Supervision Matters: 100 Bite-Sized Ideas to Transform You and Your Team

by Rita Sever

Overview

Supervision is a critical function of leadership that is often overlooked, and yet the quality of supervision is often what makes or breaks a leader—and an organization. Supervision Matters is full of bite-size ideas for how to become a more effective supervisor, including advice on how to be clear about expectations, giving helpful feedback, manage yourself, and more. Each chapter is structured around how you approach a part of your work as a supervisor: how you talk, how you think about others, how you run meetings, how you lead, and more. Whether you're a front-line supervisor or a CEO, this book will help you sharpen your skills and improve morale by transforming your supervision skills into user-friendly tactics that work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781631521461
Publisher:	She Writes Press
Publication date:	07/30/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Rita Sever works with individuals, teams, leaders, and organizations to improve the culture and practice of supervision, thereby helping the organization to be more effective. Sever worked as an HR Director for more than 20 years before she started her consulting practice, Supervision Matters. She has an MA in organizational psychology and is a professional coach. She has taught at the University of San Francisco and Sonoma State University in California, and has published a monthly newsletter entitled Matters of Supervision for over ten years. Sever lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Portland, OR.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Supervision Matters 1

Chapter 1 How You Relate to People 6

It's About You 6

It's About Them Too 9

My Way or the Highway 11

Intentional Conversations 14

Sidebar: Sample Questions for Intentional Conversations 17

Relationships in Minutes 19

The Importance of Seeing 21

Assume the Best 23

Rita's Rules of Engagement 27

Inviting Staff to Push Back 29

Chapter 2 How You Talk 33

Good Morning 33

Praise and Thank-Yous 35

Curiosity: Wake It Up to Slow Down 38

Show Up and Tell the Truth 40

Do I Hear You Now? 42

Avoid These Communication Traps 45

What's in Your Pocket? 48

The Words You Use 50

Either/Or Talk Rarely Helps 53

Chapter 3 How You Act 58

Trust Is Essential 58

Be(a)ware of Your Power 61

Don't Just Do Something, Stand There 65

Slow Down to Get There Faster 68

What Are You Practicing? 72

Things I Know and Forget 74

Goldilocks and the Three Supervisors 75

The Dangerous Dozen and The Diligent Dozen 78

Stop Being So Nice 81

Beware of Shortcuts 85

Tiny Steps Can Change Our Brains 88

Chapter 4 How You Think About Others 92

What's Your View of the World? 92

Fact or Interpretation? 95

Wishful Thinking 99

Dualism Gets in the Way 102

Compared to Perfect 105

The Problem with Common Sense 108

What Do You Believe? 110

Chapter 5 How You Lead 112

Hiking Together 112

Build a Vision for Your Team 115

Laugh a Lot 117

GPS and Mentoring 119

The Power of the Pause 121

Triple Vision Required 124

Don't Just Advise. Offer Support 127

Moments of Wonder 130

Chapter 6 How You Communicate Expectations 133

Avoid the Judges' Table 133

The Transparent Supervisor 136

Give Them a Map 139

Unmet Expectations 141

Delegation Made Simple 145

Preventing Confusion 149

Who Does What? 152

Chapter 7 How You Give (and Get) Feedback 155

It's Simply Information 155

A Coaching Style of Supervision: Working Together for a Common Goal 158

Sidebar: A Sample Coaching Conversation 161

The Space Between 163

Accidents Happen 165

A Formula for Giving Feedback 168

Evaluation Time 171

"You've Got a Bad Attitude" 174

Sidebar: Confronting a Bad Attitude 177

Getting Feedback 180

Chapter 8 How You Act When Things Aren't Working 183

Look for the Gray 183

Make Discipline Real or Don't Go There 186

Fair Discipline in Four Steps 189

Sidebar: What Is a "Fair Period of Time"? 193

Tough Times Call for Tough Truths 194

Pause. Breathe. Decide. 196

Contain the Complaining 199

Don't Just Complain About Your Staff 203

Do You Avoid or Approach Conflict? 206

Sidebar: Approaching Conflict: Ten Steps 210

Chapter 9 How You Work with Your Team 213

Are You a Family or a Team? 213

Are You Playing the Same Game? 215

Undervalued Team Members: Introverts at Work 218

Making Room for Introverts 221

Working and Playing for the Team 224

Sidebar: Lessons from Baseball 227

Raucous Geese 229

Working Together 231

Chapter 10 How You Meet 234

Meeting Structure 234

State of the Team 237

Make Time for What You Value 239

Take Five Minutes to Play Together 242

Sidebar: Ten Game Ideas 245

Thoughts on Learning 252

Online Learning Is Not a Panacea 253

The Power of Routines 256

Sidebar: Self-Assessment Tool 259

Why Do I Have to Go to This Meeting? 259

Chapter 11 How You Think About You 263

An Essential Skill: Self-Reflection 263

Sidebar: Reflection on Power and Privilege in the Workplace 267

Reflect and Choose 268

What Do You Need to Throw Away? 270

Be Who You Are 273

Know Yourself and Share That Knowledge 276

Self-Awareness in Three Scenes 278

Sidebar: Six Ways to Get to Plain 282

Chapter 12 How You Are Part of the Organization 283

Sustainability Beyond You and Me 283

Reveal the Elephants 286

The Blame Game 289

Three Quick Lessons about Culture and Change 293

Do Not Pass Go 296

Sidebar: Remember the Danger Words 301

Consider the System 301

Keeping the Cockpit Safe: The Value of Policies and Procedures 306

Looking the Other Way 308

Paying Attention 313

Bullies in the Workplace 315

Creating a Bully-Free Workplace 319

How Did 100 Percent Become Too Little? 322

Afterword: Thank You 325

Appendix: How Big a Bite Do You Have Time For? 327

Acknowledgments 332

About the Author 335

Editorial Reviews

2017 USA Best Book Awards Finalist in Business: Management & Leadership

From the Publisher

2017-11-07
A debut compendium offers tips for employee supervisors.Early on in her book, organizational and human resources consultant Sever makes a key distinction: "Supervision is a part of management, but it is not the same thing….Similarly, leadership is a part of supervision, but it is not the same thing." Management involves broader issues than just personnel, and leadership can occur throughout an organization. But supervision, writes Sever, is specifically the management of people. With this notion driving the singular concept of the book, the author keeps her laser focus on the ups, downs, and intricacies of supervision and the interrelationships of these particular managers with their teams. Twelve chapters key into a supervisor's major areas of responsibility. For example, "How You Act" addresses trust, power, taking action, communication, bad versus good practices, kindness, and self-discipline. "How You Are Part of the Organization" reveals important lessons about the role of the supervisor, including intriguing insights into office culture, the importance of policies, and bullies in the workplace. Each chapter is broken into short, discrete segments (the common-sensical book's subtitle aptly refers to them as "bite-sized ideas") that are a breeze to read but are riddled with observations and advice based on experience. Sidebars highlight examples and on-the-job scenarios to bring relevancy to the text. "A Sample Coaching Conversation," for instance, illustrates how a supervisor helps an employee problem-solve a missed deadline while "Approaching Conflict: Ten Steps" enumerates and describes actions to take to reduce the negative effects of conflict. Particularly helpful are the occasional interspersed "Coaching Corner" snippets in which the author poses thought-provoking questions to engage readers. A cleverly structured Appendix classifies sections of the volume by reading time based on word count. But, an index, which is missing, would have been useful in locating the sections by page number. Sever's contention is "the role of supervision is hugely underappreciated in most organizations." This handy guide is an effective antidote to that unfortunate attitude.Punchy, concise, and reality-based; provides solid ground for the concept of supervision and should act as a day-to-day manual for both veterans and novices.

Kirkus Reviews