Direct Supervision

“We all want to work for a person we respect, so the supervisor should be setting a good example,” says Mary Marso, CEO of Jeane Thorne, Inc., a staffing services firm in St. Paul. “For instance, if the supervisor tells the staff that the company expects them to go the extra mile even if it means staying after five o’clock, then turns around and leaves to go golfing at 3:30 during a deadline, it sends the wrong message.”

Another common supervisory problem is the “brick wall” complaint—employees feel as though the supervisor isn’t listening to what they’re saying, or is reinterpreting their words according to what he or she wants to hear. Yet another is a perception that the supervisor never develops his or her people, but instead takes credit for all their ideas.

“They’ll say, ‘I never knew what he was thinking, and I never understood what was required of me,’” says David Farrar, president and CEO of FGRAssociates, LLC, a Minneapolis consulting firm. Farrar is also on the board of Human Resource Professionals of Minnesota.

By making supervisors aware of these issues and doing their best to correct them, companies have a better chance of holding onto their most valuable people.

Clear Communication

Human resources experts say the most important skill supervisors can have is the ability to communicate—to say what they mean and, conversely, to make a real effort to understand what their employees say back to them.

The effort can be hampered by a “no news is good news” mentality, says Rick Speckmann, CEO of EmPerform, a Minnetonka company that specializes in recruiting and retention management. Good supervisors talk frequently with employees on an individual basis and offer both constructive criticisms and “attaboys.”

“So many people think that feedback is a negative word,” Speckmann says. “If I come to you and say I want to give you some feedback, your first instinct is ‘Uh oh.’ But what if I thank you for something you did right? What if I say ‘A couple of times this month you came in early, which was really helpful to me, and I know you did it out of the goodness of your heart’? Now, that’s feedback.”