Supervisor Skills Training
Supervisor skills training
The supervisor has a difficult role.
They are under pressure from all sides:
- From the more senior managers
- From the customers
- From the other team members
The supervisor is often promoted internally, from within the organisation, and may even be "managing his mates": which is very difficult.
Your supervisor may not have had any special training.
You may owe him/her the support training he/she needs:
Put him on a specialised training course, written for his particular needs.
What are the unique supervisory training needs?
The supervisor needs to be able to do the following things:
The duty of a supervisor is to set a standard
He/she should be a role model: an example of the behaviour he wants from the others.
She cannot impose good time keeping on others if she, herself is always late.
He cannot expect others to be smart if he, himself is a mess.
To set clear targets for the team
The supervisor should set daily and weekly goals for the team and strive to achieve them.
To communicate with more accuracy and clarity
The supervisor should work on his ability to express himself clearly in both the written and spoken form.
Vague or unclear language will lead to misinterpretations of instructions; and therefore to errors.
Clear, specific instructions will lead to fewer conflicts and better performance.
- Accurate language can be gained by using numbers.
- Accurate language relies on your ability to create definitions for all of your major terms
To properly manage the person who negatively affects the atmosphere
All teams have people who can upset the atmosphere.
The supervisor must be able to challenge the negative influence in the team.
The supervisor must be able to give "constructive criticism".
Constructive criticism is feedback that:
- Points out the error
- Gives the alternative behaviour
- Gains commitment to change behaviour
- Does not trigger a negative emotional response in the listener.
The supervisor should be able to manage his own emotions, especially during tough times
Anyone can feel motivated and strong when things are going well.
But we also need to be able to feel motivated and strong when things are going badly.
The ability to create mental strength and confidence, in the face of adversity, defeat and criticism, is emotional resilience and mental toughness.
Having resilience and mental toughness is a definite advantage. Having resilience training is therefore of great benefit.
It is achieved by noticing at all times what you are thinking about.
Recognise that you feel the emotions that are consistent with your thoughts:
- If you are thinking of food, you will soon feel hungry
- If you are thinking of sex, you will soon feel sexy
- If you are thinking of what will happen if you fail, then you will feel overanxious
And the over anxiousness might cause you to make a mistake, that you otherwise would not have made, and then you fail
- So don't focus overly on the consequences of failure
- Don't focus overly on what has happened in the past
- Instead, focus on what you need to do next, in order to achieve your goal
To properly prioritise tasks
All tasks have some value.
But note this: Not all tasks have the same value.
Complete tasks in order of value.
Don't put off high value unpleasant tasks, because they are unpleasant.
Don't favour pleasant, but low value tasks, because they are pleasant.
Do the high value task irrespective whether you like them or not.
Focusing on the high value task first will mean that you are more frequently doing the most valuable thing.
This is rare.
Many people are not doing the most valuable thing: they are doing the most pleasurable thing.
Some people are doing even worse than that: they are doing destructive things.
To properly delegate tasks
Some of the things that are not the most valuable have to be delegated to others.
Delegation is the act of intrusting a task to another.
Delegation has the following advantages
- Delegation ensures the job gets done
- It is a motivator
- Delegation is a form of training
- It shares the load
- It frees you up for more valuable work
The supervisor should know when to compromise and when to stand firm
Sometimes the supervisor should be flexible and give some ground, in order to find a compromise
Sometimes he/ she should stand firm and giving ground would be a sign of weakness.
It is important to know when to do one and when to do the other.
Each supervisor must know his /her list of NON negotiable rules.
On what issues is there no compromise?
To make the supervisor more capable of leading the team with confidence
Self-confidence is the feeling that you are more capable that the demands made upon you.
Lack of confidence stems from the belief that the demands upon you exceed your capability.
To gain confidence, it is important to:
- Not overemphasise the nature and difficulty of the demands placed upon you.
- Increase your skills and knowledge capabilities to deal with the demands.
- Increase your use and perception of your existing capacities.
To do all three at once
The supervisor should creating the right "success attitude" in the team
The supervisor should learn to run the team according to the five part "success formula".
1. Know your outcome
Write out your goals for the week
2. Formulate your best plan in writing
Write out how you intend to achieve your goals
3. Take decisive action
Get cracking and implement the plan
4. Gather and evaluate feedback. Both positive and negative
Some parts of the plan are working
Some parts are not working
5. Make progress by continually adapting and evolving
Rewrite the plan as many times as is necessary in order to keep making progress.
Recognise the success formula is a continual process
The supervisor should learn to avoid running the team according to the five part "failure formula "
Failure formula is the opposite of the success formula:
- Indecision or unclear targets.
- No written plan.
- Procrastination- putting things off until they are a crisis
- Become too disheartened in the face of setbacks.
- Stand still. Do the same thing this year as you did last year.
For more information about our supervisor skills training visit the Corporate Coach Group website
About the Author: Chris Farmer
Chris Farmer is the founder of the Corporate Coach Group and has many years’ experience in training leaders and managers, in both the public and private sectors, to achieve their organisational goals, especially during tough economic times. He is also well aware of the disciplines and problems associated with running a business.
Over the years, Chris has designed and delivered thousands of training programmes and has coached and motivated many management teams, groups and individuals. His training programmes are both structured and clear, designed to help delegates organise their thinking and, wherever necessary, to improve their techniques and skills.
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