New to Supervision? A Few Ideas for a Great Start
So you’ve taken on your first supervisory role. Perhaps you're new to your position, or you've been at it for a while, but are struggling due to a lack of opportunity for training or mentoring on how to be a good team lead. There’s a lot to think about regarding how you want to establish yourself as a manager. What do you hope to achieve in your new role and how will you inspire your team to perform at peak levels? How will you develop a strong team dynamic based on trust and open communication? What culture do you hope to establish within the group?
A great place to start in thinking about your own approach to supervision is to reflect on the leaders who’ve influenced you throughout your career in both positive and negative ways. Spend some time reflecting on (and perhaps writing about) some of the qualities that stood out about those people who've had the biggest impact on you. What was it about those folks that resonated? On the opposite end of the spectrum, what qualities rubbed you the wrong in terms of leaders who lacked integrity or utilized power in a problematic manner?
Reflection is a powerful tool for honing your personal brand of leadership over time.
When I first took on a supervisory role early in my career, I wanted to approach my work like the positive coaches and mentors who’d invested time in building my confidence and emphasizing the things that I did well, rather than those who constantly focused on my weaknesses and deficiencies. I also wanted to avoid being the supervisory lead who utilized fear as a means of driving performance, because let’s be honest, it’s a terrible thing to work in a constant state of concern over the security of your job.
My first error as a new manager was making the assumption that the best way to delegate work was to assign the things I was most passionate about to my team under the believe that these assignments would be more exciting. My plan was to then take on the more frustrating and difficult assignments myself. What I’d failed to recognize was that the projects and tasks I might naturally be passionate and excited about could be perceived as absolutely heinous to someone else with different strengths and interests…and that it may take them twice as long to complete these tasks. When I realized this strategy was creating more frustration than progress, I took a new approach to leadership…I invested time in getting to know my team at a deep level and strove to understand their natural talents as a means of assigning them the most meaningful and engaging work possible.
In many professional roles we get caught up focusing on completing tasks, meeting deadlines, and achieving goals...which to be fair are all critical components in any position. When we get overly focused on these aspects of our work, however we subsequently neglect to build a strong team dynamic, which can easily develop a disengaged and frustrating team climate and culture.
People have a natural need to feel valued and want to have a sense that they have a meaningful role. When you take the time to engage in genuine, relationship-based supervision...I guarantee that your staff will respond. With that in mind, here’s a few recommendations for getting a great start in your supervisory role:
Spending time getting to know each team member at more than surface level is a powerful conduit for unlocking potential.
Get to Know Your Team: Spend time learning about each individual on your staff. Ask about friends and family. Learn what they value and what their dreams and ambitions are. Invest in their development and celebrate their achievements. Coaching and a Strengths Based approach to leadership can make a significant difference in an employee's day to day experience. I've often heard that a great way to move ahead in any organization is to invest time making your boss look good. I'd argue for the alternative. Any individual in a supervisory position should strive to maximize the performance of their team, and subsequently cast as much spotlight on their performance as possible. A manager shouldn’t focus as much on their individual output so much as they do on the collective performance of their team. When people on your team do outstanding work...make sure you thank them for their efforts and openly celebrate their achievements.
Provide Strong Performers the Autonomy and Agency to do Great Work: When you have new members on your team, an initial investment in training, coaching, and mentoring is required to get them to a place where they're independently thriving. Once you have team members operating at a high level, step back, give them the ability to do their jobs well, and grant them the space to occasionally learn from their mistakes. Nobody likes to operate in a system where they feel like they're being micromanaged, but it's also important to recognize that people become disenchanted and disengaged quickly when they feel ignored or unseen. Seek to find a healthy balance of regularly checking in, while also giving strong performers the space they need to do great work.
Set Clear Expectations and Engage in Timely Follow Up: Here's a simple, but important rule about supervision. If you're waiting for an annual performance review to provide people with all the things they need to be working on to improve their performance, you're going to have a lot of frustrated direct reports. Both constructive and positive feedback should be given in a timely manner. The performance review period should solely focus on an overview of items you've already discussed with individuals about over the course of the year. To ease the burden of work during performance review time (particularly if you have a large number of direct reports) document weekly or bi-weekly notes for each employee so you have something to fall back on for prepping annual reviews rather than soley relying on your memory.
Align roles and responsibilities with natural talents: I'm a big proponent of Gallup's CliftonStrengths Based Leadership Approach. When you understand what people naturally thrive at and assign them tasks that they're passionate about...you'll find that people will naturally do great work. Recognize as well that your approach to a task might not be the same as someone else on the team. Be open to hearing the thoughts, ideas, and feedback from your group and recognize that their unique talents and ability to see solutions through a different lens may help you realize a more positive outcome than you originally envisioned. The best leaders intentionally and effectively capitalize on the strengths of their team as a whole, rather than relying solely on their individual instinct and preferences.
Be Humble: No one is perfect. You're going to make mistakes and when you do, it's important to be open about them. Be receptive of your team's feedback and ideas. Create opportunities to hear those ideas frequently, either through staff meetings or regular one on one check ins. When your perspective is the only perspective...you run the risk of disenchanting talented people who have a desire to have their voice heard. Invest the same level of respect in every individual, regardless of their position or standing within your organization. Sometimes the best ideas come from the least expected places...but you'll miss these if you're unwilling to hear the perspective of everyone on your team.
