 A Federal Judicial Center Production Welcome to Supervisor's Survival Kit, a Federal Judicial Center self-study program that provides valuable information about navigating the transitions and challenges that new supervisors experience. Unit 1 Making an Effective Transition to Supervisor Welcome to your new job as a supervisor in the federal courts. You have been promoted. Don't you feel great? You should. You are probably feeling other things too. Perhaps you're thinking, I knew my old job well. It was an area I was confident in, comfortable, but I'm not as confident about being in charge. After all, people can be difficult to manage. I wonder if I'm really up to the challenge. It is not at all uncommon for a new supervisor to have conflicting feelings, feelings of accomplishment and success on the one hand and anxiety and doubt on the other. The key to overcoming apprehension is remembering that no one becomes an effective court supervisor in a few days or even weeks. It might take several months before you feel comfortable. It's a journey, a trip into unknown territory. In her book Becoming a Manager, Mastery of a New Identity, Management Scholar Linda Hill compares becoming a supervisor to becoming a new parent. Do you know how hard it is to be the boss when you are so out of control, Hill asks? It's the feeling you get when you have a child. On day X minus one, you still don't have a child. On day X, all of a sudden, you're a mother or a father and you're supposed to know everything there is to know about taking care of this kid. Consider the advice that Ruby Lehrman, Chief Probation Officer in the western district of Texas, offers new court supervisors. Ruby, who was on the advisory committee for this program, has been a facilitator of supervisory training in many center programs. The best advice I can give any new supervisor or any new leader, and I give it to them in my district a lot, is to not take yourself so seriously. You haven't scaled Mount Rushmore. You are now a manager. You're now responsible for other people's work. Doesn't mean you're necessarily brighter. Doesn't mean you can jump taller. You can swim farther. It just means that you're now responsible for not only your work, but other people's work. I think sometimes people take themselves and their positions way too serious. Life should be fun. I have a little motto hanging up in my office that says enjoy life. This is not a dress rehearsal. And I believe that. You need to enjoy life every single day. You need to enjoy your work or don't be doing it. You can, especially in our field, you can be such a detriment to the individuals that we come in contact with. If you're only there for the paycheck, you have to really be concerned with people and their problems and be concerned with how we can go about getting people to seriously look at themselves and to make some real choices about their behaviors in the past and so that it's better in the future. So managers need to just relax. Just relax and enjoy the position. We don't expect people to have all the answers. None of us have all the answers. And you can always go to someone for assistance. There's always somebody, if you look hard enough, there's always somebody who's experienced whatever you're experiencing. Find them, get their advice. See if somehow you can glean from what's happened to them that can help you through the situation and to just relax and enjoy life and enjoy the position. It does carry a little more responsibility because now you're not just responsible for yourself. You're also responsible for a whole bunch of other people and their production and their abilities and their skills to get the job done and to get it done timely. But it's not a rocket scientist kind of job. You know, just relax and use your best judgment. Obviously, there was something there for you to have been promoted. So just relax. Use the skills that brought you there and enjoy it. Enjoy life. Steve Ludwig, a clerk of court in the Northern District of Indiana and a center trained facilitator for the Frontline Leadership Program has this to say about the skills he needs as a supervisor. You need to keep the flow of information going both ways. I as a leader need to keep people informed of what's going on in the court, but I also have to be a good listener. And I have to impress upon people that what they're saying to me is really being heard. And then I want to give them some involvement. They need to be involved or empowered as to what they're doing. Give them give them some authority to do to do their job to make the decisions that they know how to do better than you in many times and also get them involved in the mission of the court and tell them how important they are to the mission of the court that the job that they're doing. Ruby and Steve both emphasize the importance of relating well to people. Though it should be obvious, we sometimes forget that supervising is a people business. And as Ruby's comments suggest, the sense of humility and balance is important as you approach your new responsibilities. There are three things you can do to successfully make the transition to supervisor. First, realize that your role has changed. Remember all of the griping you and your coworkers engaged in about management? Well, you're now a part of that group and it will not help you to join in the griping about the office. Of course, this doesn't mean you can't listen to employees when they have concerns about management decisions. In fact, as we'll see, listening skills are among the most important that any supervisor can develop. But there's a difference between listening and agreeing. The second thing you will need to do to ease your transition is to build new relationships. You will not be able to control former peers' reactions to your promotion. Some may be jealous or angry, especially if they competed for the position. Some may be relieved that you were chosen and not them. Still others may be sincerely happy for you and wish you well. Building positive, balanced relationships with your former peers and new colleagues is one of the most challenging and important things you can do as a new supervisor. The third thing you should do when you are promoted to supervisor is to shift your focus. For instance, you may be asked to supervise people performing jobs about which you have little technical knowledge. It may even be that you couldn't actually do these jobs if you had to. How do you handle this situation? Turn to the appendix in your workbook and read Ernest Archer's article, things you lose the right to do when you become a manager. Take the time to read the article now and resume the tape when you finish reading. One of the main points Archer makes is that in some ways new managers lose more rights than they gain. Put another way, supervisors have to be careful about how they act, probably more careful than they were before they were promoted. For example, you must take care to treat all staff fairly. Spend appropriate amounts of time. Use the same verbal style. Set fair and reasonable expectations for all staff members taken into account each person's position and level of experience. And provide equal opportunity to all staff members, including opportunities for training and project assignments. You also must put the work of your staff ahead of your personal work, adjusting your schedule to meet staff needs. To get you started thinking about how your own role has changed or is about to change, turn to page five in your workbook and complete exercise one, adopting new behaviors. Stop the tape now and complete the exercise. Resume the tape when you are ready to proceed. Exercise one asked you to record old behaviors you want to discontinue and new behaviors you would like to adopt. These lists of old and new behaviors can prove useful throughout your transition to supervisor, providing benchmarks against which you can measure your progress. Remember, there will be some growing pains in going from the old to the new, but the change will be worthwhile. As mentioned earlier, when you are promoted, you may suddenly find yourself supervising people who do work about which you have little direct knowledge. The most common example of this situation is the supervisor who manages a computer technician. As the courts become increasingly automated and technically sophisticated, it will be beneficial for you to educate yourself about new technologies and how they will change certain court functions. To acquire, as they say, a little savvy in this new area. The most important thing you can do, however, is establish a good working relationship with your technical staff. Research tells us that automation professionals have different work styles and work preferences than other employees. For instance, we know that they prefer to have a great deal of autonomy at work and consequently resist being micromanaged. Open a dialogue with technical staff and find out how they approach their work. Jobs with which you are familiar present another kind of challenge. For example, you may expect people to do the work exactly as you would. This expectation can cause serious problems. For one thing, if you focus too much on how people do their jobs instead of what they are accomplishing, in other words, if you micromanage, you won't have time to do anything else. Worse, by denying staff the opportunity to make decisions, you will rob them of the joy in their work. Later in the program, you will get specific advice about how to counteract such problems by delegating work effectively. Listening to other supervisors' experiences can be very helpful as you grapple with issues such as how to supervise people whose duties are unrelated to your own job experience. Besides practical advice, other supervisors can give you emotional support as you move into the supervisory role. Take the time to talk with someone who has gone through a similar transition to supervisor, perhaps someone in your office or in another part of the government. You might even consider talking to someone from the private sector. Ask the person what adjustments he or she had to make upon becoming a supervisor. Were there any surprises? And how long did it take to feel comfortable in the job? As you talk to other supervisors, beyond the lookout for people, maybe one specific person you can return to for help. As Ruby Lerman points out, a mentor can be an invaluable aid to a new supervisor. Probably the most important reason for having a mentor as a leader is the fact that you can learn from other people's mistakes. You don't have to make the same mistakes that they have made. They can maybe avoid some grief and some concern on your part by sharing with you some of the mistakes that they've made so that you don't come along and do the same thing. In our system, especially in the probation system, we have a very good training program for our line, and there's a fairly good training program in place for chiefs, but it's the people in between that for years have kind of been flying by the seat of their pants because we've lacked a formal training program for them. This program fills that gap. It fills that gap when someone becomes a brand new supervisor overnight. They're supposed to have all the answers overnight, but yet they receive very little formal instruction on how to be a manager. What they really need to do is latch on to someone who's already walked that trail and can tell you where the rocks are and where the bumps are and where the hills are so that you can be prepared for them and not make the same mistakes that have been made in the past. Another place you can turn for help and inspiration as you move into a supervisory role is the court management framework. Working with managers from across court units, center and AIL staff develop the framework to give the courts a yardstick against which managers could measure their job-related skills. The framework cites 27 skills grouped into six categories. The categories are one, leadership, two, operational, three, system, four, thinking, five, personal, and six, interpersonal. The framework also shows center education programs that can help you refine these skills. Take some time to review the court management framework on pages 9 through 11 in your workbook. Then turn to page 7 and complete exercise 2, leadership strengths and weaknesses. When you've completed this exercise, resume the tape to proceed to the next unit. Stop the tape now and complete exercise 2. Unit 2- Clarifying Expectations In unit 1, you were asked to set several goals for yourself. Behaviors you wanted to change and skills you wanted to acquire. The next step is to make sure that your goals are consistent with the goals of those who supervise you as well as of those you supervise. It's time to clarify expectations. One of the biggest frustrations people face at work is confusion over what is expected of them by their supervisors. Of course, the confusion goes both ways, and supervisors are sometimes surprised to learn what their staff members really want from them. Training specialists, Jud Watkins, Chief Probation Officer, and Bob Luke, Court Education Specialist addressed this issue in an article they wrote for the journal Federal Probation. The article titled, Role Negotiation, Sorting Out the Nuts and Bolts of Day-to-day Staff Supervision, is listed in the bibliography in your workbook. What do supervisors want from officers, Watkins and Luke ask? Timely, Accurate Reports, Substantive, Goal-Oriented Supervision, High Morale, and Loyalty. What do officers want from their supervisors? Support, Technical Advice, Structure, and Praise. Employees and their supervisors can clarify their mutual expectations by using a strategy called Role Negotiation. Luke and Watkins define Role Negotiation as an interpersonal communication technique that produces specific behaviorally related feedback of value to either a supervisor or an employee. In other words, people need to be clear and honest about what they expect from each other, and they need to agree on how they can work productively together. Clarifying expectations is a critical ingredient in any successful relationship. When President John F. Kennedy offered Robert McNamara a job in his administration as Secretary of Defense, McNamara said, I will take the job if I can hire who I want, and if I don't have to go to parties and be a social secretary. McNamara even provided Kennedy with a written version of this agreement and a place to sign it. McNamara, if you remember, got the job. You don't necessarily have to be as forward as McNamara, but in general, it's a good idea to get all the cards on the table. And what about your manager's expectations of you? To pin these down, you should ask your manager three questions. First, what are the five most important things I must do in this job? You probably do far more than five things as a supervisor, of course, but it's essential to identify the four or five specific duties that your manager thinks you should concentrate on, the four or five things on which your performance evaluation will be based. The more specific you can get your manager to be about your duties, the better you will be able to prioritize your work, and the fewer surprises there should be during your performance review. It's also useful to see if the five duties your manager cites match your job description. The second question you should ask your manager is, how will you know that I am successful at my job? His or her response should focus on the results your manager is looking for relative to your specific tasks and responsibilities. For example, is it the number of docket entries per day? A reduction in problems with chambers? An increase in employee morale? The third question you should ask your manager is, what are my specific budgetary responsibilities? Budget is singled out because the courts, like other government institutions, are under increasing pressure to show that they are using taxpayers' money wisely. As a supervisor, you are now a part of the financial management equation. Once you have clarified expectations with your manager, you should do the same with your staff. The issues you clarify will be the same, but since you will now be approaching them from the staff's point of view, you will frame the discussion by stating your expectations, which of course will reflect your manager's expectations of you. Clarifying expectations will give you an opportunity to begin developing your management style. Also, by ascertaining your manager's expectations of you, and by in turn making your expectations clear to your staff, you will set the stage to develop good working relationships, enhancing your unit's productivity, and minimizing wasted time. Complete exercise three, clarifying expectations with your manager, and exercise four, clarifying expectations with your staff on pages 15 to 20 of your workbook. Stop the tape to complete these exercises before proceeding to unit three. Unit three, building trust and credibility. Trust is a precious commodity. Employees who trust their supervisor will do their utmost to get the job done, even if it means taken on duties that lie outside their job descriptions. Similarly, a supervisor who trusts his or her staff members will allow them the freedom they need to be creative and productive. How does a supervisor gain employees trust? This is a difficult question to answer. As C. Paul Barlow, Executive Director of the Natural Resources Conservation Institute, has written, trust cannot be created as if it were some kind of benefit plan. It has to be built up over time through behavior that shows that management thinks about its employees and tries to take care of them. If you are reliable, consistent, and focused on the organization's mission and goals, as well as protective of its interests, you will be trusted. Remaining committed during the tough times likewise inspires trust. In their book, Credibility, authors James Cousis and Barry Posner make this compelling statement. The credibility of leadership is what determines whether people will want to give a little more of their time, talent, energy, experience, intelligence, creativity, and support. Rather than sheepishly following orders, constituents of credible leaders act with moral commitment in following a common purpose. Managers with little or no credibility could threaten to fire people who balk at actively participating in the program, or they could entice constituents with more money. But threat, power, position, and money do not earn commitment. They earn compliance, and compliance produces adequacy, not greatness. Cousis and Posner cite five ways that managers can earn and sustain credibility over time. One, projecting an image of self-assurance. Two, learning to appreciate other people's differences. Three, affirming shared values. Four, developing employees' capabilities, and five, sustaining hope. Let's look more closely at each of these ideas. First, projecting an image of self-assurance. As a supervisor, you may find yourself trying to be all things to all people, like the title character in Woody Allen's movie, Zellig, who transforms himself to please his various audiences. Such transformations are superficial and ultimately counterproductive. People respond more favorably to leaders who are comfortable with who they are than they do to leaders who are insecure. As Warren Benes, who has studied leadership for many years notes, leaders learn from others, but are not made by others. So, who are you? In the courts, supervisors do not typically have a lot of time for introspection. Nevertheless, as Pete Thompson, a team leader of courtroom deputies in the district of Maryland, suggests new supervisors would benefit from taking a little time for self-examination. I think that for people who have never been in a leadership position or never been the team captain or never been the leader, I think the advice that I would offer would be to search yourself first, to find out what it is within you that makes you tick. What it is within you, the questions that you would have answered. What are you looking for? You know, it's what makes this situation comfortable for you and to start there by solving problems within yourself, because if you don't like you, you can't like anybody else. So, start within yourself. Start within yourself in that you want to pull out the best that you are. I've had a lot of people in my life who have been very positive influences on me, from coaches to friends to my mom, and you know, just kind of pulled the best out of me, the stuff that I didn't know was there. To look for somebody that can help you to get in touch with what's inside. And once you can deal with you, it's easier to deal with somebody else. There are many tools to help us discover more about ourselves. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, for example, can tell us a great deal about our preferences, including our preferred way to gather information and make decisions. There are also feedback instruments available to supervisors that can help you gain insight into the impact of your management style on your employees. A list of these instruments is included in the appendix of your workbook. Appreciating differences in others, the second practice that Cous's and Pulsner recommend for enhancing credibility is necessary due to many changes in the workforce. Today's supervisors find increasing diversity in the workplace, differences in age, race, ethnicity, and gender, among others. Thus, they encounter increasingly varied points of view. To be successful in the face of these conflicting viewpoints, the supervisor must strive to look at things from the employee's perspective, to empathize with the employee. At the same time, the supervisor must keep in mind that often, no one perspective will be right and the others wrong. Fighting over differences is therefore pointless. Consider the well-known sketch on page 22 in your workbook. Look at the sketch one way and you see a young woman. Look at it another way and you see an older woman. Which is the right way? Either one. It all depends on your point of view. One of the best things you can do as a supervisor in a diverse workplace is to treat all employees fairly. Avoid showing favoritism to people who are more like you. At the same time, make an effort to learn more about the people who are different, their backgrounds, training, education, and experiences. Tap into the insights of those who see the world or your office differently than you. Effective supervisors learn how to parlay diversity into an organizational asset. The Federal Judicial Center Publication Diversity in the Courts, a guide for assessment and training, helps courts develop diversity training programs for general staff and supervisors. It provides suggestions on managing a diverse workforce, enhancing productivity, and fostering employees' understanding of one another. The guide includes a list of readings and training videotapes. The Center's Computer-Assisted Guide in Your Survival Kit, entitled Supervising in the Courts, Tips for Success, provides some additional advice and resources on valuing diversity. And again, empathize. Here is Pete Thompson once again talking about the importance of seeing things from the employee's perspective. Sometimes we get so hung up on being in a position that we forget that we were once in the other position. So I keep contact with that inner me that says you were a team member before you were a team captain. Try to remember what it was like on the other side. Try to remember what it's like put yourself in their place and try to look back at yourself and see what it is you would like from yourself. So don't get to the point where your hat is too small, where you need a shoehorn to put your hat on because a lot of us do that. Remember what it was like and just, you know, don't get so swelled head, get such a swelled head that you can't relate to what it was like to have those problems, to have those frustrations, to have those questions, to have the concerns that you are now hearing from somebody else and make yourself available from that standpoint, not just from I'm too busy, I can't talk to you. That problem is just too small for me to deal with, go talk to somebody else, but take the time and it builds a gap not just between you and that individual, but it helps that person to deal with maybe management or somebody else, somewhere else that they couldn't deal with before because they felt like nobody's listening to me, nobody's paying attention, nobody understands, be understanding. Listen, lend a good ear and people have a tendency to respect you for that. Affirming shared values, the third practice that Cousins and Posner recommend to enhance credibility is all about mission. In his book, The Courageous Followers, Standing Up To and For Our Leaders, author Ira Shalev says, an organization is a triad consisting of leaders and followers joined in a common purpose. The purpose is the atomic glue that binds us, it gives meaning to our activities. Followers and leaders both orbit around purpose, followers do not orbit around the leader. To ensure that the glue Shalev described sticks, supervisors must embrace the mission of the organization and communicate to employees that their main goal is to fulfill that mission, not to please quote the boss. Sometimes supervisors are afraid that if they demonstrate a passion for mission, they may appear foolish when they, for example, show passion like McDonald's CEO Ray Kroc, who was known to talk about a perfect hamburger bun. It's true, employees may sometimes balk at your enthusiasm, but if you are truly sincere, ultimately you will be rewarded. Kroc's foolish idea led to a rock solid standard in quality for McDonald's products. So what is your mission? Why do you as an arm of the federal courts exist? In 1960, David Packard, one of the founders of Hewlett Packard Corporation, suggested that organizations must dig deep to find the real reasons for their existence. As we investigate this, Packard said, we inevitably come to the conclusion that a group of people get together and exist as an institution, so they are able to accomplish something collectively that they could not accomplish separately. They make a contribution to society, a phrase which sounds trite but is fundamental. In light of Packard's observation, leaders can be seen as mission facilitators. As Cousins and Polesner note, leaders are individuals who can help build consensus about purpose, enabling people to work toward a common goal. During the fast pace of the workday, it's easy to lose sight of the noble business that the courts are actually in, providing justice to citizens of the United States, protecting their rights, and resolving disputes peacefully. These are the things the public cares about, not who got promoted in the court or who's allegedly liked better by the judge. When you, the supervisor, stay true to the court's mission to what the public cares about, you inspire staff members to do the same. What's more, your managers will respect you when they see that you are united with them in pursuit of the court's mission, even if you occasionally disagree with them about the methods of fulfilling that mission. It may be that you yourself feel that mission is the business of the higher ups. The judge, the clerk of court, your chief, they're the ones with the real power to affect the court's direction, you say. It's true that your formal power is not equal to theirs, but as Shalef says, you and your staff have far more power than you may think. You have the power of purpose, the strength that comes from commitment to the common good, you have the power of knowledge, the possession of skills and resources the organization and its leaders value and do not want to lose. You have the power of personal history, a record of successes and unassailable contributions, and not least of all, you have the power to speak the truth as you see it to leadership. This brings us to developing employees' capabilities, the fourth practice that Cousins and Posner say will help supervisors enhance their credibility. As a supervisor, you should be in constant search of the talents your people have. Kim Blanchard talks about the art of catching people doing things right. Another way to look at this idea is from the perspective of Zig Ziggler, who once said that working with people is like mining for gold. When you mine for gold, Ziggler says, you must literally move tons of dirt to find the single ounce of gold. However, you do not look for the dirt, you look for the gold. This is a powerful statement because among other things it suggests that developing people's skills is a long-term proposition, an investment that you, as a supervisor, must make. It is also an investment that pays high dividends, however. People respond favorably to a supervisor who takes an interest in them and their professional development. How do you develop your employees' capabilities? First of all, you must recognize the importance of training. Stephen Cubby makes this point well in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People Restoring the Character Ethic. Suppose, says Cubby, you were to come upon someone in the woods working feverishly to saw down a tree. What are you doing, you ask? Can't you see, comes the impatient reply, I'm sawing down this tree? You look exhausted, you exclaim. How long have you been at it? Over five hours, the woodcutter returns, and I'm beat. This is hard work. Well, why don't you take a break for a few minutes and sharpen that saw you inquire? I'm sure it would go a lot faster. I don't have time to sharpen the saw, the woodcutter says emphatically. I'm too busy sawing. So as a supervisor or team leader, you may need to help employees sharpen the saw to make sure they take time to preserve and enhance their abilities. Specifically, you need to stay in touch with employees so you know when they are experiencing difficulties with particular tasks, so you can offer solutions to their problems. The Federal Judicial Center has a network of over 300 training specialists and offers dozens of educational programs for federal court personnel. Get to know your court's training specialist. That way, you will be on top of the educational options available to your court or office. There are also training programs now available on the World Wide Web. And of course, you will find training opportunities in your local community. We have now looked at four of the five practices that Kousis and Posner recommend for building trust. The last one, sustaining hope, is perhaps the most basic. Credible leaders keep hope alive. They build support, are upbeat, and optimistic. It is important for court supervisors to remember that their behavior, even their moods, can strongly influence their staff. An angry boss has a powerful ripple effect among staff. On the other hand, an optimistic and upbeat boss can help keep morale high. It is rare to find an organization where the boss is totally devoid of hope. Optimism and inspiration and his or her staff is filled with positive energy and vitality. Author Stephen Covey talks about principal-centered leaders. Leaders who radiate positive energy. Principal-centered leaders are cheerful, pleasant, and happy, Covey says. Their spirit is enthusiastic, hopeful, and trusting, and they don't overreact in negative behaviors, criticism, or human weaknesses. Principal-centered leaders don't feel built up when they discover the weaknesses of others. It's not that they are unaware of weaknesses. Rather, they realize that behavior and potential are two different things and that all human beings have unseen potential. So those are the five ways you can enhance your credibility. One, by projecting an image of self-assurance. Two, by learning to appreciate other people's differences. Three, by affirming shared values. Four, by developing employees' capabilities. And five, by sustaining hope. Now think about your own quarter office. How do these five practices apply in your situation? Are there any actions you can take to make these practices work for you? Stop the tape now and take some time to record your ideas on pages 23 and 24 of your workbook. When you have done so, fast forward the tape to the end of side A. Resume with unit four on side B when you are ready to proceed.