Rita Sever - Supervision Matters: 100 Bite-Sized Ideas to Transform You and Your Team

In Praise of Supervision Matters

... Rita Sever captures the essentials and artistry of working with the hearts and minds of those we manage.

Renato P. Almanzor, PhD, Senior Director of Programs, LeaderSpring

A gem of a resource... full of support, advice, tools, and tips for those who supervise others.

Kathryn Gaines, Ph.D., President, Leading Pace, LLC

With her years of hands-on experience and wisdom, Rita Sever has captured the heart of supervision... Supervision Matters deserves to be on every leaders book shelf!

Diane Foster, MA, Career Development and Master Certified Coach, Author, The Skill Kit for Leaders

Supervision Matters is practical, useful, and packs a quiet punch that, cumulatively, can lead to lasting transformational effects.

sujin lee, Project Director, CompassPoint Nonprofit Services

Supervision Matters

Copyright 2016 by Rita Sever

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, digital scanning, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, please address She Writes Press.

Published 2016

Printed in the United States of America

Print ISBN: 978-1-63152-145-4

E-ISBN: 978-1-63152-146-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016937340

For information, address:

She Writes Press

1563 Solano Ave #546

Berkeley, CA 94707

Cover design Rebecca Lown

Interior design Tabitha Lahr

She Writes Press is a division of SparkPoint Studio, LLC.

All company and/or product names may be trade names, logos, trademarks, and/or registered trademarks and are the property of their respective owners.

Most of this work has been previously published in the Matters of Supervision newsletters published by Rita Sever over the last ten years.

To Mark,
who has always heard my voice
even when it was just a whisper

I n 1989, I worked in an AIDS service organization in Northern California. I was the sixth employee to work there. One day the executive director came in and announced to the entire staff that wed just received a large grant. Were going to double our staff in a month, she said. I need someone to take care of these personnel files. Who wants to do it? I raised my hand. That was the unanticipated start of my career in human resources.

As I learned how to do HR, I learned a lot about how people work. I learned what makes some people give their all and what makes others take shortcuts. I learned how to help people get along with each other and get their work done. By the time I left that organization nine years later, we had fifty employees. Along the way, I learned the rules and procedures of HR, but even more I learned how to work with people and how to build a culture together.

The next organization I worked at had 230 employees. This organization was across town and a world away in terms of the staff. It was another nonprofit but functioned more like a business. At the AIDS organization, people worked there because of their commitment to the mission. At CAP Sonoma, some people were there for the mission (to provide services to low-income people), but for many it was just a job. This made my job very different. I learned a whole lot more about HR and about people. When I started my own business many years later, I decided to focus on the most important component of day-to-day work for the staff: supervision.

While working at CAP, I earned my MA in organizational psychology. I would attend classes after working all day and go back to work the next day to observe the dynamics I studied and apply what I learned. Although I was exhausted from the long days, I was fascinated by the way organizations can either work well or not. What I learned reinforced my commitment to help people be better supervisors.

Supervision is a part of management, but it is not the same thing. Merriam-Webster defines management as the act or skill of controlling and making decisions about a business, department, sports team, etc. Management therefore includes working with projects, budgets, other departments, and products. Supervision is the management of people. Similarly, leadership is a part of supervision, but it is not the same thing. A supervisor is expected to lead his or her staff, but leadership can arise anywhere within an organization. A solitary staff member can be a leader at times and a designated leader may or may not supervise people. (They also may or may not be an actual leader, but thats another story!)

Studies show that supervision matters. To most people, their supervisor is the organization. If their supervisor is thoughtless and demanding, then thats how they see the organization. If their supervisor is supportive and fair, then so is the organization.

I saw the impact of individual supervision play out time after time while I was an HR director. The quality of supervision impacted productivity, quality of work, team interaction, conflict, and the culture of departments.

During exit interviews, when I would ask people, Why are you leaving? the answer usually led back to their individual supervisor. Even if employees did not directly say, Im leaving because of my supervisor, it often came down to that if I asked a few follow-up questions about why they started looking for another job.

The supervisor sets the tone for each department. The supervisor gathers the troops to get the work done. The supervisor connects the work to the mission (or doesnt) and sets the standards for work in each department. The supervisor harasses employees or doesnt. The supervisor recognizes liability or creates it. The supervisor makes day-to-day organizational life go round.

And the sad truth in many organizations is that there is often very little training for supervisors. The assumption is that supervision will take care of itself. If someone is good at their job, they are promoted and then they are often told as an afterthought, Oh by the way, part of your job now is to supervise your former coworkers.

Even on the rare occasions when supervisors are trained, that training is often on generic techniques focused on productivity, and the supervisor still doesnt know how to handle the interpersonal dynamics that make or break relationships with their employees.

This book was written for supervisors. The role of supervision is hugely underappreciated in most organizations. Every step a supervisor takes to implement an idea from this book will help them be more successful as a supervisor, which in turn will help their employees be successful and ultimately those actions will help the organization. Its a win-win-win!

This book does not lay out a roadmap for how to be a supervisor. It instead focuses on helping you think about your role, your approach, and your interactions with your staff. You can read one section a week or one section a day, or read whole chapters at a time. You can read the book from front to back, or jump in at any point that interests you. I do recommend that you pause along the way and take time to honestly reflect on your own supervisory style and how these ideas apply to your unique situation.

Any way you choose to enter this book will serve you and help you better understand how to approach this critical work of being a supervisor. It will help you ask some important questions about your organization, your team, and yourself. Whether you work in a small organization or a large one, whether you are a new supervisor or a seasoned supervisor, this book is designed to be your partner in the important work you do.