Blog, Pitang.

How can we trust that people will do a good job without someone having to keep an eye on them? Even better: have you ever imagined working in an environment of trust?

The Role of the Supervisor

Let's first talk about the supervisory role.

A supervisor is a professional who oversees activities and operations to ensure that procedures and standards are met.

Supervising entails inspecting the work or task under someone else's responsibility, performed by someone who has a broader view of the work being carried out and who is able to guide the people under the focus of their supervision.

In some organizations, there are supervisors (more operational) who report to managers (more strategic); in others, the supervisory role is accumulated by managers. What is implicit in the supervisory role is ensuring that things go according to plan.

Ways of Supervising

There are a few ways to supervise, among them:

Control-freak:

One of them is management that, pressured to ensure they have control over the project and the project team, passes this "learning" and this "energy" on to their direct reports, checking every detail to make sure things are flowing smoothly. 

There are organizations where this trait is praised, under names like "attention to detail," "meticulousness," among others. There sits a manager who controls everything closely, as if using a magical, invisible magnifying glass to keep a watchful eye on everything happening under their responsibility. 

There is a name in English that best defines this type of supervision: control-freak. Controlling tasks, also known as micromanagement, may even be an appropriate practice in some contexts; however, modern leadership cares more about results than managing the details of the day-to-day work routine. It is exhausting work that does not empower direct reports and does not allow them to mature and grow. Leaders, in turn, are confined to the operational activity of supervision and have no time to act strategically.

Delegating:

If micromanagement is not a modern management practice, and is particularly harmful when applied to creative economy professionals and knowledge workers, one of the options is to delegate. 

"Delegating is not dumping." The point is that delegation is a process, not a single action, where leadership does indeed grant freedom to the team member (along with responsibility), but must make themselves available to support them however possible, conduct regular check-ins, and be present whenever needed to contribute to the outcome.

In other words: when applied well, the team member does not feel alone or micromanaged, but empowered, accountable, and supported. This practice, however, shows that ultimate responsibility still rests with leadership, but is shared with the team member.

Delegating does not have to be just about "yes" or "no": there is room to discuss the context—after all, solutions for teams always depend on the context and on finding the most appropriate approach according to the team's context or maturity level. Going from "no" to "yes" (or from "Telling" to "Delegating") can be done in stages, gradually.

Trust Your Team

Managers might think: "But if I start letting the team decide everything, soon there will be no place for me!" Note that this is a typical concern of operational management, focused on supervisory activities. 

Children on a playground definitely need supervision; adults in business environments, on the other hand, shouldn't. It's time to ask yourself what else you bring to the table besides giving orders, or how you actually contribute to value creation alongside your team. 

Maintaining the status quo does not foster innovation and interferes with the organization's survival. When people act like adults, the need for supervision is reduced, freeing up energy for leaders to stop being operational and start being more strategic.

Building a work environment where trust is the rule rather than the exception gives leadership the opportunity to direct their efforts toward the business as a whole and begin operating more strategically.

For team members, on the other hand, it offers the opportunity to grow professionally, take on new challenges and responsibilities, act with confidence, and deliver their best—after all, we honor our commitments much better when we take them on ourselves, rather than having our managers do it for us.

How to Apply This Knowledge?

1. Ken Blanchard, author of "The One Minute Manager," talks about the one-minute praisings and recommends that you try to catch your team members doing something right (instead of looking for what they are doing wrong). Recognize your team's good work and extra effort. Reward success with more autonomy. They will feel more fulfilled and will notice a friendlier atmosphere in their workplace;
    

2. Work on your human side. Try it out and observe the results: show interest in your employees as people, as the human beings they are. This goes far beyond practices like writing down the names of their spouse and children to use in casual conversation. It can feel forced and cynical if not done from the heart. Aim to have regular conversations about what people have been up to in their lives, and pay attention to their answers. A question I like to ask is, "So, did you do anything interesting this weekend?" — A real conversation starter that might just surprise you with the answers. 

Remember: In your professional life, there will always be people who will lift you up and people who want to pull the rug out from under you; make sure the latter are few.