Promoting from within is a noble objective, and yet many companies find that their best workers end up being mediocre supervisors. The company loses big - it loses a productive skilled employee and the productivity of the work group falls because of weak leadership. Inevitably management gets involved in fire-fighting people problems that the supervisor is supposed to deal with.

Fortunately, most people have leadership qualities within, but they may not have tapped into them or had them developed.

Dealing with a Struggling Supervisor/Leader

Assess: Is the deficiency caused by ingrained beliefs and values that are not leadership oriented? These are difficult to overcome if they lead to negative behaviours. How open to change is the leader? Can they be trained and coached?

Train: Provide training in a basic leadership course that defines the expectations of leaders, communication, motivation, problem solving, team building, managing conflict, etc. Select a course which is practical and can be applied immediately.

Coach: Leaders need coaching from their managers. They need to understand the leadership values and see this behaviour modelled. Leaders need feedback and support from their manager.

Transfer, Demote or Dismiss: If the individual fails to respond, then bite the bullet and make a change.

Preventing Promotion Mistakes

Select Carefully: Think long and hard before promoting people into leadership positions. Interview them for the job to assess their potential. Ensure they fully understand the requirements and expectations. Challenge them to think through how they would handle a difficult situation. Consider using a validated assessment instrument such as Prevue Assessment (offered by Unique Training & Development) to assess their personality, motivation and ability fit with the position.

Create a Probationary Period: It is a good idea to set up a 90 day probationary period for any promotion or job change. Clarify that this is a time for both the company and the individual to determine fit. Agree to hold the previous position open during this time so that either party can reverse the decision. This can reduce the blow to the person's ego if it turns out to be the wrong move for them and the company can save money from lost productivity and severence.

Provide Training and Coaching: As described above, you should invest time and money in developing your leaders so they can maximize productivity and free up management time to deal with more important issues.

To view an outline of UTDI's Supervisory Training Course, click on this link:

Supervisory Training Outline

To view the course outline for Lead Hand Training, click here:

Lead Hand Training Outline

To view the course outline for Team Leader Training, click here:

Team Leader Training Outline