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| 3/17/2010
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HRDQ
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March Edition |
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Taking the Lead: Five Things Every Supervisor Needs to Know
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 What makes a great supervisor great? While there may not be a quick and simple answer to that question, there is a certain skill set that, when learned through time and exposure, make supervisors more effective. But with increasing pressure being placed on supervisors to perform, organizations can’t afford this long learning curve. So as a trainer, what can you do to set supervisors on a course for success? Here are five key skills to get you started.
1. Guiding the Work
Supervisors are responsible for directing the work of their employees effectively. Keeping the following points in mind can help supervisors keep an eye on organizational demands while managing the day-to-day work of meeting the group’s needs.
What to Do
- Support organizational goals.
- Get your employees involved in the planning process.
- Act decisively.
- Make plans with specific progress review dates.
What to Avoid
- Telling employees that you disagree with management positions.
- Consistently preparing detailed plans without consulting your employees.
- Putting off making decisions until you are sure that they are perfect.
- Failing to assign responsibility on tasks.
2. Organizing the Work
There is an almost constant need for supervisors to assess priorities and assign tasks, because even the best-made plans need attention as work progresses. It’s important for them to know how to organize the work by delegating to people and allocating resources to accomplish goals.
What to Do
- Set schedules to meet the organization’s goals.
- Use others’ expertise to organize when necessary.
- Keep track of what’s going on in the informal organization.
- Involve others if you have to reorganize.
What to Avoid
- Accepting work changes without question.
- Showing favoritism or failing to assign unpleasant tasks.
- Failing to assign responsibility for necessary tasks.
- Trying to have complete knowledge of all aspects of the work.
3. Developing Your Staff
People are the key to every supervisor’s success. Developing one’s staff requires one to understand one’s employees’ abilities as individuals, rather than as a group. Only then can supervisors assign tasks in a way that challenges and develops the skills of their employees.
What to Do
- Delegate work that develops your employees’ skills.
- Get to know employees on an individual basis.
- Keep employees informed about the status of their requests.
- Make your expectations for results clear when you delegate tasks.
What to Avoid
- Completing tasks yourself because they require effort to teach others.
- Treating employees as a group rather than as individuals.
- Forgetting to tell employees about the status of their requests.
- Delegating only to people who already have the skills for the task.
4. Managing Performance
People’s performance contributes to the bottom line of the organization. It is critical for supervisors to track the performance of their employees and help them to meet both their personal objectives and those of the organization.
What to Do
- Track performance and provide feedback on a continual basis.
- Judge performance by how it affects the organization.
- Remain objective.
- Get commitment from employees to improve their performance.
What to Avoid
- Reviewing performance only once a year.
- Judging employees before you talk with them about their performance.
- Allowing yourself to become emotional.
- Trying to fix every problem, no matter how small.
5. Managing Relations
A supervisor’s work group is surrounded by other groups who affect its work. Managing relationships with others is critical to ensuring that the supervisor’s work group is effective and that organizational goals are met.
What to Do
- Keep other groups informed about your plans.
- Consider others’ requests for help based on the needs of the organization.
- Become generally familiar with other groups’ work.
- Develop relationships with other supervisors.
What to Avoid
- Trying to acquire resources by complaining about your group’s situation.
- Trying to have complete knowledge of other groups’ work.
- Turning down all requests for help that inconvenience your group.
- Accepting work from other groups without question.
Assessing a supervisor’s skill level in these five dimensions is the first step toward improving performance. And it’s not just the green supervisor who can benefit from this evaluation. Even the most seasoned supervisors can benefit from reviewing the basics.
Source: Supervisory Skills Questionnaire |
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Facilitative Leadership: Investing in Tomorrow’s Leaders Today |
 Today’s workforce is better educated and more knowledgeable than ever. Organizations have become comfortable with looking to, and even relying upon, staff at all levels for valuable insight, fresh perspectives, and innovative ideas. As a result, the value of facilitative leadership has become clear. So what exactly is “facilitative leadership” all about, and how does it differ from more conventional approaches?
For generations, it was considered acceptable for leaders to tell their employees what to do. Then the trend shifted to an environment of empowered, self-directing teams. Facilitative leadership differs from both of these styles, eliminating the problems and adopting the good qualities of both. It means a whole new skill set for leaders – and it asks them to do things that were not previously rewarded, such as giving up control, giving credit to others, and allowing mistakes. Perhaps one of the best ways to understand what it means to be a facilitative leader is to compare it to two other, more common approaches: traditional leadership and passive leadership.
Traditional Leaders
Traditional leaders are authoritative, and they hold little trust in the abilities of their subordinates. They have a tendency to ignore or disregard suggestions from those below them, and when they do choose to listen to ideas and suggestions, they often take credit for those ideas.
Traditional leaders tend to:
- Demand that it’s “my way or the highway.”
- Direct and control.
- Act as though they “know it all,” even when they don’t have the answers.
- Take the attitude that “what the boss says goes.”
Passive Leaders
Passive leaders take the opposite view of traditional leaders. They take employee empowerment to the furthest extreme, embracing the concept of giving individuals freedom in all aspects of decision making. While this may sound like a desirable attribute, it can cause just as many problems – if not more – than are created by the weaknesses of traditional leaders.
Passive leaders are characterized as:
- Hands off
- Uninvolved
- Figureheads
- Resistant to offering suggestions and/or help
Facilitative Leaders
Facilitative leaders have the ability to combine the best attributes of both traditional and passive leadership. They give their team members plenty of room to do their jobs, but they also know when to step in to supply input and guidance. Leaders of this style takes an active role in the team’s activities and creates an environment where open sharing of ideas is not only welcome – it’s practiced.
Facilitative leaders have the ability to:
- Create an open, sharing environment
- Be active contributors
- Consider all ideas and ask questions
- Approach mistakes as learning opportunities
- Stimulate growth
Facilitative leadership is the most desirable, yet most difficult, leadership style to implement. Organizations that think this approach can be adopted overnight will be sorely disappointed. It takes a great deal of time, training, commitment, and energy to acquire and develop facilitative leadership skills. But given the benefits to the organization, it is well worth the investment.
Source: Mars Surface Rover – Leadership Edition
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LEADERSHIP: ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL
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 It’s no secret that leading people in a way that responds to their individual capabilities yields the best results. But while that idea may seem like common sense, a formalized approach can make the difference between leadership success and failure.
Developed by Dr. John Nicholls, a recognized author, consultant, and speaker, Responsive Leadership is a situation-based model whereby managers match their leadership behavior to the individual capabilities of their employees. What makes Dr. Nicholls’s approach more effective than other situation-based models is that it is practical for managers to learn, understand, and memorize. It doesn’t take much time for leaders to internalize the principles and quickly develop the lifelong skills they need to be confident, successful managers.
Dr. Nicholls’s leadership model reveals four different styles, each reflecting a different proportion of leader intervention and employee self-direction. As you may have guessed, none of the four styles along the continuum is better or worse than the others. That’s why the four styles have been given relatively neutral names – Direct, Persuade, Involve, and Trust – to emphasize the fact that they are not inherently “good” or “bad.” What is important to remember is that the most effective style is the one that fits the situation and the employee.
Direct: “This is the way we do it.”
In the Direct style, a leader is conscious of the employee’s low capability and consequent need for clear task instructions and encouragement. As a result, he or she responds with a high level of intervention to give significant information and support. This direct intervention is aimed at raising the person’s effectiveness in performing the assigned task. Although very active, the leader does not dominate or demean the employee.
Persuade: “We do it this way because…”
In the Persuade style, the leader recognizes progress in the employee’s capability and seeks to build on it. Con¬sequently, he or she explains decisions and procedures in a persuasive way so that the reasoning behind them is clear and they are willingly accepted. Providing detailed rationales and explanations helps the person learn and feel respected, rather than being manipulated or dominated.
Involve: “How do you think we could do it better?”
In the Involve style, the leader recognizes that the employee’s level of capability is such that he or she can ben¬eficially contribute to problem-solving and decision-making. Therefore, the leader looks for opportunities for the person to participate in planning and implementing the task. This participation or involvement contributes signifi¬cantly to the person’s growth and development.
Trust: “Use your initiative freely so we can do it as well as possible.”
In the Trust style, the leader has significant confidence in the employee’s capability to complete the task with minimal supervision and seldom interacts about details, but is always available for consultation and guidance. The person is trusted to give his or her best, to seek help or support as needed, and to maintain a high level of performance.
Source: The Responsive Leader Questionnaire and Capability Inventory |
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FREE WEBCASTS – REGISTER TODAY!
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 “Taking the Lead: Five Things Every Supervisor Needs to Know” Wednesday, April 21, 2010, 2:00PM to 3:00PM EDT. Presented by Dr. Annette Cremo. Register here
“Becoming a Champion of Change,” Thursday, May 27, 2010, 2:00PM to 3:00PM EDT. Presented by Melissa Caldwell. Register here
“A Crash Course in Effective Teamwork,” Wednesday, June 16, 2010, 2:00PM to 3:00PM EDT. Presented by Gary Turner. Register here
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| It’s Your Personality Talking! |
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What does your communication style say about you? Find out when you visit us at ASTD ’10 and take What’s My Communication Style? FREE at Booth 238.
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