Supervisor-Supervisee Relationships

Few relationships are parodied as often as the relationship between supervisors and the people they manage. Think of Homer Simpson reporting to Mr. Burns, or the gang on The Office dealing with former manager Michael Scott. We often enjoy portrayals of the “bad” boss or the “crazy” boss who causes employees to sit around the lunch table complaining, even though in real life, most bosses are fairly reasonable people. Perhaps we find pleasure in these portrayals because supervisors, inherently, have power over us. Bosses negotiate our salaries and approve our vacation time; they might determine our hours or whether or not we get promoted. There are supervisory roles in nonworkplace situations as well. Your priest may require you to attend premarital counseling sessions before he will agree to marry you and your fiancé; you have to get your student government president to approve your idea for this year’s budget before you can actually plan to do anything with that money. And to achieve anything worthwhile with your supervisor, the two of you must be communicating regularly.

VIDEO: Leadership: Common Mistakes Made by Newly Promoted Supervisors, Team Leaders and Managers Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dde22DMuhFE
Once promoted to being a supervisor or team leader, the new boss thinks that he or she has to answer every question or solve every problem. Leadership expert Greg Schinkel from Unique Training & Development shares insights into how to be more effective and build the strength of the team. 
 

If you’re involved in a professional, community, or student organization where people are reporting to you, don’t be a Mr. Burns! You should know how to get the most out of your conversations with the people you supervise. Often you can improve communication by following just a few simple steps:

• Schedule adequate time for important conversations. For example, if you are the president of a student organization and you need to speak to the treasurer about his messy bookkeeping, don’t do it in the ten minutes you have between classes. Set up an appointment, and allow adequate time to discuss the problem and generate solutions.
• Minimize distractions or interruptions in order to give your full attention to your supervisee or employee.
• Ask supervisees for suggestions and ideas. For example, if you’re working as a manager in a bank, you might ask the tellers for suggestions to make the work schedule more equitable.
• Demonstrate that you’re listening when a supervisee is speaking to you, giving appropriate verbal and nonverbal responses, such as paraphrasing what you’re hearing and nodding.

Even if you manage several people, you almost certainly report to a supervisor yourself—and it’s important that you be able to communicate competently in this context as well. You can certainly follow the guidelines regarding listening and avoiding distractions that we mentioned earlier, but there are a few additional points to consider when you’re the person with less power:

• Spend some time thinking about what you’d like to say to your boss. What are the main points you want to make? What do you hope to achieve through this discussion? It’s embarrassing to start talking with a supervisor only to realize that you forgot what you wanted to say.
• Then spend some time rehearsing what you want to say to your manager. You might even ask a friend or family member to rehearse the conversation with you so that you can hear yourself speak.
• When you speak with your manager, try to avoid being emotional or hurling accusations such as “You always . . . ” or “You never . . . .” It’s typically more productive to be specific and logical and to ask for clarification: “When you removed me from the Edwards project, I took that to mean that you didn’t think I was capable of handling it. Am I misunderstanding something?”
• Remember to be open-minded in discussions (whether with your boss or with other members of your organization). In the example above, for instance, your boss may have taken away a particular project because he or she has something else in store for you. Be an active listener.
• Keep the lines of communication open. Misunderstandings or unfocused goals are often the result of a lack of clear communication.
•  
•  

Source:  Dan O'Hair and Mary Wiemann describe the power oforganizational culture, in their textbook  Real Communication An Introduction with Mass Communication.