In the rigorous battle for talent, the supervisor role has been established as a key element. To help supervisors be successful, we have outlined four imperatives to creating a satisfied and fulfilled workforce. This blog post will explore the first of the four imperatives: Changing Your Mindset.
To better understand the essential nature of the supervisor role, we can look at the example of small unit leadership in the military. In the navy, a junior officer is responsible for commanding a small team. The reason why this setup is so successful is that the junior officer is communicating directly with their team, and problem-solving in real-time.
Supervisors share similarities with the Junior Officer role since they are also closest to the challenges and frustrations of the individuals they lead. This puts both roles in the best position to intervene and assist with any issues that arise. Despite supervisors being best able to understand the challenges their staff faces, and communicate the culture of the company, they are typically left out of critical business decisions.
An experiment was conducted at a university to showcase the value of work. Faculty members asked a group to create origami objects. After the task was completed, the group was asked how much they would pay for their piece of artwork. They placed a high value on these pieces since they sacrificed their time and energy for their creation. A second group was then invited to look at these same origami pieces and place a price on them. These two values differed immensely, with the second group failing to see the value and pricing each piece a low amount.
This experiment teaches the importance of a supervisor's approach when viewing the roles of each employee. There needs to be a shift in how a supervisor view's someone work and how the employee views their own work.
We are entering a new era of management in the workplace. Supervisors can no longer treat their teams as a collective group, they must cultivate one-to-one relationships to understand what each individual wants to experience. This shift in leadership style will not occur on its own and starts with in-depth training from upper-level management with their supervisory teams. This change will take time and will not occur overnight. It will require supervisors to learn how to ask important but difficult questions to understand the experience of every employee they are managing:
These are examples of the kinds of questions that will help supervisors create meaningful connections with their employees.
Final Thoughts
The research shows us that the supervisor role is imperative to a successful team, however, a drastic change is required for supervisors to thrive in the workforce. By keeping in mind key elements such as creating more in-depth training for supervisors, and putting workplace culture cultivation at the forefront, these changes are attainable. Stay tuned to learn the three other helpful imperatives to support your supervisors.