Important Qualities of a Good Supervisor

If we talk about a Pyramid of management levels in management theory, supervisor refers to a person who is in charge in a middle-management position, that is, he takes orders from upper management and gives direct orders to subordinates. Therefore, a supervisor is an important person whose responsibility is to work with many people in the field in order to achieve the goal of upper management. With such responsibility, a supervisor is required to be a qualified person. Through my work experiences for eight years within various positions with different supervisors, I have found that a good supervisor should have three important qualities including initiative, people skills, and self-confidence.

The most important quality is initiative. Because a supervisor is a model for his subordinates, his actions would influence them. Thus, a supervisor with initiative always looks for better ways to do things, he does not wait for someone else to take action. The following example will explain what initiative means. In a production department, a supervisor finds that the working process is very slow because his people are working slowly and lazily as they carry only a few clothes from place to place. In fact, they can carry more clothes at a time. As a supervisor is supposed to be a role model, he starts carrying as many clothes as he can so that his subordinates will follow his example. Otherwise, he would find a better way to move the clothes from place to place (by cart, carriage, etc) which his crews have never thought about. As explained in the example, a supervisor with initiative is necessary as he helps the firms to achieve their goals, to be more productive and to guide people to work more effectively.

The second quality that a supervisor should acquire is people skills. A supervisor is the person who achieves the goal through other people or his subordinates, so it is important for him to have competence in people skills in order to inspire people to work with him. People skills involve communicating, influencing people, knowing yourself and others, etc. Supervisor should be able to answer these questions: what if the people working with you do not understand what you are talking about? What if your crews are not willing to work with you? What if you and others are not clear about everyone’s positions? The questions above clearly express how people skills are important for supervisor, because communication skills help a supervisor to be effective in talking, listening, writing, and presentation. In addition, influencing people skills enable a supervisor to build a good relationship with others. Also, knowing yourself and others makes supervisor and his people understand each other, their positions, and responsibilities clearly. Therefore, people skills cannot be left out for a supervisor.

The last one is self-confidence. A good supervisor should be confident in their own judgment and abilities. For example, a supervisor must speak up during group discussions while other people are afraid to speak up. So, a supervisor must be self-confident and be able to speak up about his ideas. With self-confidence, a supervisor will have a strong commitment to the firm’s vision and be prepared to take high risks and make sacrifices to realize this.

In conclusion, to be a good supervisor it is necessary to acquire the three important qualities above, because it is not only the work that is important, but a supervisor must also be concerned with the people in order to achieve the goal of organization. A supervisor can achieve goals easily if he is competent and the people he is working with are willing to work with him.