It is natural that as people advance in a field, they often spend less time on the practice of their discipline-specific talents and more time on general organizational matters. One CFO candidate said to us: “I used to spend the majority of my time on finances, but now that I am CFO I spend half of time time with people, human resources and organizational issues.” This is true for most people who grow into a supervisory role.
The problem is that many times the people who become supervisors have lots of formal training on their subject matter expertise, but little to no training on being a supervisor. How did any of us learn to be a good supervisor? Most create their own style by crafting lessons from how they were supervised — modeling what to do and not to do based on what was done to them. Others attend a workshop here or a seminar there to pick up tidbits, but it seems like a lackadaisical approach to something of such importance.
I think part of the problem is that many supervisors see their primary job as still doing their content area, when in reality I believe their #1 job is supervision. As head of enrollment, my primary responsibility is to hire/train/evaluate/motivate/provide resources for my staff so that they can increase enrollment. The head of facilities is primarily a supervisor of a large crew of people with the knowledge and ability to keep the facilities in top shape. The head of a company is to set the vision and tone and work with his/her direct reports to infuse it into corporate-wide operations.
Supervision isn’t something that happens after you do your “work”; if you are a supervisor it is your work. The more attention you pay to that portion of your responsibilities, the more effective your results will be. I am reminded of a quote by Will Rosenzweig, Founder Republic of Tea:
“A real gardener is not a person who cultivates flowers, but a person who cultivates the soil.”
Pay attention to your soil more than to your flowers, and your garden is more likely to flourish.
— beth triplett
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