Question

Recently you were promoted from the job of first-level supervisor to that of middle management, and you now have under your supervision several of your former equals. You get along well with them, and there is no resentment about your advancement because they recognize that you are the best person available for the job. You know from past associations that you will have to straighten out three of these supervisors; the rest are all right. The three are Black, Blue, and White. Black has always been against the organization, Blue has always been snowed under by work, and White has always been a permissive supervisor. Black, the anticompany supervisor, always sides with his employees against the organization and sympathizes with them when things go wrong. He wants conditions to be perfect and is always pointing out the defects in the company and finding fault with the way the organization is run. (Conditions, while not perfect, are above average.) Black does his job grudgingly and does not get along well with the other people in the organization. Blue, on the other hand, is snowed under by her work; she carries the whole load of the department on her shoulders. Her employees take no initiative, and she is continually correcting their mistakes. Blue sees that whatever little work comes out of her section is letter-perfect even if she has to have her employees do their jobs over and over again and she has to put on the finishing touches herself. Often her subordinates are standing around waiting for her to get around to checking their work. They know their jobs but wait for Blue to make all the decisions. Finally, there is White, the permissive supervisor. Instead of running his employees, he is letting them run him. His employees do their jobs in any manner they wish. They do not respect White’s authority, and they raise so many objections that he lets them do whatever they want. Often they boast of how they tell him off. All of the other supervisors under your jurisdiction are doing a good job. You would like to take the easy way out and fire Black, Blue, and White, but they have been with the company for quite a while. Besides, you feel that if you can solve these problems, you will receive quite a bit of recognition from upper management.

Questions

How would you help Black become an effective supervisor?

How would you help Blue become an effective supervisor?

How would you help White become an effective supervisor?

Answer 1

BLACK:

Evaluate the behavior:

Is the employee experiencing a personal issue or problem that could be causing the behavior?

Review the company employee manual for guidelines on employee disciplinary process.

Contact the company’s Human Resource Department to get support and guidance. If the company does not have a Human Resources Professional, you may want to discuss a plan of action with your immediate supervisor or a Human Resources Consultant.

I will make sure that BLUE becomes aware of the following

1. Continue to leave them alone to work it out.
2. Act quickly and firmly to identify the problem and establish procedures to correct it
3. Encourage the staff to work on the problem, letting them know you are available as a resource and for discussion if they need you.

Once some improvement is seen BLUE will :

1. Continue to involve the staff in the planning, but direct the change.
2. Announce the changes and then implement them with close supervision.
3. Allow the group to be involved in developing the change, but don't push the process.
4. Let the staff manage the change process.

WHITE:

The first task is to explain why being permissive is a problem. Usually this person is kind hearted and needs some help in understanding why being too nice can be a problem. This involves not only discussing the reasons , but also exploring the notion that it’s not “mean” or “heartless” to view employees’ problems with a more dispassionate eye. This person may also be conflict-averse. That is more difficult to address, but for better or worse, a manager or supervisor cannot do his or her job without dealing with conflict.

The next step is to discuss specific instances of overly warm and fuzzy supervision. E.g., repeatedly excusing the employee who is habitually tardy (his car broke down, his child got sick, he was up late dealing with a family situation and couldn’t wake up). Or repeatedly excusing the employee whose work is sloppy (she’s in the middle of a divorce, her cousin is dying, she forgets to take her diabetes medication). Dissect the situations and come up with alternative approaches to dealing with the problem.

After this, it may help to explore the concept of “ownership” in the sense of: who “owns” an employee’s obligation to do their job, get to work on time, stay off their cell phones during work, etc. At some level, the warm fuzzy manager may believe that he or she owns the problem and has to fix it. Wrong. The employee owns it — and as soon as both the manager and the employee realize this, the better.

Helping the overly nice manager toughen up may not be not easy because deep-seated feelings are often involved.