How to Be a Great Supervisor

Almost anyone with company and job knowledge can become a good supervisor with time and practice. To be a great supervisor, you need sound approaches to leading and managing employees along with certain attributes that set you apart -- including sharp observation skills, flexibility and the ability to communicate and listen. Your efforts to be positive, to be a winner and to find the good in everything is a gift that can make you a great supervisor instead of just an adequate one. Your winning disposition can motivate your staff to help your department achieve superior results.

• Treat everyone on the job with respect and courtesy at all times. As a supervisor and, therefore, a company representative, you need to set the example for everyone else. You need not be friends with your staff -- in fact, avoid close friendships with subordinates to avoid real or imagined favoritism -- but you do need to get along with them.

• Learn to delegate jobs or tasks to each of the people you supervise. Those with more experience may not need close supervision and can be trusted to meet quotas and deadlines. Others, especially new people, need to be monitored periodically to ensure that they know what to do and how to do it.

• Have departmental meetings to communicate with your staff regularly to ensure that everyone's priorities are the same. Encourage questions, and be courteous in answering them so as to encourage others to come forward if they don't understand. If language issues exist, have someone who is bilingual on hand to help explain the duties.

• Keep everyone in your group aware of priorities and their order so they will do first things first. Avoid telling one employee and expecting him to communicate it to his work mates, which can present the impression of favoritism.

• Be professional. Don't bring your problems to work or talk too much about your personal life with your crew, but be cognizant of the fact that your employees will have personal issues that they bring to work from time to time. Allow them to talk to you about their problems, and be sympathetic; this shows you are human and understanding. Talk to someone in human resources if the same person has personal problems all the time.

• Listen and learn. New employees often come to the company with training that would help your staff perform better. Take note, and work to incorporate improvements in your workplace.

• Be consistent. Impose the same standards and benchmarks on all employees in the same manner. Don't favor anyone or accept excuses for why an employee cannot do a task. Address non-performance with a structured disciplinary program.

• Get your employees ready to be promoted to higher levels by training and developing their skills, even if it means a good employee will be transferred to another part of the company.