Challenges of a new supervisor

So it’s been like three months in this supervisory position, and I am not enjoying it.

The challenging responsibilities of a supervisor, for me, are addressing performance gaps, delegating appropriately, motivating, balancing management perspective with technical and people concerns, among others. I will just see if there are others.

As much as all supervisors want everyone on their team to be competent for the jobs they are supposed to do, this is not always the case. Competency gaps or misalignment may have been the result of problematic hiring process, age, reorganization, or other reasons. Whatever reasons these may be, and usually these are beyond the supervisor’s control, it is still the supervisor’s responsibility to deliver results.

Trained as I was in classical military training methodologies, my default corrective mechanism is the “sandwich method.” This is done by the supervisor providing instruction on how to address the performance gap, followed by a punishment (usually a physical activity), then the supervisor repeats the lesson on how to do the task correctly.

Of course, this is addressing a performance gap, which is addressing an immediate concern. The deeper concern is the competency gap, which is an altogether different matter.

Although the two may have a common root cause, like motivation.

Performance gaps and competency gaps can be addressed as these can be corrected. However, if the reason is motivation, addressing this is not as straightforward as either of the two.

As listed above, motivation is another difficult of being a supervisor. There are a number of theories on motivation, and identifying which approach to use for every employee’s unique situation is a challenge. Now how about if it is the supervisor that needs motivation, on staying or on delivering according to standards.

Another challenge is on delegating. I read in an HBR article that people who cannot delegate may have some behavioral issues (I will post the link here in the near future), such as trust or conceit. If I have difficulty delegating but I cannot identify which of those two is the reason, are there other possible reasons?

Another challenge of being a supervisor is balancing how to address management prerogative vis-à-vis technical and people concerns.

Depending on the company or organization, supervisors usually are promoted from people who have demonstrated above-average skills and competencies in the skills they are hired for. As such, they have been proven themselves in doing their main work as specialists with wide and deep appreciation of their work and the work’s immediate context.

When they are promoted to supervise people, they are given a new role (note that I used “new” instead of “higher” role), frequently without adequate training. Management hopes that the learned higher technical competency would translate to ability to deliver on broader responsibilities, not considering that broader responsibility usually involves managing people, which was not a key requirement in the specialist role. Thus, high technical competency will be used to address a leadership competency requirement. Unfortunately, in my experience, this can lead to frustration to the new leaders as they are used to delivering results [on their own] while seeing team results, which they see as a reflection of their performance as supervisors, below their self-determined levels.

Also, I question myself: For a limited financial compensation for being responsible for deliverables, is it worth it?

Yes, I am stepping into the realm of extrinsic motivators. Honestly, I do not love being designated a formal supervisor. I would rather be a person recognized for my skills, including relating with people, coaching and mentoring them to help them deliver and provide them with adequate resources and work environment. I realize that all these things can be done with being a formal supervisor, but perhaps the organizational reality that makes this difficult is that one has to do all these things in the context of an organizational environment that has a conflict of philosophy on leadership, responsibility, and abused culture of completed staff work.

I understand that I may be being too hard on myself… I should allow myself some learning curve, and maybe I am just experiencing these difficulties because I am learning… but am I? I am just thinking of what the organization requires of my team…. And that organization does not care about learning and think about learning curve for those below them (in general, I mean).

I miss my previous weekends studying new things that, well, yes, would be helpful for work, but they are really of different disciplines. I like playing the role of a second or third perspective on proposed ideas or activities. I miss learning how to lead people from the experience of others.

My life has become way busier compared with how it was when I was working in my previous employer. But becoming a supervisor changed it from overly loaded to overly vague and unclear, trying to guess what the bosses want without guidance or with conflicting instructions from multiple authorities.

Time to check my blood pressure now…

Purpose

Just a short post that I hope to be able to expand later. I feel that the lack of a strategic/long-term purpose affects the quality of my outputs and work.

I can be self-driven, but the problem is that the unit itself seemingly lacks purpose and mandate. Everything is based on preferences.

That lack of mandate allows our inputs to be questioned, as if we do not know what we are doing. Maybe, they are correct.

A system is required. A purpose has to be established and institutionalized.

Time to run.

On Leadership

I am not a leader. My limited knowledge of leadership is based on my experience as a cadet officer in Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC). So let me make it clear at the onset that my writing is just based on my own limited experience, and that this is more of a documentation of my learning or insight rather than a prescription on how to be one.

Leadership demands inspiration. I agree with John Maxwell's test of leadership: If nobody's behind you, you are no leader. You are just taking a walk.

Leadership does not come from mandate. It comes from respect, which usually comes from genuine care for the people you lead. If you want to lead, you have to care.

Leadership is a relationship (duh!). Leadership is not about legal authority, it's about people's trust in you.

Leaders put the needs and welfare of their people first, before one's own. Even in battle, the leader leads, not just commands.

In relation, a leader recognizes that it is best to motivate rather than command. A command is based on legal authority, a motivated action is based on a shared goal and values.

Leadership is about making tough decisions. You may consult, you may get inputs, but in the end, you have to make the call.

And in relation to that, leadership is about responsibility. Some organizations punish individuals who make wrong decisions. We cannot fault organizations for that as they have their purpose. Nonetheless, the leader has to make that choice, and take the responsibility for its outcome. The leader does not pass the buck.

The leader leads. Before a leader commands, and for me, before a leader should command, the leader does what he tells others to do. Don't expect other people to stick their necks out for something that their leader would not do.

The leader does not blame his or her own action to external forces. The choice is the leader's own.

The leader knows his goal and methods, and communicates these to his people. His people are not blind nor left alone wondering what will happen next.

Just my limited thoughts. I usually tell people I do not want to get promoted to leadership position, but I want to help people be their best.

Are these my expectations of leaders, in general? Yes. But I also know that leaders are humans.

And perhaps, that's my last. Leaders are humans. They think, they feel, they guess, and they struggle which ones of these will give him the proper input to have the best outcome... for his people, his flock.

Note: Forgive me for being not gender neutral. Leadership is not based on gender. All male pronoun references apply to all genders.

Learning PHP and MySQL Fundamentals - Day 1

So I attended my first day of PHP MySQL short course training yesterday, It is an introductory course, with my intent to get as much practice on using PHP and complement my own study reading online sources.

Actually, I was not sure if I would like to enroll in the basics class, as I thought that based on the outline, I have covered 80% of the content. Anther reason was I got confused with the price posted in the website. It says that the regular training fee is P16,000, while Early Bird Government participants pay P8,000. While I am a government employee, I was only registering (i.e., paying) on the first day of the training, definitely not an "early bird," which the website defined as a participant who has to pay the full registration fee two weeks before the start of the class.

I am glad the staff said that I can avail the P8,000 (subject to presentation of relevant documents, which I promptly presented). And I am glad I still did enroll in the basic class.

While a cursory reading of the outline tells me that I got 80% of the content based on my personal readings, the training did expose me to other practical challenges that I did not get from the two PHP-MySQL-Apache books I was reading.

The assignment (which I only got to research today) also helped me to keep the concepts in my mind. As a programming class, it also helped me appreciate how it can be applied in everyday life (although not the programming language, but rather the logic and process). One personally funny example the trainer gave about LOOP was "If anak ng presidente, derecho na. Kapag hindi, gawin mo ang mga procedures na ito."

At first, I felt defensive, considering where I work. But then, I had to ignore it. I am neither the President nor a child of one. And while I don't want to say it is true, it is an example that they may have found real in their experience.

But for me, the appreciation of where programming can be applied is helpful.

Looking forward to the next session, which will be after two weeks.

Re-learning to Write and Weakness as a Motivation to Improve

My application to this government agency concerned with national security, which included a one-on-one interview and a writing test, revealed how bad my communication skills were. I am writing here to publicly acknowledge that weakness, which I commit myself to improve at the soonest possible time.

Aside from telling the public (i.e., the limited number of people who read my blog) about my experience, I also got to experience what I preach: Going through an application process to assess yourself.

Many times, when we get performance reviews, we get very satisfactory ratings. Sometimes, the rating is correct, sometimes, the rating is there to allow you to stay. Or sometimes, the rating has no basis.

I am not a fan of external validation, but I do appreciate feedback, which you can only get from being externally connected. And that writing test (the result of which was not given to me) made me realize how bad my writing skills have become over the months I have been out of Policy.

The result was an expected pain. That day, I knew I was not prepared. However, the results of the writing surprised me so much. Again, there was no score, but it did make me realize how bad it is.

Again, no one told me my writing or interview skills were bad, but the opportunity made me realize it.

And I have to be honest with myself.

As painful as it is, I have to accept the truth that I am not ready to go back to technical communication roles.

I simply hope that my friends at Policy that old skills forgotten can be easily re-learned is true.

I have got some word to do.

Of course, I am not writing this just to share my experience of learning. I want to say, in brief, that that experience of realizing for one's self your weakness is a liberating experience, that an organization should also try.

If we do not admit our weakness (i.e., objectively telling ourselves that we failed in some areas), then we won't be urged to make drastic actions to rectify them.

If we continue to make "success" and "failure" subjective, we will always have success that is not something we can really be proud of.

If we continue to accommodate perspectives into performance and consider economy of the individual for making decisions performance issues, then don't expect improvement.

(Actually, you can see improvement if that is what you want to see... just don't expect respect for your measuring system.)

Ignorance is bliss. What you don't know won't hurt you... for now.

I've got to write more.

New blogs

Parang wala akong kapaguran, parang ang dami kong oras. Bakit ko nasabi?

Dahil kahit ang dami kong ginagawa, ang lakas pa rin ng loob kong gumawa ng 2 pang blogs.

Visit ninyo na lang.

http://casupm.blogspot.com
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I did not give you a spirit of fear

Yesterday, when I was going home, I felt afraid.
I felt afraid because I didn't know what would happen. I failed my final exam in [Managerial] Economic Analysis, a required subject in my course (Master of Management).
I also failed my mid-term in the same exam.
If you were in my position, would you not feel afraid?
I tried to rationalize what was happening. I thought, If I would watch my life in a television, how would I look like? Maybe, I would say that that person is stupid for putting so much with such an unimportant, "un-everlasting" (in reference to everlasting things in Purpose Driven Life) idea.
Usually, I could do that. But not that time.
In the train, I felt afraid and hopeless. I was about to give up.
I mean just give up. Not to motivate myself (which I do everyday considering the number of things I have to do). Not to plan. Not to innovate or adopt. Just give up.
I felt the masters flying away.
(My feelings for the failure was compounded with the idea that I have not failed the graduate course when I was working for private companies, but now that I work at the school where I take it, that is when the threat comes in!)
Those were the things going through my head.
I read the Bible today. Early. I thought I have to make sure I don't forget reading it this time, and try to rush it in the evening. But I was not able to.
At 7 pm, I went to Gloria Jeans (Gateway), so get some files. I decided to read the Bible. And this time, I read it at www.biblegateway.com (what can I say?).
I decided to search for free downloadble Bibles for my Linux laptop. I want to have one, preferably an NIV. I got to some sites, but I was not able to get one because the idea of ProTIPS came in. I decided to search for it because I want to have an idea what the book is like.
Incidentally, I came across the ProTIPS blog.
I have tried searching for it more than a year ago at the FEBC website, to no avail. Now, I see all the tips I have been searching for.
But of course, I'm still buying the book. :)
Actually, all of that is just the introduction. My main point is short and simple.
In the post that I read (which is actually for November 4 2008), it saw two sentences:
You say: "I'm afraid."
God says: I have not given you a spirit of fear. (2 Tim. 11:7)
That's it.