Supervising
Question: “I’m not sure how to handle my new supervisory position. Before being promoted, I was friends with my former co-workers, so I’m finding it difficult to tell them what to do … I know I have to demonstrate leadership, but I’m afraid this will turn me into an unlikeable person. After all, does anyone really like their boss?” — Nice Guy
Linda recently wrote on our Admin Pro Forum, “I recently took a job where I supervise three administrative assistants. I work directly on a daily basis with one admin … but I don’t have daily contact with the other two admins, because they are in different parts of the building. How do I supervise the other two and complete their performance evaluations?”
Question: “Our group has one person, ‘Cindy,’ who is called the team lead. This is not a supervisory position. Although she is just supposed to assist our supervisor and fill in when he’s away, Cindy constantly tells me what to do. Because our open-door policy says we can go straight to the vice president, I plan to discuss the situation with her. What do you think?” — Not a Pushover
Question: “I manage a group of four women who bicker constantly and ‘cop an attitude.’ To make it worse, I recently hired a young, inexperienced secretary who is very rude … I feel like I’m supervising a bunch of tattling 2-year-olds. Sometimes, I plan what I’m going to say about these issues, then I chicken out. I know I need a stronger backbone, but I don’t like dealing with conflict. What should I do?”
Moving on up can be thorny if you’re not prepared to make the transition from peer to supervisor. David Peck, aka “The Recovering Leader,” offers six points to consider during and after a promotion:
Question: “After a recent promotion, I have two former peers reporting to me. Supervising them has been very challenging. ‘Terry’ frequently comes into my office to gossip, and ‘Ellen’ refuses to recognize me as her boss … If I constantly remind them that I am now the manager, I’ll look like I’m full of myself. How do I handle this?”
When you’re promoted to a position where you must manage former peers—or current friends—it’s only natural to want them to like you. But at the same time, as a manager, you need to demonstrate fairness. Earn the respect of the team and build trust with these tips:
Workplace budgets remain tight, yet recession-weary employees are more in need of morale boosters than ever. Now’s the time to use a little creativity to reward workers. Here are a few ideas from Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter, whose advice appears on a Harvard Business Review blog:
Ask a person if he likes criticism, and he’ll probably say no. Most of us would prefer constant praise. But most of us also want to know that people take our work seriously. We crave feedback that is thoughtful and thought-provoking. The trick is learning how to give and receive meaningful feedback. Here’s how:
It sounds like a nearly impossible challenge: employee appreciation on a lean budget? Try making employees heroes: heroes in their own eyes, heroes in the eyes of their peers and heroes in the eyes of their families. Here’s how:
Benefits consultant Ken Stahlmann spells out three keys to creating crowd-pleasing employee-recognition awards:
You need to show Tom how you pull together monthly data, and one of the newly hired assistants needs coaching on some online tools. Here’s an easy way to accomplish both: Screencast-o-Matic lets you create a video from your screen (your “screencast”) and upload it to share.
Your 26-year-old co-worker doesn’t want to wait until her annual review to find out how she’s doing at work. She wants to know now. Gen Y employees want more feedback, more often, than previous generations. They’ll seek it from their immediate boss, as well as others. If you’re not comfortable with or accustomed to offering feedback, heed these tips:
