Great Supervisors Are Great Communicators

As a new supervisor you need to think about who you are and how other people perceive you through your informal and formal communications. There has to be a more self-conscious reflexivity about your role in the world to be a successful supervisor. This is a hard concept to communicate in a few words so it may require some study on your part. Start with the Myers-Briggs theory of personality types and begin to consciously understand and adjust your "type" to the other styles around you. Not that you need to become a Myers-Briggs acolyte, but you need to be aware that people have very different approaches to problem solving and that they will react to your presentation as much as your intention.

Communication is not just about the words that you speak or the memos that you write. Everything about you, as a leader, communicates to the team around you. If you walk into the workroom with a smile on your face and a "hello" for your team their productivity will rise that day. You need to communicate with deliberate, thoughtful intention, not just because you have a mouth and air in your lungs. Harvey Golub, the brilliant former Chairman of American Express, used to say, "If I talk to the analysts with a smile on my face the stock goes up 3 points." Yours may not be a multi-million dollar smile today, but someday.

Say things you mean to say in a thoughtful style that communicates a serious, open intent. Realize that listening is one of the most important elements of communicating for a supervisor. Listen with an ear for the hidden message, listen without judging if the facts are not all in place. You need to listen just "above" the conversation to really have an impact. Listening "above" the conversation means both participating in the conversation and thinking about what the conversation really means and where it is going. More importantly you need to think about where the conversation should go; every interaction is potentially a teaching or a coaching opportunity. Assume one of your employees is lightly joking about another employee during a break? Obviously you should not participate in the joke, everyone deserves to be treated with respect (especially behind their back), but is there a deeper conflict below the surface? Have the employees learned how to raise issues with each other forthrightly, but without damaging relationships. Have you successfully communicated the need to "deal direct" and "treat people with respect?"

The most important aspect of communication that you'll engage in as a supervisor, and the most difficult for almost everyone, is direct, one-on-one feedback. Let me offer you the deepest, most carefully hidden secret to being a great supervisor-one that I learned too late in my career to apply. By the time I learned this, the people around me were so talented that it really didn't apply any more. Get ready, here it comes: ask for the result you want. Ask for the result you want. Don't hint about it, don't wish for it, don't kick the dog at night and fret about it, just sit down with your employee in a quiet room, face-to-face, and ask. "George, listen to the customers more carefully, you're missing critical information on their applications." "Susan, you were late three times in the past two weeks, please arrive on time." "Rakesh, you are not respectful of your team members, please let them talk in the team meetings."

People want to know what they're doing right, what they're doing wrong and how to improve. People will respond positively to direct coaching and feedback if you're respectful, direct and appropriately requiring that standards be met.

You need to be the stone in the middle of the stream. You can't stop the water from rushing by, but you can be quietly unyielding in directing its path.

Copyright © 2007, Lotus Pond Media

Steven Grant is a former customer service executive from American Express with over 25 years devoted in Fortune 500 companies analyzing, improving and delivering on enhanced customer experiences. Share your experiences and suggestions on improving the customer experience at http://www.customerresearchcenter.com or email Mr. Grant at scgrant@customerresearchcenter.com

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