Let’s say you have a talented employee. They’re technically strong, respected by their peers, and have expressed that they feel ready for the next step in their career. So, you promote them.

A few months later, things aren’t going as planned. Your star employee has turned out to be a terrible supervisor. The employees they now supervise are frustrated, communication is inconsistent, and small issues are always escalating. HR is involved. And your star-turned-supervisor seems most miserable of all.

What happened? In many cases, the answer is simple: nobody ever taught that person how to lead.

This challenge exists at every level of an organization. I’ve seen it at every level – from first time supervisors, to senior level executives. The title changes, but the problem is often the same: Organizations assume that employees will naturally develop leadership skills after a promotion and that expectation is just not realistic.

Why is this happening?

A few factors have led to this issue becoming more frequent.

Over the past several years, I’ve observed a lack of succession planning happening in government, and in the business world as well. Organizations are operating leaner, leaving fewer opportunities for employees to gradually develop leadership skills. Many agencies have lost some of the layers that used to help people prepare for a leadership role.

As a result, people are often placed into supervisory or leadership roles without real preparation. New supervisors are handed a policy manual and told “good luck”.  If it’s someone’s first leadership role on your team, that approach can leave them feeling like a deer in the headlights.

The problem isn’t that these employees lack talent. The problem is that leadership requires a different set of skills than the technical work that got them promoted in the first place and fails to offer new supervisors the support and grace they need to grow into their new roles.

What I see is that at the managing layer, the managers and the people doing the hiring need to hire with more intention. They need to welcome people with more intention. They need to budget time on their calendars to coach and mentor a new leader for a minimum of six months. You can’t simply fill a position, assume everything will work out, and move on.

We often confuse onboarding with development

One of the most common mistakes I see is assuming that providing information is the same thing as providing guidance.

For example, many organizations hand a new supervisor a policy manual and tell them to read it by a certain date. Technically, that meets the requirements of the onboarding process – it checks the box. But it doesn’t necessarily prepare your new supervisor to lead.

It’s one thing to say “Here’s the policy manual, learn this cover to cover by Tuesday.” It’s another thing to sit down with a new supervisor and explain which policies come up every week, where employees commonly make mistakes, and how those policies should be applied in real situations. Giving leaders a head start on their new role will make it much easier for them to make a good first impression on their team that builds trust in the long run.

Most new leaders need coaching, not criticism

A few years ago, one of my mentees hired a new manager because he was creative, energetic, and full of ideas. Those qualities were exactly what the organization needed.

Unfortunately, some of those ideas began creating friction with other teams because he was moving so quickly that he was bypassing established protocols and relationships.

My mentee wasn’t sure he was going to work out. I urged her to try a different approach: bring everyone together, look at what worked, identify where mistakes had been made, and create a shared plan for moving forward.

Instead of losing faith in this person, she helped a promising leader understand how to be successful within the larger organization and showed him in real time what building relationships, sharpening his political acumen and bringing people along all look like in practice. That is effort that will pay massive dividends throughout this manager’s career.

Not every struggling supervisor is the wrong hire. Sometimes they simply need coaching, mentoring, and clearer expectations. They may also need time to adjust to your team culture, if they joined from another organization.

That doesn’t mean every leadership challenge can be solved through development. Sometimes people are simply not the right fit. But organizations should be careful not to confuse lack of experience with lack of potential.

What leaders can do today

If you’re a City Manager, Department Director, or organizational leader and you discover that your supervisors or managers lack leadership skills, the best time to act is now.

The first step is determining whether the issue is capability or development. Start by asking whether you’ve given them the tools to succeed. If you’ve hired a seasoned veteran and they’re simply not the leader you need, or there are irreconcilable challenges, then eventually you may have to make a difficult decision to part ways with them.

But if they’re new to leadership or just experiencing a learning struggle, that’s a different conversation. You need to make sure that person has a strong career development path. There are a few tried and true ways to help a supervisor build leadership skills:

• Send them to ICMA programs and conferences;
• Connect them with a mentor or a coach;
• Pair them with a more senior supervisor for day-to-day discussions;
• Provide encouragement, support, and resources.
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As leaders, it’s our responsibility to be intentional about developing the next generation of future leaders and giving them the skills they’ll rely on in this next stage of their careers. Leadership isn’t something most people simply inherit. It is a skill, and like any skill, it must be taught, practiced, and developed over time.