Communication Tools For The Supervisor

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Communication Tools For The Supervisor

• Employees Must Be Kept Informed.
• This is possibly the most effective motivator.

2
Micro-Managed vs. Empowered

• No matter the personality style, supervisors must
  stay in contact with employees
• Inspect what you expect
• Catch them doing something right
• And, act upon it
• Let them know that you notice things
• Without appearing to be micro-managing

3
Effective Communications Tools

• Good job letters
• Letters of commendation
• Letter of reprimand
• Written Warning, Action Plan For Improvement,
  etc.
• Thank you cards
• Gifts (appropriate types/timing/presentations)
• Performance evaluations
• Memos/Letters to department heads/supervisors
• Informal/Casual conversations

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Anatomy of a Basic Letter

• Follow current rules and guidelines of letter
  formats
• Use three to five paragraphs

5
Individual Paragraphs

• First Paragraph
• Set the tone
• Make initial point
• Tell how you learned of the item/issue/etc.
• Be specific with names, dates, etc.
• Example

Our "Talent Night in St. Petersburg" promotion on
April 1st, was greeted with a great deal of
enthusiasm by the community, and I want to take
this opportunity to thank you for all of
yourencouragement and support. JOB WELL DONE!!
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Individual Paragraphs (cont.)

• Second Paragraph
• Go in to more details
• Give specific observations and/or examples
• May need to separate in to more paragraphs for
  more details
• Example

As always, all of the staff at WQOL were
extremely cooperative. I must, however, single
out one in particular who worked exceptionally
hard to make it the success it was. This is
Judith Blakely, who seems to have an unlimited
amount of energy and holds firmly to the
conviction that ifit is worth doing, it is worth
doing it right. It is fair to say that without
her help, this event would not have been nearly
as successful as it was. We played to a full
house. What more is there to say!
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Individual Paragraphs (cont.)

• Third (or last) Paragraph
• Summarize
• Offer contact information (if appropriate)
• Look in to the future
• Offer last encouragement to keep on keeping on
• Example

We will be looking forward to a repeat
performance. It hasbeen a joy working with your
fine staff.
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Example Letter
April 15, 2007 Dear PeggySueEllyMae, Our
"Talent Night in St. Petersburg" promotion on
April 1st, was greeted with a great deal of
enthusiasm by the community, and I want to take
this opportunity to thank you for all of your
encouragement and support. JOB WELL DONE!! As
always, all of the staff at WQOL were extremely
cooperative. I must, however, single out one in
particular who worked exceptionally hard to make
it the success it was. This is PeggySueEllyMae,
who seems to have an unlimited amount of energy
and holds firmly to the conviction that if it is
worth doing, it is worth doing it right. It is
fair to say that without her help, this event
would not have been nearly as successful as it
was. We played to a full house. What more is
there to say! We will be looking forward to a
repeat performance. It has been a joy working
with your fine staff. If there is ever a chance
for me to return the favor, please contact me at
208.555.1212 or ruawake_at_wqol.org. With much
appreciation, R. U. Awake
9
Examples

• Peter Druker said, "The most successful
  innovators are the creative imitators, the number
  two." 
• My pointyou dont have to be a great writer or
  wordsmith to get make your point with your
  employees. Simply find some good examples and
  adapt them.
• The previous example was retrieved from
  http//www.quazell.com/BusinessLetters.com, on on
  April 9, 2007
• There are plenty of other examples on this site
  to review

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Informal Notes/Cards
On ___date___, I witnessed ___Employee__
performing the following outstanding service(s)
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
________________________ __Witness___

• I have observed how a simple handwritten note is
  often times more appreciated than a gift or
  formal acknowledgement.
• Try this example
• Post it for everyone to see and then file it in
  the employees file for later use

GREAT JOB!!!
Kudos!
11
Letters of Recommendation

• Limit the numbers of these letters that you
  write.
• Reserve them for those who truly deserve the
  recommendation
• Consider whether your are recommending the person
  with a blanket recommendation or if you should
  recommend them for certain jobs only
• Specify your recommendation in your communication
• Speak mostly to observations you have
• Be careful when dealing with emotions. Some
  people I like very much would not get a
  recommendation from me at least not for certain
  positions
• Understand the risk to your name and reputation
  when recommending someone
• Follow the basic three to five paragraph format

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Gifts and Rewards

• Keep these professional
• I recommend keeping them seen as rewards and
  not gifts
• Do it in the open so everyone is aware
• Base it on performance and/or outcomes not on
  likes or dislikes of the person
• Watch out for unethical gift types and
  presentations
• While you can certainly personalize the gift, you
  dont want to make it personal

13
Flex Time

• Flex time is time away away from the routine
• I liked to find a slower time in business
  activities and reward a person by sending them
  home a few hours early (preferably when the
  following days were days off for the employee)
• Give the employee a new or non-routine task
• Let them come in late
• Let them take a longer lunch break
• Trade jobs with them for the day
• This is as good for you as it is for the employee
• Etc.
• Make it spontaneous and casual
• But, connect it to positive performance
• Explain why they are getting this without making
  it too big of a deal
• Be careful, some organizations have strict
  policies against doing this mostly due to the
  myth of risk and liability. But, if it is a
  possibility, do it.
• Everyone loves to leave a little early without a
  dock in pay

14
Break Time

• Everybody Take a break
• Walk around
• Leave the room
• Grab a soda (preferably Pepsi!)
• Smoke a cigarette
• Do some jumping jacks
• Etc.

15
Performance Appraisals

• This is the most important part of an employees
  development.
• Devote as much as you can to this task
• It is sad that so many companies do all their
  employee appraisals in a very short amount of
  time
• Supervisors arent allowed the time and effort to
  them as effectively
• The rearview mirror concept
• Use the mirror to look back ONLY for the purpose
  of going forward
• Halo Effect
• Overly positive
• Recency Effective
• Short term memory lacks the ability to look
  through the entire semester
• Be specific
• Give dates and specific observations/events/incide
  nts

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Performance Appraisals

• Some managers like to give a blank copy of the
  form to the employee and have them do a
  self-evaluation
• Can be very effective for the employee
• Sometimes the manager learns of thing s/he wasnt
  aware of
• Understand that employees worry about the score
• Your challenge is to get them to focus on the
  content more than the scores
• What are scores anyway? They are way to
  arbitrary and subjective
• Some people score high because they are more
  lenient or afraid of consequences
• Some people score low because they have ulterior
  motives or too high of expectations

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Performance Appraisals

• Develop an Action Plan for development
• Should have specific goals
• Actions to meet the goals
• Proper support from management
• Deadlines for meeting the goals

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Performance Appraisals (cont.)

• My method was to give a copy (with scores
  deleted) to the employee so we could discuss the
  content. The scores were added later.
• Keep all evaluation interviews the same length
• Employees try to gauge an employees evaluation
  by the length of time it takes to meet with the
  supervisor
• Keeping them all the same length eliminates this
  vague perception
• Ask yourself this. Why do I take more time to
  tell people what they are doing wrong than what
  they are doing right?

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Performance Appraisals (cont.)

• Seek the employees buy in to the action plan
• Encourage the employee to sign AND add their
  comments
• Give the employee a copy

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Staffing and Schedule Writing

• This is possibly the most frustrating part of the
  job for the supervisor.
• Allowing people to have flexibility to attend to
  personal matters, while covering the business
  needs is no easy challenge.
• The more flexibility employees want, the higher
  the number employees needed to staff properly.
• The higher the number of employees needed the
  lower the individual hours

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Staffing and Schedule Writing

• More often than not, this is a lose/lose task for
  the supervisor
• Employees truly arent aware and/or dont
  appreciate the frustration a schedule can cause
  for the supervisor
• To fix this lack of awareness and appreciation,
  have the employee write the schedule for a few
  weeks.
• Give them only so much time to write it
• Of course, you have the responsibility to change
  it if necessary
• Make the employee face all the consequences of
  the schedule and its changes

22
Proactive vs Reactive

• These are the options. Understand that both
  require you (and your team) to be active hence
  the root word.
• Both have risks
• Both have benefits

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Pro-active Style

• CONS
• Sometimes your timing doesnt match someone
  elses so you have to change it back
• Make mistakes that can be costly of time and
  resources

• PROS
• Being a Vanguard is more interesting
• On a dogsled team, the view changes for the lead
  dog only
• More exciting
• Self-rewarding because you arent stuck in the
  same old ways
• More chance to be recognized

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Re-active Style

• CONS
• Feels like you are simply chasing others great
  ideas
• Feels like you are chasing and putting out
  fires
• Little chance of recognition

• PROS
• Dont have to fix what you started only to learn
  it was wrong or ineffective
• Learn from others mistakes