can be brought into play in controlling their attitude toward you and their jobs. Whenever leaders fail to win the affections of those who are under their command, it can be assured that the fault is mainly in the leader.
1.A great deal can be told about a supervisor by observing those who work in the department.
▪Are they happy in their jobs? Are they ready with a smile? Are they free of job tension? Do they appear to be happy working in this department?
2.Part of the manager’s strategy is giving proper recognition to individual achievements. They praise loudly where others can hear, and blame softly in private.
▪They do not praise without rhyme or reason, or lay it on with a shovel.
3.Keep in mind that all people have hidden abilities. Every so often give workers some job slightly over their head, one at which you know they can succeed with reasonable effort.
4.Be the sort of manager who wants all workers to make good, who helps them make good, and who rejoices when they succeed. The happy worker will be a very productive worker.
5.The manager needs the support of the others in the management group. It is important to avoid intradepartmental jealousies that prevent effective cooperation; talk with other supervisors, not about them.
Give praise and recognition when deserved where others can hear; blame softly in private to avoid humiliation.
SOMETHING ABOUT STATUS
Satisfaction in your work will consist of good supervision directed toward the good of the company and not in having a title.
▪Supervision can be done without showing your authority or developing a superiority complex. Wear the title lightly, but make sure that they know you also have a job to do.
▪How democratic should manager be? They should associate with the workers sometimes, and show courtesy and friendliness, while maintaining the dignity of their position.
▪A good supervisor will allow others to share the limelight, and will delegate responsibility to them.
•Some supervisors make the mistake of thinking that the job will not be done right unless they do it themselves. The failure to assign duties prevents staff from growing.
•Delegation comes easiest to the person who has a strong sense of the end result, sees the objective clearly, and strives to reach it through others while giving a clear lead and firm guidance.
DIALOGUE IS NEEDED
This requires good communication both ways between the supervisor and worker. The effective manager is one with whom employees feel free to discuss important things about their jobs. Workers who have something to say like to think that they will be heard. It confirms the belief that their job is an important part of the organization.
1.Don’t communicate with workers exclusively on a high management plane. Identify the ideas, facts, and changes with the job of each worker and talk over important matters with them.
2.Communication is the key to pleasant departmental operation. What you know about the work that your employees should know but don’t, will damage or slow down work.
▪Tell workers promptly and clearly what they should know, and listen carefully to how they think it may affect their jobs.
3.Carefully explain when it is necessary to introduce a new order of things. Most people are not very successful in carrying out plans that are not clear in their mind.
4.Foresee possible objections and discuss them in your presentation together with the reasons.
▪By looking at the change from the worker’s viewpoint, you see the things that must be cleared away so that they can appreciate the good points of your position.
5.State your thoughts simply and make the instructions as clear as possible. Crises generally develop because someone got the message wrong.
6.If employees make a suggestion, tell them what action has been taken, and why.
▪If their suggestion is not adopted, they will accept that fact with full understanding when the reasons for rejection are clear and sound.
▪The cause of offense is not the rejection of an idea, but the rejection of it without careful consideration and discussion.
Reasonable intelligent people with a common objective, in the presence of the facts, do not have too much trouble coming to an agreement.
ASKING QUESTIONS
It is a sign of strength to admit that you don’t know all the answers. Research is needed in even the most routine-bound office or shop. It should be directed toward building and revising a sound structure so that it leads toward the most efficient discharge of work. Research may consist of only standing at the door, looking at the activity of the staff, and asking: “What is the result of all this activity? Is it all necessary?”
Questions, even though the answers are not readily available, are valuable because they mean the existence of another viewpoint. One great problem of efficient management is believing that things are all right as they are, and should not be changed.
SOLVING PROBLEMS
Supervisors will always have various problems arise and these should be considered challenges that must be understood and resolved. The secret of problem solving is to collect and analyze the facts, separate the essential elements, and put them together in a related and meaningful way. Management and the staff may admire the resulting solution as natural brilliance, but you know that it is the result of thorough and painstaking investigation resulting in evidence considered and plans made.
Keep your thinking organized under pressure. You have to know about pressures and tensions and stresses created by the management job. These can be minimized if you see the problems clear and whole, and tackle them with positive confidence and in an orderly way.
MAINTAINING DISCIPLINE
Discipline in business is a clear-cut responsibility of management. There have to be rules, but they should not be too rigid, cause aggravation, destroy personality, or standardize thought and action.
▪Some supervisors impose strict disciplinary measures, not because they are needed, but because they think it is good for their workers to learn to obey.
▪Be firm in enforcing the principles you believe in, but yield in matters that make no difference to the success of the department.
▪Spend little time in finding fault, and make clear that your aim is designed not only to uncover bad work, but also to bring good work to light.
▪Help the uncertain worker and give encouragement toward improvement. It is more honorable to build people than it is to fire them.
WHAT ABOUT MORALE?
Above all, be fair. Tyranny humiliates those who suffer it and also those who exercise it; it is loaded with dynamite for the supervisor who uses it.
1.Good morale cannot be made compulsory or bought; it must be earned. It is the product of consistently high management character.
Have I done something
