Two Essential Qualities of a Strong Supervisor

You’re not the boss of me! Can you remember a sibling or friend saying those words to a younger you? As grownups, most of us are the boss of someone. Many are the boss of a lot of someones. Whether you are a supervisor at work, a parent, or do volunteer work, chances are, at some point you will be in charge of one or more people.

Being the boss takes guts. Many people think they want to be the boss, but then when they must take on that role, they realize they were gravely mistaken. The boss is responsible for the success or failure of the team, much like a coach. The boss is never universally loved if she is doing her job. The boss must know when to say no to rein people in, and when to push others into stretching out of their comfort zone. Sometimes the boss must deal with people who are not very emotionally healthy, and that translates into stressful interactions. Sometimes it’s just too much pressure and the boss decides they no longer want to be the boss.

You can learn and improve the skills required to be a good supervisor but there are some key qualities that make an individual more predisposed to be successful in this type of leadership role. You must like people and you must be balanced.

YOU MUST LIKE PEOPLE.

So many times, people are moved into supervisory roles because they were the best widget maker at the widget factory. Oh, and they had the most seniority. Neither of those characteristics predicts a successful supervisor. Making widgets and managing people are two completely different animals. It is imperative that people in supervisory roles genuinely like people. They must believe that people are basically good and will flourish under the right circumstances.
Additionally, people need to like you if they are going to work for you. You may have heard a supervisor say, “I don’t care if they like me as long as they get the job done.” This is wrong. If your employees don’t like you, they will sabotage you. They will also be watching for you to mess up. Employees who don’t like their boss take immense pleasure in seeing the boss taken down. Your employees need to like you, and for them to like you, they must believe you like them and you must be likeable.

YOU MUST BE BALANCED.

The best supervisors can find the balance between running a tight ship and caring for others. Finding the balance between being concerned, yet not getting overly involved, is tough. Supervisory enmeshment is common. This refers to the supervisor being too involved in an employee’s life: loaning money, talking them into leaving an abusive relationship, giving them a ride even on days off, etc. When you are enmeshed with an employee, it becomes more difficult to make tough decisions about that employee. Supervisors must maintain a certain amount of distance in order to keep a clear head.

Conversely, you can’t be so rigid and robotic that your employees feel you have no heart. Productivity and performance cannot be your only focus. The humans that work for you can be messy at times, and you must be able to handle that. You need to know about your employees, and express interest in their lives. Remember, they need to like you. And people tend to like the boss who asks about their family and what they did over the weekend. This helps build a relationship that will lead to trust and success in the workplace.