ifs supervisory skills feb 2012 v1 - ispeak.com · supervisory skills is the ispeak course...

Foundation Series®

Supervisory Skills

inform – inspire – implement – improve

S U P E R V I S O R Y S K I L L S

iSpeak, Inc. 2012© i

Supervisory Skills

iSpeakTM prepared this workbook for use in the area of Training and Development for continuing education. It is intended that these materials will be used to assist students in the learning process during a workshop, after the workshop for review, and continued learning as a reference guide.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Curriculum Developers: Russ D. Peterson, Jr. Kevin J. Karschnik Copyright Notice Copyright © 2012 by iSpeak™. All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States. iFS_Supervisory Skills_Feb 2012_v1.3 Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication, including additional handouts, reference guides, or any part thereof, may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of iSpeak™. Disclaimer While iSpeak™ makes a sincere effort to ensure the accuracy and quality of the materials described herein, all material is provided without warranty, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. iSpeak disclaims all liability for any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential, special or exemplary damages resulting from the use of this product or the products described in this workbook. Trademark Notices iSpeakTM, ispeak.com, Communicating4Success, Presenting4Success, Selling4Success, Servicing4Success, Managing4Success, Leading4Success and the iSpeak logo are registered trademarks of iSpeakTM. All other product names and services identified throughout this book are trademarks of their respective companies. No such use is intended to convey endorsement. Order More Books To order additional copies of this workbook, visit our online store at www.iSpeak.com/store. For any questions, please contact us at 512.671.6711 or by email at [email protected]. Thank You Thank you for your purchase. We are committed to delivering a successful training program in a productive, efficient, and positive manner. Enjoy the workshop.

W E L C O M E

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Welcome to Supervisory Skills

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” - Benjamin Franklin

Supervisory Skills is the iSpeak course developed to enhance your abilities in coaching and developing high caliber customer service teams through motivation, leadership and process management. Management skills can provide the fuel required to power your team in today’s demanding business environment.

Leading, managing or supervising may come easy to some people, but if you follow those people through their career, you will find out that it may appear to come easy to them, but there is a substantial amount of preparation and work that takes place to position them at the top of their profession. What you will also discover is that the reason their success appears to come naturally is because they have learned how to work smarter and not harder.

Many may claim that with regard to management skills “you are either born with it or you aren’t.” This claim is not true; managing is a skill that can be learned. Just as a sports skill like baseball can be learned, so to can the skill of effective management or leadership. Just as highly successful baseball athletes add their own style to the skill to create an art form, so do highly successful mangers.

Research shows that participants who interact during this course will gain a superior understanding of the course content over those who passively read the workbook or listen to the facilitator.

You bring to the class the skills necessary to be a great manager and supervisor. Research shows that participants who interact during this course will gain a superior understanding of the course content over those who passively read the workbook or listen to the facilitator. Supervisory Skills will challenge you to step outside of your comfort zone to learn new techniques. To become a skilled coach, manager and leader, you must challenge yourself to improve these skills, and that means participation and practice.

The information and inspiration will be provided by your iSpeak facilitator, but the implementation is the single most important factor in your improvement. During the next two days, you will be asked to role play with others and with your facilitators. Only through your implementation will you internalize the skills required for success.


iSpeak, Inc. 2012© iii

Exercise: Course Expectations

What do you want to gain after completing the Supervisory Skills course?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

iv iSpeak, Inc. 2012© www.iSpeak.com

Table of ContentsWelcome to Supervisory Skills ii

Unit One: Management Foundation 1 What Do You Want in a Supervisor? 2 Leadership Defined 3 iSpeak Management Model 4 Leadership Strategies 5 Supervisor Approaches 6 The Leadership Formula 8 Degrees of Delegation 9 Unit Summary 12

Unit Two: Management Communication 13 Communication Skills for Managers 14 Communication Factors 15 Communicate With Your Team 16 Communication Elements 18 Active Listening 18 Developing Active Listening Skills 21 Unit Summary 24

Unit Three: Coaching Employees 25 The Coaching Process 26 Keys to Effective Coaching 27 Providing Feedback 28 Types of Questions 30 Coaching Feedback Questions 31

Setting Goals 33 Creating SMART Goals 34 Recognition 36 Process for Recognition 37 Delivering Discipline 39 Unit Summary 44

Unit Four: Team Development 45 Why do Teams Fail? 46 How Do Teams Succeed? 47 Recognizing Conflict 48 Conflict Response Strategies 49 Resolving Conflict 50 Motivating the Team 52 Motivational Truths 53 Unit Summary 54

Implement to Improve 55 iSpeak After the Class 56 Satori 57 Kaizen 58 21-Day Habit 59 Foundation Series Curriculum 60 Corporate Ovations 61 Recommended Reading Materials 63


iSpeak, Inc. 2012© v

Table of Exercises Exercise: What characteristics do you want in a supervisor? ......................................... 2

Exercise: Leadership Self-Assessment ............................................................................. 7

Exercise: Guidance and Encouragement ........................................................................ 10

Exercise: Communication Barriers ................................................................................. 14

Exercise: Define your Communication Plans .................................................................. 16

Exercise: Drawing Diagram ............................................................................................. 17

Exercise: Active Listening ............................................................................................... 20

Exercise: Apply leadership styles ................................................................................... 22

Exercise: Characteristics of a good coaching session .................................................. 27

Exercise: Types of Questions .......................................................................................... 30

Exercise: Coaching Situations ........................................................................................ 32

Exercise: Setting Goals ................................................................................................... 33

Exercise: Setting Personal and Team Goals ................................................................... 35

Exercise: Offering Recognition ....................................................................................... 37

Exercise: Implementing Recognition .............................................................................. 38

Exercise: Delivering Discipline ........................................................................................ 40

Exercise: Coaching Practice ........................................................................................... 41

Exercise: Why do you think teams fail? .......................................................................... 46

Exercise: Resolving Conflict Exercise ............................................................................ 51

Exercise: Team Motivation .............................................................................................. 52

iSpeak, Inc. 2012© 1

Unit One: Management

Foundation

“Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.” – Peter Drucker

trong management is the defining cornerstone of a high performing organization. Within any company, there is always a need for someone who can direct a team, set goals, light a path, and persuade others to follow. The responsibility of a supervisor is to get their message out in a way that inspires, makes the most of limited time, and build roads to resources.

The leader is the one person who can create conditions that will determine the caliber of work, and ultimately the success of the company. The figures below show the importance of effective leadership on an organization.

In the book “The Extraordinary Leader”, by John Zenger and Joseph Folkman, they found that superior leaders achieve a lower rate of ________________ among their employees, better __________________, and higher ________________ than do their lower-rated peers.

In 2002, Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee sited in their book, “Primal Leadership”, that roughly ____________of how employees perceive their organizations climate can be traced to the actions of one person – the boss.

In this unit, you will learn:

Define leadership

Get introduced to the iSpeak Management Model

Understand four strategies for approaching situations

Learn the degrees of delegation

Unit One

1

S

U N I T O N E : M A N A G E M E N T F O U N D A T I O N

2 iSpeak, Inc. 2012© www.iSpeak.com

What Do You Want in a Supervisor?

“Practice Golden-Rule 1 of Management in everything you do. Manage others the way you would like to be managed.” – Brian Tracy

As a supervisor your employees are looking to you for leadership. The expectation is that you will take ownership of your team and coach them to victory. After understanding what is expected of you and your team, you can then develop the necessary strategies to effectively achieve those objectives. You serve as the communication line between your team and the executive management. It is important to communicate with the executive teams regularly to maintain their support.

Exercise: What characteristics do you want in a supervisor?

In the space below, list the characteristics that would define the ‘perfect’ supervisor.



Leadership Defined

“Leaders must let vision, strategies, goals, and values be the guide-post for action and behavior rather than attempting to control others.” - Daniel. F. Predpall

In the past, Leaders and Managers have been defined as two completely different types of business personnel. While distinct traits can be defined for each of two types of people, high caliber business professionals tend to have traits from both definitions. According to Daniel Predpall, quality improvement author, a leader is defined as “someone who sets direction in an effort and influences people to follow that direction.” Remember that a leader cannot be a leader if there are no followers.

As a professional manager, leadership skills will be essential in communicating the vision and goals of the corporation to the team. Often times team members will see corporate goals, like “create business value for our customers,” and they will wonder how they can actually make a difference to help achieve that goal. As the leader for the team, it is imperative to interpret the corporate goals into a vision for success at the team level.

Contrary to belief, leaders are not only “born,” they can be created. With the proper education, experience, mentoring and nurturing, good managers can become great leaders. In their 1993 book, Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It, James Kouzes and Barry Posner identified the top characteristics that people admire in their leaders.

Leadership Characteristic Selected as an Admired Trait

Honesty

83%

Competence 67%

Forward looking (visionary) 62%

Inspiring 58%

Intelligent 43%

Fair minded 40%

Broad minded 37%

Straight forward 34%

Imaginative 34%

Dependable 33%



iSpeak Management Model

“Management works in the system; Leadership works on the system.” - Stephen R. Covey

At the core of every successful manager are strong leading, managing and coaching abilities. To be a great manager and supervisor, certain skills must be exercised. Organization skills, the ability to motivate others and effective communication skills are required. A great manager can elevate a team to perform greater than the sum of their individual skills.

Define The manager’s first duty will be to define the team, the objectives for the team, the team players, the standards for service and delivery, and also the recognition and rewards.

Empower Without empowerment, the team will be able to achieve little. Empowering employees, within limits, can not only set expectations with employees, but also serve as a tremendous motivator and confidence builder.

Develop As the coach of your team, your organization expects you to improve the skill sets of your team by developing their skills. Development of their skills serves both the organization and the employee, creating benefits for both.

Execute All the training and simulation in the world cannot achieve great results until they are implemented. Execution on the defined plan, utilizing the enhanced skill sets provided by the manager, success becomes more likely.

Evaluate Once the team has executed for a period of time, an evaluation must commence. The evaluation provides the much appreciated continual feedback to employees. Adjustments are made after the evaluation phase so that new standards, goals and objectives can be defined.



Leadership Strategies

“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” - Sun Tzu

When researchers looked at the lives of people like Churchill and Lincoln, both of whom are considered great leaders, they found that both men had suffered personal defeat many times. Churchill was sent home from school in grade four because his teachers said he was too slow. Lincoln ran for office and was defeated 19 times before he became President of the United States. While overcoming failure was common between many great leaders, it was not consistent across all leaders.

The “ ” Approach

Beyond overcoming failure, researchers continued to study by observing what effective leaders did. The idea here was if it could be discovered what leaders did, then people could become effective leaders by doing the same thing. This can be thought of as “the one best way” approach. However, once again, research was inconclusive. The way one leader got results might in no way resemble the way another leader got similar results.

The “ ” Approach

The next major step was to look at the relationship between the situation in which the leader acted and the way the leader behaved. This “it all depends” approach led to the development of a number of contingency or situational theories of leadership. What these theories had in common was the idea that a leader's behavior should be determined by the nature of the situation. In other words in situation A, leaders should do X to be effective, while in situation B, leaders should do Y to be effective.

Instruction and Encouragement

Leadership is complex and can be studied from many different vantage points. While it may be appropriate to apply complex leadership models in some cases, all leadership situations share two major dimensions of leadership.

One is the level or amount of emphasis devoted to getting the work done.

The other is the amount of attention given to providing support and encouragement to the people doing the work.

Various names have been used for these two dimensions, such as Task and People, but we will use the terms Instruction and Encouragement. With these two dimensions of leadership, the role off the supervisor becomes a balancing act between the two types of involvement. Depending on the situation and the type of follower, leaders may utilize the appropriate levels of guidance and encouragement.

Instruction Characteristics: Autocratic, Task oriented, Top down, and Direction

Encouragement Characteristics: Democratic, People oriented, Bottom up, and Supportive



Exercise: Guidance and Encouragement

Read each situation below and discuss in your group. Decide how much (1-10) of your leadership will be Guidance and Encouragement for each. Also indicate which management style you would use.

Situation 1

Next month you will be attending a telecommunications conference in Atlanta, GA. In your absence, you have asked one of your team leaders to run your weekly meeting with your team. This individual has been with the organization and your team for two years and has stepped in to run your weekly meetings before.

In preparing this individual before you leave, how much instruction would you give?

How much encouragement?

Which management style would you use?

Which degree of delegation would you utilize?

What do you think is their readiness level? Why?

What do you think is their commitment level? Why?

Situation 2

A member of your team has mastered the basics with a task you assigned him last quarter, but in his efforts to improve his speed, he is making an increasing number of mistakes. You can see he is becoming frustrated and that much of his early commitment to learning the task is evaporating.

In coaching this individual, how much instruction would you need to give him?

How much encouragement?

Which management style would you use?

Which degree of delegation would you utilize?

What do you think is their readiness level? Why?

What do you think is their commitment level? Why?

U N I T T W O : M A N A G E M E N T C O M M U N I C A T I O N


Communicate With Your Team

“Quality is not an act. It is a habit.” - Aristotle

It is vital to the success of the team that the defined objectives be measured and progress communicated regularly. The team must be able to identify how their current performance is measuring up to the standards set for the group. One of the best ways to communicate this measurement is with daily or weekly updates via email or in team meetings. Depending on the office layout, a “watch board” can be created to show the current ratings and progress towards a goal. The consistency of the communication achieves several objectives:

The team will have a sense of how their performance measures up

It will exemplify a sense of urgency and importance

It shows that management is truly concerned with the metrics and performance

It will ultimately lead to improvements in performance

In addition to the team benefits from consistent communication, the metrics should also be communicated to the upper management team, as well. With regular reviews of the metrics, the management team can revisit the metrics, ensuring that the objectives and goals are reasonable and fair. This is also an excellent time to recognize individuals for their performances.

Exercise: Define your Communication Plans

List the methods for regularly communicating to your team.



Communication Elements

“There are no facts, only interpretations.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

Communication filters emphasize the skill of listening and how it relates to verbalizing information, feedback, and feeling. While listening may not be the only ingredient in the formula for good communication, it does play a vital role. As we listen to information from the speaker, it passes through several filters before the listener’s interpretation is determined. When we understand this funnel, we can rely on it to:

Find out where we are in a complicated interchange of ideas and opinions

Evaluate the way others respond to us

Learn how to handle those responses, even if they are unexpected or unwanted

Examine alternatives for changes of direction without sacrificing our goal

It helps to have a model of what we are doing, where we want to go, and what we must do to get there. The communication funnel answers this need, by helping us design a strategy for our communications with others. A model of the Communication Filters is shown below.

VISUAL(Speaker’s appearance)

VERBAL(Speaker’s words)

VOCAL(Speaker’s tone, pace)

Past ExperiencesAssumptions

BiasesEducation

DistractionsEmotions

Listener’sInterpretation

List

ener

’s F

ilter

s

VISUAL(Speaker’s appearance)

VERBAL(Speaker’s words)

VOCAL(Speaker’s tone, pace)

Past ExperiencesAssumptions

BiasesEducation

DistractionsEmotions

Listener’sInterpretation

List

ener

’s F

ilter

s



Exercise: Apply leadership styles

For each scenario, define the type of leadership style from p. 12 you would implement to address each.

Scenario:

Leadership Style you would implement:

Why?

Scenario:

Leadership Style you would implement:

Why?

U N I T T H R E E : C O A C H I N G E M P L O Y E E S


The Coaching Process

“Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.” - John D. Rockefeller

When it comes to getting results as a coach and manager, it helps to have a process to serve as a framework for assisting your team members. As a manager, your team will expect you to do more listening than talking. The communication funnel below separates the communication into three areas. The effectiveness of the communication will be dependent on the appropriate utilization of the three phases of the communication funnel. Here are three critical steps of the model.

1. Listening - understand the employees their feelings and position on a particular situation

2. Questioning - proper techniques used to clarify the situation and bridge into the talking

3. Feedback - responding in the form of information and positive or constructive feedback

Manager’s Note

It is important to understand that Steps 1 and 2 may be repeated several times when coaching employees.

Acknowledge Feelings

Encourage

Acknowledge Ideas

Question

Inform

Direct

Criticize



Exercise: Coaching Situations

What can you do in the following situations to deliver appropriate coaching and feedback? Discuss in your groups and share your thoughts and observations with the rest of the class.

One of your employees was recently promoted to supervisor and is dealing with insubordinate direct reports that they used to work with.

An employee agrees with what you say, but you feel he/she is not really committed to change.

A team member is angry about departmental policies and regulations. He/she blames the policy or regulation for the problem you are discussing.

The individual refuses to accept responsibility. He/she blames you for not providing enough support and other people for not doing their jobs properly. It is always someone else’s fault.



Exercise: Implementing Recognition

In the scenarios below, document how you would provide praise to the employee / team.

One of your employees assists a new team member during their first week on the job. The new employee comments to you how smooth their orientation was due to your employee’s assistance.

Would you recognize this employee?

What would you say?

What is an example from your own experience where you either could have or you did deliver recognition?

How did you word the recognition when you delivered it? What would you change in the future?



Delivering Discipline

“Criticize the act, not the person.” – Mary Kay Ash

While recognition may be the more desirable managerial duty between recognition and discipline, people will not improve if inadequate or unacceptable behaviors are not changed. It is the responsibility of the manager to not only set goals and praise when things are going well, but a manager must take on the tough tasks of discipline.

Individuals cannot be expected to improve their performance if they never receive communication in the form of a discipline when the behavior needs to be corrected. How the discipline is delivered to the individual will determine the effectiveness.

The goal of any manager is to discipline the behavior of an individual to either eliminate or change it in future situations. Disciplining must be done with care. When an individual is new to a group or learning a new skill they may have high energy, but also high anxiety since they are taking a risk by taking on a new skill. When they try and fail, the last thing a good manager wants to do is kill the enthusiasm and the willingness to take a risk.

If the person sees nothing but discipline and negative consequences every time they venture to learn a new skill or take a risk, they will cease taking risks. This stifles the growth and development of the individual and also stifles the development of the team and organization.

Before critiquing the performance of an individual, it is important for the manager to make a clear determination regarding the person and their capabilities. If the person does not yet have the capability or knowledge to perform a task, a discipline is not the appropriate response. In this case, reviewing the goals and potentially setting new goals will be required. In addition, the manager would be wise to provide training to further develop the skills of the individual. This is also an excellent opportunity to set new goals for the learning and development training!

If an individual has all of the necessary skills but is not performing to the goal standards that were originally set, a discipline is in order as the consequence. For discipline to be effective, it must contain three elements.

1. Tell the person which behavior was wrong.

2. Tell the person how you feel about that.

3. Remind them that they are valuable and worthwhile to the organization.

Manipulation is defined as getting people to do something they don’t agree with and it is only for the manager’s best interest. Effective management is not manipulation.



Exercise: Coaching Practice

In all of these situations, setting specific goals together is the first part of the solution. In groups or with a partner, coach the other person based on the scenario given by the instructor. When time elapses, alternate roles and perform the exercise again. Document your coaching questions and notes.

Coaching Situation

An employee is constantly asking for time off, calling in sick, showing up late, or leaving early. As a result they are behind on their work and the rest of the team suffers, as well.

What would you say when delivering your discipline for this situation?

Coaching Situation

An employee has very poor customer service skills when working with external and internal customers.

What would you say when delivering your discipline for this situation?



How Do Teams Succeed?

“It may just be the single most indelible moment in all of U.S. sports history.” - Sports Illustrated, speaking on the 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team defeating the USSR

Successful team performance can be summed up in two words: skills and motivation. When a team possesses the skills and tools for completing a task, there is no guarantee that the team will meet with success. The United States discovered that sending an All Star NBA team to represent the USA in International basketball does not guarantee a gold medal. Although the team may be the most skilled at each position, without the motivation to play as a team, they do not always end up with a win.

The discoveries of Dr. Meredith Belbin’s Apollo studies show that there are key elements that must be present for team development to occur.

Team members see themselves as belonging to a team rather than as individuals who operate autonomously. They are committed to group goals above and beyond their personal goals.

Team members have faith in each other to honor their commitments, maintain confidences, support each other, and generally behave in a consistent and predictably acceptable fashion.

The team understands how it fits into the overall business of the organization. Team members know their roles, feel a sense of ownership, and can see how they make a difference.

Communication refers to the style and extent of interactions among members, between members, and those outside the team. It also refers to the way that members handle conflict, decision making, and day-to-day interactions.

Everyone has a role in the team. Despite differences, team members must feel a sense of partnership with each other. Contributions are respected and solicited, and a consensus is established before committing the team to action.

Once a team has a clear purpose, it must then adopt a process to achieve that goal. The process should include problem-solving tools, planning techniques, regular meetings, meeting agendas and minutes, and accepted methods for dealing with problems situations.

Every successful team had a designated leader for the group. The leader assisted the group with open communication, processes, maintaining a vision on the goal and decision-making.

ifs supervisory skills feb 2012 v1 - ispeak.com · supervisory skills is the ispeak course...

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