Typical Roles of a Supervisor
Written by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Copyright 1997-2008.
Adapted from the Field
Guide to Leadership and Supervision.
(This document is referenced from Basic Overview of Supervision. Note that the overview also describes typical responsibilities of a supervisor.)
Sections of This Topic Include:
CoachMentor
Advocate for Organization
Advocate for Employee
Coach
A good supervisor places a high priority on coaching employees. Good coaching involves working with employees to establish suitable goals, action plans and time lines. The supervisor delegates and also provides ongoing guidance and support to the employee as they complete their action plans. Rarely can job goals be established without considering other aspects of an employee's life, e.g., time available for training, career preferences, personal strengths and weaknesses, etc. A supervisor is sometimes confronted with walking a fine line between being a supervisor and the employee's confidant.Mentor
Usually the supervisor understands the organization and the employee's profession better than the employee. Consequently, the supervisor is in a unique position to give ongoing advice to the employee about job and career. The employee can look to the supervisor as a model for direction and development. An effective mentor-mentee relationship requires the supervisor to accept the responsibility of mentorship. A good supervisor can be a priceless addition to the career of an employee.Advocate for Organization
Often, the supervisor is the first person to tell employees about new policies and programs from management. It's not uncommon that employees are confused or frustrated by these new actions, and need further clarification and support from supervisors. In the rapidly changing world of today's organizations, it can be a major challenge to present new programs to employees without their being frustrated or even cynical. The supervisor must be authentic, yet tactful.Advocate for Employee
The supervisor is often responsible to represent the employee's requests and to management, along with also representing the employee's case for deserving a reward. For example, if an employee deserves a promotion, the supervisor often must justify the case for promotion to the supervisor's supervisor, as well. If the employee has a rather unique personal situation that warrants special consideration by the rest of management, the supervisor must explain this situation and how it can be handled. It's not unusual for employees to sometimes see the supervisor as part of "management" while at other times seeing the supervisor as a personal friend.Return to Basic Overview of Supervision
For the Category of Supervision:
Related Library Topics
Recommended Books
For Supervising Yourself, See
Personal Development -- Related
Books
For Developing Individuals, See
Training and Development
-- Recommended Books
For Supervising Teams, See
Facilitation and Teams -- Related
Books
General Information About Supervising Other Individuals
Field
Guide to Leadership and Supervision in Business
- by Carter McNamara, published by Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Provides step-by-step, highly practical guidelines to recruit, utilize and evaluate the best employees for your business. Includes guidelines to effectively lead yourself (as Board member or employee), other individuals, groups and organizations. Includes guidelines to avoid burnout -- a very common problem among employees of small businesses. Many materials in this Library's topic about staffing are adapted from this book.
Field
Guide to Leadership and Supervision With Nonprofit Staff
- by Carter McNamara, published by Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Provides step-by-step, highly practical guidelines to recruit, utilize and evaluate the best staff members for your nonprofit. Includes guidelines to effectively lead yourself (as Board member or staff member), other individuals, groups and organizations. Includes guidelines to avoid burnout -- a very common problem among nonprofit staff. Many materials in this Library's topic about staffing are adapted from this book.
The following books are recommended because of their highly practical nature and often because they include a wide range of information about this Library topic. To get more information about each book, just hover your cursor over the image of the book. A "bubble" of information will be displayed. You can click on the title of the book in that bubble to get more information, too.
Also See
Human Resources -- Recommended Books
Leadership -- Recommended Books
Management -- Recommended Books
