Supervisory Skills

Supervisory Skills Information Page

Good supervisory skills are essential in an organisation. This is because the supervisory skills of a supervisor determines the overall performance of the team since the term “supervisors” is said to be “people at or below the top senior clerical levels who have
responsible for the work staff and associated resources”.

Reasons to have good supervisory skills

Firstly, a supervisor is a first line manager within the organisation and is part of the management team of the organisation, thus it is definitely essential for the supervisor to have great supervisory skills. This would mean having to fulfil the roles of a supervisor as an organisation achieves its objectives through the ‘role structure’ of the organisation.Therefore, the roles that a supervisor has within an organisation have a strong influence on how he behaves. This in turn determines the way he dresses or speaks and has different behaviour and reactions in many ways. Therefore, a good supervisor with good supervisory skills is able to handle the different roles in the organisation.

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Communication 

Great supervisory skills should include effective communication skills. This is an essential attribute for supervisors and managers within organisation. It is useless if you are good at the technical aspects of your job. What should be achieved is that you are able to communicate your ideas and wishes to others, be it orally or in writing. This is definitely one key skill a supervisor with good supervisory skills should have.

Everyone is different and has individual characteristics. Great supervisory skills will enable supervisors to deal with some influences which shape subordinates’ personalities, and give them knowledge, experience, abilities, inclinations and characteristics which suit them for a kind of work or another. Thus, having supervisory skills would mean that a supervisor is able to assign the right work to the right person.

Managing the Group 

Supervisor usually supervise groups of people and what makes it different from managing an individual is that groups have characteristics which simple assemblies of individuals do not have. Thus, a supervisor has to be able to manage a group regardless of whether it is a formal or an informal one. The supervisory skills he has will therefore determine the stage a group has reached so as to forecast and control development towards team status. In other words, a supervisor with poor supervisory skills will in turn lead to damage and delay in development if the stage that a group has reached is unknown.

Managerial Elements of the Supervisor’s Role 

A successful supervisor with supervisory skills should be able to fulfil the following elements.

1.        Setting objectives

2.        Forecasting

3.        Planning

4.        Organising (Co-ordinating)

5.        Motivating

6.        Monitoring and controlling

In conclusion, supervisory skills include the management of different roles, managing the individuals or group differences and effective communication. These are therefore assessed by the performance of the team. Good supervisory skills would mean good results from the team.

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