But I Thought We Were Friends?

While Joe was outstanding at pretty much every technical aspect in the department, there was one thing he didn’t have to worry about when he accepted the lead role; he never seemed all that bothered about alienating long term friendships. I think that was largely a result of him being able to frustrate nearly anyone on any given day regardless of his job title! However, I saw more than a few other folks who made similar transitions run into some significant roadblocks as they attempted to navigate leading a team that they had previously been part of - and that killed just as much profitability as the organization ever saved through the internal promotion process…

I want you to consider these two wildly different scenarios, as I’m sure you’ll be able to relate to both…

One fellow had worked in his department since graduating high school. After twenty years or so with the company, he decided to start taking a few classes at the local community college. Since he was doing this in the evenings and working full time, it took a while but he was awarded a supervisory role shortly after completing an associate’s degree in business administration. He was an extremely approachable guy and had solid friendships with just about everyone on the shift he had been a part of as well as with the folks on the off shift where he became the supervisor. Having spent so much of his adult life with that group of people, many of his closest personal friends were in that department. Couple those close relationships with his kindness and approachability, then add in a few old-timers on the off shift who were more than willing to manipulate the situation, and you’ve got a scenario where a new supervisor was having a really difficult time keeping the few hoodlums in line or maintaining respect from the folks who just wanted to do their jobs…

Before moving on, I need to stress that I’m not condemning him. I still consider him a friend to this day. He just struggled to lead a team, largely because he didn’t have all the tools he needed to do so effectively - and that’s the final profitability killer we’ll work through soon.

Another fellow had worked in his role for several years, eight to ten if memory serves, and was fairly effective in leading a small, core group of folks on the assembly line he was responsible for. Each member of that small team was strong in the individual role and he had earned a significant amount of trust and influence with them. That line routinely had some of the best productivity numbers in the department. This fellow also worked his way through night classes to earn an associate’s degree and was promoted to a supervisory role just after. Unlike the other example, he wasn’t about to let anyone bully him - old, new, friend or foe… In fact, he differed so much from the other fellow (and they shared an office at times) that their team members would frequently go to the other to complain about them! 

The first of the two leaned far more on carrots for luring his team in whatever direction he hoped they might go if he was nice enough. The second took much more of a stick approach (not physically) and often lived by the idea that the beatings will continue until morale improves. In both cases, the internal promotions never captured the profitability that was possible - largely because each of them struggled in one way or another with drawing a line between working with their friends and supervising their employees. In each of these scenarios, and in so many where internal promotions don’t go nearly as well as planned, it’s not a question of whether the carrot or stick approach is better. It’s really a matter of making sure the promotion is a match for the individual, that they’re moving that direction for the right reasons, and we provide them with the support they need to be successful. That last piece applies to every role any given team member is in so we’ll look at it separately soon. What we need to do first though is work through some simple steps we can take to make sure we’re not making bad promotions and unnecessarily killing profitability!