Successful Transitioning from an Individual Contributor to a Supervisor Role

Guest post by: Ben Nash
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Keeping the Change Process Cool - By Ben Nash

The time has come. You were an employee in an organization and now you are being promoted to a supervisory position. How can you make the jump from one role to the other and still be successful? As a supervisor you now have more roles and responsibilities, some of which include:

Being responsible for the performance of others, as well as your own
Acting as a coach for the employees
Maintaining/improving the interpersonal and technical skills that you had as an individual contributor
Getting work done though other people; delegating work to others and making sure they have everything they need to complete it on time

As an individual contributor you probably had your group of friends. Now you may have to supervise that same group. It will be hard to say “No.” to friends when they ask for favors, but you must learn how to do this – and at them same time gain and maintain the respect of your team.

Training programs help an employee’s gain the skills needed to transition effectively into a supervisor role. But while delegation, goal setting, and coaching skills can be learned, the transition to a supervisory role is also about a mindset change. The new supervisor must sop thinking of themselves as “one of the gang” and start thinking of themselves as someone with authority over the “gang”. Many new supervisors find it difficult to make this mindset transition – and some fail to make it at all. An experienced mentor or coach can provide guidance to help the new supervisor move to this new way of thinking.

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Free PDF Download
Keeping the Change Process Cool - By Ben Nash

About the Author: Ben Nash

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Ben Nash is the editor-in-chief of DailyHRTips.com. He is the founder and chief developer of the blog, providing tech/design support as well as tips and book reviews. Ben has held many interesting jobs in his professional career, including: barista, landscaper, public policy intern, barista (again), professional horse wrangler, ski lift attendant (aka "liftie"), political science teaching assistant, marketing and sales assistant, and an ecommerce/web developer. He also doubles as the Creative Director at Aspen Organization Development Consulting. Ben has interacted with many people, in many different organizations and offers some interesting insight on the human resources game. You can read his blog at http://www.DailyHRTips.com and visit his website at http://www.AspenOD.com.

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Successful Transitioning from an Individual Contributor to a Supervisor Role

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