Supervision and Leadership - Essay Example

Supervision and Leadership In today’s world of competence, managers and supervisors face tremendous change and challenge. The increasing complexity of work, managing a diverse workforce, the need for higher levels of productivity and employee commitment all combine to perform in ways different than in the past. This paper discusses some of the most essential leadership and supervising qualities that need to be developed in an organization. Following information is tailored to form a comprehensive guide useful to new managers and supervisors. If we define leadership or a leader we can say that a leader is someone who leads. Leadership frequently involves delegation of tasks to other people and an element of instruction, training, direction, or supervision. You measure a leader not in terms of the skills they possesses, but in terms of the skills they develops in others; not in terms of their helps, but in terms of those they helps help themselves; not in terms of decisions they makes but how they frees others to make decisions; not in terms of the power they has over others but in terms of the power they releases in others; not in terms of what they has accomplished, but what they have accomplished – that is the measure of a leader. Leadership is the ability to bring people together to dedicate themselves to a common goal. Leaders are people who get things done. Leaders are known by their accomplishments. According to Stephen Covey, Leadership is not about management. Leadership focuses on the top line and Management focuses on the bottom line. While managers focus on the numbers, leaders focus on people. Management is doing things right whereas leadership is doing the right things. Team building and vision are the core of leadership. Leadership is all about building peak performing teams, teams focused on accomplishing goals. Leaders are able to effectively communicate and motivate the team to perform the set goals. Leaders face the challenge of being part of a group while simultaneously leading it. This is hard to do well and requires a mix of skill, hard work, initiative, and discretion. A leader’s ultimate responsibility is the management of the group: ensuring safety, while providing an experience for the participants. Leaders work to make the expedition run smoothly and work together to ensure the project aims are met. A good leader recognizes that they cannot do everything and they have to involve their team. Many of the leader’s responsibilities can be delegated to members of the group. Leaders should remember that for many tasks, demonstration is better than explanation. When managing the group, leaders must continuously assess group members’ needs, potential, and abilities and must consider those factors when allocating tasks. The best leaders are those who combine the needs of the task, the team, and the individual to create a strong team of happy participants, and have tasks completed to a high standard. Without active monitoring followed by thoughtful decisions, the integration of the needs of the task, the team and the individual will not occur. Leaders must monitor progress against: the targets, the motivation and the enthusiasm of the team; the suitability of individuals for specific jobs; and many other items. Managing the group is about transforming a bunch of individuals into a well-functioning team that works efficiently and effectively toward the same goal(s). This is easier and requires people skills such as public speaking, tact, discretion, decision-making, initiative, even-handedness, a sense of humor, willingness to give feedback, and — perhaps above anything else — hard work. Leaders will encounter many situations that require them to make decisions that affect the whole group. A few of these situations include volunteers that find they are not interested in the work, personality clashes, poor weather, prejudice, lack of tools, accidents, dietary issues, and risks to health and safety. Experience helps leaders deal with these situations but there are some principles that apply to them all. Each person has needs. In order to establish a safe mental environment, leaders must ensure that people’s individual needs are being met (Rockall and Gertsch, 2001). Supervisory responsibilities Much of what managers and supervisors do is solve problems and make decisions. New managers and supervisors, in particular, often solve problems and decisions by reacting to them. They are "under the gun", stressed and very short for time. Consequently, when they encounter a new problem or decision they must make, they react with a decision that seemed to work before. Its easy with this approach to get stuck in a circle of solving the same problem over and over again. Therefore, as a new manager or supervisor, get used to an organized approach to problem solving and decision making. While leadership is easy to explain, leadership is not so easy to practice. Leadership is about behavior first, skills second. Good leaders are followed chiefly because people trust and respect them, rather than the skills they possess. Leadership is different to management. Management relies more on planning, organizational and communications skills. Leadership relies on management skills too, but more so on qualities such as integrity, honesty, humility, courage, commitment, sincerity, passion, confidence, positivity, wisdom, determination, compassion and sensitivity. Besides, it is essential to have a good communication and relationships with the team. This means that if you are leading a large organization you must check that the processes for managing, communicating and developing people are in place and working properly (Chapman, 1995). Communication Skills Probably no other skill is as vital as communication skills in the world of the supervisor or manager. Effective communication is the most critical element of successful supervision and leadership.  Building relationships with the team members at all levels of the organization is the key to a supervisor or manager’s success and to both personal productivity and organizational effectiveness. When communications are good, information flows smoothly, delivering clear messages that people can easily understand and act on. When it is not, confusion leads to misunderstanding, inaction or wrong actions (FMLink Group, 2001). Send clear and complete messages: A message is clear when it is easy for the receiver to understand and interpret, and it is complete when it contains all the information that the sender and receiver need to reach a common understanding. In striving to send messages that are both clear and complete, supervisors or managers must learn to anticipate how receivers will interpret messages and to adjust messages to eliminate sources of misunderstanding. Build a feedback mechanism into messages: Feedback is essential for effective communication. Supervisors or managers should build a feedback mechanism into the messages they send, either including a request for feedback or indicating when and how they will follow up on a message to make sure that it was understood. When supervisors send written messages, they can request that the receiver respond in a letter, memo or fax; schedule a meeting to discuss the issue; or to follow up with a phone call. By building feedback mechanisms such as these into their messages, supervisors ensure that they are heard and understood (FMLink Group, 2001). Determining Effective Orientation and Training Methods The supervisors need to organize training and orientation programs at a regular interval for the team. This will help to motivate, rejuvenate or energize the team for achieving the set goals. The training of the team is regarded as vital to the successful accomplishment of any mission. It is necessary and desirable that the team’s self-development efforts be supplemented with programs that will help the development of skills, knowledge, and abilities which will enhance the performance of official duties and to develop an effective work force for existing and future needs. Determining Training Needs: The development and implementation of a systematic, planned survey of short and long-range training needs should be completed at regular intervals. Probably once in every year. In determining training needs, supervisors should conduct a thorough analysis of their organizations. The normal place to start is to take a close look at the jobs in the organization. Supervisors should review the position descriptions to identify the major duties and responsibilities of the jobs in the unit. Once the major duties and responsibilities have been identified it is usually a pretty easy process to recognize the skills, knowledge and abilities that are needed to successfully perform these duties. The final step in this process is to assess the employees in the unit. The supervisor needs to decide where each worker stands relative to the required skills, knowledge and abilities and in comparison to the supervisor’s expectations. In other words the supervisor is measuring the gap between the requirements of the jobs and the capabilities of the people who perform the work. Developing Training Plans: Once the supervisor has decided what the job is, how it works, and how well it is done at each grade level, the next step is to tailor a plan for the development of each worker - whether a new trainee, intermediate or full performance level. A good individual development plan includes: A list of the specific tasks and expectations of performance required of the person at their current level; How the skills needed to carry them out will be acquired or improved, for example through on-the-job training, classroom instruction, or self-study; When the training will start and who will be responsible for conducting and evaluating it; What performance level must be obtained at the end of each training experience; and finally where the person can go for additional help if needed. The evaluation of training is an integral part of the total process of planning, organizing and conducting training and development activities. It is a process whereby supervisors and managers analyze whether the training provided to the employee meets the training needs identified at the start of the cycle. For the most part, evaluation of the results of training is a matter of observing and evaluating the individual’s job performance before and after the training (Human Resource Development, N.D.). Improving Productivity for Teams Planning is the most essential task of any supervisor of manager. The planning should include identifying goals, objectives, methods, and resources needed to carry out methods, responsibilities and dates for completion of tasks. The job of management is to support employees efforts to be fully productive members of the organizations and citizens of the community. Controlling, or coordinating, the organizations systems, processes and structures to effectively and efficiently reach goals and objectives are a major step in planning. This includes ongoing collection of feedback, and monitoring and adjustment of systems, processes and structures accordingly. Effective planning also includes proper time management which is one of the most important steps toward improving productivity of the team. A manager or a supervisor should take adequate steps to improve the productivity of their team through achieving the set goals in the set time. One of the most difficult facilitation tasks is time management -- time seems to run out before tasks are completed. Therefore, the biggest challenge is keeping momentum to keep the process moving. If the planned time on the agenda is getting out of hand, present it to the group and ask for their input as to a resolution. Conducting Performance Appraisals Yearly performance reviews are critical for any organization. Performance reviews help supervisors feel more honest in their relationships with their subordinates and feel better about themselves in their supervisor’s roles. Subordinates are assured clear understanding of whats expected from them, their own personal strengths and areas for development and a solid sense of their relationship with their supervisor. Avoiding performance issues ultimately decreases morale, decreases credibility of management, decreases the organizations overall effectiveness and wastes more of managements time. Design a legally valid performance review process: Performance planning and appraisal need to be: job-related and valid; based on a thorough analysis of the job; standardized for all employees; not biased against any race, color, sex, religion, or nationality; and performed by people who have adequate knowledge of the person or job. Design a standard form for performance appraisals: it is essential that a proper format for appraisal is prepared which should include the name of the employee, date the performance form was completed, dates specifying the time interval over which the employee is being evaluated, performance dimensions (include responsibilities from the job description, any assigned goals from the strategic plan, along with needed skills, such as communications, administration, etc.), a rating system (e.g., poor, average, good, excellent), space for commentary for each dimension, a final section for overall commentary, a final section for action plans to address improvements, and lines for signatures of the supervisor and employee (McNamara, 1999). Resolving Conflict Over a period of time we are all involved in numerous situations that need to be dealt with through negotiation; this occurs at work, at home, and at recreation. A conflict or negotiation situation is one in which there is a conflict of interests or what one wants isnt necessarily what the other wants and where both sides prefer to search for solutions, rather than giving in or breaking-off contact. Resolving conflict can be mentally exhausting and emotionally draining. But it is important to realize that conflict that requires resolution is neither good nor bad. There can be positive and negative outcomes. It can be destructive but can also play a productive role personally and for your relationships-both personal and professional. The important point is to manage the conflict, not to suppress conflict and not to let conflict escalate out of control. Many of us seek to avoid conflict when it arises but there are many times when we should use conflict as a critical aspect of creativity and motivation. You will be constantly negotiating and resolving conflict throughout all of your professional and personal life. Given that organizations are becoming less hierarchical, less based on positional authority, less based on clear boundaries of responsibility and authority, it is likely that conflict will be an even greater component of organizations in the future. Studies have shown that negotiation skills are among the most significant determinants of career success. While negotiation is an art form to some degree, there are specific techniques that anyone can learn. Understanding these techniques and developing the skills will be a critical component of career success and personal success (Wertheim, N.D.). Improving Employee Relations Sometimes everyday dealings with individuals or employee groups can cloud the ability to make fair and consistent decisions, which is the foundation of strong, positive employee relations. Building a strong employee relations program means that you create an environment which fosters such decisions and also delivers what people want today. The key elements of an organization’s employee relations program include- A written statement of the organization’s employee relations philosophy; A communications program that transmits information from top management to employees and from employees to top management; A set of personnel policies and practices that is consistent with the organization’s stated philosophy. Policies would include such things as absenteeism, tardiness, hiring and pay. Pinpointing what it is that employees want within an organization and creating universal guidelines to manage employee relations may be somewhat ambiguous (CareerMidEast, N.D.). Finally, working in a climate of change is difficult for leaders but it is more difficult when there is constant reaction and disagreement about fundamental direction. Being successful a managerial level demands learning and updating yourself with new skills. Today in every company special training programs are conducted to improve the leadership qualities among the managers and the staff. This manual has highlighted a few of the aspects required for best practices and supervisory responsibilities. References CareerMidEast, (N.D.) Improving Employee Relations. Available from: [Accessed 11 January 2006]. Chapman, A. (1995). Leadership. Available from: [Accessed 10 January 2006]. FMLink Group, (2001). Facilities Check List. Available from: [Accessed 10 January 2006]. Human Resource Development, (N.D.). Available from: [Accessed 11 January 2006]. McNamara, C. (1999). Free Basic Guide to Leadership and Supervision. Available from: [Accessed 10 January 2006]. Rockall, A. and Gertsch, F. (2001) Leadership Basics: A Guide to Leading Groups of Volunteers, Federation of Ontario Naturalists, Available from: [Accessed 10 January 2006]. Steven Covey (1989), The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. 1st edition. Franklin Covey CO. Wertheim, E. (N.D.) Negotiations and Resolving Conflicts: An Overview. Available from: [Accessed 10 January 2006]. Read More