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W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 57 Fact Book / Doing Business in Maine H OW TO B Y F R A N C I S E B E R L E B U S I N E S S R E S O U R C E S • Multi-functional Color & B&W Copiers • Printers & Scanners • Postage & Mailing Equipment • Software & Network Solutions • Managed Print Services Since 1989 Local Decisions Be Budget! 800.924.4229 www.bdtme.com Helping Maine get business done! Problems Solved. Budget Document Technology is an industry leader in providing digital solutions for document creation, production, and distribution. I was recently asked how I would coach a highly successful employee who had been promoted to super- vise a team. After the promotion, this individual's performance, and sub- sequently that of the team, dropped dramatically. He experienced what might be called "e Dip." I wish this was an uncommon scenario. Companies often make the mistake of taking employees who are suc- ceeding in non-supervisory roles and promoting them to management roles — without adequate support for the new function — and expecting them to thrive. An example would be promoting a great sales person to the head of a sales team. e thinking goes something like this: ey been very successful so far, so let's promote them to management as a way of spreading their ideas and approaches. All-star employees do not always make a successful transition to a leader- ship role. Marshall Goldsmith's book, "What Got You Here, Won't Get You ere," and his most recent collabora- tion with Sally Helgesen, "How Women Rise: Break the Habits Holding You Back from Your Next Raise, Promotion or Job," both document some of the common behaviors that sabotage new managers. Behaviors such as building rather than leveraging relationships, not asking for help, trying to be perfect, micromanaging others and simply tak- ing on too much. ere are many ways to coach some- one to avoid the Dip. I recommended Inner Circle Coaching, an approach mastered by my colleague Whit Mitchell. is method engages the leader, up to five people who report to the leader, and at least one person above the leader. What is sig- nificant in this situation is these people already work with this new leader and have developed an impression of how effective he is. Inner Circle Coaching involves people around the leader in the improvement process. e selected people agree that they will participate in working on improving themselves, as well as helping the leader improve. As a part of this coaching, the new leader and his team take the TTI Success Insights' TriMetrixHD behavioral assessment to increase self-awareness and cre- ate a common language about leader- ship skills in the company. Afterward, all participants meet individually with the coach for a debrief of their TriMetrixHD report. ey then respond to three questions: What am I going to work on to improve myself? What am I going to do to support my manager or my direct report to improve? And what can my leader or direct report be better at? is information is gathered, and a summary of responses from the last question is provided to the new leader. e new leader selects what he is going to work to improve, and that is com- municated to all the participants so they know what to watch for and support. e leader and coach have weekly meetings, and the other participants have monthly meetings with the coach about their own progress as well as the progress of the new leader. e coach can use this as ongoing feed- back, as necessary, for the new leader, while helping the other participants to improve themselves as well. is contin- ues until the end of the engagement. At that time all participants report to what degree the new leader has improved, and what they have done differently to improve. is is communicated to the new leader in the final debrief session and to their supervisor. is process is targeted and open enough to engage more than the new leader for committing to improving. e new leader has help from the other par- ticipants inside the organization, as well as the coach. is broad participation can increase the impact and likelihood of successfully reversing the Dip of the leader and team. Francis Eberle is a Phippsburg- based leadership and organization advisor at Price Associates. He can be reached at franc is @ p r i c e - a s s o c i a t e s . c o m Avoid the 'leadership dip' in a new role All-star employees do not necessarily make good leaders.

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