SBenegaL

Category: Supervisory

  • Communication – Supervisory 4

    In the last byte, we looked when and where persuasive communication could help supervisors. In today’s byte, we look at the requirement of being sensitivity to the employee’s feelings and the need of being informed about activities that would stand the supervisor in good stead.

    Sensitivity to Feelings:
    Employees come in with their own self-image which is built over time; they also create numerous psychological defenses. A supervisor would need to be sensitive to these and also the feelings that the employee would possess.

    A general observation one could find a sensible supervisor would be – praise in the public, but criticize in private. This care helps the supervisor remain sensitive to the self-esteem of others. These supervisors work to ensure that the self-esteem of an employee is enhanced as appropriate to the individual’s real talents, abilities and achievement.

    Informative Managers:
    A supervisor in addition to having the responsibility of organizational work completed also acts as a mentor to his/her team.

    A supervisor generally receives large volumes of information in varied forms – written or verbal; in case all of this information is transferred to the employee – this could lead to information overload; while on the other hand, limiting the information could lead to lack of sufficient information to ensure good performance and task accomplishment.

    Better supervisors would need to spend time balancing the information distribution appropriately. They would also need to plan their communication to ensure that they build consensus in their team to execute without hazels.

    It would be apt to conclude the supervisory communication aspect by saying that interpersonal communication is a key foundation to the human relationships at work place and be effective at it.

  • Communication – Supervisory 3

    In the last byte, we looked at the requirements of supervisors being expressive and also empathetic. In today’s byte, we look at the persuasive and sensitive dimension of the supervisors.

    Supervisor’s ways of communication could generally be classified to be into one of the three forms:

    1. Directive
    2. Autocratic
    3. Persuasive
    A supervisory position generally comes with power and influence in an organization, this is generally to ensure that the work allocated to their employees is done well and the expected performance and results are achieved.

    If a supervisor chooses to be autocratic or directive most of the times, then (s)he would be rubbing the employee on the rough side many a times. A manager could instead use persuasive communication where the supervisor (manager) would encourage others to achieve results intend of telling them what to do! The supervisor would need to necessarily have to be patient if (s)he is to use the persuasive means of communication to get the work done.

    The above argument doesn’t mean to say that directive or autocratic communication is never to be used. It is the situation that would define the application of these means – emergency and high-risk situations (exceptional situation) are one where the directive and assertive nature of the supervisor would be most useful.

  • Communication – Supervisory 2

    In the last byte, we listed the 5 essentials that a supervisory communications should possess. In today’s byte, we look at how an expressive supervisor and how empathetic listening could help supervisory communication,

    Expressive Supervisor:
    Just imagining working with a supervisor who is completely and introvert and doesn’t talk to his/her subordinate about what his/her thought are; how would it feel? The subordinate would definitely be left wanting to know what their supervisors are thinking or feeling!
    Given this scenario, it would definitely be useful to have a supervisor who is expressing about their thoughts, ideas and feeling – they have to speak out their mind in meetings and outside. This requirement would translate to saying that the supervisor would have to tend towards extroversion and an extremely introvert supervisor would find it hard to be effective at getting the work done through their employees.

    Empathetic Listening:
    We have discussed in depth of about reflective listening over the last few bytes. Being empathetic listener is just another of the components of reflective listening. Supervisors would need to be willing to listen with patience and be responsive to the problem that the employee or peers bring to them in the context of a work setting. Responding and engaging with the concerns of other people help them be empathetic to the employee or peer with whom they are working.

    Empathetic listeners should thereby be willing to listen to the feelings and emotional dimension of the message people provide them and simultaneously look at the content of the ideas and issues. This enables the supervisors be more approachable and better at listening to suggestions and complaints.

  • Communication – Supervisory

    In the last byte, we looked at some special feature of one-way communication. In today’s byte, we look at Five Essential aspects that would help Supervisors communicate better with their subordinates.

    A manager and an employee spend several hours working together on projects – interpersonal communication between them thus holds a key role in ensuring effective performance of the organization. This interpersonal element has two components – language of communication and the power that is held by the manager! It is a intertwining of these two.

    Through numerous research on the subject matter of manager-employee communication helps identify five communication skills that distinguish between a “good” and a “bad” supervisor. Following is the list of these five communication skills:

    1. Expressive Speakers
    2. Empathetic Listeners
    3. Persuasive Leader
    4. Sensitivity to Feelings
    5. Informative Managers
    We shall discuss about these in the next few bytes.