Supervisor Role in Career Management

The supervisor’s role starts at production. To maximize our production we must delve deeper into the dynamics of team leadership and begin the process of motivating the workers beyond their weekly pay. We also have administrative tasks associated with the position of supervisor. Most, if not all, of our supervisory job, the leadership and administrative, includes using our personal and professional judgement in making decisions. These judgement calls can be subjective and arbitrary or objective and principled.

It's the principle of it.

Developing principles to live by and practicing them until they become ingrained habit will allow you to focus on your team more than yourself. Decision making becomes easier because choices that don’t line up with your principles aren’t even a consideration. Your team should begin to anticipate your decisions, because they see the principles behind them, and be able to make appropriate decisions for themselves.

As you prepare to move up to the next rung on the supervisory ladder, you need to be keeping track of what principles (as practices) work and which don’t work and why. I compiled my list of leadership principles very early on and was surprised at how many things on my list didn’t actually work when I put them in practice. I found that much of my list needed to be written in pencil rather than carved in stone as I had first assumed (arrogance of youth?). Even those leadership truths I believe should be carved in stone still need to be tweaked based on the environment and the personnel involved.

For example, as I noted above, I like people to learn the principles I use for decision making and apply them. However, some are too insecure to make decisions for themselves. They need someone to weigh in and take the responsibility for the decision. They’re the expert but they lack the confidence. I will assume the responsibility, at least early on, so they can move forward but eventually they must learn to shoulder those decisions, it’s a process.

Another example is the principle of “pulling your weight” or doing your fair share. My goal is to assign work fairly so I don’t overburden the hard worker in favor of the lazy one. This is rarely 100% possible to put into practice. Applying the principle however, just requires a little tweaking. First step I take is to begin the motivating process with the lazy ones. Performance counseling and standards guidance help to develop the paper trail if nothing else. Next I work on the reward piece for my star performers. Rewards help compensate the worker while the paper trail either motivates the lazy to step up their game or step out the door.

Eventually you’ll begin to recognize the principle in the practice. In other words, the practices you observe commonly have a principle behind them. It’s up to you to decide which are good and which you want to shy away from adopting. As you establish the principles from which you lead, you will need to marry them with the practices you use in your leadership role.

One principle that I feel is extremely important is providing advancement opportunity for those on your team. While not all of the members on your team will be ambitious enough to desire advancement, it is necessary to have a plan for those who are. The military, by its very nature, requires its members to work towards advancing in rank and responsibility. It also lays a good deal of responsibility on supervisors to mentor their troops toward that end.

Give them a reason for self improvement.

By setting an example of a supervisor mentoring the troops for growth and advancement, you establish an environment where people know they can get ahead by developing the qualities necessary for the next step up the chain. They will start to pay attention to the kinds of behavior that will be needed should they get promoted. You may even find they will want more responsibility while actively seeking your guidance on areas of improvement. The best outcome, to my way of thinking, is the removal of their need for self promotion and turning it into a greater team focus.

Unfortunately, in today’s world there’s a large emphasis in “managing” your own career. To me that speaks to the blatant disregard by those in charge for those they employ. For most of my military career I believed it was my supervisor’s job to look out for my career and my job to watch out for those under me. It was heartbreaking to find out that nearly every one of the E-9s (highest enlisted rank) I met, got to that rank by “managing” their career. It was reflected in their self important leadership style. However, it’s not unique to the military just more personal to me.

Another bad example.

This idea of career management was rudely thrust in my face during a Leadership graduation luncheon. I was there as the supervisor of one of the graduates. The keynote speaker was an E9, Chief Master Sergeant, and I couldn’t believe my ears. Instead of speaking about the responsibilities of a leader or supervisor, which these airman would soon become, he spoke about his career management. He described how he manipulated the system to get the right jobs at the right bases to facilitate filling the right resume boxes. Nothing about stepping up and filling the roles most needed by the Air Force. Nothing about duty, honor, integrity, or responsibility but just a bragimony on how he scammed the system to get ahead. How could anyone respect such a self-serving prick? I feel that way every time someone starts bragging about how they made it to the top by working the system rather than by working.

Bad career advice?

I realize that in today’s environment you can’t rely on your supervisor for career advancement. In some cases, they stifle it to prevent losing their best while recommending promotions for those they want to see go away. There are also those who try to help by giving advice on how to work the system. I’ve even had boss’s suggest I neglect my job and my family so I could pursue activities that would enhance my career opportunities. Obviously, they didn’t say I should neglect either but what they suggested would have caused just that.

What I am saying is that I believe supervisors should begin figuring out how to help their people advance within the system. They shouldn’t demand their people make it easy for them by doing their own square filling. I’ve had deserving airmen that couldn’t seem to score high enough on their tests to make the cut off. Through simple observation, I had learned, about halfway through my career, that there was one sure fire way to get a strong performer promoted. If I had hardworking star performer that should get promoted, I would assign the individual to the weather radar coordinator position. That, in turn, would force me to send that person to weather radar school. The first testing cycle after they graduated would see them make a high enough score to get promoted. It worked every time.

Not my first career choice but hey...

Help them grow.

If you’re paying attention (Look Around!, Listen Up!, and Tune In) you could end up knowing your team members better than they know themselves. This gives you the unique ability to watch for advancement opportunities for them. You’re generally more aware of openings in the company because you’re exposed to more departments and their hiring managers. You have a better sense of what advancement opportunities would be a good fit for which team member. Your familiarity with their strengths, weaknesses, skills, and temperament allows you to make solid suggestions. However, I don’t ever think it’s appropriate to direct someone to another job because they have performance issues and you want them off your team. That’s just wrong. If they find another position in the company and the manager is aware of the issues, okay, but just passing along a problem is not right. It sets a bad example.