Developing Yourself As A Supervisor - Assignment Example

An excogitation of this notion is imperative to comprehend what is required to develop oneself as a supervisor. Leadership involves much dynamic roles to be played by supervisor in order to achieve the goals both effectively and efficiently. Leadership or leading is more about influencing people through examples rather than merely exercising authority over them. Bateman-Snell (2003, p15) delineate the term as, "Leading is stimulating people to be high performers. It is directing, motivating, and communicating with employees, individually and in groups.

Leading involves close day-to-day contact with people, helping to guide and inspire them toward achieving team and organizational goals. Leading takes place in teams, departments, and divisions, as well as at the tops of large organizations". The above definition subtly enkindles an approach towards people-management. It reflects that a leader in true sense is a people-player, being capable of driving people to achieve high standards of performance through proper direction, communication and motivation.

In order to be successful as a leader, the supervisor needs to be capable of determining a 'direction' to be followed, 'communicates' the goals to the team members and then 'motivates' them to accomplish those goals in the most desirable manner. Motivation plays a key role in . He nurtures the environment for development, creates an atmosphere of contribution and drives the willingness of subordinates to work by reconciling the organisational benefits to their personal welfare. Horner (1997, p274) further elaborates this point as, "leaders understand what people value, they can impact people's actions by defining what behaviours will produce desired outcomes".

Hence, the leader directs and motivates the people after developing a sound understanding of his team members and their personal desires. Therefore, leadership does not only lie in setting goals, having a vision and identifying direction for competitive advantage, rather in order to be a successful supervisor one needs to identify his people's needs and coordinate their efforts through personal qualities. Mastrangelo, Eddy and Lorenzet (2004, p435) state that, "effective leaders engage in both professional leadership behaviors (e.g. setting a mission, creating a process for achieving goals, aligning processes and procedures) and personal leadership behaviours (e.g. building trust, caring for people, acting morally)".

The crux of this concept is that both personal and professional calibres of leadership cannot be termed as innate, as these qualities can be acquired and developed consistently through practice and experience. However, the question lies in a leader's own desire to understand people and exert effort to inspire them. As understood, the focus of leadership is people and an effective management of people is the key to effective leadership. Heifetz and Lauries (1997, 46), "Before putting people to work on challenges doe which there are no ready solutions.

A leader must realize that people can learn only so much so