#How to Supervise People - Part 1# Supervision and Leadership

Supervision & Leadership

After reading this chapter, you’ll know:

 What it takes to be a leader
 How to get off to a good start as a supervisor
 How to gain power through delegating

Supervisors are members of the management team who oversee the work of others and act as an intermediary between management and employees.
However, as we all know, doing these things doesn’t necessarily make you successful in your role as a supervisor. In order to succeed, you need to do more. You must understand what enables one supervisor to be successful, while others are either mediocre or worse, failures.

If you were to study supervisors, you would soon see that successful supervisors are leaders. In their leadership role, they coach, nurture and empower others to use their skills, expertise, and ideas to produce results. As leaders, they inspire increased efficiency, productivity, initiative, ownership, and creativity by providing direction, acknowledgment, challenges, and support. In short, great supervisors succeed by leading others to success.

This ability isn’t something you’re born with. Indeed, many people who have been described as "born leaders" showed little indication of their leadership in their early years. Many were poor students or even identified by others as having substandard intelligence or skills.

There is, however, a common thread in the history all leaders – whether they became presidents, CEOs or supervisors. The common thread is they were willing to study the subject of leadership and to continue studying as they moved on to greater and greater responsibilities. They discovered leadership is something they could learn. And so can you!