We were on a call recently with a food manufacturing company. Two employees. One on the operations side, one on the HR side. They’d both been through a leadership program at a previous company and were looking to bring something similar to their current team.
When we started walking through the first module of our program, the operations leader said something that stuck with me.
“This is very similar to what we did before.”
He recognized it immediately. Because the challenge hadn’t changed. The people who need development now are facing the exact same transition he went through years ago.
That transition? Going from being one of the team… to leading the team.
It Looks Small. It’s Not.
On paper, promoting your best operator to supervisor makes total sense. They know the work. They know the equipment. They know the people. They’ve been on the floor for years. They’re reliable.
So you give them the title. Maybe a pay bump. Maybe a new shirt. And then you expect them to start managing.
But here’s what actually changes in that moment. And almost nobody talks about it clearly enough for the new supervisor to understand.
The relationship changes. The people they used to eat lunch with, joke around with, cover for on a bad day… they now have to hold accountable. That’s an enormous shift. And most newly promoted supervisors don’t have any framework for navigating it.
The job changes. They went from being responsible for their own output to being responsible for other people’s output. Those are two completely different skill sets. Being great at running a machine doesn’t teach you how to have a difficult conversation with someone who’s been your friend for five years.
The expectations change. Leadership expects them to communicate differently, think differently, and manage performance. But nobody actually shows them how. They’re just supposed to figure it out.
What Happens When They Don’t Get Help
We hear the same patterns over and over from the companies we work with.
New supervisors avoid giving direction until something goes wrong. Then it comes out sideways. Too late, too emotional, not clear. One of the most common complaints we hear from plant managers is that their supervisors aren’t telling people what to do until there’s already a problem.
They default to doing the work themselves instead of delegating. Because they’re comfortable doing the work. That’s what they know. Delegating feels risky when you don’t trust that someone else will do it the way you would.
They avoid conflict entirely. They don’t want to be “that boss.” They still see themselves as part of the crew. So when performance issues come up, they look the other way. Or they escalate it to someone else. Or they let it fester until it becomes a much bigger problem.
None of this is because they’re bad leaders. It’s because nobody equipped them for the transition.
The Light Bulb Moment
In our program, one of the first things we do is have participants grade the skills that leaders need to bring to the role. What’s most important. What’s less important. Where they feel strong. Where they feel exposed.
For a lot of people, it’s the first time they’ve been asked to think about leadership as a set of learnable skills… not just a title someone gave them.
Then we have them talk about the specific challenges they’re facing. Not hypothetical case studies from a textbook. Their actual challenges. On their floor. With their people.
And we get into the difference between what a team member does versus what a frontline leader does. How the relationship changes. How the expectations shift. We want them to be able to articulate it. Because once they can name it, they can start managing it.
At the end of the first module, we give them an assignment. Go sit down with someone on your team. Ask them a series of questions.
Things like…
What can I do to be a better leader for you? What skills do you have that you feel are underutilized? What do you need from me that you’re not getting?
We’d put good money on the fact that most of them have never asked their direct reports questions like that. And when they do, something shifts. The relationship starts to look different. On purpose. With intention.
That’s the light bulb.
This Isn’t a One Day Fix
The transition from peer to supervisor doesn’t happen in an afternoon workshop. It takes time. It takes practice. It takes someone following up and asking how it’s going.
That’s one of the reasons we designed our program to be delivered one module per month over 10 months. Four hours per session. In person. Activity based. Not sitting in a room watching slides for eight hours.
We’ve found that manufacturing and production environments need space between sessions. People need time to go apply what they learned. Try it. Come back and talk about what worked and what didn’t.
And the companies that get the best results are the ones where the supervisor’s manager knows what’s being covered. We provide one page manager summaries for exactly this reason. So that when Ben’s going through module three on motivating and engaging people, his manager can ask him about it. That reinforcement is what makes the difference between training that sticks and training that collects dust.
If You’ve Got People Making This Transition
Every manufacturer and production facility we talk to has this challenge. They promote good operators into leadership roles and then wonder why the transition is bumpy.
The answer isn’t to stop promoting from within. That’s one of the best things about these industries. The answer is to actually equip people for the shift.
If you’ve got five, ten, fifteen supervisors who could benefit from a structured program that walks them through this transition… we should talk. We’ll show you the materials, walk you through how it works, and you can decide if it’s a fit.