Moving from a nonmanagerial role to management is not only a challenge for some employees—it causes problems for virtually all employees, says Jason Carney, director of human resources at WorkSmart Systems Inc., a professional employer organization in Indianapolis.

In many cases, new managers have personal relationships with their subordinates from their days together as nonmanagerial employees, and suddenly supervising their peers can cause conflicts. Meanwhile, other employees don't receive the proper training for effective management. These employees are often promoted because of their technical proficiencies; however, they do not always have the management skills to match.

"There's this assumption that practitioners can be great managers because they're great practitioners," Carney says. "A lot of companies have made that fatal flaw where they pick their top practitioners and move them into management, but it's often not a good model."