The Best Practices for Managers and Supervisors

The command and control approach to managing personnel is the antiquated way managers used to conduct business back in the 20th Century. The rationale for the old top-down approach of management was a hold-over from the 19th Century where jobs were hard to find and talent was in short supply.

Fast-forward to 2012, the job market has changed and even though it remains tight after "The Great Recession", wise managers understand that there is a pool of talent waiting in the wings and the economy will not remain in decline forever. An employer's market does not mean that managers and supervisors can treat employees like luggage at an international airport, but instead this provides an opportunity to cultivate the best talent available. Today's modern worker is more aware of the realities associated with the job market when it comes to developing and retaining skill-sets and understanding that the geographic constraints no longer holds talent hostage.

Managers and supervisors in this modern era must understand that some of the talent cultivated during these lean economic times may seek other opportunities elsewhere as the economy improves. The goal for managers is to create an environment that will retain employees beyond the scope of using gimmicks or insulting incentives. Due to the rise of technology over the past twenty years, interpersonal skills have been replaced by text messaging and social networks in many aspects of our lives. Managers must establish and maintain a professional one-on-one relationship both inside and outside the departments with employees.

The challenge for some managers is to develop the skills that foster a sense of pride and personal accomplishment while enhancing productivity, and trust among their subordinates. The quality of the managerial relationship with employees is vital. To create a path of enhancing productivity managers and supervisors need to establish a way of delegating the responsibilities of a departmental or team oriented task to individual members, motivate employee integrity to promote self-discipline within the context of professional behavior, and strive to enhance quality without using too many incentives. The goal is to make the position interesting and a valued part of the employee's character portfolio.

The first step is to have a thumbnail sketch of each employee in respect to personality, background, sensitivities, interests, skill-sets, goals, and macro functions in efforts toward the organizational mission. This may sound like a lot, but the more employees share, the better the manager can manage. In the dark-ages of business the micro-view was all that an employee needed to know when it came to their particular departmental function. This practice worked well among lesser educated employees that could be easily intimidated by fear of job loss. Since "The Great Recession", many new hires are less fearful of such management practices and may harbor distrust in private-sector entities since the massive lay-offs of 2008 through 2009. Therefore, the manager today has to understand this consideration. This disposition has little to do with a particular company, but may be the residual trauma resulting in a previous lay-off.

Besides getting to know the employees better, time should be allocated in respect to training, policies, and procedures in order to ensure better comprehension on tasks, roles and responsibilities. Also, the wise manager should assess them as professionals within their chosen disciplines and treat them accordingly. This may sound odd to some managers, but like in professional basketball, the players have a vested interest in the integrity of the organization. A wise manager will use this interest to promote the agenda of the organizational mission. The manager or supervisor being the coach metaphorically, cannot play the game, but can guide the team to successful victories. The same is true within the organization. The ultimate goal for a good manager or supervisor is to create an environment that is self-disciplined and self-policing in respect to policies, practices and quality standards.

However, to get to that point, the manager or supervisor must start with understanding employee aptitudes and talents outside the norm of their daily work routine. An example would be to make open requests for tasks from individuals with an aptitude for certain duties. An employee may be great at accounts payable for instance, but may also have a talent for project implementation. The benefit with modern technology is that employees are able to acquire other skill-sets online and through virtual campuses a lot quicker than in the past. During employee evaluations, managers should ask if they have taken new courses or received other external training that could benefit the department or organization. The manager that fails to do this may find that employee working for another organization when the economy improves.

A macro-view of each person's role in the organization should be disclosed during a meeting so that they have an idea where their expertise is required on an organizational level. This assists in delegating and emphasizing the importance of their function in the grand scheme of things. The sharing of confidential information may be excluded, but a macro-outline is always helpful. Avoiding employee complacency is crucial for managers to maintain a certain level of morale and optimism within the department.

The absolute worst thing a manager can do is give employees a sugar-high such as an incentive that singles out one individual. A team-oriented approach may be more suitable that does not single-out an employee. The rationale behind this thought is the possibility of one staff member being pitted against another that could lead to more of an individualistic focus on outdoing the other co-worker instead of focusing on the larger task. This may seem petty, but if working as a team this could prove counter-productive when it comes to morale, especially if the same employee is rewarded regularly. Incentives that incorporate a departmental or team effort would foster the possibility of shifting morale upward among the whole group and therefore an individual interest is not solely pursued.

However, the incentives depend on the industry and corporate culture. Fields such as real estate or independent sales are more conducive to individualistic incentive programs because the value of properties are not equal and more of a personal effort is put forth. Even though the real estate tem in this example are in the same office, it would be disserving for an under achieving sales person to be rewarded like the top sales person. Now, the question is "Why is it such a bad idea to do this departmentally?" The difference is risk, the employees in the office environment may take on a risk of pushing a new idea, but their livelihood is not staked on the occurrence of an event. If the real estate agent does not make sales due to a bad economy or some other issue, his or her job is in jeopardy. However within the department a proposal for a new idea usually has to go through a vetting process with consideration by management of the consequences.