Train your Supervisors

Tips to Grow your Business #5: Train your Supervisors

The best employees do not always make the best supervisors, especially if they have not received the proper training to supervise effectively. Good business leaders now realize that doing the job and leading others to get things done are different skills.

The often recurring scenario is one where a management or supervisory position opens up and management looks at their rank and file people for a suitable candidate for promotion. Usually the top performer is recognized as having the greatest potential and is rewarded with the promotion. The manager says to him, “My friend, as a reward for doing this job so well, you are now the new manager. You can do it. Congratulations.”

A few months later, you hear that the poor fellow has been demoted and later that he has left the company. You ask yourself, “What happened to the star performer?” In many of the companies I have consulted with, the common reason is that the poor fellow was not able to deliver on the expectations of management. In short, his team did not meet their key performance indices and he had to go.

Why does this happen? Very often, the answer is simply that the person rewarded with the management position was not prepared to manage other people. His training and orientation was to do his own job very well. This he excelled at. What he was not trained to do was how to lead other people to get the job done on time with the desired quality. Very often, new supervisors are overwhelmed by the conflicting demands of customers, management, and their former colleagues.

New supervisors and managers need to be properly oriented on their new responsibilities, how to interact with their colleagues, how to manage and lead their teams.

The 5 Essential Skills of Supervision

Supervisors need to master the 5 essential skills of supervision:

• Planning the Work: Taking the direction of higher management and translating it into actionable plans for the team.
• Leading and Managing Performance: Removing the obstacles to better performance so employees can meet their own and the organization’s objectives.
• Organizing the Work: Assigning people, equipment, and tasks to meet work goals.
• Communicating: Bridging the communication gap between management and the staff.
• Coaching the Team: Coaching the members is the most effective way to develop the skill levels of the team so that they can meet the goals of the business.

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