Effective leadership is more critical than ever in today’s dynamic business landscape. Supervisors are pivotal in driving team performance, a positive work environment, and making a direct impact to the organization’s bottom line.
Investing in supervisor development with clear goals and measurable outcomes benefits supervisors and the organization by creating value for the organization.
This guide will explore supervisor development goals and their key benefits. We will also discuss the role benchmarks play in evaluating the performance of your supervisor’s professional development.
Before we dive in, please note: The best benchmarks will depend on the unique needs of your supervisor’s team, industry, and objectives. Combining qualitative feedback with quantitative metrics ensures a balanced and actionable approach to evaluating your supervisors.
1. Communicating Clearly
Supervisors have a responsibility to communicate and disseminate team and company information and updates. While good communication may seem obvious, many leaders fall short in using this core competency.
Gallup reports only half of workplace team members understand what is expected of them in their roles. Developing communication skills can help supervisors set expectations, provide direction, and avoid unnecessary rework.
Benchmark: Communication Skills Evaluation
Measuring the communication skills and abilities of your supervisors can be achieved through surveys, self-assessments, or 360-degree feedback tools.
- Surveys: Employ standardized surveys to gauge communication skills in areas such as clarity, conciseness, and active listening. These surveys can be administered to a broad audience to provide a benchmark for the department, function, or organization. If gaps exist, consider a development program or training for those deficient in this competency.
- Self-assessments: Quick and easy to deploy self-assessments allow supervisors to reflect on their communication strengths and weaknesses. These self-assessments can help pinpoint areas that are a strength, and areas that are not a strength.
- 360-degree feedback: For a more comprehensive assessment, consider incorporating 360-degree feedback. This method gathers feedback from leadership, managers, peers, and direct reports, providing a comprehensive, data driven view of a supervisor’s communication skills.
2. Ability to Resolve Conflicts Between Team Members
Conflict and differences are inevitable in the workplace. Often supervisors are the first point of contact for team members when differences occur. Supervisors must be competent in helping the individuals and teams work through and navigate the complexities of differences and conflicts.
Supervisors who are seen as real leaders do not shy away from differences, tension, or conflict; they see conflict as a way to draw out ideas, create better understanding and address challenges that arise. Team members that can productively manage conflict with some emotional intelligence are much more capable of resolving problems in a collaborative way.
Benchmark: Ability to Maintain Accountability During Post-Resolution Phase
While it is important to be able to productively initiate a conflict resolution discussion, fostering a healthy outcome hinges on maintaining accountability during the post-resolution phase. This crucial stage ensures the resolution remains effective and prevents future issues.
Here are examples of key steps to help you assess whether a supervisor is committed and able to work through and resolve conflicts:
- Verify understanding: Ask the parties involved what they understand of the agreed-upon resolution, this may require guidance by the supervisor.
- Monitor behavioral change: Observe how team members’ behaviors evolve after the resolution. Look for positive signs like improved collaboration, communication, and a commitment to teamwork.
- Conflict prevention: Look for examples or situations where there was potential to escalate into a bigger conflict, but due to their proactive style, the supervisor was able to manage things from becoming a problem or crisis.
3. Encouraging Team Member Collaboration
Supervisors act as the primary liaison for their teams and often others, playing a crucial role in cultivating a collaborative work environment. This environment fosters synergy among team members and helps the team achieve its purpose.
Benchmark: Points of Contact Among Team Members
A productive way to measure collaborative improvements is to conduct a team dynamics evaluation or collect peer feedback. The following methods can be done via in person interviews, focus groups, or through digital surveys.
Consider the areas of collaboration you want to measure. For example:
- Coordination and task management: This benchmark may include the percentage of projects completed on time and within budget or the number of missed deadlines due to unresolved issues between aligning tasks.
- Problem-solving and decision-making: This may include the number of new ideas generated through brainstorming or collaborative sessions, the rate of successful implementation, or successful problem resolution.
- Teamwork and trust: This may involve surveys focusing on psychological safety, and how team members show up. You might also consider the frequency of peer recognition among the team.
4. Setting and Achieving Individual and Team Goals
Clearly defined goals provide both supervisors and their teams with a comprehensive roadmap for success. This clarity fosters a deeper understanding of expectations and deliverables, ultimately leading to better outcomes and improved productivity.
Goal-setting also acts as a powerful and intrinsic motivator. When teams and individuals are presented with clear and attainable targets, they become more invested in their work. Reaching these objectives fosters a sense of accomplishment that boosts morale and drives motivation.
Benchmark: Performance KPI(s)
Developing performance metrics is essential for tracking progress. Tailored to the growth goals of supervisors and their teams, these tools help evaluate how effectively objectives are set and achieved.
Examples of KPIs and goals include:
Employee Productivity: Measures how effectively a supervisor’s team performs its tasks and meets targets. This can be quantified through output per employee or the achievement of specific performance goals.
Quality of Work: Evaluates the standard of work produced by the team, including error rates, compliance with standards, and overall quality assessments.
Customer retention rates: Measures the rate at which customers continue to use the product or service, offering insights into where to improve customer satisfaction.
Safety Behaviors: Metrics that gauge compliance to behavior-based safety actions and ownership amongst team members. Examples include:
- # of reportable incidents per days worked
- Ratio of non-conformance to corrective measures
- Attendance at safety training sessions
Project Completion and Timeliness: Tracks the completion rate of projects or tasks within deadlines to assess project management skills and efficiency.
Evaluating the progress of individual and team goals can also be a good indicator of team members’ engagement.
5. Delegating
With multiple roles and responsibilities, successful supervisors understand that delegation is vital to achieving business objectives. Moreover, delegation allows supervisors to develop team members through new or stretch assignments in an effort to build skills and invest in their growth.
Benchmark:
Assess whether tasks are being assigned appropriately based on skillset and developmental goals. Ask probing questions to team members to elicit insight and information on a supervisor’s ability to distribute work and transfer responsibility effectively.
The following questions are good starters to gain important insight:
- “Do you believe the tasks you are responsible for align with your role?”
- “Do the delegated assignments align with your strengths?”
- “Are you given tasks that are appropriate for your skill level?”
- “Do you feel you have the authority and resources necessary to complete delegated tasks?”
- “Does your supervisor provide clear instructions and expectations when delegating assignments?”
Another benchmark to consider is how self-reliant the team can be. For example, if a supervisor is busy managing a surge of multiple priorities, is the team able to execute with limited oversight? This can serve as a good indicator of how well the supervisor delegates responsibilities and empowers others.
6. Giving and Receiving Timely Feedback
Feedback allows supervisors to connect with their teams and invest in their growth.
Team members who receive daily feedback, as opposed to annual feedback, are 3.6 times more likely to feel motivated to perform exceptional work. In addition, leaders who receive constructive feedback show 8.9% higher profitability compared to their counterparts.
Benchmark: Coaching Evaluation
Evaluate the effectiveness of supervisor coaching and feedback practices through a multi-pronged approach, including observational data and self-reported information.
The objective is to assess whether a given supervisor is:
- Providing constructive feedback. Does the Supervisor deliver specific, behavior-oriented, actionable suggestions for improvement? This feedback should be balanced by acknowledging positive aspects of performance and delivered with a growth mindset, fostering trust and development.
- Receiving feedback with emotional intelligence. Exceptional supervisors demonstrate a willingness to hear feedback (both positive and negative). This includes active listening skills, avoiding defensiveness, and asking clarifying questions to ensure understanding.
- Maintaining the feedback loop. Frequency matters. Supervisors who make a long-term impact do not simply offer feedback once a year but create a feedback culture. This helps leaders and team members engage in regular exchanges around supportive and constructive feedback.
Build Confident Supervisors with CMOE
Empower your supervisors today. Get a jumpstart on leadership development with CMOE’s supervisor training programs. Our focus is to ensure your leaders have the essential training to exceed performance expectations.
