You’ll enjoy this supervisor tip if you find yourself constantly overseeing the work of your employees. This comes at the expense of the quality of your work or sees you putting in a lot of extra hours just to keep up with your tasks.
Our supervisor tip is to think about the world of football and the quarterback. In our scenario, the quarterback represents your employees and you are the coach.
When it comes to throwing a football, a quarterback should do a few things to make the best throw possible. This includes not throwing across your body, using footwork to stay balanced, and letting your arm follow through on passes.
All of these things are proven techniques that help a quarterback achieve success. But you have to remember that during a game, there’s a lot of chaos on the field.
In these situations, the defense may force the quarterback to improvise. He may make a great play but do so with bad mechanics.
Supervisor Tip: What’s Your Role?
This is when it’s important to understand the difference between results and mechanics. A coach may not love a quarterback’s mechanics but if you’re winning games, then you need to embrace the results.
Let’s say the quarterback uses poor mechanics to make a successful play. Should the coach call timeout to discuss the proper technique or should he focus on the next play and winning the game?
There’s a time for coaching a player and there’s a time to see the big picture. When you can understand that balance, you’ll become more successful and gain control of your time.
Supervisor Tip: Find the Right Balance
What’s the right balance of “coaching” for your team? This four step process works well:
- Hire good people;
- Make sure they have the training to succeed;
- Set expectations;
- Evaluate the results and make adjustments as needed.
This process doesn’t see you constantly monitor every act by the employee. That takes too much of your time.
Supervisor Tip: Different Path, Same Destination
For years, you’ve been in charge of creating a committee report. You’re a good writer and the report is mostly made up of words.
Later, you assign the report’s creation to one of your employees. That person prefers a more visual approach and uses a lot of infographics, instead of text.
The same information is in the new report and the committee likes its presentation.
But you’re upset because you liked the way you used to do the report. Should you have the employee do it your way?
I say, “No,” because you gave someone a task, the task was completed, and the results were acceptable.
This is a time when you need to step back and give the employee freedom to improvise or take a different path to the same destination.
How many companies have failed because while there was a lot of talk of innovation, there was also an insistence on doing things the same old way?
You’ll Love Ken Okel as a Keynote Speaker at Your Meeting
