The key to successful leadership is influence, not authority.
Les Brown
Picture this. You promote someone to a supervisor. Prior to being a supervisor, he or she followed all the rules and regulations from department procedures and process down to human resource employee office attires and attendance rules. Now that he or she is a supervisor, you noticed that he or she has changed in some way and you found out that he or she has even been shirking the very basic human resources employee office attire. You might think that I am exaggerating here, but this does happen. I have seen it. Working with supervisors, I found out that new and old supervisors tend to not follow simple rules (such as company office attires). For some reason, they feel and think that just because they are now part of management, they are exempt from these simple company rules. If they cannot follow these rules and not giving the proper example to the people they are handling, then how can they lead their teams the way you want and expect them to? If you notice that your supervisor is bending all the rules, then you may want and need to sit down and have that talk with him or her immediately. Do not prolong the talk because prolonging it will only indicate and give the impression to your team and the supervisor's team that you are tolerating the behavior. Think of it, you will give out just the same bad impression as the supervisor in question. You might say, “Well, he or she just this one time. I think a verbal warning is enough. Pointing it out to him or her.” Whether it was just one time, it is still not acceptable. You still need to talk to the person. After all, you did not promote that person so they can set bad examples to the rest of the team, right? If you let your supervisor get away with bad behavior once, who says you will not let them get away with it again? You promoted that person to be able to “BE” an example. A good one at that. People respect and follow a leader who can not only lead but follow as well.
So how do you deal with a supervisor who has set a bad example?
Once you have had you talk with them, you are then setting an example to the rest of the team that unacceptable behavior will not be tolerated and that this will be dealt with immediately and with consequences. Sure, the rest of the team might think you are a strict and uptight leader, but remember, that if you want your supervisors to set a good example for the others, you also need to BE and set a good example yourself. Your supervisors are not exempted from even the most basic company office rules, and so are you.
Les Brown
Picture this. You promote someone to a supervisor. Prior to being a supervisor, he or she followed all the rules and regulations from department procedures and process down to human resource employee office attires and attendance rules. Now that he or she is a supervisor, you noticed that he or she has changed in some way and you found out that he or she has even been shirking the very basic human resources employee office attire. You might think that I am exaggerating here, but this does happen. I have seen it. Working with supervisors, I found out that new and old supervisors tend to not follow simple rules (such as company office attires). For some reason, they feel and think that just because they are now part of management, they are exempt from these simple company rules. If they cannot follow these rules and not giving the proper example to the people they are handling, then how can they lead their teams the way you want and expect them to? If you notice that your supervisor is bending all the rules, then you may want and need to sit down and have that talk with him or her immediately. Do not prolong the talk because prolonging it will only indicate and give the impression to your team and the supervisor's team that you are tolerating the behavior. Think of it, you will give out just the same bad impression as the supervisor in question. You might say, “Well, he or she just this one time. I think a verbal warning is enough. Pointing it out to him or her.” Whether it was just one time, it is still not acceptable. You still need to talk to the person. After all, you did not promote that person so they can set bad examples to the rest of the team, right? If you let your supervisor get away with bad behavior once, who says you will not let them get away with it again? You promoted that person to be able to “BE” an example. A good one at that. People respect and follow a leader who can not only lead but follow as well.
So how do you deal with a supervisor who has set a bad example?
- 1) Talk to them immediately. Do not prolong your talk with them. The longer and once you sit on the unacceptable behavior, the supervisor will think he or she has gotten away with it. Or worse, that he or she will think he or she did nothing wrong.
2) Get their commitment that they will not do this again.
3) Once you get their commitment, make sure to observe and follow-up on them. They may have given you their commitment but they may also think they can slip up a little if they know you were not checking up on them.
Once you have had you talk with them, you are then setting an example to the rest of the team that unacceptable behavior will not be tolerated and that this will be dealt with immediately and with consequences. Sure, the rest of the team might think you are a strict and uptight leader, but remember, that if you want your supervisors to set a good example for the others, you also need to BE and set a good example yourself. Your supervisors are not exempted from even the most basic company office rules, and so are you.