Effective leaders today recognize the critical importance of the roles and accountabilities of front-line Supervisors to the achievement of organizational objectives. Effective leaders actively lead Supervisors through middle managers to an understanding of those roles and accountabilities. My experience has been that too many leaders ignore front-line Supervisors, assuming they are being led effectively by middle managers, which is not always the case. The result is that too often Supervisors are left to their own devices to figure out their roles and accountabilities and their priorities, based on their technical competencies and biases. Most Supervisors usually do not reflect an understanding of people and how to supervise them in their decisions and their actions. Further, Supervisors are usually left out of the strategic visioning process and therefore do not feel they have any obligation to champion it with employees.

To be effective, Supervisors must have a clear understanding of their multifaceted roles and accountabilities. It is the responsibility of the leader to ensure this is, in fact, the case. Second, Supervisors must be familiar with the rudiments of people management and the concept of Emotional Intelligence. Third, they must be enrolled in the strategic vision process of the organization so they can champion it with employees. There is a singular reason for these three imperatives: Apart from employees' peers, the Supervisor is potentially the most effective person in the organization for influencing employee attitudes toward their work and toward the organization. This makes the position of Supervisor of strategic importance to the organization and a strategic priority for leaders.

This issue of Strategies & Solutions is devoted to Role Clarification. The next two issues will cover Emotional Intelligence Orientation and Enrollment in the Strategic Visioning Process.

The Strategy: Leading Supervisors through Role Clarification

The effective leader acknowledges that Supervisors have at least nine primary roles and ensures each Supervisor is equipped to perform them when needed. And, part of this process is to ensure that the middle managers who are responsible for Supervisor oversight know and understand these nine roles. Middle Managers need to held accountable for ensuring Supervisor candidates are trained to perform these roles competently before they ascend to the position of Supervisor. These nine primary roles and a brief descriptor of each follow.

Leader / Advocate: Leads by articulating and explaining the Vision, Mission, Core Values and Business Objectives of the organization; interprets and advocates the best interests of the organization to employees and the best interests of the employees to the organization, especially middle managers and leaders.

Performance Manager: Ensures employees know performance standards, employees have performance goals and the resources to achieve them and employees are delivering expectations; they do this by regularly / systematically following-up with every employee, one-on-one.

Coach, Counselor & Advisor: A routine role performed every day whereby performance standards and expectations are reinforced, active listening is employed as a primary people management tool, and advice is given only about job-related matters and where employees can go to seek advice about personal matters affecting their work.

Change & Transition Leader: Communicates and champions what organizational changes are taking place, the fundamental reasons for the changes and the desired outcomes of these changes, all in the context of why the change is important to employees.

Strategic Communicator: Knows what is going on in the organization, how it impacts the work environment and communicates same to employees routinely/systematically, and face-to-face. The frequency of the communications is mandated by how critical the message is.

Problem Solver: Instinctively understands that the main goal is to prevent the problem from occurring again (rather than simply fixing symptoms temporarily) and has mastered a step-by-step model, including identifying the problem, analyzing the problem, generating at least three realistic potential solutions, selecting the best solution, developing an implementation plan, evaluating the application.

Decision Maker: Is decisive and willing to make decisions with scant knowledge and limited time and consults with knowledgeable employees for input before reaching conclusions and deciding on options.

Team Leader: Practices a work ethic that includes the principle "together everyone accomplishes more" (T.E.A.M.). It is here that the Supervisor focuses on the critical importance of every individual in the group and the gifts individuals bring to the mission and why mutuality of interests is paramount to that mission.

Colleague, Coworker, Collaborator: This role is thrust upon Supervisors because most were employees at one time and, in the minds of current employees, should therefore be empathetic to employee concerns and issues. Also, most Supervisors spend some of their time being hands on workers. The caution here is for the Supervisor to know when to wear the Colleague hat and when to wear the Supervisor hat.

Concluding Comments: Individuals should be selected as Supervisors only if they have demonstrated the capacity to learn these roles over a discrete period of time. Sitting Supervisors should be retained only if they they demonstrated they can competently perform these roles. This means leaders and middle managers must provide the context for this to happen. Leaders must provide the vision and direction, inspiration and motivation, recognition and rewards for Supervisors to flourish. Middle managers must provide the coaching and counseling, skill training and development (and the time to do it) and support and encouragement in the work place every day for Supervisors to develop the confidence and will to supervise, which are critical prerequisites to success.

Final Thought