Management & Supervision Are Leadership

Whether you like it or not, if you are a supervisor and/or a manager, you are a leader.  Here is the how and the why:  you are observed and copied.  Your reactions are monitored and then mimicked.  You’re statements are repeated and your name is used.  You either approve or disapprove of every single item that crosses your desk and every single behavior that you witness.  This is the simple process that makes all supervisors and all parents leaders.  What you approve of and reward will be repeated.  What you disapprove of will be practiced only in secret, if at all.  Good, bad or indifferent, your actions will affect all of those around you.  Many managers and supervisors are unaware of these facts and so they fail miserably in leadership 101.

As a manager you may turn a blind eye to questionable performance and maybe you do not realize that by doing this you are giving tacit approval to under-performers.  This tacit approval sets a standard for everyone.  For those staff who are high achievers with an internal locus to control, this kind of “blindness” to low performance is demoralizing.  High achievers will accomplish their work, no matter what, but the level of resentment will be high and staff morale will be low.

There is an old saying “The soldier has a right to competent command.”  Competence means that as a supervisor, you are completely aware that you have an obligation to communicate your principles, values and ethics to your staff.  Your staff must know what your value system is and they need to see you enforcing that value system.  Competence means that you understand that you must perform in a visible way.  How you act and what you say broadcasts to everyone the kind of behavior that you expect.  Not saying anything, communicates volumes about you.

The next time you make disparaging comments about your staff, recall this article and realize that, if you have been with a team for a year or more, you are 100% responsible for how they are performing.  No manager in an organization can blame it on the staff.  Staff are only a reflection of the kind of manager that you are.  They act as a mirror to the top…