Coaching Supervisors

Article by Dr. John E. Kello

Who influences productivity, quality, safety, motivation, and morale as much as, or more than, anyone else? With all due respect to the CEO (especially if any are reading this), I personally nominate the first-line supervisor. As a practical matter, the supervisor is a critical lever in the organization, and very likely the critical one in terms of daily impact on organizational effectiveness.  

Here’s a potent example, only one of many: Since the 1970s, many organizations have started major culture-change, culture-transformation efforts to build what is now widely known as a High-Performance Organization. The goal is to get away from narrowly focused jobs, top-down management control of work, insensitivity to customer needs and a lack of focus on quality, and instead to build a flexible, nimble, market-oriented, team-based organizational system of excellence. As an organizational development consultant with more than 4 decades of experience, I’ve assisted with a considerable number of these organizational effectiveness initiatives. Some yield excellent, even spectacular results. But many times, they do not.  

Why do Change Efforts Fail? 

One of the most visible reasons is dropping the ball with supervisors, failing to adequately inform and involve the first-line leader in the change process. After all, the priorities that a supervisor commits to as most important set a clear expectation. Motivated by such expectations from the supervisor, the team tends to focus on and do the right things. But all too often, surprisingly, there is a disconnect between the supervisor and leaders above him/her. In some transformation efforts, the planning happens at the top, and is communicated to the workers, without fully engaging the frontline supervisor in the process. Worse, some of the transformation efforts I have seen involve major reorganizations that do not specify a clear role for incumbent supervisors at all. In one case, supervisors who got their information about “what was to come” mainly through the grapevine, started calling their company’s major change effort the “POOF Program” which they said stood for “Phase Out Our Foremen”. How supportive do you think those supervisors were of the company’s transformation effort? How strongly did they endorse it with their crews? If your answer is “not at all”, you are right. 

To take a line from much of the research on the role of the first-line supervisor, they are the linchpin of the organization. They hold together the “bottom” workers with the “top” executives. They are also identified as the lever. They exert a remarkable amount of influence over the workers and the work they produce.  

Finding the lever… at the First Line 
  
Think about your own efforts at constructive change in your organization. Many professionals that I have worked with, especially those in staff support functions such as HR or EHS, lament their reality that unless they’re personally there to personally push and pull, things don’t get done. Where is the best lever that could multiply their efforts and achieve the desired results? Hint: re-read the above paragraphs. Get the first line supervisors on board.  

So how best to coach supervisors so they drive the right messages to their folks? Here are some prescriptive thoughts as to what leaders above those supervisors in the management hierarchy can do to coach and train the supervisors who report to them, based on my experience:  

1) Supervisors must be high on the list of critical relationships to build and nurture. Attend to the care and feeding of these critical relationships. Remember, what supervisors are personally committed to can happen; what they are uncommitted to (or actively against) probably won’t. They are the linchpin, the level, the great multiplier, with direct impact on the bulk of your workforce. 

2) Keep supervisors actively in the know. It’s a common mistake to assume that since supervisors are “management” they automatically know what’s going on. Not always so, sad to say. Do what you can to personally ensure that supervisors are fully engaged in critical organizational initiatives, that they understand their leaders’ motives and goals, and that they support them. Answer their questions. Make sure they know why we are doing what we are doing, what it’s going to achieve, and what their role in it is. Take time to inform and support them, to position supervisors to drive your initiatives in your absence.  

3) Coach the coach. Increasingly, the role of the supervisor is characterized as coach and facilitator rather than work boss. All well and good, but not all supervisors are natural teachers. You might have a good working relationship with a supervisor whom you have fully informed and engaged in your critical initiatives, but who isn’t skillful at passing it on to his folks. In this case, one of the most practical coaching models of which I am aware is the “Tell-Show-Do-Feedback” system:  

• Begin a coaching interaction with some explanation, some telling. Give background. What is the knowledge or skill to be transferred to the learner? Why is it important?  

• In the Show step, demonstrate, illustrate, work out an example, and in general let the learner see how it is done.  

• Then have the learner Do, that is, try it out under observation. If there are hazards or risks, have the learner explain what he/she is going to do, instead of or before taking any action.  

• Feedback, both positive and corrective, should be given continually during the coaching interaction. Ask and answer questions.  

4) Help with the “soft skills.” Focus your coaching not only on technical content/job skills, but also on their communication skills including the presentation and facilitation skills that are essential for supervisors to lead team meetings, and to convey information clearly and persuasively. Help supervisors get more comfortable with their platform skills, even for less structured meetings such as tailgate talks, and you’ll strengthen their ability to reach employees and keep them engaged and informed on critical workplace issues.  

5) As they step up, you can step back. When a supervisor is able and willing to coach employees as needed in working productively and collaboratively, lead effective meetings, and in general drive team performance to the next level in his/her area, you can step back. You’ve developed a critical, high-impact resource, and delegated effectively. Now you have a persuasive emissary to carry your message. Step out, but not completely away. It’s important to be there as an ongoing teaching resource and support for your supervisors — to be a coach.  
  
Many supervisors are put into leadership positions without much if any explicit coaching and training to prepare them for the role. Whether they are promoted up through the ranks or brought in at that level, there’s a lot they need to know that they might not have picked up along the way. Well-coached and trained supervisors, all too often neglected, can be huge difference makers in companies that aspire to organizational excellence.