SUPERVISING WELL TAKES TIME

Most people would readily agree that doing anything complicated—and doing it well—takes time. Those who study human performance take this as a given. You simply don’t become an athlete overnight or master software coding in one sitting.

So why do so many supervisors say they don’t have the time to do their jobs right?

“I don’t have the time to listen to everybody.”

“I don’t have the time to explain this to the team.”

“I don’t have the time to conduct high-quality performance evaluations.”

“It’s faster if I just do it myself.”

The clock ticks at the same rate for everyone, but we each choose how to spend our time differently.

As anyone who has ever written down all dollars spent (or calories consumed) for a month knows, our perception is not always 100 percent consistent with reality. A starting point for supervisors who don’t think they have the time to supervise well is to get clear on how they are really spending their time. You may be surprised to find you are wasting time that could be spent actively supervising your employees.

Let’s say you discover you have 15 minutes a day to devote to supervision. The real reason you’re not taking advantage of that time may be that you’re not exactly sure what to do next. Or supervising may make you uncomfortable.

With this insight and self-awareness, you can take some proactive steps in your available time to learn the basics of supervision: communication, goal-setting, and feedback, for starters. Most organizations simply throw supervisors into their new role, with no real preparation or learning. If this is the case, the ball is in your court.

In my first role as a supervisor, I was given zero training; as a result, I started off with the notion that my main job was to tell people what to do. Painful experience and a supervisor who encouraged me to use this approach only as a last resort jump-started my own learning as a supervisor.

The best way to learn is to continually experiment and notice clearly your results. Don’t expect perfection right away. Supervising well takes time and experience. Feeling like you should already be proficient as a supervisor can cause helplessness and can sidetrack you from engaging in the steps you need to take to improve.

In honing your supervisory skills, it is important not only to focus on immediate goals but also to think about growth—of people, processes, teams, and organizational maturity. Don’t make everything about right now; make a conscious effort to think about the future. Continuing to take steps in the right direction, over a sustained period of time, builds surprisingly powerful capability.

Also, be on the alert for a tendency to spend time in the weeds as a technical, solo performer. This is a predictable retreat for supervisors who are uncomfortable with the complexity, messiness, and social skills needed to supervise well. Overwhelmed by this all-new reality, it is easy to drop back to what you do well individually. If you let yourself slip into this comfort zone, you’re not acting as a supervisor; instead, you’re an individual contributor with a supervisor title.