WHAT ARE THE FIVE FOUNDATIONS?

You will make a serious mistake if you take the five foundations lightly. On the other hand, if you weave them deeply into your leadership style, your success as a supervisor is almost guaranteed. Best of all, you can start practicing them immediately.

1. Give Clear and Complete Instructions

As a supervisor, you have a certain amount of “knowledge power.” You know more about how to perform certain tasks than most of your employees. How effectively you transmit this knowledge to them is the key to the relationship created.

When such instructions are given clearly and completely, the employee knows exactly what to do and feels good about it; however, when the instructions are hazy and incomplete, the employee loses confidence in the supervisor, and the relationship between them deteriorates. To feel secure, the employee must know what is expected and possess the skills to do his or her job. This kind of help comes mainly from the supervisor.

As a supervisor, take time in giving instructions. When possible, use visual illustrations. Follow the basic teaching techniques of keeping things simple and logical and providing examples. Of equal importance, make sure that instructions have been clear and complete by asking for feedback from the employees at the time the instructions are given, and then follow up by checking the following day to see whether the instructions were put into practice correctly.

With many important problems facing him, Supervisor Jake nevertheless took time to demonstrate patiently to Mary, an insecure new employee, how to operate a complicated, dangerous machine. Jake gave Mary more than two hours of his time, including two follow-ups, so that all errors were eliminated. On her second day at work, Mary felt completely competent and her productivity was almost up to average. This training happened more than a year ago, and Mary has yet to have an accident. Furthermore, Jake has had a strong, sound relationship with Mary from the very start.

2. Communicate: Let People Know How They Are Doing

To keep supervisor-employee relationships in good repair, take time to let employees know how they are getting along. Tell them whether they are doing well. But tell them. Most employees (especially new ones) want to know how to do their jobs better and will welcome help if it is provided in the right way. They also want to know when things are going well and when you are pleased with their performance. Don't let them feel that they are working in a vacuum and that you do not care.

Employees respond quickly to any stimuli created by you and can also sense the reaction of fellow employees. But the thing that hurts them most is neglect. They want to feel that they are an important part of the department, and they know that their future depends upon your training and support. An excellent way to keep the relationship in good working order is to provide both training and support. Being open to the needs of your employees will help create effective two-way communication.

Mrs. Browne is a highly capable night supervisor of nurses in an Atlanta hospital. She does not, however, believe in letting people know how they are doing. She almost never tells a nurse when she or he does well, but she comes down heavily when a violation occurs. As a result, she has more personnel problems than any supervisor on the staff. Nurses are constantly asking to be transferred to other wards. Mrs. Browne has been passed over for a promotion for three years in succession.

3. Give Credit When Due

Employees need positive reinforcement now and then if they are to keep their personal productivity at a high level. They need the compliment you intend to give before you get too busy with something else; they need recognition. Look for extraordinary quality performance from those who work for you. Sometimes it is best to give credit in front of the entire department. More often, however, it is best given privately. Praise should be given freely, sincerely, and most important, when it is due. To achieve this goal, you must constantly have your “radar” turned on to observe behavior that is deserving of credit. Supervisors who fail to give credit when it is due often have standards that are far above levels the employee is capable of reaching and are afraid that giving credit would be misinterpreted as undeserved flattery. This attitude leaves the employee feeling small and insignificant and usually results in lower productivity. It is necessary to be sincere in giving credit, and it is wise to be generous with giving it.

Karen handles certificates of deposit for her bank, which means she frequently deals with senior citizens who have accumulated enough money to purchase them in amounts of $10,000 or more. Many of these people become extremely nervous when making decisions. A few are overtalkative and difficult to send on their way. Others have hearing impediments. Last week at a staff meeting, Karen's supervisor complimented the entire staff on the improvements they had made in dealing with these customers and singled out Karen for special mention. The following day Karen told her supervisor that she had been thinking of leaving because she did not feel appreciated. She thanked the supervisor.

4. Involve People in Decisions

Certain problems may arise that only the supervisor can solve. The wise supervisor knows, however, that many problems can be solved with employee participation. In such cases, the supervisor must give people the opportunity.

When you involve employees in departmental problems that concern them, you accomplish at least three goals:

Often the secondary benefits of letting employees come up with solutions to problems are more helpful than the solutions themselves. When employees help make decisions, they grow and you gain. Involvement makes people feel important, challenged, and stimulated. It can release talent and increase productivity as nothing else can.

Make it a practice to turn over appropriate problems to the people who work for you. Let them struggle with solutions even though you could easily find the answer alone. Once they have an answer, accept it gracefully, giving their solution your full support. Employees often give greater support to their decisions than to those handed down by the supervisor. Do not, however, come up with your own answer and just wait for someone to match it, intending to do what you planned all along. Tricking employees into thinking that they are helping you find a solution to a problem that you have already picked is manipulative and easily spotted. Employees find out quickly that you cannot be trusted.

Marty, the owner of a successful boutique in an enclosed shopping center, had been paying a freelance window trimmer to change the front display twice each month. Her three full-time salespeople were so critical of the displays that she asked them to decide whether to keep the professional or to rotate the job among themselves. They said they would like to do it themselves. After two months, Marty had to agree that not only were the displays better, but all three salespeople were better motivated.

5. Maintain an Open Door

The supervisor who is easy to approach builds better relationships than the aloof supervisor who is hard to see and difficult to talk with. Encourage your employees to come to you freely with suggestions, with complaints, or for counsel. To allow this communication to happen, you must avoid building physical or psychological barriers between yourself and each employee. Rather, try to establish and practice an open-door policy through which free, open, healthy communication practices can be built. Fear or distrust can prevent good communication and hurt relationships. Merely keeping the door to your office open and telling employees to drop by is not enough. You must work to create a nonthreatening atmosphere of welcome that will cause employees to come to you. Seeking them out by walking around and visiting them is an effective strategy for opening doors.

Ms. Trent was the supervisor of an office staff of twelve. Unfortunately, her office was enclosed in glass and visible to all employees. They could not hear Ms. Trent's conferences, but they could observe them. As a result, despite her best efforts, no one wanted to be made conspicuous while talking over problems in the supervisor's office. Her solution was to schedule and conduct short discussions once a month with each employee at a special location in the employee cafeteria. These meetings took time she could ill afford, but it greatly strengthened relationships and productivity increased.