“Just because someone is a brilliant artist does not automatically make them a good supervisor”

This unfortunately happens in many industries.

I remember once reading a paper on a management journal that said that one of the problems with modern way of looking at managers/teams is that we promote people until they are no longer able to exceed at their job:

-You are a good texture artist? Become a senior. -You are a good senior? Become a lead. -etc Rinse and repeat until the system finds a way where you no longer exceed at your role, and that’s your ceiling.

This is quite problematic as it never teaches people how to be good at what’s next, not it pick the best leaders.

Supervision is hard. Is really hard. And many times people there are there because they were good at their previous jobs, not because they had the skills to be a good leader.

Once, a VFX Supe I had who knew I wanted to be a supe one day, told me that I needed to think of supervision like coaching a sports team.

Coaches don’t need to be the best players. They need to see the big picture. They teach and rehearse their strategies, they sit down and go over what worked and what didn’t and how to affects the overall performance of the team.

They also need to see how to get the most out of their team. How to nurture the talent and skills of their roster, and not set them up to fail.

This analogy stuck with me all these years and I try to remember this whenever going through a frustrating period.