new supervisor didn't sign up to be a "them" but it's clear his or her days of "us" are over. You can help your new supervisor and yourself if you make preparation and perception your priority. Try developing a list to help protect and prepare your supervisor for the challenges ahead. The following is a suggested Five Point Action Guide to support your newest MVP:

1. Handle the promotion with delicacy and political savvy: The best way to create a spectacular failure is to create a poisonous pool of water for your new supervisor to swim in every day. With rare exception, someone or everyone is going to get bent out of shape by this person's promotion, regardless of how well-deserved it might be. No one can succeed when resentment is in charge. Be delicate with the emotions that will be generated — recognize that your organization, no matter what the size, is a political environment. At the same time, don't be secretive with your plans; secrets tend to give birth to panicky "conclusion-jumpers" who only anticipate the very worst scenario. Express your thoughts in a way that brings comfort to your staff and confidence to your new supervisor.
2. Make them use their whole brain: Promotions often come along to the technically proficient, not necessarily the managerially proficient person. The best supervisors combine human resource knowledge along with everyday people skills. The gifts that got them up the ladder are not the same skills that will make them excel in a supervisory role. If they are talented (and perhaps a bit overconfident), they may not gauge their limitations honestly — convince them they'll need help and extra training and, more importantly, give it to them.
3. Explain "management misery" before the promotion: There's a special kind of never-ending misery that most feel goes hand-in-hand with supervising fellow human beings. Simply put, humans do not achieve efficiency through reliable unchanging performance like a well-made and well-oiled machine; the complaints from them are endless and the tinkering never stops. It is vital to your success that, in spite of every nagging problem, you build within them a deep appreciation for their team. Your people are a resource. In the right environment, with the right supervisor, the very same humans will shame the latest in equipment by achieving a breakthrough performance through creativity, inventiveness and teamwork.
4. Boss doesn't equal "Buddy": Prepare your new supervisor for the rough road in the beginning as they try to find the perfect professional balance with their former crew. They were once one of the gang but within days of taking on the new job they will probably feel ganged up upon. No more laughing it up on a lunch run, no more relaxed conversations by the coffee machine. Suddenly, Joe Warehouse's tendency to be a half hour late on Monday mornings will become their new problem to solve — no more jokes about Joe's "Party Hearty" bumper sticker. Jenny in job scheduling seemed to get her work done even though she was always leaving the shop early. Now, Jenny is causing problems for them once they realize how other workers resent her unfair work habits. Slowly, the big picture will come into view.
5. The best supervisors work hard to never give the impression that they enjoy:
   • The power trappings of the job.
   • Being over-critical and personally mean and dismissive.
   • Egocentric privileges open to no one else.
   • Using fear and intimidation to achieve results.
   • Micromanaging every project until no one can claim ownership.
   • Holding others back so they remain the leader by default.
   • Causing staff insanity through inconsistent directions and actions.
   • Arrogance by never entertaining the possibility of being wrong.

Becoming One of the Very Best Supervisors

With the right approach and a serious commitment to developing their management muscles, your supervisors can rank among the very best. They can be the kind of people that attract other good workers to them. They can become a mentor for those they manage; completely eliminating the dividing line that often exists between those who produce and those who track production.

There is a simple and effective way to inject excellence and modern-day management philosophy directly into the mind of your new supervisor — expose them to professional supervisor training as soon as they are given the job. There are so many great courses available to you; don't stop with the fundamentals — train for life. Give them access to expert guidance on leadership, team-building and mentoring. These are not management fads to ignore. Practice them. Perfect them. If you stop the education, how can you expect continued growth from anyone?

What Matters Most

It's been my experience that those special managers and mentors who have the quiet power to lead people into an unknown future — combat even — share something very special, deeply buried in their DNA and human characteristics. They aren't the kind of qualities you can teach but certainly you can help amplify them in their makeup.

Credibility, accountability and trust are virtues which make any boss highly effective in creating loyalty and record-breaking performance. Employees feel pleased to work for supervisors that are authentic in their hands-on knowledge — the top managers are often referred to as "the Real McCoy." If these supervisors are truly genuine and they don't hesitate to assume responsibility for their mistakes, credibility and accountability are on their side. If, to that, your people feel safe on their watch and confident in their assessment, you have a winner in your midst. Anything you do to support them will support everybody, including the customer.

The change from buddy to boss is one of careful transition. Because it is rarely smooth, your guidance and aggressive support (especially moral support) will mean the difference between failure and success. So often, success is simply the ability to convert ideas into actions. As natural-born converters, the outcome looks great!

About the author:

Chris Traynor, SPHR, is the Director for Whip-Smart™ Management Consulting, Wayne, N.J., and has 25 years of experience in the solid surface industry as a consultant to fabricators, distributors and manufacturers. He can be reached at ctraynor@whip-smart.com.