Kelly Crowe author of Super Vision an innovative guide to supervising young inexperienced employees

About this episode

Vance interviews his sister Kelly Crowe, author of the management book "Supervision," about training and managing young, first-time employees. The core concept is the "curse of knowledge" — experienced managers forget what it's like not to know basic things (when you're allowed to go home, who to ask for help, where the bathroom is), and Kelly's book is built around anticipating and pre-answering the unspoken questions new employees are too embarrassed to ask. She describes concrete tactics: giving new hires a photo directory instead of a live 45-person introduction tour, a "new guy notebook" that normalizes note-taking without stigma, hands-on training simulations (unclogging a real toilet before being trusted to do it alone), and structured early evaluations to make feedback routine rather than threatening. The conversation pivots to the "True Colors" personality framework (orange/spontaneous, gold/detail-organized, green/analytical-critical, blue/empathetic) as a tool for understanding why different team members react differently to the same management style — Kelly recounts staff staging an "intervention" against her own spontaneous ("orange") management style because it stressed detail-oriented staff who needed predictability. They close on the process of writing and self-publishing the book via Kindle Direct Publishing, her reluctance to include personal stories about real employees, and a shared appreciation for "Made to Stick" as foundational to how both siblings think about sticky communication.

“The concept of the cursive [curse of] knowledge has been the biggest game changer for me... people are constantly new. You're constantly having new people... you forget to tell the rest of us.”

“This is the best possible thing I can do for you. If you have a supervisor who doesn't do an evaluation for you, then they're not invested in you.”

“One of the things that we added in this week is everybody... is gonna pop into your head and now you're responsible if you think of something to write that person.”

Key moments

• ~13%: The "curse of knowledge" as the central management failure — assuming information shared in one meeting has propagated to everyone.
• ~30%: Concrete onboarding tactics — photo directories over live introductions, the "new guy notebook" to destigmatize note-taking.
• ~38%: Hands-on training simulations (the toilet-snaking exercise) as necessary experience-creation for employees who've never done the job before.
• ~48%: True Colors personality framework — orange/gold/green/blue — explaining recurring team friction and Kelly's own staff "intervention" against her spontaneous management style.
• ~62%: Structuring feedback as routine (scheduled evaluations from day one) to remove the fear/threat association.
• ~88%: Self-publishing process via Kindle Direct Publishing and reluctance to tell employees' personal stories in the book.

Notable quotes

“The concept of the cursive knowledge has been the biggest game changer for me as a supervisor... people are constantly new. You forget to tell the rest of us.”

“We had a working toilet set up outdoors... you don't get to move on to the next station until you do it, because there's gonna come a time when you have to do this by yourself.”

“They staged an intervention because of my style... we just wanna know what's gonna happen and you're not telling us.”

“If you have a supervisor who doesn't do an evaluation for you, then they're not invested in you.”