Leading the Team: Moving from Peer to Supervisor

Introduction

Any organization must make good use of small teams to effectively and efficiently achieve their organizational goals. This is equally true across the board, in ANY and EVERY organization. These teams go by different names in various contexts: squad or fire team in the military, engine company in the fire service, or project team in business. The main factor that influences the level of success the team (and the organization at-large) can reach is leadership. That being said, there is often little or no formal training for those who are promoted from being a “team member” to a “team leader.”

We often take an employee who has demonstrated a high level of mastery of their assigned duties and thrust them into a leadership position without preparing them adequately for the challenges they will face. We have developed elaborate on-boarding processes designed to introduce new employees to our organization’s policies, procedures, culture, and values, but seldom take the time to do the same for those newly promoted front line supervisors who are vital to the success of their team and to our respective organizations.

Here are a few things to keep in mind as you step into the “team leader” role for the first time:

Set expectations early.

Take some time to think through what you expect of your team and clearly communicate those expectations. Mismatched expectations are the cause of most, if not all, conflict and no one can perform well in an environment where they are required to meet expectations that they aren’t aware of.

You can’t be everyone’s friend.

You, as a supervisor, cannot realistically be friends with every member of your team, especially considering the fact that you will be the one who will be handing our discipline at some point. Don’t take this to mean that you can’t be friendly with your team.

Don’t try to be the smartest person in the room.

Ask for and accept input from your team members. It is impossible for you to know everything and you don’t have all the answers. Know the strengths of the your team members and trust them enough to listen to their input.

When you are in charge, be in charge!

While you want to be open to input from your team members, you are ultimately responsible for the final decision and the results it brings. After considering what your team has to say, decide on a course of action and execute it. Don’t be afraid to provide your team with clear directions, they may push back but people need clear direction to get moving forward.

There is a HUGE difference between fair and equal.

As a front line supervisor, your most important responsibility is to lead people and people are complex and unique individuals who all need different things at different times.

Don’t waste your team’s time.

Meetings, both formal and informal, can devolve into huge wastes of time. Make sure you have a purpose for gathering your team, focus on accomplishing that purpose, and break once you have accomplished it. Whether you are standing around in the break room to pass some information or are sitting around the conference table, all of your team members have something more productive and rewarding they can (and most likely would rather) be doing other than sitting idly by twiddling their thumbs. If someone tried to take the meeting off down a rabbit trail, agree to speak with them one-on-one later and get back on track.

Trust your team.

Learn to effectively delegate tasks to your team members without standing over their shoulder and directing every step. They will inevitably do things differently than you would (because they are not you) and that’s okay. Monitor their progress and the end result. After all, if you have to do everything, what are they getting paid for?