Welcome to St. Francis Health Service’s Supervision I alumni newsletter.

Our objective is to review key methods and guidelines learned in Supervision I: Fundamentals of Leadership, and to encourage you to reapply what you learned. The key to learning any skill or technique is repetition and going out and doing it.    

Pay attention to how well you manage relationships with your peers.  Do you foster good interdepartmental cooperation or have you taken internal competition to an unhealthy level?  Whatever your position, remember that staff members are looking to you for an example of how to appropriately collaborate.

Below are four pointers to create organizational transformations, directing energy to customer retention and satisfaction.

1. Rules of engagement:  Have a strategic focus.  Once you, the leader, understand both long and short-term strategy, you are then responsible for helping your team grasp its importance.  Comprehending strategy helps you remain aware of the fact that your department’s work does not happen in a vacuum.  You understand that not only are your deliverables important, but so are those of other departments.
        a.       Ask the people who rely on your work about
                  when and how they get what they need from
                  your team.
        b.        Share the feedback with your team and use it to
                   improve outcomes.  This will model a high level
                   of communication, cooperation and
                   responsiveness to your team.
   
2. Provide an organizational context for the team’s
   work:  Your work happens in the context of a much larger organization that may have what appear to be competing or conflicting goals.
        a.     Take the time to connect the dots for your team
                members.
        b.     Help them understand how each project and
                each individual contribution supports the larger
                organization.
   
3. Build the capacity for change:  Building your capacity for change occurs when you know that change is a process, not an event.   It happens when you understand your reactions to change and can channel those reactions into positive action.  You are then responsible for helping team members understand the dynamics of change, how change impacts them and how best to channel their energy.  Team members look to you for guidance in tumultuous times.
        a.     When possible, introduce change in small,
                manageable bites.
        b.     Understand how people adapt.  Your job is to
                understand their fears and constantly
                communicate with the team to clarify the change,
                their roles and responsibilities.
4. Promote accountability:  Accountability is critical to individual, team and corporate success.  Not only are team members accountable to one another, they also are accountable to the company.
        a.     Hold people to high standards.
        b.     Track deadlines, quality and customer
                satisfaction.
        c.     Monitor how well the team works together.
        d.     Coach team members when they are not
                measuring up AND when things are going well. 
                Positive recognition keeps team members
                encouraged.  Whether the coaching is corrective
                or congratulatory, it is a tool for keeping levels of
                accountability high.  It lets employees know that
                their performance is always on your radar
                screen.
        e.     Accountability applies to you as well.  Be certain
                that you are holding yourself to the same high
                standards; otherwise, your hypocrisy will
                eventually be discovered.
   
   
    Conclusion:  Collaboration is as much the responsibility of the senior leadership team as it is for middle managers.  All leaders have a role in creating a workplace where teamwork can flourish.
   
   

   Resource:  Joanne L. Smikle, Smikle Training Services