Effective Supervision – Key to Preventing Turnover

Last month I wrote about the coming of spring and spring turnover in organizations.  Many of us are not experiencing spring weather yet, but the calendar tells us that spring is officially here!

Today I’ll continue to focus on how to keep your best employees. Effective supervision is one of the most impactful things you can do.

Employees usually leave supervisors, not companies.  Are you providing top-notch service to the people you lead?

Supervision With A Twist of Customer Service

We spend a lot of time in business talking about how to provide better customer service (hopefully!).  As a leader, have you ever considered that your most important customers are the employees that are assigned to you?

They are the people that serve your customers, create or build products for your customers and provide support services to those that directly interact with the customers. If you’re focused on serving them at an outstanding level, your customers will be delighted with what your organization is doing for them.

Most supervisors were not always in a supervisor role.  They were employees themselves at one time. And most of them, with the exception of owners, have a boss.

But often times when people move into the management ranks, their perspective shifts and they start to think of those who work with them as beneath them on the food chain.  They slowly or quickly develop the outlook that employees are there to do things for and to please the supervisor.

Although that is true on some level, the other part of the picture is that the supervisor is in their role primarily to do things for the employee.

They’re to provide employees with clear direction about what the organization is trying to accomplish and how the employees fit in, give employees feedback about how they’re doing, make sure employees have the proper equipment and supplies to do their job, assist with issues that arise that the employee can’t solve and much more.

Reverse The Assumption

Most supervisors know these things are expected of them, and yet they still hold the often unconscious view that employees work for them.  What happens if we reverse that assumption?

Employees work for the customers or other employees; supervisors work for the employees. 

Yes, often supervisors work directly with customers, but without the supervision part of their job, they’d be one of the employees.  The role of supervisor is in place to support the employees.  How does a supervisor’s behavior change under this new assumption?

It’s a mindset change. If you can get your head and heart around this concept to the point where that is your belief, supervising employees becomes natural and nearly effortless.

You may not always give employees what they want and people won’t always agree with your decisions, but you’ll always make sure they have what they need to do good work.

Happy Employees, Happy Customers

This morning, my Yogi Tea Chai Green tea bag tag reads, “Inspiring others towards happiness brings you happiness.”

People spend 8 hours plus hours per day at work. Don’t you want to make these hours the happiest for them that you can?

Focusing what they do every day on how they can provide superior service to the employees they work with is one thing all top-notch supervisors do, whether they realize it or not.  This has the end result of making employees happy when they are at work.

Supporting employees’ happiness isn’t just the humane thing to do, it’s good for business.  If the employee’s happy, the customer is happy.

By understanding that you are in the position to make the employee’s work lives better, you will inspire others towards happiness.  Your reward will be happiness as well!

Be happy!  Jodi

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