No products in the cart.
MODULE 22: LEADERSHIP & CAREER DEVELOPMENT
Section 1: Transitioning from Coordinator to Supervisor
From Mastering the Task to Mastering the Team: The Most Challenging Promotion of Your Career.
SECTION 22.1
Transitioning from Coordinator to Supervisor
It’s not a promotion, it’s a transformation. Learn the mindset, skills, and strategies to succeed in your new role.
22.1.1 The “Why”: The Great Identity Shift
You have earned this promotion. You are likely the most efficient, knowledgeable, and reliable Prior Authorization Coordinator on your team. You can navigate the most complex cases, you know the payer-specific criteria by heart, and you are the go-to person for tough questions. Your success has been defined by your personal productivity, your individual contribution, and your mastery of the technical work. The organization has recognized this excellence and has rewarded you with a new title: Supervisor. This is the moment to pause and understand a profound truth: the skills that made you a great coordinator will not, on their own, make you a great supervisor. In fact, clinging too tightly to them can lead to failure.
The transition from a “doer” to a “leader of doers” is the most significant and often most difficult identity shift in a professional’s career. It is not simply a step up the ladder; it is a change of profession. Your value to the organization is no longer measured by the number of cases you personally resolve. Your new measure of success is the collective output, quality, and engagement of your entire team. Your job is no longer to be the best player on the field; it is to become the coach who ensures the entire team wins.
This requires a conscious, and often uncomfortable, letting go of the old identity. The satisfaction you derived from closing a difficult case must be replaced by the satisfaction of seeing one of your team members successfully close that same case using a technique you taught them. The focus on your own task list must be replaced by a focus on removing obstacles for your team. This section is designed to be your guide through this transformation. We will deconstruct the specific mindset shifts, practical skills, and common pitfalls that define this critical career junction. Mastering this transition is the foundation upon which all future leadership roles are built.
Pharmacist Analogy: The Star Technician’s Promotion
Imagine the best pharmacy technician you’ve ever worked with. Let’s call her Sarah. Sarah is a whirlwind of efficiency. She can type, fill, and bill 100 prescriptions in an hour while simultaneously managing the drive-thru and solving insurance rejections. Her knowledge of the pharmacy’s workflow is encyclopedic. She is the engine of the pharmacy. Because of her incredible individual performance, she is promoted to “Lead Technician” or “Technician Supervisor.”
On her first day, Sarah arrives with the same mindset: to be the most productive person in the pharmacy. She sees a long queue at data entry, so she jumps on a computer and starts typing faster than anyone else. She sees the filling station is backed up, so she pushes the other technician aside and starts counting pills at lightning speed. By the end of the day, Sarah is exhausted, but she has personally produced more work than anyone else. However, the pharmacy’s overall output hasn’t improved. The other technicians feel de-skilled and micromanaged. One is frustrated because Sarah “stole” her workstation. Another is confused because they never received any guidance on a new workflow. Sarah was a phenomenal technician, but she is failing as a supervisor.
Her real job was not to type and fill. Her new job was to:
- Coach the slower technician on keyboard shortcuts to improve their speed.
- Organize the workflow at the filling station so it never gets backed up in the first place.
- Delegate the task of handling insurance rejections to a team member who needs development in that area.
- Communicate with the pharmacist manager about a recurring inventory issue that’s causing delays.
Sarah’s value is no longer in her own hands, but in her ability to elevate the hands of her entire team. This is the exact same mental leap you must make as a new Prior Authorization Supervisor. Your success is no longer about your queue; it’s about your team’s capacity.
22.1.2 The Anatomy of the Role: Coordinator vs. Supervisor
To successfully navigate this transition, you must first have a crystal-clear understanding of how fundamentally different the two roles are. It’s a shift in perspective from the microscopic (the individual case) to the macroscopic (the team’s entire process). The following table provides a deep dive into this contrast, breaking down the core functions and required skills for each role. This is not just a list; it is a roadmap for your personal development. Every row in the “Supervisor” column represents a new skill you must actively cultivate.
Masterclass Table: Deconstructing the Role Shift
| Core Function | The Prior Authorization Coordinator (The Specialist) | The Prior Authorization Supervisor (The Strategist) |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Goal | To accurately and efficiently process an assigned caseload of prior authorizations, overcoming clinical and administrative barriers to secure approvals. | To develop and lead a team that accurately and efficiently processes the department’s entire caseload, meeting or exceeding all quality and productivity targets. |
| Time Horizon | Focus is on the current shift, day, or week. The primary concern is clearing the immediate queue of cases. | Focus is on the week, month, and quarter. The primary concern is identifying trends, planning for volume fluctuations, and achieving long-term team goals. |
| Definition of a “Good Day” | “I closed 25 cases, got a tough approval for that specialty drug, and my work queue is empty.” (Based on personal accomplishment). | “The team hit its overall productivity goal, our quality audit scores were 98%, I coached John through a difficult case, and we implemented a new workflow that saved everyone 10 minutes.” (Based on team enablement). |
| Core Skillset |
|
|
| Communication Focus | Communicating with payers, provider offices, and patients about specific cases. The communication is transactional and tactical. | Communicating expectations to the team, reporting results to management, collaborating with other departments, and mediating conflicts. The communication is strategic and relational. |
| Key Metrics of Success |
|
|
22.1.3 The First 90 Days: A Supervisor’s Playbook
The first three months in your new role are critical. This period will set the tone for your leadership, establish your credibility, and define your relationships with both your team and your own manager. The temptation is to jump in and immediately start “fixing” things to prove your worth. This is a mistake. Your primary goal in the first 90 days is not to be a revolutionary, but to be an anthropologist. You must listen, learn, and observe before you act. This structured approach will ensure that when you do make changes, they are informed, impactful, and well-received.
Phase 1: The First 30 Days – Listen, Learn, and Map the Terrain
Your theme for this month is humility and curiosity. You are no longer the expert on how the work is done; you are a student of how the team works. Your primary output should be a notebook filled with observations, not a list of new policies.
Your Week 1-2 Action Plan: The Listening Tour
-
Schedule 1:1 Meetings: Book a 30-45 minute introductory meeting with every single person on your team. This is your most important task. Do not do a group meeting first.
- The Goal: To understand them as individuals, learn their perspective on the team’s workflow, and hear their ideas.
- Key Questions to Ask:
- “What do you enjoy most about your work?”
- “What is the most frustrating or challenging part of your day?”
- “If you had a magic wand and could change one thing about our process, what would it be?”
- “What’s something you feel you’re really good at that we might not be taking full advantage of?”
- “How do you prefer to receive feedback and recognition?”
- “What can I do, as your new supervisor, to best support you?”
- Your Role: Talk 20% of the time, listen 80% of the time. Take copious notes. Do not promise to fix anything yet. Simply say, “Thank you, that’s really helpful information for me to understand.”
-
Meet Your Manager: Schedule a 1:1 with your new boss to align on expectations.
- Key Questions to Ask:
- “What does success look like for me and for this team in the first 30, 60, and 90 days?”
- “What are the most important metrics I should be focused on?”
- “What are the biggest challenges or opportunities you see for the team right now?”
- “How do you prefer to communicate? (e.g., daily check-ins, weekly reports)”
- Key Questions to Ask:
- Shadow Every Role: Spend at least two hours shadowing each distinct role or function within your team (e.g., intake, clinical review, appeals). Observe their workflow, the systems they use, and the obstacles they face. This shows respect for their work and gives you ground-level intelligence.
Your Week 3-4 Action Plan: Data Deep Dive & Process Mapping
- Become a Metrics Expert: Get access to all team dashboards. You need to understand your team’s baseline performance inside and out. Don’t just look at the numbers; understand how they are calculated.
- Examine trends in volume, turnaround time, approval rates, and quality scores over the last 3-6 months.
- Look for outliers. Who are the highest and lowest performers? Which payers or drug classes have the longest TAT?
- Map the Workflow: On a whiteboard or in software, visually map the entire PA process from the moment a request is received to the moment it is closed. Identify every touchpoint, every system used, and every handoff.
- Use the information from your listening tour and shadowing to identify bottlenecks, redundancies, and pain points in the current process.
- Identify a “Quick Win”: Based on your observations and conversations, identify one small, highly visible, and universally frustrating problem that you can solve with minimal effort. This could be something as simple as fixing a broken template, creating a shared resource document for payer contacts, or getting a malfunctioning printer fixed. Do not tackle a major process overhaul yet. The goal is to build credibility and show the team you are listening and can deliver results.
Phase 2: The Next 30 Days (Days 31-60) – Establish Your Rhythm
Now that you have a map of the people, processes, and politics, it’s time to establish your presence as a leader. Your theme for this month is consistency and communication. You will implement your management operating rhythm and begin to address the opportunities you identified.
Your Month 2 Action Plan: Implementation & Communication
- Launch Your “Quick Win”: Implement the small process improvement you identified last month. Communicate the “why” clearly to the team (“I heard from many of you that this was a major frustration, so we’re making this change to address it.”). Publicly give credit to team members whose ideas contributed to the solution.
- Establish Your Meeting Cadence:
- Daily Huddle (10-15 minutes): A quick stand-up meeting to review daily priorities, identify any immediate roadblocks, and share critical updates. Keep it brief and focused.
- Weekly Team Meeting (45-60 minutes): Review the previous week’s performance against goals, discuss process improvements, provide training, and recognize achievements. Have a set agenda and stick to it.
- Monthly 1:1 Check-ins (30 minutes): Re-start your 1:1 meetings, but now they are forward-looking. Discuss performance, career goals, and provide coaching and feedback.
- Set Clear, Simple Expectations: Hold a team meeting to outline your core expectations for the team. Don’t introduce dozens of new rules. Focus on the fundamentals. Frame it around shared goals like patient care, accuracy, and teamwork.
- Example: “Moving forward, my three main priorities for our team are: 1) Every patient case is actioned within 24 hours. 2) We maintain a team quality score of 95% or higher. 3) We support each other when someone is falling behind.”
- Begin Addressing Performance: Using data and direct observation, begin to provide specific, constructive feedback in your 1:1s. For high performers, focus on recognition and new challenges. For those who are struggling, focus on coaching and support, clearly identifying the gap and creating a plan to close it.
Phase 3: The Final 30 Days (Days 61-90) – Driving Improvement
You are now established in your role. The team understands your expectations and your management rhythm is in place. The theme for this month is momentum. It’s time to leverage your early wins and deeper understanding to tackle a more significant process improvement and solidify your strategic plan.
Your Month 3 Action Plan: Optimize & Strategize
- Tackle a Bigger Problem: Choose one of the key bottlenecks you identified in your process map. Engage the team in brainstorming solutions. This is your first opportunity to lead a collaborative problem-solving effort.
- Example: If denials for “missing clinical notes” are high, you could work with the team to develop a new checklist or template for outreach to provider offices.
- Pilot the new process with one or two team members first before rolling it out to everyone.
- Develop Your “Success Story”: Prepare a summary of your first 90 days for your manager. This is not just a report; it’s a narrative.
- Structure it as: “Here was the situation I found. Here are the steps I took to learn and assess. Here are the initial improvements we made (your ‘quick win’). Here is the data showing the impact. Here is the larger opportunity I’ve identified and my plan to address it in the next quarter.”
- Solidify Your Feedback Loop: Make giving and receiving feedback a normal part of the team’s culture. In your team meetings, celebrate successes and openly discuss challenges as learning opportunities, not as failures. In your 1:1s, be consistent with both praise and constructive criticism. Ask for feedback on your own performance: “What is one thing I could start doing, or stop doing, that would make me a better supervisor for you?”
22.1.4 The Art of Delegation: Letting Go to Lead
For a new supervisor who was promoted for being a star individual performer, delegation is often the most difficult and unnatural skill to learn. The thought process is a trap: “It’s faster and better if I just do it myself.” While this may be true for a single task in the short term, it is a catastrophic long-term leadership strategy. Every task you “take back” from an employee is a stolen learning opportunity. Every time you do the work instead of teaching the work, you are signaling a lack of trust and creating a ceiling on your team’s potential. Your job is not to do the work; it is to build a team that can do the work. Effective delegation is the only way to achieve this.
The Supervisor’s Trap: The Vicious Cycle of Non-Delegation
When you fail to delegate, a destructive cycle begins:
- You feel overwhelmed because you are doing your job (supervising) and your old job (doing).
- Because you are busy doing tasks, you don’t have time to properly train or coach your team.
- Because the team isn’t trained, they either make mistakes or have to constantly ask you questions.
- Their mistakes and questions reinforce your belief that “it’s just faster if I do it myself.”
- You take on more tasks, and the cycle repeats, leading to your burnout and your team’s disengagement.
The only way to break this cycle is to intentionally and skillfully delegate, even if it feels slower at first.
Masterclass Table: The Delegation Decision Matrix
Not all tasks are created equal. Use this matrix to decide what to delegate, what to delegate with caution, and what to keep on your own plate.
| Task Category | Description & Examples | Delegation Strategy | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Routine & Repetitive Tasks | Standard case processing, data entry, generating daily reports, routine follow-up calls. | Delegate Freely | These tasks are the core function of the team. Delegating them is essential for the department to operate. They also serve as excellent training grounds for new employees. |
| Problem-Solving Within Defined Parameters | Handling a standard rejection type, identifying missing information from a provider, researching formulary alternatives for a non-covered drug. | Delegate with Clear Guidelines | This builds critical thinking skills. Your role is to provide the playbook (the guidelines and resources) so the team can run the play. This frees you up from being the answer to every question. |
| Developmental Opportunities | Training a new team member, leading a small project (e.g., updating a resource guide), presenting a case study in a team meeting, representing the team in a cross-functional meeting. | Delegate Strategically | These tasks should be given to specific individuals you want to develop. It’s a powerful tool for employee growth and engagement. It requires more of your time upfront for coaching, but has a high long-term payoff. |
| Crisis Management & High-Stakes Tasks | Handling a major system outage, responding to an urgent request from senior leadership, managing a highly sensitive patient complaint that could have legal ramifications. | Keep (Do Not Delegate) | These tasks are central to the supervisory role. They carry a high level of risk and responsibility that is inappropriate to delegate. Your team needs to see you leading from the front during a crisis. |
| Performance Management & Personnel Issues | Conducting performance reviews, delivering corrective action, mediating interpersonal conflict between team members, approving time off. | Keep (Do Not Delegate) | This is the core of people management and can never be delegated. These responsibilities are uniquely yours as the supervisor and are essential for maintaining fairness, consistency, and authority. |
The 5-Step Framework for Effective Delegation
Delegation is a process, not just an assignment. Following these five steps will dramatically increase your success rate and build your team’s competence and confidence.
The Delegation Playbook
- Define the “What” and “Why”: Be crystal clear about the task. Don’t just say, “Can you handle the denial report?” Say, “I need you to run the weekly denial report by 3 PM every Friday. The purpose of this report is to help us spot trends so we can proactively address issues with providers. Please analyze the data and highlight the top three denial reasons in the summary email.” The “why” provides context and makes the work more meaningful.
- Clarify the “How” (and How Much): Define the expected outcome and constraints. What does a “good” outcome look like? What is the deadline? What is the budget (if any)? Who should they collaborate with? What level of authority do they have? (e.g., “You can approve up to $50 in office supply orders without asking me.”)
- Confirm Understanding: After explaining the task, ask the employee to summarize it back to you in their own words. “Just to make sure we’re on the same page, can you quickly walk me through your understanding of the task and your first couple of steps?” This simple check prevents massive misunderstandings down the road.
- Establish Check-in Points: Don’t abdicate responsibility. For a new or complex task, establish check-in points. “This is a big project. Let’s plan to connect for 15 minutes on Wednesday to review your progress and I can answer any questions you have.” This is not micromanagement; it’s support. It allows you to correct course early if needed.
- Conduct a Debrief and Provide Feedback: Once the task is complete, close the loop. Review the final result. If it was great, provide specific praise (“I was really impressed with how you formatted the data; it made the trends very easy to see.”). If there were issues, treat it as a coaching moment, not a failure (“The final report was good. Next time, let’s try to include the data from the appeals team as well to give us a fuller picture. What challenges did you run into?”).
22.1.5 From Peer to Boss: Navigating the Relationship Shift
When you are promoted from within the team, you face a unique and delicate challenge: the people who were once your peers, your friends, and your confidants are now your direct reports. This transition can be awkward and fraught with social landmines if not handled proactively and intentionally. You cannot pretend that nothing has changed, because everything has. Your primary responsibility has shifted from being a friend to being a fair and effective leader for the entire team, including your friends. Failing to establish new boundaries can undermine your authority, create perceptions of favoritism, and damage both your professional effectiveness and your personal relationships.
The “Reset” Conversation: Your First and Most Important Step
During your initial 1:1 meetings (from the 90-day plan), you must have a direct and honest conversation with your former peers, especially those you were close with. This isn’t a confrontation; it’s a clarification. You need to acknowledge the change and reset the terms of the relationship.
Scripting Your “Reset” Conversation
Context: This is part of your initial 1:1 meeting with a former peer you are close with.
The Script: “Hey [Friend’s Name], I’m really excited about this new role, and I know our working relationship is going to change a bit, so I wanted to talk about it directly because our friendship is important to me. Obviously, things are different now that I’m the supervisor. My job requires me to be fair and consistent with everyone on the team, and that means I’m going to have to make decisions about assignments, performance, and schedules for you, just like for everyone else. It might feel a bit weird at first for both of us. I want you to know that I still value you as a friend, but at work, I have to be your supervisor first. I’m counting on your support as I grow into this role. How does that sound to you?”
Why This Works:
- It acknowledges the awkwardness directly, which defuses tension.
- It reaffirms the friendship while clearly stating the new professional boundary.
- It frames your new responsibilities (fairness, consistency) as non-negotiable parts of the job, not a personal choice to be distant.
- It asks for their support, making them a partner in the transition rather than a subject of it.
Masterclass Table: Navigating Common “Peer to Boss” Scenarios
| Scenario | The Pitfall (What Not to Do) | The Professional Strategy (What to Do) |
|---|---|---|
| Social Activities Your former peer group invites you to the usual after-work happy hour where everyone complains about work. |
Continue attending as if nothing has changed. You either participate in the complaining (undermining your role) or sit there silently, which makes everyone uncomfortable. | Modify your participation. You can still attend occasionally, but you must change your behavior. Politely steer conversations away from work gossip. It’s often best to stay for a shorter period. Say, “I can join for one drink, but then I have to head out.” This maintains the social connection without blurring the lines. |
| Perceived Favoritism You have to assign a difficult, undesirable case. Your friend on the team assumes you’ll give it to someone else. |
Give the case to someone else to avoid conflict with your friend. This immediately creates a perception of unfairness and erodes trust with the rest of the team. | Be transparent and objective. Use a clear, consistent logic for assignments (e.g., round-robin, specific skill alignment, workload balancing). When you assign the tough case to your friend, explain the logic: “I’m giving this one to you because it falls under the oncology service line, which you’re covering today.” Your decisions must be defensible and based on business needs, not personal relationships. |
| “Insider” Information Your friend asks you for information that is now confidential to you as a supervisor (e.g., “Are there going to be layoffs?” or “What’s the real reason Sarah is on a performance plan?”). |
Share the confidential information to maintain the friendship and prove you still “trust” them. This is a massive breach of trust with management and can have serious HR consequences. | Hold the boundary politely but firmly. Use a standard phrase: “You know I can’t discuss confidential personnel matters” or “When there’s information I’m able to share with the whole team, I definitely will.” Do not apologize for it. It’s a requirement of your new role. |
| Performance Feedback Your friend is underperforming. You need to have a difficult conversation about their quality or productivity. |
Avoid the conversation or soften the feedback so much that the message is lost, hoping the problem will fix itself. This is an abdication of your core responsibility. | Address it head-on, just as you would with any other employee. Use the same objective data and behavioral examples. In your 1:1, say: “I need to talk to you about your performance on the XYZ cases. Your turnaround time has been averaging 3 days, while the team goal is 1.5 days. Let’s walk through your process and see where the bottlenecks are.” Keep it professional, data-driven, and focused on solutions. |
22.1.6 Looking Up and Out: Managing Your New Relationships
As a coordinator, your focus was primarily on your own work and your immediate team. As a supervisor, you are now a node in a much larger network. Your success depends not only on managing your team but also on effectively managing your relationship with your own boss (“managing up”) and building collaborative relationships with supervisors in other departments (“managing sideways”).
Managing Up: How to Make Your Boss a Partner
Your relationship with your manager is your most important one at work. Your manager is your biggest advocate, your source of resources, and your guide to the broader organizational strategy. Your goal is to be a low-maintenance, high-impact direct report. This means being proactive, bringing solutions instead of just problems, and communicating effectively.
Playbook for Managing Your Manager
- Align on Priorities: Continuously ensure your team’s priorities are aligned with your manager’s goals. In your 1:1s, ask: “Looking at the next month, what is the most important thing our team can deliver to support your objectives?”
- No Surprises: This is the golden rule. Your boss should never be blindsided by bad news in a meeting with their boss. If there is a significant problem (a major deadline will be missed, a serious patient complaint), you must inform them early. Bring the news with a brief summary of the issue and your plan to address it.
- Bring Solutions, Not Just Problems: When you do need to escalate an issue, frame it constructively. Instead of saying, “We’re completely overwhelmed and can’t handle the volume,” try saying, “We’ve seen a 20% increase in volume this month. To manage this, I’ve implemented a temporary triage system. I believe we need to discuss either overtime approval or cross-training someone from another team to maintain our turnaround times. What are your thoughts?”
- Communicate in Their Preferred Style: As you learned in your first 30 days, adapt to your manager’s communication preferences. If they prefer a weekly summary email, send a concise, bulleted email. If they prefer quick, ad-hoc conversations, use that channel.
- Translate and Aggregate: Your manager doesn’t need to know every detail of every case. Your job is to translate the team’s daily work into high-level strategic information. Instead of “Case #12345 is stuck,” say “We are seeing a new denial trend from Payer X for Drug Y; it’s impacted 5 cases this week and is a risk to our overall TAT. I’ve assigned someone to investigate the root cause.”
Managing Sideways: Building Alliances
Your team’s work does not happen in a vacuum. You depend on clinical teams, IT, billing, and other departments to be successful. As a coordinator, you may have had transactional relationships with these groups. As a supervisor, you must build strategic partnerships.
Playbook for Building Peer Alliances
- Introduce Yourself: In your first month, identify the supervisors of the teams you interact with most. Schedule a brief 15-minute introductory meeting. Ask them the same kinds of questions you asked your own team: “What’s working well in the process between our teams? What are your biggest frustrations?”
- Find Common Ground: Frame your requests around shared goals. The most powerful shared goal in healthcare is patient care. Instead of, “Your team needs to get us the clinical notes faster,” try, “I’m looking for ways our teams can work together to reduce the time it takes to get our patients started on therapy. One bottleneck seems to be the transfer of clinical notes. Do you have any ideas on how we could streamline that?”
- Give Before You Get: Look for opportunities to help your peers. If you notice a trend that might impact their department, give them a heads-up. If you create a new resource that could benefit their team, share it. Building a bank of goodwill is essential for the times when you will need to ask for their help.
- Solve Problems at the Lowest Level: When a process breaks down between two of your team members, encourage them to try to solve it themselves first. If they can’t, the next step is for you and the other supervisor to solve it together. Avoid escalating issues to your respective managers whenever possible. Solving problems at the peer supervisor level is a sign of a strong, effective leader.
