Daryl Brister

In a previous role, we would audit the company we planned to contract with for their people. We started with a focus on their company's safety program & rather than speak to the CSP manager on details, we'd interview the frontline leaders & workers. They were not bashful to tell you the "facts" of how it is was. Once we decided on the company that would provide use their people (temp/permanent) we would then put them thru our safety & wellness program so they could learn how we manage safety in the workplace. We also would provide them each with our competency standard for their job roles & then would assess their knowledge, skills, & abilities as they conducted work for us by our qualified assessors, against the job standards.

Steps 1&2 should be part of this step. Assess yourself, ask your team, but go into this change knowing the following. Charlotte Scott wrote; "Why do people fear change?" As a supervisor, recognize your team will have some level of fear for any "CHANGE" your leadership is telling you to make within your area of influence. Scott list 5 things to know about people & change: 1. Change, they fear will cause "them" to lose something. 2. Change can lead to confusion, if "they" don't understand the reasons for it. 3. "They" worry that they may lack the competence to do the work the new change will require. 4. "They" will see it as MORE WORK. 5. Change will make "them" feel they are losing control of their work.

In step 1 I introduced the key goal/priority a new super needs to set & its around developing core & essential leadership knowledge, skill, & ability (ie; competence) in your new role. Here's a little generic help to save you some time. CORE LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES - Safety of your Team - Effective Communications & Feedback - Critical Thinking & Mindfulness ESSENTIAL LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES - Risk Management - Time Management - Cost Management - Change Management - Technical Competence As you develop your leadership competence you'll gain confidence & assertiveness. Both will cause your team to respect & want to follow your leadership. If you can demonstrate a high level of competence you'll inspire others who'll want to be more like you.

Working with those who get their first promotion from a technical position into a supervisor/leaders role, I find they all have one clear struggle in common. Any guess what it is??? They were really good at being technical, solving problems, and getting at-a-boys all the time. What they begin to find out fast is they are no longer needed to solve technical problems now. Rather their boss wants them to manage the team, which they likely have little to no experience in, so they feel like a fish out of water. So what do I do now??? Sit down with you new boss and write down all the core & essential competencies of your new role. (hopefully they know what they are?). Get a good leadership mentor to help you develop those competencies.

I also agree with @Paul Eder, PhD comments in this section.

Not sure what skills you need for a supervisor role? 3 things you can do to ID the leadership skills you have competency in & the other skills you need to work on: 1-Ask your current supervisor what leadership skills they have focused on that has helped them the most in their own current leadership position 2. Search the internet & use the following question: Supervisor Competency Profile Research those links to find core & essential competencies needed for that role - focus on the "KNOWLEDGE" & "PERFORMANCE" requirements & start working on that 3. Let your HR & manager know you aspire to step into a supervisor role & ask for what help the company would provide you to help you build your leadership competencies to make that happen.