Coaching a Newly Promoted Manager

Sallie is in her late twenties and is a rising star that needs guidance. Two years after starting with her firm she was promoted to supervisor and in the next two years was promoted again to the post of a midlevel manager at a new branch office. This was a promotion that the HR director didn’t support but her department director felt was a good move. Sallie was very good with her customers and the staff she supervised. She was passionate about her work, talented, enthusiastic, and fun. Sallie’s communication style was direct, she rarely sugarcoated what she said. When she was particularly passionate and focused on what she wanted to accomplish, she sometimes came across as combative rather than simply enthusiastic. In meetings she said things without filtering her words. Often this led to hard feelings or misunderstandings among her coworkers. While she would defend her people to the fullest, she could be critical of anyone who opposed her ideas or blocked her from reaching her goals.