This week, I’m lifting the lid on upgraded content coming to the Leadership Accelerator.

During a decade of coaching inside industrial operations, I’ve watched the same pattern drain performance and profit, again and again.

See if this sounds familiar:

1. Your best employee hits every target, fixes every fire, and becomes the obvious choice for a leadership role.
2. They get promoted.
3. Six months later, the numbers slide, the team’s annoyed, and your “sure‑thing” star is thinking of quitting.

Why?
Because doing the work ≠ leading the people who do the work.

The Maker‑to‑Manager Gap™

I call this The Maker‑to‑Manager Gap™, and it unfolds in three phases:

The T.E.A.M. Bridge Framework™

Your technical experts build their entire career on being the problem-solvers.

Their brain is wired to think: "I see problem → I fix problem → I get reward."

When they become leaders, this formula suddenly fails them. Their new job is to coach others to solve problems, not solve them all themselves.

This creates an identity crisis that most companies never address.

After coaching 100+ ops leaders, I distilled what works into a four‑step bridge:

Today, let’s zero in on T: Translate - the fastest win for any new manager.

Translate: Teach in Three Levels

Technical experts often assume everyone thinks like they do. They give cryptic instructions that make sense in their heads but confuse their teams.

THE BRIDGE TOOL: 3-Level Communication

When giving any instructions, train your new leaders to communicate on three levels:

1. Basic Level (What): "Adjust the pressure valve to 65 PSI."
2. Reasoning Level (Why): "This prevents air pockets that caused last month's quality issues."
3. Context Level (Big Picture): "This helps us meet our promise to ship perfect parts to Customer X."

Have them practice by writing down all three levels before important team communications.

QUICK WIN: Have them create a "3-Level Script" for the most common procedure they need their team to follow this week.

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How “Translate” Plays Out in Real Life

Picture Maria, a standout maintenance tech who’s just been promoted to supervise a 17‑person, three‑shift crew.

Three weeks in, ticket backlogs creep up and morale dips.

Maria decides to try only the first step of the framework (Translate) for two weeks:

1. She writes 3‑Level scripts (What → Why → Big Picture) for the five highest‑volume maintenance tasks.
2. She walks each shift through the scripts and posts laminated copies at every workstation.

The trajectory is predictable: clearer instructions → fewer mistakes → happier teams.

If a two‑week experiment can move the needle this much, imagine what your new leaders could accomplish once they master the rest of the T.E.A.M. Bridge Framework.

Your Move This Week

1. Pick one technical expert currently leading people.
2. Hand them this email.
3. Challenge them to script one high‑frequency task using all three levels.
4. Watch clarity and morale jump.

Leaders rarely fail from a lack of ability.

They stumble because no one taught them how to translate their expertise.

Talk soon,

Shaun

"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." - George Bernard Shaw