Are You a Manager or a Supervisor?

Sep 24, 12 | 12:08 am

By Alan Fairweather

I’ll bet that if you’re a manager, then you probably think you’re pretty good at your job; and I’m sure you are. However, some managers seem to think that they should know everything about the job that their team members do, and be better than them at doing it.

I can remember, in the past, working for managers like that; they gave the impression that they knew everything, and were far better than I would ever be at doing the job. This, of course, didn’t motivate me at all.

This type of manager believes that their job is to ‘catch people doing something wrong’ and let the staff member know about it. They continually supervise and micro-manage their people, and completely de-motivate them! It can often be a form of bullying or harassment.

The Motivational Manager accepts that members of their staff may be better at doing the job than they are. Their staff may be better salespeople, better at customer service, better administrators or better maintenance engineers.
I’ve had salespeople working for me who were better at selling than I ever was, however, that made me no less a good manager.

Sir Alex Ferguson, the manager of probably the world’s most successful football club, Manchester United, had a pretty undistinguished career as a footballer. He did at one time play for Glasgow Rangers but could hardly be described as a star footballer; he is now, of course, a star manager.

If you manage or supervise other people, have confidence in yourself. Accept your limitations and don’t feel bad if you don’t initially know the answer to every question.

Ironically, it isn’t motivational for your staff, if you come up with the answers to all of their problems or queries.
Encourage your staff to come to you with solutions, not problems.

If you spend all your time solving problems; you’ll spend all your time solving problems!

When someone in your team asks you what they should do, even if you know the answer, reflect back the question. Ask them what they would do; ask for opinions. What do they think is the best course of action; why do they think it’s the best? What are the consequences of this action, for the customer, the business and the team member?

Empower, support and congratulate them on their decision. If they feel that they’ve made the decision, they will have more confidence in themselves and be more motivated to do the job even better.

What you’re essentially doing here is utilising the knowledge, skill, experience and motivational power that is already with in your team.

Believe me, once you apply this, you will have a highly motivated team who respect and trust you as a manager.