-
New Responsibilities.
Promoted managers typically had strong technical
skills as employees. They knew their job and they
did it well. And while these technical skills are
important to managers, they become less useful.
Promoted managers must perform new tasks, uncover
new knowledge, and learn new skills to be
successful.
-
Varied Responsibilities.
Whereas employees tend to know what they will be
doing each day, managers often find themselves being
pulled in many different directions, performing
tasks they didn’t expect, and making decisions about
what to do and when to do it. Some people thrive on
this controlled chaos, and some are quickly
overwhelmed.
-
Time. Employees
typically work their shifts and call it a day.
Managers are expected to keep up a hectic pace and
keep at it until the job is done. Time is
particularly challenging for new managers who tend
to spend more time reading, learning, and creating
their game plans. New managers are not limited to
8-hour days or 40-hour weeks and receive no overtime
pay.
-
Balance. New
managers need to find their feet and optimize their
balance between technical, administrative, and
people tasks. This doesn’t mean managers should
spend the same amount of time in each of these
areas; it means they should not neglect one for
another.
-
Feeling Alone.
New managers often feel alienated from other
managers and employees. They may feel unsure how to
relate to new employees who question their abilities
or old coworkers who treat them differently. They
may be reluctant to ask questions or admit they need
help from their boss or other managers. Moreover,
frontline managers are often caught in the middle
between supporting company policies and initiatives
and supporting the concerns and needs of their
employees. It can be a lonely feeling.
-
Personal Wellness.
Wellness can be defined as an active process through
which people become aware of and make choices for a
lifestyle designed to realize one's highest
potential for wholeness and well-being. Wellness
begins with an awareness of the existence of your
individual abilities, accomplishments, limitations,
and goals. Wellness can become a state of mind, or,
as in the definition above, a more successful
lifestyle. Especially in the case of new
supervisors, it is more important than ever to pay
attention to being healthy. New supervisors (and
supervisors generally), may be under more stress,
have less time to think about taking care of
themselves, and be exposed to new germs and
sicknesses at work. Being healthy involves many
different parts of your life, including eating well,
exercising, resting and relaxing, and being careful
about sickness.
II.
Knowledge and Skills of Supervision in a Multicultural
(and Multigenerational) Workplace
Supervisors in the 2000s will be challenged by a
dynamic, shifting and shrinking workforce. The
traditional white, male-dominated workforce will become
obsolete, with a more diverse workforce made up of
females, minorities, the disabled and the elderly taking
its place. Supervisor training is the answer to
effectively managing these changes. Across the country,
many companies have implemented workplace diversity
through extensive supervisor training programs. These
programs address the importance of understanding each
employee and how individual needs differ. With the real
threat of a shrinking workforce ahead, employee
retention becomes an additional focus. Traditional
management styles are not as successful, with the new
workforce as the “leader” or “coaching” styles of
management. Companies that do not effectively train
their supervisors to handle the needs of a variety of
people and do not shift their management styles to
accommodate the new workforce may struggle to stay
afloat.
Closely akin to multicultural diversity is the idea of
generational diversity. Sociologists, psychologists, and
everyday managers have identified important differences
between generations in the way they approach work,
work/life balance, employee loyalty, authority, and
other important issues. Multigenerational diversity is
not new, but for the first time in recent history, the
workforce includes four generations of employees: the
Veterans (i.e., people born between 1922 and 1943), the
Baby Boomers (i.e., people born between 1943 and 1960),
the Generation Xers (i.e., people born between 1960 and
1980), and the Nexters--also called Millennials,
Generation Y, and Generation Next (i.e. people born
between 1980 and 2000). Although these generations share
some common values and beliefs, they also exhibit
differences stemming from the experiences of their eras.
It’s never been more important to understand what values
influence today’s segmented populations/generations and
how you can best position your products and services to
influence these distinct groups.
III. Emotional Intelligence for Managers and Supervisors
Exploring and developing emotional intelligence not only
makes people happier and more successful, it helps
motivate them, manage stress more effectively, and
resolve conflict with others. It gives supervisors and
managers the skills to be able to encourage, comfort,
discipline, and confront different kinds of people
appropriately in different situations. It determines how
effectively people express emotions within the cultural
context of their family, their workplace, and their
community. It determines how well people listen and how
well they are heard.
Developing emotional intelligence skills can be an
invaluable resource for supervisors, managers, and
anyone who needs to build competencies in their work
with individuals, teams, or groups.
IV. Supervisors: Leading Themselves and Managing Their
Own Learning
A critical skill for anyone is the ability to manage his
or her own learning. In today's rapidly changing
workplace, learning is more important than ever before.
But many people don't understand how learning takes
place and how to manage the process. Supervisors need to
know how to analyze their previous learning, design an
action plan for future learning, expand their
educational opportunities, and use libraries and the
Internet effectively in order to become a proactive and
perpetual learners.
V. Mentoring New/Probationary Supervisors
A mentor is an experienced and trusted advisor and
guide, someone who is genuinely interested in developing
others and has the ability to encourage the supervisor
to manage their own learning and development.
Mentoring needs to take place within a relationship of
trust, honesty and confidentiality. It is part of the
support for an individual new/probationary supervisor
and complements learning on the job, formal training,
and personal development planning. A mentor will
encourage the supervisor to review his or her
experiences in order to improve performance, focusing on
future performance in the role. Supervisors and others
need to better understand the role of the mentor, the
purpose of mentoring and how to make the mentoring
effective.
VI. Performance Management
Simply put, performance management includes activities
to ensure that goals are consistently being met in an
effective and efficient manner. Performance management
can focus on performance of the organization, a
department, processes to build a product or service,
employees, etc. Supervisors need to become proficient in
a number of areas, including performance goals and
plans, observation and feedback, evaluating performance,
rewarding performance, recognizing performance problems
(gaps), and firing/hiring employees.
VII. Enhancing the Supervisory Working Alliance
Much attention is paid to the skills needed to be an
effective supervisor, but less is know about enhancing
the working relationship between supervisors and
supervisees. The supervisory working alliance refers to
the collaboration between supervisee and supervisor for
change in the supervisee based on mutual agreement on
the goals (e.g., mastery of “counseling” skills) and
tasks (e.g., observing counseling sessions) of
supervision, as well as a strong emotional bond (e.g.,
mutual caring, trusting, and respect).
VIII. Career Development and Life Planning
For many busy professionals, reflection on career and
life planning focuses much more on career – the getting
around, the getting ahead, and the getting things done –
and less on life. It is important for people to
regularly assess their own needs to ensure that their
lives are balanced. This balance is closely related to
career success. People have many life roles, including
child, student, leisurite, citizen, worker,
spouse/partner, homemaker, parent, and pensioner (among
others). These roles constitute our “Life Rainbow”, and
periodic review of these roles and their significance
will help to affirm the positive and adjust the
neglected – and help you refocus your priorities and
develop both personally and professionally.
"Thank you for enhancing the leadership and
communication
skills of Allegany ARC's Management Staff."
Betsy Obuhanich | Staff Development Coordinator,
The ARC of Allegany County
Please read additional
Leadership &
Management Training articles > and browse through
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