Many people face a transition in their lives when promoted to a supervisor
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Reflective Questions:
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but are ill-equipped to handle the nuances and social ramifications of this process. A restorative perspective, by making this transition more transparent, can help deal directly with the emotional and social change.
Before becoming a supervisor, many times people get to know their jobs and become quite good at the tasks and knowledge required to excel in their work. That’s usually why they get chosen to lead others.
Unfortunately, knowing how to do your job doesn’t necessary translate to knowing how to manage others. Too many times supervisors are picked because of seniority or expertise in their position rather than for their management strength. But supervising requires another skill set besides knowing the tasks.
In my opinion, a new supervisor is responsible to create a healthy workplace environment through participatory and empowering processes. This can be difficult at times depending on the structure of the workplace and the amount of support you receive from other leaders. Gaining an understanding of one’s own worldview as it relates to authority and power may help guide a supervisor’s decisions.
Supervisors can pose self-reflective questions that explore their guiding principles and perspective. These questions can be used as a newer supervisor, when transitioning to another position or as a veteran supervisor.
