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 Hi,

 

Need some advice. Today, i was told that another supervisor (with more tenure) is going to replace me in my current role. No future plans was communicated yet to me as to what will be my next course but i am worried.

Any tips on how to deal with this?

 

dschreiber's picture
Training Badge

Don't assume you know why, or that the transition is about you. The worst thing to do in this situation will be to assume or conclude any particular motivation and act in response to that assumed motivation.

Instead, I assume you've been given a valid organizational directive that someone else will be assuming your role. You need to pull together a briefing book on your business as quickly and effectively as possible to help the new person understand your role. There are a number of podcasts to help here. "Managing Through a Merger or Acquisition" comes to mind. There are a number of podcasts that reference what's required to brief your business - another that I recall is "My Boss Resigned"

All of these will tell you to prepare a briefing book on your people, your projects, your clients, standing meetings. Do your very best to professionally hand-off your role to this new person. You have no idea whether this means you'll be reporting to them, whether you'll be doing something else inside or outside your company. What you do know if you can do everything in your power to make this new person as informed and capable to do what you do as quickly as possible, and that will reflect well on you if you do it professionally (and have been doing things to help develop your folks and focus on your priorities).

Good luck. Focus on the positive. Be professional under all circumstances. Be the absolute best you possible and it will reflect well on you.

tsololo's picture

 Many Thanks. This really helped a lot. And for the most part, i think i assumed this action too soon and judged my action based on my assumptions as well.

 

Thank you again for the tip!

lar12's picture
Licensee BadgeTraining Badge

Be professional and gracious and don't let any negativity show.  How you handle this will be used by others to define who you are.  Chances are, the other supervisor is feeling a bit awkward about it.  Treat him the way that you would want to be treated if you were in his shoes.  One last thing, use this as a learning opportunity.

Good luck.

tplummer's picture

I agree with the above comments. But eventually you'll want to ask why. Now, hopefully they tell you soon since that's the professional thing to do. But if they don't, ask for a one on one with your former boss and perhaps couch it as, "Given the transition, I wanted to know what things I could improve upon to prepare me for a future opportunity." or something like that. I could be just the company was consolidating and it really was purely a tenure decision. But if there were other factors, it would be good for you to continue your growth to prepare you for the next managing job.

Tom