Today’s Supervisor
Answer the five questions below (either yes or no) and compare your beliefs about supervision to contemporary practices of supervision.
1. A supervisor's primary responsibility is the enforcement of policies, procedures, and regulations.
The supervisor's primary responsibility is to create a climate where an employee can perform to the best of their abilities. Adherence to policies, procedures, and regulations are important and in some cases the law. Creating a culture of understanding is a far more effective way to get people to do something. Policing an employee's actions just annoys them.
The answer is no.
2. Supervisors will lose the respect of their employees if they admit their mistakes to them.
An effective leader is transparent. A supervisor that "owns" the mistake and demonstrates a graceful “reset” is a great role model for their employees to do the same. To recover from a mistake:
a) Describe the mistake (omit the painful details)
b) Describe how you fixed the mistake
c) And then describe what you will do so it won't happen again.
The answer is no.
3. To be absolutely fair, a supervisor must treat all employees in exactly the same way, regardless of individual differences.
Supervisors must be fair in terms of giving employees the same access to opportunities but treating your top performers the same way you treat your mediocre or poor performers is a recipe for de-motivating your top performers.
An example of access: Your top performer gets to participate in a highly desired certification program. Poor performers can get the certification training if they perform to expectations.
The answer is no.
4. When disciplining an employee, the supervisor should be careful to avoid saying or doing anything which might cause resentment.
Words do matter. Disciplinary action is difficult for everyone and sometimes even when delivered with care and respect the employee becomes angry and resentful.
The answer is no.
5. An occasional reprimand will improve the average employee’s productivity.
Pay attention to employee's performance. Coach and mentor employees early. Use the phrase “I would like to offer some coaching” or a similar phrase. A reprimand is meant to correct a repeated performance problem the employee can’t or won’t correct and is typically seen as a negative consequence.
The answer is No. Ack! This attitude is so old school.