Becoming a supervisor for the first time is both exciting and scary. Exciting because your skills and talents have been recognized; scary because leading others means greater responsibility and people are relying on you. Here are some strategies to help ensure success.
Team Cohesion: While it may be tempting to immediately jump into working on tasks, it is critical to devote time to develop your team. The more rapport and trust you can build up front will pay off in the end. Camaraderie is a key driver of results, so do not overlook the importance of it.
Ask for Advice: Meet with each of your team members to find out what is working well and what is not. Find out how the team can be improved. What’s their opinion of how decisions get made, how work is accomplished, and how people work together? Find out one thing they’d do differently if they were put in charge.
Communicate: Team members want information, so the more you communicate with them the better. Explain your rationale for decisions, share company priorities, and describe your vision for the team. Use a variety of communication methods including in-person, email, memos, posters and videos.
Goals: Clearly establish ambitious yet achievable goals and engage the team in forming them. Their involvement in creating goals will solidify their commitment. Convey the link between team goals and company goals. Begin by establishing how their job relates to the team’s goals and how the team’s goals then relate upward to the company’s. If you’ve inherited goals from the previous supervisor then take time with your team to assess and update them.
Listen and Observe: Take time to quietly sit back to assess your team. Pay attention to how people interact and how work is accomplished. Notice if a different process would help work get done more easily. Observe if certain team members seem to dominate while others tend to get sidelined.
These strategies will help make your transition into supervisor a smooth one.
Heather Backstrom is an executive coach, leadership development consultant and speaker. She has a doctorate in organizational leadership from Pepperdine University. She can be reached at www.heatherbackstrom.com.