Team lead publicly humiliates employee and tells her to stop “overstepping” after previously expecting her to do her work, then the lead’s boss tells the employee to apply for a new senior job

A team lead told their direct report to stop overstepping during a project review after quietly allowing them to do her work behind the scenes. Now the lead’s own boss is recommending her for a promotion into the lead’s job. The lead apparently recommended her for the role herself. This left the employee wondering what the lead’s motivations were and whether she had just acquiesced to a decision that was already out of her hands.

I think one of the worst things any leader of an organization can do is tell someone that they are overstepping. Even if a junior team member’s persistence on a problem comes across as meddling, or their unsolicited help on an issue seems to you to be obstructive. You, the senior leader, would do better to simply try to redirect and guide that energy toward solving the problem in a way that is more conguent with your own preferred way of doing things. But 

It is probably not their intention to cause offense. Even if it seems like they are being an upstart. So you’d be wise not to take it. If you tell the junior member to mind their place, respect others’ age, experience, or authority. You’ll simply come across as insecure and outdated. If you decide to humiliate them, put them in their place, or, worse, make an example of them, you’re signaling to every member of the team how effort in this organization is rewarded. 

At best, you are discouraging them, robbing the company of a bright mind that is trying to offer something new or solve a vulnerability that they see the organization exposed to.