Does education trump experience? This question has brought up many debates regarding the value of education vs. the cost of education and real world experience. I want to share a dilemma one of my friends faced in the workplace and speak about the advice I gave her that led to her immediate success.
There are two supervisors working in supply chain management. Supervisor X is a semester away from receiving a master's degree in management and supervisor Y has 7 years invested into the organization with no formal education certificate. Supervisor Y has worked in every position in the organization beginning with the bottom line employee and working their way up to management. Supervisor X has never been a manager in supply chain management and has little to no experience in the field. Supervisor X's goals are to become the CEO of a company within 5 years. Supervisor Y's goals are to continue to advance in the company he/she works for and eventually become the manager of the entire facility. Supervisor Y will eventually go back to school to obtain a degree but wanted to make sure it was cost effective first. Not a bad idea!
Supervisor X recently joined the organization and has displayed a confident attitude. It has been perceived Supervisor X is not favorable towards female authority and has not learned much from the training he received from Supervisor Y. Both supervisors manage the same shift of employees. Supervisor Y has had a difficult time proving her authority and knowledge to the staff she manages daily. And, at times, has caused her to question her leadership and assume she has to give in to the employees more so than usual. This was a tactic used to try to obtain their buy in. When Supervisor X joined the team, initially, the team of mostly males, gravitated towards the new male supervisor. This caused supervisor Y to work even harder to win their buy in. At first, there was some hesitation about supervisor X joining the team and there were even comments made about not seeing eye-to-eye with him because he came into the organization assuming his education would catapult him forward in respect and promotions. Supervisor Y felt she'd lose her influence over her team because of this dynamic. She thought because she didn't have a degree in supply chain management her team wouldn't respect her.
Fast forward to our conversation on a warm evening in August. Supervisor Y explained the situation going on at work. I used the art of story telling and the exercise used in class, not even aware that I had already done this exercise, to understand and challenge her assumptions. My assumptive questions to her were: Are you assuming your team doesn't respond to the way you had hoped because of the fact you have no degree? Could the lack of buy in be caused by the transparency of your own insecurities? Are you assuming your team wants to hear you say, "I know I don't have a degree but everything I do has been learned over several years and I do it for you all?"Are you assuming you will have no influence over the new supervisor and how he perceives you and your leadership? Are you assuming that because the new supervisor has a degree that he will be more successful than you?
Once I posed these questions, she began to think internally what could be done to change her insecurities and views of the new supervisor. I strictly encouraged her to stop admitting her downfalls to the team. She must command the respect she deserves as a veteran in the organization. I also told her to lead by example. She had struggled with the team listening to her because they didn't view a woman in the role she was in. The industry is male-dominated and she happens to be one of the few female supervisors for this organization. I encouraged her to teach and train the new supervisor to the best of her ability despite her thoughts on how he behaved or treated others. Then, I told her to think about leadership and what it means to be a good leader. From that she developed a list: honest, trustworthy, persistent, urgent, the ability to develop people, and someone who leads by example. So, when her team questioned her on certain things she would do the activity or work with them showing them the correct way to perform a duty and then would discuss it afterwards. This helped to build credibility and trust. Soon, her team began to perform very well under her and eventually became the best performing team. Supervisor X eventually left the company because he realized he didn't have enough knowledge of the industry and didn't know how to lead alongside someone who had been with the company for years. It was the best decision for him to leave the company in the long run.
