Supervisory Mistakes To Avoid

It can be stressful to figure out the dos and don’ts of a supervisory role in your organization especially if there has been no formal training program. So how do you know if you’re on the right track as you lead your team?

Don’t Fail to Define Goals for Your Team

Employees show up each day to fulfill a purpose and help meet your organization’s mission, but that’s difficult to do if there are no standards or benchmarks. It is always a good idea to help your boss look good and meet their goals. Setting performance and behavior expectations helps when it comes time to give performance feedback and reviews.

Don’t Be Afraid To Know Your People

It is important to be friendly with your staff. Learn about their interests and a little about some likes and dislikes. It is especially important to know what motivates your employees. This helps in understanding how to encourage them, what prompts can be used if you are not seeing the level of production you need, or if they are feeling discouraged what you can do tap into to your emotions or empathy to be supportive and encouraging. You must learn how to communicate with them and flex your style and approach to best suit theirs for the most effective communication possible.

Don’t Avoid Giving Feedback

It is important to remember feedback lets people know that the work they’re doing matters. It is key for employees to understand that they are part of something bigger than themselves. Giving feedback is a skill. You cannot give feedback the same way to every employee because they are not the same. Learning to flex to your people is important and being able to communicate in a way they can hear your messages both positive items (recognizing when they have met those expectations and standards and providing praise) and where there are areas for improvement. One of the best times to do this is during regular check-in meetings.

Don’t Avoid Challenging Conversations/Conflict

Letting things fester can kill team morale quickly. When it comes to preparing for a challenging conversation and practicing what you need to say, use a colleague as a sounding board to help you get perspective on the effectiveness of your words, tone, and overall message. “Scripting” your conversations with a series of bullet points to address the concern and to stay on task is a good idea.

Don’t Avoid Delegating

Taking on everything yourself is not sustainable. If you’re taking on all the tasks, what you are really telling others is they are not needed. Delegation is a wonderful development tool for employees. This helps them grow, stretch, prepare for the future, and even helps when you’re out of the office.

Don’t Forget to Be an Active Listener

This is so important. When you truly listen to staff you build rapport and trust. When you ask open-ended questions during the day and during your regular check-in meetings and wait for answers you will learn what is going on with the employee both in their work and personally on the job. You will discover where they need help and how you can assist. You will know when they need your support, when to show encouragement, when to celebrate and when they just need an ear to vent in the best way possible to you and not a co-worker where gossip begins. LISTENING is a major piece of an effective supervisor-employee working relationship.

If you want to learn more about the do’s and the don’ts of effective supervision for yourself or members of your team, we encourage to click here to sign-up for our Supervisor Success Series beginning October 3, 2024. Feel free to give us a call as well at 503-885-9815. It is an 8-week course that covers these topics and many more with practical tools and practice time with a group of other supervisors where they can learn from each other too.