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Helping Supervisors

Guest post by: Robert Whipple

Article Overview: The first line manager, or so-called "Supervisor" has a particularly tough job. This level gets the brunt of worker unrest but also takes heavy flack from upper management. This article deals with some ideas to lighten their load and provide some more recognition for what they are doing.

Helping Supervisors

The management layer closest to the shop floor requires the most training and support. The person is usually called a "Supervisor" or "Team Advisor". This level deals with the "us versus them" dichotomy more than any other. The fortunes of the entire organization are made or lost in the trenches of the First Line Supervisor.

Supervisors are bombarded with people issues, while simultaneously being challenged by upper management. Often they are dedicated ex-shop-floor or sales people who have done well and shown organizational ability. They were selected because they got things done and had behaviors consistent with the organization's values. Some had training in leadership, but many were just "appointed" to sink or swim in a new role. Organizations rarely give adequate training and mentoring to these people. They exist and survive as best they can with the day-to-day issues.

If we realize the pivotal importance of these leaders, we will focus on them and lighten the load. Be brilliant in the selection process, and give these individuals the very best in training, mentoring, and support. Reinforce them for their special contributions, rather than load additional sacks of burden onto them like donkeys. This allows more energy to be focused on important things like the outside world.

Opportunities lie with the external market and the customer. The real enemy, the competition, is also external. Unfortunately, in many environments, internal battles consume the most energy. Check out the reality of that statement in your organization. For one day, keep track of how much energy is directed inward at each other, rather than outward. Organizations that rise above the internal fray to focus on the customer and competition have a competitive advantage. Noel Tichy provided an example in his book, "The Leadership Engine." He described the transformation of focus at General Electric that occurred after Jack Welch took over as CEO:

"In the political arena, Welch took on GE's massive bureaucracy. For decades, GE's ‘scientific management' system had been considered one of the company's greatest strengths. It allowed the company to discipline and control its far-flung and diverse businesses. But by the early 1980s, the bureaucracy had taken control, and the company was choking on its nitpicking system of formal reviews and approvals. People were judged and paid according to how well they responded to the bureaucratic rules, even though the procedures delayed decisions and often thwarted common sense. Mastering the system had become a stylized art form and a requisite for advancement. The result was that many of GE's best managers devoted far more energy to the internal matters than to their customers. As GEers sometimes expressed it, the company was operating with its face to the CEO and its ass to the customers."

In startup or small companies, entrepreneurial spirit and absence of strata reduce the problem, allowing a focus on winning. Survival is at stake daily, so there is little time for internal squabbling. If an individual does not focus on organization goals, he is expelled with little fanfare. As success leads to growth, the organization takes shape, and the seeds of myopia are sown. Ultimately the large organization emerges with a focus on internal battles and decline begins.

It is possible for large mature organizations to avoid this trap or reverse it, as GE did. It takes outstanding leaders that create an environment of trust at all levels.

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Article Tags: leaadership, management, Supervisor, trust, values



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