combating supervisory stress

8/2/2019 Combating Supervisory Stress

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CCOOMMBBAATTIINNGGSSUUPPEERRVVIISSOORRYY

SSTTRREESSSS

by Alexander (Sandy) McIntosh

2012 public domain


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PREFACE

Combating Supervisory Stresshas therapeutic value similar to a conversation

with a friend. After reading it, you feel less alone and begin to move down a morefunctional path. This book uses a logical approach to reducing tension. Its appealto the thinking process lessens stress before job tensions become so great that amore psychological approach is needed. It outlines basic principles of humanconduct needed to supervise effectively. By applying your own reason andpersonal experiences to the authors ideas, you combat your own supervisorystress.

In Part I of Combating Supervisory Stress,you will discover the authors beliefsabout conduct befitting a supervisor. If you sometimes feel stress heighten asyou analyze the authors words, consider that looking directly at the source of

stress may be the cause. Once the source is understood and accepted, thesupervisor is enabled to work more enjoyably and efficiently.

Part II gives specific advice for handling routine supervisory procedures. Anunderstanding of the breadth of responsibilities that a supervisor faces daily inperforming these tasks, and a clearer focus on why they must be done, increasesa feeling of purpose and lessens stress.

If your stress has not lightened after reading the book, consider that not all stressis caused by work-related problems. Maybe your stress originates in the home orin the community. If so, this book might still be helpful by preventing the

unfortunate error of leaving a job to eliminate stress that turned out not to be job-related.

This book also provides guidance to the non-supervisory employee. Somepeople feel stress in having to approach and interact with a supervisor. Animproved understanding of what to expect from ones own supervisor can lowerstress when communicating with that supervisor.

The author, my father, spent many years as director of Human Resources incorporations and hospitals. He has supervised supervisors, counseled them, andhas taught classes in supervision. He reduces stress by cleansing and renewing

ones natural motivation to do a good job. After reading his book, you mightdiscover a heightened desire to supervise and an increased pride in yourresponsibilities as a supervisor. Your stress will be reduced and self-esteemrekindled.

Ellen McIntosh

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CONTENTS

Introduction ............................................................................................... iv

Part I: Tension Prevention .................................................................................... 11. The Dignity of Work ................................................................................ 22. Communication ...................................................................................... 63. Loyalty .................................................................................................. 174. Termination of Employment ................................................................. 215. Leadership ........................................................................................... 266. Morale .................................................................................................. 337. Motivation ............................................................................................. 378. Maturity ................................................................................................ 42

9. Hiring and Keeping Employees ............................................................ 4610. Self-Identification of the Supervisor .................................................... 51

Part II: A Few Supervisory Duties Explained for the New Supervisor ................. 5611. Planning ............................................................................................. 5712. Decision Making ................................................................................. 5913. Participative Management .................................................................. 6014. The Budget ......................................................................................... 6315. Job Descriptions ................................................................................. 6516. Performance Evaluations ................................................................... 6917. Motivators ........................................................................................... 73

18. Corrective Action ................................................................................ 8019. Employee Relations ........................................................................... 8520. Grievances ......................................................................................... 8921. Interacting with a Union ...................................................................... 91

A Summation ............................................................................................ 94

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INTRODUCTION

Fashions in clothes, furniture, homes, shoes, eyeglasses, and theories aboutexpert supervision have a habit of coming full circle. The very old becomes thevery new.

Not too long ago our universities were championing a management theory that ahappy worker is a productive worker. Keep the employees happy at all costs.Companies spent millions on happiness programs. Soon a great wave of workerrebellion swept across the nation. The universities decided to modify the thesis.Obviously, they now say, supervisors should not try to make workers happy.Agreed! What one reallyneeds to do they sayto be in tune with todayssophisticationis to use psychology to motivate the worker.

Meanwhile, workers continue to rebel, and narcotics has become a first-gradestudy unit. Air, water, land, and good caviar are in short supply. For some veryprofound reason we have landed on the moon. Meanwhile, back on earth, ourcities are rotting. War now thrives in two formshot and cold. We are told this isthe Age of Love and the Behavioral Sciences. One has the feeling that we are inan unstable culture, coming full circleinto something or other.

This is the era in which you find yourself a supervisor. Despair not. People stillwant to do a good job. You simply have to do your best to see to it that the innatemotivation of your employees is not turned off. You have to make sure, too, that

youare not turned off.

We will try to come all the way back to old-fashioned (or avant-garde, dependingon ones perspective) to show you how to make the job of supervising others achallenging and rewarding activity.

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1. The Dignity of Work

Definition: Something we better get straight in our national thoughtpatternin a big hurry.

Example: Are you sure this is the way Tom Edison started?


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THE DIGNITY OF WORK

To supervise effectively you must be able to impress upon your employees thatthey are making an excellent contribution to the attainment of a worthwhile goal.

Each person must be able to see his or her job as an integral part of the totalcompany effort. This interdependence of work-contribution is not a contrivedthing. It is real. You must constantly keep the reality of total cooperative effort inyour own motivational drive. The dignity of your work relates to your successfulmanaging of your employees to make their best possible contributions to thecomplicated and fractionalized job of producing a product or giving a service.

This concept of mutually dependent work input is obvious in a modern business.No one will attempt to argue its validity. Yet, as with many essential and basicconcepts, it tends to be lost or to weaken in impact under the stresses of ourdaily work. Some of the erosions may be traced to the following negative

influences:

STATUSEach of us is infected to some degree with a status drive. It is impossible to livein our materialistic society without becoming a status-conscious person. Thisconsciousness will either leave its antibodies when we recover from itsonslaught, and thus render us immune, or we may become chronically ill.

If we are unlucky enough to be chronically status conscious, there is a twofoldhope still left for us. Firstly, the infection may not be disabling; and secondly, with

just a modicum of conscious care, we can avoid infecting others.

The dedicated supervisor will find a paradoxical situation relative to status. If onedoes work with a single-minded purpose, immune to thoughts of status, thereward will be stature. Those who are supervised will know the worth. To knowour own worth is essential, but to find to our surprise that others have anappreciation of our efforts is truly a rewarding experience. It renews us. It keepsus working well. This is not a bad thing to remember when you have a chance toidentify and comment on the stature of those whom you supervise.

FAULTY IDENTIFICATIONClosely related to status consciousness is the faulty thinking which accompanies

this materialistic frippery. We must be careful to identify the expert performanceof a job as having the totality of the dignity of work. The type of job, or level of

job, is no key to excellence or dignity. Some jobs require more training, a moresophisticated expertise; these usually demand extended formal schoolingsomeof it pertinent to the job, a lot of it not so pertinent.

The level of skill required has no relationship to the dignity of the work itself. Tohold otherwise is the ultimate in snobbery. One who attains a high level of skill


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has a high level of responsibility, and usually a high level of income. This is all.The work stands alone. An accurate and sophisticated engineering design and awell-cleansed dinner plate reflect the dignity of work well done. If either job isdeliberately done poorly, the work has no dignity.

Work done well is our objective as supervisors. Remember, the one whoproduces well on a production level job needs your praise more than the highplaced executive.

Those in so-called entry level jobs are being truly victimized by our age andtimes. No one is immune to materialism. Those who do have routine work arebeset on every side by our Madison Avenue norms of excellence. They meetnone of the norms. The women are not thin and rich; the men are not able to jetbetween continents; their children do not wander through suburban fields ofwaving grass. By all television standards they must conclude they are quiteunworthy. They actually start to hate their jobs as being a visible symbol of

failure.

This is quite a jungle into which the supervisor must hack a path; but hack onemust if one has true dedication to work. No matter what level of work yousupervise, let your employees know their jobs are important, that their individualcontributions are of the essence of company success.

It is not a task of sublimation. It is a task of substitution. You have youremployees under your direction for at least eight hours a day. Do your best tomake them proud of what they are doing. Let them know they are making aconstructive contribution to their world. If they become proud of what they aredoing, it is a short step to becoming proud of what they are.

You may not be able to offset the crass stupidity of materialism, but you can try.In the trying, you may find a deeper identification of yourself.

THE TENSION OF THE JOBIf you find that your job has become a source of tension, pressure, andharassment, there is only one person in this world who is guilty of making it so.Only one person can be blamed for a continuing state of anxiety during the workday. That person is you.

If your tensions start at home, you have a problem that is not job-begotten. Yourjob can well become an excusefor your tensions, but only youknow whether ornot your anxieties start outside the work environment. If your problems on the jobare only an accommodation for, or an increment of your off-the-job problems,then, of course, you must start the reparative efforts at the source.

Assuming a normally relaxed life, then the job you are working at each dayshould be an interesting and satisfying daily experience. It all depends on these:


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1. Be convinced of the worth of the job you are doing.2. Be convinced of the fact that you are giving your job your own best effort.3. Stay totally aloof from petty politics. If your job does not justify its own

existence, who needs it? If it is a valid job, then just do it and be proud ofit. Insulate yourself against materialistic antics.

4. Eliminate unreal security fears. No amount of worry will add one iota ofsecurity to your job.5. It may be that the decision-making aspects of a supervisory job, or the

necessity of dealing in situations of personal confrontation, will produceundue tension for a supervisor. If these become worse as time goes by,rather than bettering with experience, then the role of supervisor does notfit. There is no shame in not being emotionally attuned to the job ofsupervising. Before giving up the job, the individual should be totally surethat it is indeed supervisory responsibilities that are causing the problems.

6. Be realistic. Everyone has to swallow a certain amount of pride in any job.Supervising is no exception. Rebuffs and restrictions are facts of living.

Work within your permitted authority and do the best job possible.

The role of this chapter in reducing supervisory stress is the beginning of thejourney. A supervisor who truly sees the work of those supervised as havingdignity will see that his or her job has a dignity related to and emanating fromthose supervised. If a supervisor is judged on the results of the non-supervisoryworkers, then it will be clear that the supervisors job has dignity becausehis orher workers jobs do. These concepts beget pride within a department. Theyradiate from the non-supervisory workers to the supervisor and then from thesupervisor back to the workers. This feeling of pride and cohesiveness within adepartment is difficult to define but easy to see and identify.

The entire salutary result is based on an understanding of the dignity of workitself.


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2. Communication

Definition: The ability to speak, write, pose, remain silent or otherwiseconvey a message while listening, reading, or otherwiseobserving how someone else is reacting to your effortswhile they, in turn, wonder whether they should speak,write, pose, or otherwise convey a return message whileyou are reading, remaining silent, or otherwise conveying

a message while listening.

Example: You can bet your last nickel, buddy, I do communicateeffectively. Youre just like all the rest of them. You justwont listen!


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COMMUNICATION

Substitute the word managementfor the word communicationand you will havegiven communication its proper place in management skills. If you will regard

communication skill as the life-force giving vitality to all supervisory practice, youwill have properly identified it.

When someone says good communications, think good management. If you hearbad communications, think bad management. It may be less than accurate toequate managementwith communication, but it is a workable concept. A personhaving expert communication skills has the essential requirement for goodmanagement.

If you ever sent out a survey sheet requesting answers to a projected course ofstudy in management skills, you will have noticed how heavily weighted the

response is in the direction of communicationskills. This is plainly caused bythe fact that those responding feel uninformed. No one really feels that he or shedoes not communicate. The one above in the organizational structure is the onewho always fails to communicate downward.

At the risk of belaboring the obvious, it must be said that communicating is a two-way street. It involves listening as well as talking. It involves reading as well aswriting. That may be another reason why people ask for help in communicationskills. Perhaps they do not know how to listen.

It is encouraging to know, however, that expert communication is never found

without expert management.

Since communicationis such a broad word, people use it for all sorts ofconcepts. For example, if your employees seldom see you, they will probably bepolite and tell you that departmental communications must be improved. Theyreally mean that they would like to seeyou more often. Are you too busy to seethose you supervise for at least a brief minute or two each day? Then either youhave too many people reporting to you or you have become a paper machine. Itshould be habitual to spend some short time each day with each person youdirectly supervise. If you do not form this habit, you must, of necessity, form thehabit of staying away from them. There is no middle ground in this matter. So,

take a daily walk through your department. That is definitely a step in thedirection of good managementcommunication.

Assuming that you have established continuing daily contact with youremployees, you are actively communicating. Your communication can be good orbad, effective or ineffective, depending on what you say and how you say it. Tobe on the safe side, talk about the work to be done. You cannot go wrong in yourrole as supervisor if you talk with your employees about your mutual goal:


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namely, the work your department has to accomplish. Some supervisors speakeasily about matters not directly associated with the job, such as wives,husbands, children, or the daily news. There is undoubtedly a place for suchconversation in managing. It probably loosens things up a bit, but if it fails toremain totally objective, it can also mess things up, and if it gets too long-winded,

it can slow things up. You cannot go wrong by speaking in a pleasant and directmanner about the job to be done and then listening to what the employee has tosay.

Such a mass of material has been written about communications and the subjectis so broad that it is perhaps fitting to emphasize here only the daily verbalcommunication of the supervisor with the employees. Remember to listen. Youwill be able to identify problems that are goal-obstructing to your employees.They will not only identify problems for you, they will often give you solutions too.

You should read as much as you can on the subject of communication skills. It is

necessary for the supervisor to be a clearly understandable speaker, an accuratewriter, an attentive and analytical reader, and a good listener. These are skillsthat you can upgrade on a continuing basis. These are skills that must reach ahigh level of development if you want to be an expert manager.

Consider the fact that you communicate all day long. You communicate by yourwords, facial expressions, your general appearance, and even by your silence.Consider, too, that communication involves sending and receiving. It involvesintra- and inter-departmental activity; it involves messages of many kinds acrossthe organizational structure and up and down the structure.

Note: I use the word employeeand the word supervisorin distinction betweenthe one supervised and the one supervising. I have avoided such words as co-workeror associatebecause I feel that both the non-supervisory and thesupervisory worker have the right to identification. I have not used such words assupervisorand subordinatebecause I think they are an abomination. The onlysubordinatepeople in any organization are those who are not doing their jobs inan acceptable manner.

One possible source of stress in a supervisors life can be double-talk by highermanagement. There are many reasons for double-talk by managers, but the onethat will be found almost every time is the desire on the part of a faintheartedboss to say things in such a way that there is an escape hatch if something goeswrong. The manager will simply make the statement of not being understood orwas misinterpreted, stating that nowthere is an understanding as to why there isa communications problem. This puts the blame on the supervisor for beingless capable of handling instructions given by this boss. It does not make thesupervisor a bad guy just a dumb guy. Now this sort of thing can add a lot of


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stress to a supervisors job. It can also add a lot of anger. I merely mention this inpassing because I think everyone who works for a living has run into thissituation and has been able to recognize it for what it is, namely the sort of thingthat weak characters indulge in. It may help to know that you are not the only onewho has been demeaned to cover up a mistake made by a higher placed

manager.

Attention should be called, however, to an entirely different sort of maneuver thatcan be much more difficult to accept than simple cowardice on the part of amanager. What I am going to point out is a fault that you will find at the veryhighest level of company management. Moreover, it is the fault that the topmanagers will not admit, nor can they honestly recognize it. Yet this fault mayhave more to do with stressing supervisors (and non-supervisory employees)than any other single factor. It also has much to do with holding down Americanindustry in its competition with progressive foreign business. I refer to a muchdiscussed and abused talent called creativity.

Creativity is found in its strongest and purest form among children. It is virtuallynonexistent among higher level executives. Most high level executives will insistthey want those who work for them to be creative; however, they regard any trulycreative approach to the operation of the business with resistance. Theresistance is based on a combination of fear and worry. It may disrupt things. Itmay produce a drop in profits. If they do hear some creative suggestion that isobviously a stroke of genius, they tend to label it as simplistic. They then applytheir superior brainpower to the simplistic idea, surround it with the logistics ofadministrative detail (which they are very good at), and end up believing that theythemselves are responsible for generating a truly creative business process orprocedure. All of this brilliance came from a rather childlike suggestion from oneof the nave non-executives. Thus did the germ of an idea come to vigorous lifewhich would have forever lain fallow if it had not been for the great administrativetalent. This sort of thing can make a supervisor very sick if he or she happened tobe the one with the flash of creativity whose only nave action had been toexpress thoughts without demanding recognition of this innovation.

In order to reduce the anger and frustration somewhat, it may be helpful to knowwhy executives behave in this manner. Well, first of all, they are not completelyhonest. No honest person would take someone elses idea and run with it. Thereis so much copying and stealing in industry and business in general, that suchactions become commonplace and accepted. There are some things, however,that are simply wrongthat are unethical. This last word is always good for alaugh until someone steals one of our ideas and then we are able to feel the fullimpact of dishonesty, of unethical conduct. Then it becomes clear to us whycertain conduct in business is not acceptable.

In such ways as described in the previous paragraph does the true meaning ofwords become known to us. It is part of the learning process, but we should not


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let the impact of it just stop there. To reduce stress we should take a deeper lookat the whole messy situation. It may just leave us much more relaxed to knowwhypeople act in devious ways. It is earnestly hoped that the analysis we makewill be of great help to us in not falling into the same pit of self-deception.

Supposing we analyze the executives conduct in this way: First of all, managersmust learn to conform. Conformity may well be the universal characteristic ofmanagers in a large organization. That is one way that creativity is stifled.Another way to lose the creative faculty is to take yourself and life in a tooserious way. High-level managers sometimes fall into this trap, too. Do not bemisled by the fact that they act in a very democratic manner and seem to beregular guys. This could be an image they have of themselves and would likeothers to have too. Like many a VIP they may get a great deal of pleasure out ofbeing democratic and free with others without having the slightest intention ofletting anyone be democratic or free with them!Their talents have becomeconcentrated on projecting the profit factor on top of any innovation that may

confront them. The innovation must be someone elses. After all, to them,creativity and innovation are dangerous factors.

These elements by their nature are untried, and the untried may well actadversely on profit. If this happens, then someone has to take the blame.Corporate punishment must be meted out to someone. Thus the sometimesoverwhelming demands of money and politics can sap the energy required forthe generation of creative thought. Thus is born the warmed-over pseudo-innovation, which they use as a self-deception. The high level executive isbasically a political person and as a result must be excused for acting the part.The only important factor in all this is to make sure that the very real stresses andproblems that afflict the higher levels do not filter down to youeven if you arenot getting the kind of honest communication you want and probably have a rightto expect as a member of the management team. This sort of problem will notexist in companies that have a really strong upper level of management and afree and open exchange of important business communications. A truly goodexecutive is a truly good communicator.

When, as small children, we were first learning to speak, we gained our verbalskill by listening with total concentration. If we could only regain part of that earlyattentiveness, our communication skills would improve greatly. Fortunately, asadults, we can bring analytical factors to bear on what we hear, which gives us apotentially great advantage over childhood listening. However, this same talentmay prompt us to jump the gun. First we must listen; then analyze. Beware ofinterrupting or reaching conclusions before you have heard exactly what is beingsaid.

We all tend to become passive listeners. We succumb to mood. The advertisingpeople make fortunes on that fact. As a practice exercise, start really listening tothe ads on T.V. While the strains of a mighty orchestra beguile our ears in muted


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strength, the camera moves across an idyllic western countryside. The cattle aregently lowing after a long day at the roundup, and cowboys sip their cup of hard-earned coffee. Beautiful music, magnificent country, manly men. Why? So youwill buy whatever product is flashed on the screen. Your analytical powers havebeen mooded out of existence. Or listen, if you will, to the toothpaste ads. They

use the scientific approach, plus the mood concept. Some products almostprevent cavities. These are the scientific ads. Other toothpastes are frankly bold.They promise you sexy teeth. Some even promise sexy dentures.

First, listen attentively. Then analyze exactly what you have heard. This rathereasy exercise may well start you in the habit of really listening. It will also giveyou a wholesome disrespect for people who use their talents and theweaknesses of others to create false impressions.

My grandfather told me he once read that since we all had two ears and onemouth, we should all listen twice as much as we talked. Obviously, this advice

would lead us to a totally silent world if heeded by all. Perhaps he was trying totell me something.

Although any part of a supervisors job could be seen as a form ofcommunication, there is one part that requires verbal and perhaps writtencommunication in a formal manner. That part is training workers in job skills. Thisis an important ongoing supervisory requirement. Teaching may be somethingthe supervisor has not had to do prior to becoming a supervisor. It is well beyondthe scope of this book to attempt to teach the teacher, however, a few practicalconcepts concerning the learning process should do much to dissolve themystique and remove the stress from this basic requirement of the supervisors

job.

As a learner, or as a teacher, there may be a tendency to become discouragedafter the first burst of enthusiasm has worn off. There may be a feeling ofrepeated discouragement as the understanding of any subject or discipline attimes appears to be clear and then becomes vague or completely lost. Theauthor believes this is a phenomenon of the learning process, which he hasinterpreted for himself as being projectable in graph form. See the next pageshowing A Graphic Concept of One Aspectof the Learning Process.


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AGRAPHIC CONCEPT OF ONE ASPECT OF THE LEARNING PROCESS

1. Upon introduction,the learner (by followingthe straight arrows)thinks he or she has anunderstanding of thesubject or discipline.

2. When the learner findsunknown complexities(curved arrows), he or shetemporarily loses sight of theunderstanding. This is when

bona fide studying must takeplace.

3. This process of seeingand not seeing is repeatedover and over until the subjector discipline is masteredinline with the capabilities of thelearner.

Goal Achieved:Understanding of

the Subject orDiscipline

Start of theLearning Process

This concept may prove to be helpfulto the learner and the teacher.


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When teaching a job to an employee, there are a few well-proven techniques thatshould be followed:

1. Give a broad overview of the job. Tell what place this job has in relation toother jobs in the department and/or the company. Let the employee know

whatthe job is and whyit is important.

2. Then teach the job part by part. Break the job skills into small easilyunderstood parts.

3. Let the employee do the parts by himself or herself. Stay on hand until youare sure the part is being done correctly.

4. Add parts to the original part one by one until the job is understood.

5. Review the entire process. Be on hand to see it through part by part as

you have instructed.

6. Do the whole process over again, including step one, which should nowmake more impact on the employee.

7. Repeat and review each step as explained above until the employee canfunction alone.

8. Stop by and inspect the completed job.

9. Now, and at each previous step, ask if there are any questions.

This method of fractionalizing the job and then learning it by doing each part hasproven to be successful in the industrial setting. An explanation of the place andimportance of the job in the organization is an excellent motivator for learning.

Another extremely important part of the supervisors job is to counsel employeesin job-related problems. This is a difficult skill to try to teach in a book, that is,without direct verbal communication with the employee. There is, however, anapproach that should be helpful to the supervisor. In conducting training sessionsfor higher level managers, those who supervise supervisorsand hence have theobligation to counsel supervisors, I have found the following material to beextremely helpful. So, as you read the next few pages under the heading DoYou Want to Be a Supervisor? you will be reading a brief resume of the materialused at my training sessions for managers who are being taught to teachsupervisors. It may give you a valuable insight.


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DO YOU WANT TO BE A SUPERVISOR?

Does this employee really want to become a supervisor or is the employeemerely reacting to an image of status? Is this employee equipped by reason ofskills and emotional stability to be a supervisor? Does this employee want to be

accountable for the performance of others?

These questions should be the basis for any counseling done by the managerwhen dealing with a prospective supervisor. Putting these questions to theemployee in a direct manner is, of course, an exercise in futility. The questionsmay all be answered in a positive manner by one who has never supervisedothers and hence has no notion of the impact of the questions. Or they will beanswered by the more realistic, I dont know.

Then, how to proceed? One approach that has proven to be an effective onebecause it has no negative connotations is to give a quick run-through of the

duties of a supervisor. (The contents of Part II: A Few Supervisory DutiesExplained for the New Supervisor may be used to summarize the main duties.)This may then be followed up by a suggestion that the employee take a course insupervisory skills. The reaction to such a suggestion may itself be revealing. Ifthe employee reacts by saying he or she knows all that stuff, and all it takes isgood old common sense, the manager should drop the subject as gracefully aspossible. It may be that the employee has an innate genius for supervising (evenas you and I) but chances are so slim as to be a mathematical absurdity. It maybe that the employee feels that he or she just does not have the time for a courseof studies. In that case, the manager should suddenly not have time for furthercounseling on the subject. If the employee reacts favorably, the prognosis is at

least on the positive side. A good course of supervisory training should give theemployee the insight needed to make a career decision and commitment.

Note that the phrase a good course of supervisory training has been used. It isall too possible to have a bad course in supervisory training. The course can beboring. It can be too elaborate, for example, great emphasis on supervisorystyle; too academic, for example, taught by those who have never supervisedand hence make no impact on the student. So the course itself is not necessarilythe provider of answers to the important questions concerning supervision as acareer. The manager, however, can and must, conduct ongoing counselingconcomitantly with the training. Whether the training is good or bad, it provides

ongoing topics for discussion. The manager must critique and implement theteaching without being destructively critical of the trainer. Some of the duties of amanager are to train employees, to teach employees, and to skillfully use stafftraining service as at least a guide to the subject matter. The manager shouldthus provide practical insight into the role of supervising. The combination oftraining described above will provide the answers as realistically as the answerscan be provided prior to actual experience on the job.


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Another extremely helpful approach is to give any interested employee temporarysupervisory assignments. This should be done with the clear understanding thatit is a form of on-the-job training for purposes of the employees personal insightsinto the role of supervisor. It is in no way a promise of permanent assignment.The employee should have the clear option of not taking such assignments. This

option should not involve an implied obligation on the part of the employee totake the assignments as part of the counseling, or as required training. If theemployee is paid extrafor the temporary assignment, then it can be arequirement for a permanent supervisory assignment.

The manager should give the following information to the employee at the outsetof the counseling or at least at some point in the initial counseling session:

1. There are many career ladders, and virtually all of them arrive at a point intheir ascent where a decision must be made to accept or rejectsupervisory/managerial responsibilities. Success does not require theassumption of managerial duties. It is true that the earning of more money,

in a given discipline, often requires a career switch to supervising others.There are, however, highly skilled positions that are as financiallyrewarding as managerial jobs. This should be the first concept for theemployee to understand. The employee, if necessary, should then test thewaters as outlined above if he or she leans toward the career goal ofbeing a supervisor.

2. Supervisory/managerial skills are largely the same for any technical skilllevel; however, to supervise effectively, the supervisor must have at leasta technical skill level that allows the supervisor to plan, evaluate, and trainin the technical aspects of the assigned duties of the employeessupervised. Hence, the desire to be a supervisor may require additionaltechnical training and experience in addition to the acquisition ofsupervisory skills.

3. Success does not require upward movement in the technical ororganizational hierarchy. There is nothing wrong with a person whowants to stay in the present job, who thoroughly enjoys the work, andsimply wants to do the same job in a constantly more expert manner. Thecounselor should be keenly aware of this fact and should assiduouslyavoid imposing his or her own concept of success as an image whencounseling contented well-motivated employees. Upward career mobilitymight just be what they do not need or wantas strange as this mayseem to an ambitious manager. I did it, and Im sure you can isimpertinent, and potentially destructive to the one being counseled.

The thrust of career counseling is to aid the employee by means of careerplanning. It must be non-coercive and, above all, informative. It can have noaspect of a pep talk or persuasion on the part of the one who counsels.


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You may now have a better insight into the reasons why communication is soimportant in the job of a supervisor. The supervisor uses communication as thebasic tool to motivate, instruct, and counsel. It is impossible to become theperfect communicator but it is encouraging to know that this powerful tool can beused as part of the supervisors skill qualifications to reduce the stress level of

the job by listening and responding.


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3. Loyalty

Definition: A quality begotten through mutual concern, frequentlydemanded on a unilateral basis.

Example: I sure wish these no-account lazy ingrates would showme some loyalty!


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LOYALTY

Loyalty as it relates to employees, their jobs, and their management is an easytopic to write about.

An employee, yourself included, owes a certain loyalty to the organization:1. Good performance for the money he or she is paid2. A tight lip about matters that are plainly confidential to ones own

department within the organization3. A tight lip about matters that would be detrimental to the total

organization if disclosed to outside sources

If at any time these latter two normally confidential attitudes include a situationthat is detrimental to the success of the company, then loyalty demands that thesituation be reported to the appropriate authority, at once.

Loyalty does not consist in knocking yourself out physically and mentallyin a chronic state of masochism on the job.

Loyalty does not consist in never taking a vacation.

Loyalty does not consist in staying on with an organization, or a given job,when one has an overwhelming desire to leave.

Loyalty does not consist in polishing the brass.

Note:Never use the word disloyalin a disciplinary write-up. Never use disloyalas a reason for discharge. Have pity on the poor guy who may have to processthe resultant grievance.

The most common garden variety of disloyalty is an employees gossiping in adisparaging way about his or her supervisor or his or her fellow workers becausethey do not meet the gossipers standards of excellence.

The word loyaltytakes a terrible beating in many organizations. Its meanings areso diffuse as to be without definition. The concept of the word is so subjectivethat it defies definition. Ask the next ten people you meet to tell you theirdefinition of loyalty. You will be amazed at the ten different answers you receive.


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It is good practice not to use this word at all in your job-related communications.Force yourself to become specific in your thinking whenever the word loyaltymight be used. Is itjob competenceyou really mean? Is it unwarranted criticismof a supervisor or fellow-worker? Is it a demeaning of someones competence?Loyaland disloyalmean so many things to so many people in relationship to a

job, that it is well to simply not use the word.

To check your own loyaltyjust examine your performance based on the threepoints given previously:

1. Are you doing your job to the best of your ability?2. Are you keeping your departmental problems within the department?3. Are you maintaining a confidential approach to matters that should not

be aired outside the company?

Then check yourself on the reverse side: Are you reporting promptly, or actingpromptly, on any matters that are detrimental to the welfare of the total

organization?

It is a real test of courage to act in accord with these responsibilities.

Perform within the above framework and loyaltywill take care of itself.

Such concepts as loyalty in business are exactly the sort of catchalls that canbe used as a depository for all manner of vague pressures on the individual. Donot allow the rhetoric of company preachers to make you feel guilty about beingdisloyal. If you give a good days work for a good days pay then all the billshave been paid by everyone involved.

There are enough factors in the job of supervision to produce the motivations tosucceed. One certainly does not need a dose of phony philosophy to add to thereal requirements of the job. There is no job requirement of feeling guilty becauseyou are concerned with your own needs rather than those of the Chairman of theBoard.

The management of some companies tends to go bonkers when employees buya competitors product. This is a sign of disloyalty, they scream. There are atleast two things that can be evident here, neither one of them disloyalty. Eitherthere is a good reason for buying a competitors product, for example, betterquality, or lower price; or there is no good reason. If there is no good reason thenthe company should be greatly concerned as to why one of their employees willact in such an idiotic manner. Trying to find the cause of this stupidity makes agreat deal of sense. If the cause can be found it will reveal a way to improveproductivity by removing an impediment to good work and intelligent buying bythe employee.


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Such a search may even reveal why a competitors product has greater bona fidesales appeal to the employee than his or her own employers. All of this makes agreat deal more sense than screaming disloyal.

As supervisor, the attainment of a high level of quality output (productivity) is

worthy of your best efforts. Loyalty is thereby totally fulfilled.

Do not let junk thinking by others add one ounce of stress to your workenvironment as a supervisor.


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4. Termination of Employment

Definition: The culmination of a series of unfortunate miscalculations

Example: How come its always on pink paper? How come never ongreen or something?


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TERMINATION OF EMPLOYMENT

There are some few employees who simply will not respond to any efforts thatthe supervisor makes to bring about good job performance.

Assume that the supervisor has tried all of the following:1. Training2. Counseling3. Transfer (but not to some other unsuspecting department)4. Perhaps even a combination and repetition of 1, 2, and 3.

Assume the employee has remained unresponsive. Then you must terminate hisor her employment.

Each organization has its own procedure for termination. Some organizations

have such an elaborate and forbidding procedure (for example, Civil Service) thatthe supervisor who undertakes the job of discharging an entrenched incompetentis actually undertaking a major campaign. Sometimes a person literally cannot befired (for example, if he or she has tenure or an ironclad politically inspiredcontract). Ordinarily, however, an employee who is not doing his or her job inan acceptable manner must be, and can be, terminated, even though a Union ison hand to protest.

Since you are not in the business of firing people, the need to fire must beregarded as a failure. The failure must not be assumed to be on the part of thesupervisor. Some people are just not disposed to do an acceptable job and resist

all efforts to change that unfortunate fixation.

This may be as good a place as any to set forth basic considerations abouttermination of employment. Perhaps the most basic of all is the concept that anemployer may hire whom he or she wishes to do a job for a stated amount ofpay, assuming the agreement of the one hired. The employer may thereafterterminate that persons employment for any reason at all, or forno reason,provided the employer pays the agreed amount for any work done. Having madethose statements, let me add that I am sure they exist somewhere in the purestate. As a supervisor you already know, or will probably know, that the laissez-faire type of hiring and firing described above is a luxury that may exist in the

pure state, but not for you. Both the acquiring and terminating of employees hasbecome, for virtually all supervisors, a rather more complicated set ofprocedures. In addition to Federal and State nondiscrimination laws there may bea union contract to be observed by the supervisor. If no union exists, theemployer will probably have issued letters or a booklet to employees thatdescribes in considerable detail the reasons why employees may be terminated,may differentiate between probationaryand permanentemployees, and may setdown procedures for termination and discipline. Employees may not realize that


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such unilaterally issued written communications have a legally binding impact.They find out when some employee objects to being terminated without benefit ofthe employers self-described due process.

The supervisor must not only be the administrator of company-authored

termination procedures, but may even be criticized by his own management fordoing precisely what the employee handbook describes! If this happens, by allmeans get angry. That will prove you are normal. Do not let such administrativeproblems add to your job stress. Get angry. Kick hard at something soft. Makesure the soft thing you kick is inanimate so that you will not get kicked back.

Now let us take a more realistic look at how todays supervisors will probably goabout terminating an employee.

The decision to fire someone is a difficult one. Most supervisors err on the side oflaxity. When the decision is finally made, however, beware of a too hasty (eat-

crow-at-your-leisure) blowing of your stack.

There are really only two reasons for firing someone:1. The person is not dependable in attendance.2. The person is not dependable in job performance.

You should always distinguish between job performance and absenteeism. Thisdistinction has become quite formal among arbitrators.

Note: Arbitrators are people who are professionally recognized as having the

ability to conduct a quasi-legal trial concerning the interpretation of a labor-contract, which they did not negotiate, involving people they do not have tosupervise. Do not be discouraged or offended if an arbitrator should reverse yourdecision. The only way to get even is to become an arbitrator.

In our day of formalized industrial relations you must be careful to play by therules. If you have an employee who is not performing the job in an acceptablemanner and refuses to change this performanceterminate this employee forfailure to do the job. If this also involves a bad attendance record, but not badenough to warrant dischargeforget it. An arbitrator will tell you, with impeccablelogic, that the employee cannot possibly perform badly if absent. You mightrespond that total nonperformance is the ultimate in bad performance. This is notgenerally acceptable thinking in the stereotype of arbitrated justice.

If your organization has a formalized disciplinary procedure to follow that includestermination of employment as the final penalty, by all means follow thatprocedure closely. If you do not have a clearly defined procedure, you may wantto use the following guidelines. They are recommended.


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1. Make a written record of each defection (absence or bad workperformance).

2. Notify the employee at once. Do not keep bad performance a secret. Donot accept an absence without explanation.

3. When the record takes on a chronic aspect, even though you have

counseled and made every effort to persuade the employee to do a goodjob, then write a letter of warning. Deliver it personally to the employee.Put a copy in his or her Human Resources record.

4. In the letter make a total listing of each of the shortcomings you have beenrecording on a continuing basis. (List bad performance or bad attendance.Be sure to make a choice.)

5. Give a specific period of time (for example, 30 days) in which theemployees future record must be acceptable or termination will beimposed. Do not be vague about time of probation or the resultant penalty.

6. If the record remains bad, terminate the employee. Write a letter oftermination. Refer to the warning letter and the continual bad record

during the probationary period. Deliver and file copy as above. The aboveprocedures may stand the supervisor in good stead if the employee claimssome sort of discrimination.

Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, you will not have to go beyond Step 2,because these steps are part of the effective supervising of an employee.

Steps 3, 4, 5, and 6 may be totally wrong for your organization. You may have aformalized program that departs from this format. Follow your own program.

If your organization does not permit the use of Steps 1 and 2, look for a jobelsewhere.

You will note that disciplinary suspensions are not included in the recommendedformat. The writer does not believe that time off work will in any way help anemployee to do his or her job better. The demeaning aspectsof a formal letter ofwarning are severe enough to bring about a reversal of conductif anything will.Economic deprivation imposed by time off without pay has a dubious relationshipto job performance, and a direct relationship to resentment. Most union contractsspecify time off as a final step before termination for cause. It is difficult toendorse the philosophy behind this procedure, especially since this same formatis used when the problem is excessive absenteeism. Why attempt to cureabsenteeism or bad job performance by taking the employee off the job? Theformer adds to the absenteeism; the latter postpones the curative process.

One of the most nagging of all shortcomings on the part of employees istardiness. There are those who never miss work, but are never on time. You willhave to decide how critical this habit is in relationship to the job. If tardiness isdisruptive to the job or the department, you will just have to treat it as you wouldabsenteeism. Sometimes a change in shifts will help this problem. But usuallyit


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will not. Neverchange a persons starting time by fifteen minutes of half an hourto accommodate the tardiness. By doing this you are giving away yourprerogative as a manager, and, incidentally, feeding the employees innerproblem. The person who is chronically tardy is rebelling against something andis having quite a pleasant time with it. You must convince this employee to rebel

in some other way, or in some other place.

All good rules have an exception, and our good rule about how to terminate anemployee also has its exception. The exception is some flagrant violation thatdemands immediate expulsion. This is more academic than real. It does happen,however. The only guide rule that can be suggested in these extreme instancesis simply this: If you want to be absolutely fair, just ask yourself the question,Would we terminate the services of one of our key employees for an identicaloffense? If the answer is Yes, then act with a clear conscience.

When it becomes necessary to terminate an employee for cause, use your head,

not your whole body. Do not let the emotional impact of the situation lodge inyour stomach. Do not lose sleep over it. Keep things in perspective.

The employee is being paid to do an acceptable job. So are you. If the employeewill not perform acceptably after you have done your best to bring about therequired change in work, then your job must be done. Your job requires that youreplace this employee with an employee who will work acceptably. The employeehas done the terminating. You are not the one who failed to perform.

If the family is now without a source of income, it is a problem based on theemployees shortcomings.

If you cannot handle such matters without getting all torn up emotionally, youmust try to get things in the proper perspective described above. If you stillcannot do this job without prolonged emotional upset, you really should consideryour health and your own job performance. Perhaps you should not be asupervisor.

If that last statement makes you angry, you shouldbe a supervisor. Be a goodone. Those who direct the work of others in a fair and effective manner aremaking a maximum contribution to the society in which they function.


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5. Leadership

Definition: O.K., NowIm asking for volunteers. . . .

Example: O.K., NowIm asking for volunteers. . . .


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LEADERSHIP

Leadership is often listed as a skill required of a supervisor. This is equivalent tosaying a painter needs paint. Supervision is leadership in action.

Can leadership be taught? Is it something that can be acquired? There is not adoubt in the world that it can be taught, acquired, and improved.

Are there natural leaders? You know there are. Certain people are impelled tolead everything they get into. These people can be good supervisors, badsupervisors, or not supervisors, depending on whether they direct their naturalaptitude in a constructive manner and are willing to accept a continuingresponsibility. Some people only lead effectively if they are totally involved insome earth-shattering protest against the established order, which more thanlikely is the very order that permits their protest. But that is another topic. We are

concerned here with leadership as an essential requirement of supervision.

It was stated above that leadership can be taught. There are certain elements,properly called skills, that a leader must possess. A leader must communicatewell. One must know how to make decisions. One must be able to plan. Theseand other skills can be acquired. They mustbe acquired if one is to be aneffective leader; however, the acquisition of these skills at the academic leveldoes not make a leader. These skills must be applied under the impact ofinterpersonal action and reaction if one is to be a leader.

How does one teach this ability to manage? How does one go about teaching

something so dynamic and intimate to the individual? Well, one starts out with adose of clear thinking, follows this with a daily constructive exercise ofimplementing the thinking, and there develops, in this manner, the confidenceneeded to lead. That is how leadership skill is taught. It is really self-taught.

A leader must have certain qualitiesall of which are based on realistic self-appraisal. One must have confidence that one can perform the job because onehas sufficient intelligence, adequate technical skills, the ability to make sounddecisions, the maturity needed to strive for objectivity in problem areas, and onemust communicate wellwith emphasis on listening.

Those are the qualities needed in a leader. Given these qualities and a desire todevelop the application of these to the supervisory assignment, the rest ofleadership will depend on experience. Experience does not equate with thelength of job tenure. Unfortunately, it is possible to be in a supervisory positionfor many years with no appreciable improvement in performance. This sadsituation can result from a number of causes; prominent among such causes arean overpowering boss who will not delegate authority, a failure to functionbecause of an inability to tolerate the stress of people-problems, or a reversal of


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this same coin which manifests itself in a tyrannical, arbitrary, and rude approachto those supervised because the supervisor has an inferiority complex that needsfeeding.

Experience grows only if the sum of daily happenings within the scope of

supervisory action is evaluated in terms of objectives needed to be attained. Theproductive and the nonproductive, the constructive and the non-constructive, theimportant and the unimportant must be evaluated as they happen and storedaway for future reference. Given enough bona fide experience, a mode ofsupervision will develop that will be seemingly intuitive or inborn. Perhaps it isinborn. It may be that the inborn desire for leadership merely needed to have theoverlay of experience.

Leaders come in all sizes, shapes, and age groups. They have no commondenominator as to mode of speech, style of dress, or formal education. They do,however, all have a stature with their employees based on work-efforts as distinct

from job title. This stature demands a calm certitude on the part of the supervisorthat one is able and worthy to be a leader.

You may have read or heard much about types of leadership: authoritarian,participative, consultative, democratic, and other academic divisions of thesubject. Such distinctions certainly serve some purpose. They show that there ismore than one way to lead, and they make a valid inference that if one mode isbeing used, it should not masquerade under a false identification.

This latter point is of great importance to one who wishes to be an effectiveleader. Let me give you an actual case of The Masquerading Mode.

To protect the innocent, let the reference be to XYZ Company, whose presidentrose to his lofty position by dint of hard work and by being the son of the manwho founded the company. Not an unusual situation at all. He had shortcomingsas a leader which would have been fatal except for the laws of succession, againnot unusual. The democratic and participative types of leadership appealed tohim. He scheduled countless lengthy meetings in which his department headsand supervisors were asked to give their solutions to problem areas, to makeshort- and long-range plans, etc., etc. The man himself was soft-spoken andlong-winded. All of which would have made for an extremely time-consuming butpotentially usable form of management. Unfortunately, this president was amongthe worlds truly great tyrants. When all of the democratic input was made, hewould then uncover his own preconceived plan which he would explain.

The length of his explanation would be in direct proportion to the contrary orcontradictory plans already expressed by the participating managers. He would,for example, dismiss a detailed marketing report in several million well-chosenwords that hinged on the assertion that his intuition told him the report waswrong!


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This man was an authoritarianwho lacked the knowledge to be one; but on top ofthis, he duped his subordinates under the guise of teamwork and participation.

To a lesser extent, a supervisor can frustrate his employees and lose the betterones, by not being honest in this style of leadership.

True leaders do not indulge in duplicity or maneuverings.

Since it is a sad fact of life that supervisors are chosen by the subjectiveevaluation of a higher placed manager, it follows that not all supervisors arechosen wisely. In your case, and mine, of course, the choice was excellent. It isimportant that we feel this way. It is also important that we work at being the typeof leader that we want our boss to be.

There is nothing wrong with reading the latest scholarly treaties on how leadersare classified, analyzed, dissected, and otherwise catalogued as long as you

remember that leadership is skill in actionwith emphasis on action, notdefinition.

You know a good supervisor (leader) when you see one, right? What criteria areused in making this judgment? A lot of very scholarly people who are notsupervisors, or who never will be, have written a lot of very scholarly books onthis subject. The more you read, the more criteria you will find. I can assure youthat not much of it will be of help in the matter of creating leaders. You knowthepeople in your company who are recognized by all as being good leaders. Youknowthis is a way that seems almost intuitive. Perhaps one of the best ways todevelop an understanding of leadership is to observeacknowledged leaders inaction. Observe all those things that appear on the surface. Mainly observe howthey give instructions, how they talk to people. Analyze what they are doing, andthen try doing it yourself. There is one caution, however, do notchange yourselfto the extent of imitating their mannerisms, tone of voice, or choice of words. Tryto dig out the substanceof what they are doing. You may be pleasantly surprisedat how effective this will be in adding to your leadership ability. Observation ofleadership in action, analyses of the observations, and adaptation to your ownobjectives and style will be a much more effective program for you as asupervisor than reading books on leadership written by non-leaders.

Now I will tell you a little true storyabout a supervisor who was called upon toexercise his leadership ability on the firing line, as it were. I really do not knowwhat the moral of this story is. First, I will tell you the story, then maybe we canfigure out a moral.

It was a hot day in July in Detroit, Michigan. Nothing is hotter or stickier than ahumid day in July in Detroit. (St. Louis and Washington, D.C., are pretty bad too,but you get the idea.) The workers in a large metals fabrication plant were feelingthe heat and getting quite testy. In one of the long assembly buildings the


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workers on one side of the building wanted the windows open. The workers onthe other side wanted the windows closed. One side said they needed thebreeze. The other side said there was no breeze; there was only hot air seepagefrom the tar roof on the next building. Open the windows! Close the windows!People were taking sides. The supervisor was appealed to for a decision. The

workers were coming to blows.

The supervisor decided that the situation was ripe for a quick dose of diplomaticfinesse. He made a decision on the basis of diplomacy. He instructed themaintenance men to open every second window!In this way each side would wina 50 percent victory. But he forgot that those people were hot and flustered. Theywanted completevictory. They wanted a supervisor who was on theirside. Theworkers who wanted the windows open, saw only the closedwindows. Thosewho wanted the windows closed, saw only the openwindows. A grumbling . . . amurmur . . . a growing sound of indignation and protest rose and increased toangry shouting. Suddenly the noise stopped. All the employees walked out!They

felt that they had been maneuvered and patronized! Management had not takena firm stand! Management had insulted them by treating them like children. Theywere looking for a policy decision that could have been contested by theprotesting employees through the grievance procedure. The supervisor hadliterally taken away their voice and pitted them against each other.

So how did the story end? The way such stories usually end. A higher level ofmanagement (in this case the general foreman) went out and talked theemployees back on the job. He promised them a management decision beforethe end of the shift. The decision was to leave the windows open. The close thewindows group decided to file a grievancebut they never got around to it. Thenext day wasnt as hot, and besides they decided the whole thing was ratherstupid.

What is the moral of the story? Well, in seminar discussions about this story, I getmany suggested morals. The one I hear most is supervisors have to look at aproblem and make a decision without straddling the fence.

You might want to bring this story to the attention of your fellow supervisors. Donot give them any hints as to whythe employees walked out. See what reasonsyour fellow supervisors come up with. Be sure not to suggest that there is anyright or wrong answer. This makes a very interesting discussion. It also givesyou an insight into how your peers define leadership in action.

There should be a side effect for you in knowing that this story actuallyhappened. Suppose you had been the supervisor who had the employees walkout. How would you have reacted to the situation? These are exactly the sort ofsituations that stress the job of supervision. Let me suggest that the probablereaction of most people would be momentary panic, then anger. Real blazingred-hot anger.


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We all have to go through our emotional on-site reactions, but when they diedown we should not react in discouragement or the stress that comes by playingthe situation over and over in our minds.

You should say to yourself, I was in a position of leadership. I had to make a fast

decision. I made it. It was a bad decision. That happens to be one thing of whicha leader can be absolutely sure: leaders make mistakes. Another sure thing isthis: leaders learn by their mistakes. They do not chastise themselvesemotionally by re-living embarrassment and anger.

Do not let mistakes add to job stress. These mistakes are valuable teachingexperiences for you in becoming a better leader.

I have been reading a lecture I gave several years ago because I rememberedthat I had written a few pages on leadership. My memory served me correctly. Iwill close this chapter with what I said at that time about the Qualities of

Leadership.

There has been much written about the qualities needed in a leader. Couragehas a prime place in the list. Ability to plan is important. Stability in the face ofstress is essential. These and many other attributes, such as skill incommunication, are identifiable qualities of a leader. It seems to me, however,when one has lined up all the requisite traits, has analyzed and categorizedevery observable quality, there is still an impasse in the matter of definition. Theparadox is thisone does not find leaders without these traits, but one can findall these traitsin people who are not leaders.

It is undoubtedly important to identify the qualities needed in a leader. Self-analysis of these qualities should improve a persons leadership ability.Identification of such requisites might even form the basis for a person to becomea leader by imitation. But I somehow feel that we are missing the essential, whilewe are busy identifying observable traits that flow from the essential somethingthat we have not identified.

To further argue for this idea, it is possible to be a dishonestleader. In fact, manydictators have built leadership careers by being dishonest with people on aconsistent basis (consistency, ironically, being one of the qualities people look forin a leader). Further, it is possible to be an unknownleader. Witness the case ofMr. Truman who became President of the United States by chance and thenrepeated the process by campaign. Obviously, one does not progress fromsmall-town haberdasher to Vice President without leadership ability, but thedynamics of this man were totally unknown until he had unbelievableresponsibility thrust upon him. Then he became an obvious leader.

One wants to use the word charismaso badly it hurts, but the word in this case(as in so many others) is just a pedantic way to say nothing. It does nothing to


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identify the imponderable inner something that prompts some people to beleaders. It does nothing to describe the capacity that some people have to leadand from which flows the obvious qualities of leadership. It does no good to sayleadership ability is innate or inborn.

If so, then it is innate or inborn in everyone. I believe this is so, because so manypeople do not lead until a specific crisis arises from which there is no escapefrom assuming a leaders role. Then they quickly and seemingly instinctivelybecome leaders. This is an interesting phenomenon but it too does nothing tohelp describe the quality itself.

People who quickly assume crisis leadership under unavoidable circumstanceswill just as quickly drop the role once the crisis has been handled. They are notmotivated to continue as leaders. It is a role they do not want.

So until someone comes along with a better idea, I will conclude for the time

being, that the one quality from which emerges all the observable traits ofleadership is simply desire. People who desire leadership will be leaders.

I will not try to analyze what gives rise to the desire. Is it a need to be important?Is it a taught or trained objective, parental in source, to assume responsibility? Avast array of psychological hypotheses are obvious in any attempt to explain thedesire itself.

One conclusion, negative in nature, is easily observed. Leadership ability may beinnate in everyone, but the desireto lead is acquired. The desire to lead does notfollow bloodlines. This has long been proven in the totally controlled laboratorycondition which existed over long periods of time in Royal families. Egbert theMagnificent sired Egbert the Wastrel; Ivan the Tremendous sired Ivan the Lout,etc. The desire to lead, I am sure, is acquired. The ability to lead, I am equallysure, is a capacity that everyone has to a startling degree. The imponderable isthe desireto be a leader, motivating one to acquire the qualities that we can allobserve and know to be leadership in action.


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6. Morale

Definition: A. Good: A state of mind that prompts you to put a little extraon the next pitch when you are behind 28to 0.

B. Bad: A state of mind that makes you want to give upwhen you are leading 28 to 0.

Example: A. So, were behind 28 to 0. Wadda ya expect? We haventhad our turn at bat yet!

B. I know were leading 28 to 0, but with this lousy umpireanything can happen.


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MORALE

How is the morale in your department? Regardless of your answer, I bet youfourteen baseball cards that yourmorale is the same as the morale you describe

for youremployees. I do not know whether the chicken preceded the egg, or viceversa, but this much is certain, the supervisors morale level is always the sameas that of the department. No one can deny this phenomenon exists.

Morale is like the follow-through on a golf swing. The quality of the swing youhave taken at the ball will result in an identical quality of follow-through. Goodswing, good follow-through; bad swing, bad follow-through. If you are a golfer,you know the validity of this simileall too well!

Employee morale is the attitude created by the functions or tasks to be done, andis related to such factors as a sense of purpose, confidence in the future, and the

critique of others concerning work to be done.

The milieu of morale is one of constant action. Morale is created or reinforcedpositively or negatively on a continuing basis. This consideration indicates thatmorale can never be taken for granted; which, of course, means constantattention to morale factors. There are two extremely reassuring facts inherent inthis seemingly demanding activity. One, good supervisory skills do becomehabitual, hence morale in a department remains good because the supervisor isdancing without looking at his or her feet. Second, since morale is subject tosuch fast change, low morale can be made into high moralequickly.

Is it really important in terms of productivity that employees have good morale? Ifnot, the whole matter of morale seems pointless. Perhaps the question should beasked another way. Is it important to you to have good morale in order for you toproduce at maximum efficiency? I think most of us would answer this question bysaying that we can produce effectively in a given instance regardless of ourmorale, but we certainly would make every effort to secure employmentelsewhere if each day saw us depressed or disturbed about our jobsurroundings.

It seems to me that the key to the importance of having good morale in a workgroup is to foster sustainedhigh quality output. The avoidance of explosions of

frustrations and letdowns of discouragement on a continuing basis are rewards ofconsistent high morale. Conversely, bickering, absenteeism, and mistakesaccompany an undue turnover of personnel in a low morale department.

If for no other reason than to have a pleasant place to work, good morale seemsworth the effort.


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Morale was described earlier as an attitude. It might now be meaningful to pointout that morale hinges on a relationship. Morale is generated in the relationshipbetween supervisor and employee, between the department and the rest of theorganization, between the employees and the administrative activity of the frontoffice, between supervisors, and in just about any other relationship you can

name. But by far the most important relationship, and the one having maximumimpact on the morale of your employees, is yourrelationship with them. It isentirely possible for your department to have high morale even when theorganization as a whole may have low morale. It is a heady thought to realizethat the higher you rise in an organization, the more powerful becomes yourinfluence on the morale of others.

This is the one area of accountability that cannot be evaded. Morale of some sortwill exist. As a supervisor you can see to it that it exists on a level that ensuresmaximum job input by your employees on a sustained basis.

Morale is a tenuous and changing force. It is difficult to harness it in words, togive any kind of exact formula for its propagation. There are some constantfactors, however, that I have noticed over the years that always exist in highmorale departments and are always absent in low morale departments. Thesefactors relate to the supervisor.

In a high morale department, the supervisor1. Is technically competent.2. Is considerate of others.3. Does not show favoritism.4. Communicates with employees as specifically as information about

present and future job security permits, especially during periods whenthe organization is faced with fiscal problems.

5. Tackles unpleasant job problems, including an employeesunacceptable job performance, promptly and professionally.

It is possible for an entire organization to have low morale because of the attitudeand activity of higher administration as an influence on the supervisory staff andon employees. In such instances, there is no need for the supervisor to becomedisturbed because the department is not completely immune to the generalmalady. One can at least see to it that one does not add to the problem bycommunicating in a dejected and criticizing manner with the employees. It willhelp if the supervisor reaffirms to the employees that the goals of their efforts areclear and that your department is geared to make a profitand to keep harpingon it. The harp music may even penetrate the higher halls of the organization sothat the brass will pick up the melody.

If you must gripeand I will be the first to admit that griping can have a salutaryeffect on the psychebe sure to gripe with a peer whom you can trust. Chin


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music has a tendency to come back to you in a startling amplification if you pickup the wrong sounding board.

With these sustained metaphors, we will end this section on morale. Keep yoursense of values. Stay as relaxed as possible. Remember, the work to be done is

basic to your welfare and that of the employee. Concentrate on that importantfact. Morale will generally stay good with that emphasis.

Worrying cannot produce good morale.


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7. Motivation

Definition: A desire that moves one to work toward a defined goal,which if one does not have, one is in big trouble.

Example: We have a new incentive program. If you do your jobcompetently you wont get fired.


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MOTIVATION

Have you ever started in a new job without the desire to do it well? Have youever known anyone who was hired into a new job who did not want to succeed at

it? Certainly the desire for success is so universal that it must be described asthe normal reaction to a new and challenging situation. It would seem then thatthe only requirement to motivate our employees is to see to it that they do not getturned off. This is literally true. Unfortunately, the desire to succeed can betotally nullified in terms of job performance. There are many ways in which anemployee can get turned off. Apart from the potentially deadening effect of therote aspects of a job, there are other de-motivators. In order to motivateeffectively, it is important for a supervisor to know howemployees may becomede-motivated.

There are two broad areas of job motivation: achievement motivation (success

motivation), and security motivation (protective motivation). Regardless of what itis that movesa person to do the job, if it actually moves toward performance itmotivates.

There is a tremendous difference between the accomplishments of a success-motivated worker and a security-motivated worker. Not all people continue to besuccess motivated, and not all success-motivated people can afford to totallyabandon security motivation. Those who have only security motivation at leastget their jobs done in an acceptable manner. To clarify this seemingly involvedset of statements, let us lapse into the neat world of definitions. Stay motivated. Itwont take long.

The following may soundrather academic, but it is not, it is just common sensesomewhat systematized.

Achievement motivation is the force that moves one toward a goal based on adesire to reach the goal itself. Such considerations as money, recognition, or fearhave nothing to do with output or effort. Obviously, such motivation is rare in thepure state. It is probably only found in offensive tackles in small colleges andother such dedicated people.

Achievement motivation, however, can predominatein anyone, given the right

work environment. This is what each supervisor should strive to foster in his orher employees. Even a small overlay of achievement motivation is conducive tosustained good performance. Achievement motivation does not have to exist inthe pure state, nor is it necessarily nullified by security motivation.

Security motivation is the force that moves one toward a goal based on suchconsiderations as job tenure and money. It differs in results achieved both inmagnitude and sustained output and effort. Spurts in performance may occur, but


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they are usually fear-based. This type of motivation occurs in the pure state morefrequently than achievement motivation.

So what is the reasonable assumption that should be made by the supervisorwho wants to motivate an employee to do an outstanding job?

He or she should strive to protect the innate achievement motivation that theemployee brings to the job. This is done by removing obstacles to success.(More about this later.) He or she should also realize that security motivation isnot to be sniffed at. He or she should realize that security motivation is whatkeeps most of us doing jobs as we find them to be, rather than changing everyweek until we find the ideal job to accommodate our talents and goals in an idealenvironment. In other words, even though most people do not find the ideal job,that is not a reason for giving up on ideals.

There are certain errors in concepts of motivation of which supervisors should be

aware. Do not confuse attitude with motivation. The word attitude is acatchall anyway. Without attempting to define it, let me just cite an example of adraftsman whose attitude toward his job is very bad. This, incidentally, is a realcase, and one that may not be rare. He is completely competent in his specialty.He is easy to get along with. He is easy to supervise. He has a strong strain ofachievement motivation that moves him to function well beyond the requirementsof his job and to give sustained skillful service. His present bad attitude towardhis job resulted in his resignation. His attitudehas in no way influenced hisperformance. Why is he resigning? He cannot stand the over-supervising of thechief draftsman who assumes that all draftsmen have to be watched closely orthey will waste time. So he will take his unshaken achievement motivation tosome drafting room where he can have respect for his supervisor!

So, do not confuse attitude (whatever that means) with motivation. Sometimes,the highly motivated person will be unable to tolerate something that attacks thevery motivation itself. If there is an unmovable object in the path of highachievement motivation, you will generally lose an employee. The loss usuallyhurts the organization considerably.

Motivation does not equate with a set levelof activity. Organizations that havebeat their hairy chests and have imposed productivity standards on allemployees are self-hypnotized. I know of one company that set output standardsthat they claim were the highest on earth. I also know that in this same company,one Christmas Eve a few years ago, the second shift workers asked permissionto have a nonalcoholic Christmas party on the premises if they got all their workdone. The Production Manager magnanimously gave his consent. He figuredthat if they gave up their coffee breaks they might possibly rescue a half hourfrom the standardized workday. These men faked out their jobs until the brassin the front office went home and then had a seven-hour party. They had doubledtheir production on the prior shift, and they had hiddenhalf of the output in


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various places throughout the plant. The quality of the work was good. TheProduction Manager never learned of this giant party. Everyone had his or herown motivesfor not mentioning it.

Never confuse a set level of activity with true motivation.

Motivation is not something that is done toor forthe worker. Things done to orfor the worker may act as a spurt producer, but probably not. Sadly enough, anincrease in pay is really not in any predictable ratio to motivation. While Im at it, Imay as well go whole hog and say it. The employee picnic will not do the trickeither. No offense meant to the picnic committee. Picnics can be fun. Those wholike picnics will be there.

If we assume that people normally desire to do what they consider to be a goodjob, then the supervisor does not need to do anything to the employee to producemotivation. One must set specific goalsfor the employee, and one must remove

obstaclesto the attainment of these goals. This does not sound complicated, butsometimes the removing of obstacles can be a test of the supervisors ownmotivation.

Everyone wishes to contribute something worthwhile to the total work of thecompany. Obstacles to the accomplishment of this contribution can killmotivation. If the supervisor can possibly do so, he or she should remove orreduce the obstacles. These obstacles can be such factors as conflicting orders(too many bosses), rapidly changing goals or rules, a continuing too heavyworkload, inadequate facilities, red tape (e.g., multiple signatures or multipledocuments), lack of materials and the like. In addition to these obstacles toperformance, there can also be obstacles to work gratification that tend to blockmotivation. These obstacles can be, for example, destructive criticism, purposeof job not understood, unchallenging work, confusion about exact assignment, nosense of completion or accomplishment, and the like.

Remember that an employee would rather hear a word of commendation fromyou as supervisor than from anyone else in the organization. If your employeesfeel they are doing their job in a way that warrants your approval, it will do muchto reinforce their motivation. They should also know that you are aware ofobstacles that may exist and that you are doing your best to remove such blocksto success.

It might be well to bring these considerations into a compact package insummary:

1. People have a desire to do a good job.

2. Their motivation can be achievement or security based.

3. As much achievement motivation as possible should be maintained.


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4. This is done by setting goals and removing obstacles to those goals.

Note: There seems to be validity in the theory that job enrichment is of primeconcern in setting goals. If a persons job can be made more meaningful in terms

of challenge and accomplishment, there should result an increase inachievement motivation. Care should be taken not to confuse job enrichmentwith more tasks to be done. Demanding greater output of the same level of workis not in itself a motivator. In business today, the workload can become so heavythat employees give in to frustration. Too much work and too little time toaccomplish the work can result in low output. Beware of enriching the job ofyour better employees by adding volume.

5. Work gratification can be augmented by your comments on work well doneby your employees. (Caution: Unless the work is well done, do not say it

is. This may well produce guilt, smugn

combating supervisory stress

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