Being elevated from being an individual contributor to a supervisor can be daunting as new skillsets are often needed to perform well. These centre around people management and can be distilled down to Planning, Organizing, Leading & Controlling. Let’s explore them briefly.
| Functions of a Supervisor | Questions to Ask | Key Tasks |
| Planning | What are the team’s goals and objectives? | • Alignment to my supervisor’s & department’s goals • Setting clear goals and objectives for my team • Review plans and appraise team members |
| Organizing | What are the roles and resources needed to meet the team’s goals and objectives? | • Organize activities • Distribute authority to my team members • Getting the right people to do the right job |
| Leading | How will I motivate, coordinate and energize my team members in meeting the team’s goals and objectives? | • Energize and motivate the team members • Engage the team members on a daily basis to understand their accomplishments and challenges • Recognize and provide Situation-Behaviour -Impact (SBI) based feedback |
| Controlling | How will I measure and monitor how I am doing with respect to the team’s goals and objectives that have been set? | • Monitor the results • Fine tune the process to realign with the original team’s goals and objectives • Revise standards for improvement |
Leadership skills certainly can’t be honed overnight. But developing these key skillsets will certainly get you off the starting blocks.
