Staff Development

Just because we have strong business skills doesn’t necessarily mean that we have strong supervisory skills. Actually we may be at our best, and feel most comfortable when working alone. Usually however as our business grows we have no choice but to bring on employees.

Of course our first task when we bring on a new employee is to share our vision and mission. We want them to know, not guess, what we are about. But the next steps are just as crucial.

In our role as supervisor and manager we are responsible for moving our employees, as well as ourselves, towards the goals and objectives of our business. It is always the wrong choice not to put in the time and energy that is required to provide orientation, training, ongoing supervision and motivation to new employees. After all people can only do what is expected of them if we let them know what we expect. It is unfair to our employees not to receive guidance and direction from us.

We should also understand that each unsuccessful hire costs us time and money, because we then have to start over with the recruitment, interviewing and hiring process. Actually if we have too much staff turnover our business may develop a reputation as an un-friendly work place. That could work against us because the best prepared people may have doubts about working for us.

If you are a person who has difficulty speaking openly and directly to people about correcting their mistakes, you should push yourself to be more assertive. Remember that it is a business relationship and the sooner you and the employee are on the same page about expectations, the greater the chances are for a productive relationship going forward. Below are several behaviors that all managers and supervisors should try to cultivate:

Demonstrate an attitude of openness and willingness to explain and answer job related questions; let the employee know that if you don’t know the answer you will find it and get back to him or her;
Encourage workers to work independently without bothering you every minute, but check up on him or her regularly to make sure that they are on the right track;

Allow workers to work in their own style as long as they are producing the results that you want and are not offending co-workers, or clients (the children or the parents);

Don’t forget to verbally acknowledge good job performance;

Try to remain objective and don’t show favoritism for one worker over another;
Never talk about another worker’s job performance with another worker; we should always speak one on one with the person in question;

Avoid making general statements to the whole staff in order to get a point across to one or two people; that is a disservice to those who are performing well;

When we are having a bad day we shouldn’t take out our frustrations on our staff and bring down the spirits of the whole workplace, we should excuse ourselves and have some alone time until we can pull it together. No matter what we think, tension among staff can be felt by the children and the parents; making for an uncomfortable time for everyone.

Make no mistake about it, most of us aren’t born with the ability to effectively supervise groups of people. It takes self discipline, focused organization, objectivity, a clear sense of purpose and the ability to be supportive while maintaining professional boundaries.