Supervision Wins
It is not very often that there is spontaneous applause at a Board meeting. And yet, that is what I witnessed a few weeks ago.
We were engaged in an ice breaker that had everyone discussing either their best or worst onboarding (new job orientation) experience. Of course, most people chose the worst experience, because they are memorable and all too frequent. (If you want to improve your onboarding process, I wrote about that last year.)
Several people’s stories included some variation of being blamed for poor performance when they had not been properly trained. One Board member quietly stated, “When I was a supervisor and things weren’t going well, the first thing I did was look at whether or not I had provided the proper level of support to the employee.”
You would have thought that she had said something extraordinarily profound. And yet, what happened was applause.
If you are a direct supervisor or a leader of a team effort, you are well aware that your reputation is in part dependent on the work of others. But that may not be the healthiest way to think about it. What if you were to think of your role as being accountable for enabling their success? How might that change how you interact with and support them?
How are you assessing what their skills are and then how to link their skills to the work that needs to be done?
Are you aware of gaps in knowledge and skills? Have you created a trusting relationship where they can share those gaps?
What education, training, or coaching are you creating for them? What are you doing to follow-up to ensure that it was what was needed?
Are you providing effective and frequent feedback on what they are doing well?
Are you providing effective and as-frequent-as-needed feedback for what is not going well?
Are you using all organizational systems to support them and the work that needs to be done? (Think, performance management forms, professional development processes, team charters, process checks, effective delegation.)
Are you asking what you can be doing to better support them, and then deliver on that or provide alternatives if that isn’t possible?
There are people who will not work well within your organization. But, most people can and will contribute and succeed with relevant and supportive leadership and effective organizational processes. I encourage you to be the type of leader who works everyday to create an environment of success and contribution.
