Kevin Burns Blog

As a frontline supervisor, you face many challenges and difficulties in your role. You have to deal with the demands and expectations of your management, the needs and concerns of your employees, and the problems and issues that arise in your work environment. You may feel stressed, overwhelmed, or frustrated at times.

As a supervisor, you have a lot of responsibilities and challenges in your role. You have to manage the day-to-day operations, oversee the performance and well-being of your employees, communicate effectively with your superiors and peers, and ensure the quality and safety of your work.

Frontline supervisors are the backbone of any organization. They are responsible for managing the day-to-day operations and overseeing the performance and well-being of their employees. They are the link between the management and the frontline workers, and they have a direct impact on the quality and outcomes of the work.

My new book, The CareFull Supervisor: The Tools to Succeed and Become the Supervisor Employees Want to Have is based on the idea that supervisors should be full of care for their employees as human beings, not just as workers. It is a way of leading and managing that focuses on compassion, communication, and collaboration.

Being a supervisor is not an easy task. You have to manage multiple responsibilities, deal with various challenges, and lead your team to achieve the desired goals. But how do you do it in a way that is not only effective but also caring?

In the realm of supervision, sleepless nights are all too common. The anxieties, the doubts, the nagging fears - they all come with the territory. Every supervisor has faced that gnawing worry, that fear of the unknown, whether it's dealing with a challenging personality or battling the impostor syndrome, questioning their own competence in the role.

This week, we're diving into team motivation. It turns out that it matters not just what you say but how often you say it. So, let's explore the Losada Ratio and how it can transform your team's motivation.

At a mining camp in Canada's Arctic, a team of big city consultants was dispatched to determine the effectiveness of the safety messages throughout the mine site. The walls at the mine were plastered with so many mixed messages that the employees nicknamed them "the wallpaper." Too much noise, too many competing thoughts. 

First, let's admit it—generic messages like "Safety first" or "Be safe" don't cut it. They become a punchline, undermining the real priority. And in the end, the mission gets lost in "the wallpaper."

I want to discuss a concept, not just straight out of the movies, but deeply rooted in supervisor roles. It's about how to better understand your role in the grand narrative of your team.

Management guru, Tom Peters, at a live event, was extolling the virtues of training managers in proper leadership and management skills. One senior manager asked, “What if we train them, and they leave? He responded, “What if you don’t train them, and they stay?”

Training in leadership skills is a gamble. Leadership training is not proprietary. It is personal. If a supervisor decides to leave, the training leaves with them. Leadership skills are personal skills; as are skills in communication, coaching, empowerment, career development, team building, motivation, caring, and mentoring. But they are the skills that employees expect supervisors to have.