What supervisory skills do I need?
As a supervisor, you need to develop the following seven skills.
1. Set and communicate clear, specific goals.
2. Prioritise and plan work into its most logical order.
3. Delegate the right task to the right person.
4. Inspire action in every member of the team.
5. Continually monitor the feedback-results your teams actions are creating.
6. Notice what is NOT working: Make intelligent corrections to the plan.
7. Notice what IS working well: Give immediate appreciation to those who have earned it.
Here are a few words on each skill set.
1. Set and communicate clear, specific goals.
The team exists to achieve goals. The supervisor's first task is to understand the MAJOR Goal and to break the major goal into its subsets. Then to effectively communicate the subset goals to the team.
2. Prioritise / organise the work into the most logical order.
You cannot do everything at the same time. So, you must prioritise tasks into the most logical order. Everything has a proper order (sequence). If you do the "right things", but in "the wrong order", you can get very bad results. Supervisors must understand the value of proper prioritisation and organisation.
Supervisors skill: Do the right things in a logical order.
3. Delegate each task to the correct person.
Once you have the tasks put into order, then you allocate them to the correct person. Delegation is a key skill for supervisors to master. Delegate as much work as you can, to the correct person, at the right time.
4. Inspire action in every member of the team.
If we assume now that everyone knows the goal and the plan, it is important to get people into action.
Some people tend to procrastinate.
Supervisors need to overcome any procrastination that is present in the team.
Supervisors must motivate people to take action.
5. Monitor the feedback results being created.
As soon as people act, they generate "feedback results". These feedback results can be either positive or negative. The supervisor must keep a constant watch on the quality of the feedback results the team's recent actions have created.
Is the feedback positive or negative?
6. Notice what is NOT working well: Make necessary corrections to the plan.
Negative feedback identifies the parts of the plan that are not working well. The supervisor's skill is to identify the negative and take immediate corrective action to improve the situation.
This is the one of the most challenging and important skills for the supervisor to master, and therefore, you may need some specific training in this aspect of supervision.
7. Notice what is working well: Give appreciation and praise to the team.
It is also important to notice what is going well, and to issue positive feedback to those members of staff who have earned it.
Supervisors should be quick to give proper appreciation, praise and thanks, to those members of the team who are doing a good job.
Failure to give proper appreciation has been the cause failure for many supervisors.
Supervisory skills include a good understanding of the "social motivators", such as thanks, appreciation and praise.
Supervisory Skills Training Course
If you would like to learn more about training for Supervisors, check out our practical Supervisor Training Course, which is held at venues throughout the UK and can be delivered in-house as well.
Delegation
Delegation is a business process where a supervisor hands a clear result and deadline to the best person, gives them the authority and tools to act, keeps final responsibility for the outcome, and agrees review points to guide and measure progress. If any of these four parts are missing, true delegation has not taken place.
CG4D Definition
Context: Business
Genus: Process
- Supervisor gives one person a clear result and deadline
- Supervisor passes the authority and tools needed to do the work
- Supervisor keeps overall responsibility for the final outcome
- Supervisor sets review points to guide and check progress
Article Summary
Great supervisors turn goals into results by mastering seven core skills: set clear goals, plan tasks in order, delegate wisely, spark action, track feedback, correct slips fast, and praise wins. Use this cycle each day and watch your team grow.