Soaring As The New Supervisor On The Block
Alice B. Ruleman
Alice gave some excellent tips for new supervisors, including keeping track of what you can control (knowing your management style, caring – and learning about – your employees, expressing expectations, learning policies & procedures), what the challenges you will face are (amount of training you get, feeling intimidated, not having enough time, feeling alone, being overwhelmed and stressed out) and things that you need to know (how things are done and what the formal and informal routines are). She gave some tips on self-training; study your job description, learn routine activities, let employees help you, look for training opportunities, learn less routine items were all mentioned. She also gave us tips and tricks to help us find our feet as new supervisors:
* Be yourself
* You set the tone for the day
* Start slow
* Be respectful
* Be visible
* Emphasize teamwork
* Be fair and consistent
* Be a good communicator
* Provide training
* Make your own decisions
* Admit when you are wrong
* It’s a process!
We then went from tips & tricks into a discussion of leadership styles. She had us take a Leadership Styles Quiz (pdf) and then we discussed what each leadership style meant. She finished by saying that the best supervisor combines all 3 leadership styles, depending on the situation and the employees.
