Yesterday, I attended the "Survival Skills for New Supervisors" training over in the Elliot building. It's a one-day crash-course for new supervisors here at Penn State. As it turns out, almost all of the attendees (about 9 of us) were not really "new" to supervising OR new to Penn State. When it was all said and done, I think this was an opportunity for many to 'refresh' on some things. And, believe it or not, I think that is exactly what it did.
Do not get us sued....
The morning was spent in a session with Linda Pierce, Human Resources Manager here at PSU. The focus of her discussion, which was actually much more of an open discussion forum, was the Fair Labor Standards Act and, much more specifically, rules for non-exempt employees. That particular topic went on for over an hour. I basically learned that non-exempt employees require an incredible amount of knowledge and awareness in order to properly manage due to the federal regulations about their time on the job rules. An example of the detail:
- If an non-exempt employee travels for work on a Sunday and they do the travel between their normal work hours (let's say those hours are 9-4 each day), they must be paid for that travel time. So if they travel from 9-4 on that Sunday, they are to be paid for that time. If they travel before or after that time, they do not have to be paid. So if this non-exempt employee travels after 4:00 on Sunday, they don't have to be paid for their travel time. I think....
Even though Linda had no idea of the percentage of exempt and non-exempt employees at Penn State, it was clear that HR here at PSU wants everyone to be WELL aware of these rules. The bottom line seemed to be: if you're not sure, call HR. OK, got it and will do.
Identifying my Preferred Leadership Style
The best part of the training day came next in that we all filled out a questionnaire and then plotted the results in a chart to determine what our 'preferred leadership style' was. I have provided a quick VoiceThread below to discuss my results:
A cool part of this exercise is that we were plotting our info in the graph before our facilitator, Diane Brown, explained what each quadrant represented. She further explained that this only represents our 'base' preferred leadership style. In other words, it's the style we revert to when we need to be comfortable in our job.
We then went on to discuss the idea of 'situational leadership', where we will shift our style according the current situation we are in. This made a lot sense to me based upon my experiences in managing teams and projects over the years. The easiest example for me to relate to is when projects "go sideways" near the deadline. This is when some unforeseen event has put the project at risk of failure. For me, like many other managers, I will move into the "authoritative" mode where there is less room for support and consensus building and only room for task and execution. I don't actually mind that mode all that much, I just don't enjoy being in it for long periods of time. For me and my style, if I end up there too often, I'm not leading or managing properly over the long haul.
I really enjoyed these reflective exercises and discussions, especially with the other folks that were in the training with me. We all had a number of war stories to share and, for me, that is an engaging way to learn things.
Tips for Being a Leader/Supervisor/Manager
The afternoon consisted of a panel discussion (again, open discussion format) with:
- Mitch Kirsch, Director of Admin. Services in the Schreyer Honors College
- Lenny Pollack, Manager, Human Resources Development Center
- Diane Brown, Asst. Director Human Resources Development Center
Mitch (real name Michele) and Lenny provided their own list of 'tips' for supervisors. They were fairly straightforward and I had hear many of them before. However, both Mitch and Lenny identified something I'd never really thought about before. They both said it was important for each of us to "figure out what your reward is for supervising". Not from a compensation standpoint, of course, but from an intrinsic viewpoint. Even as I write this, I'm still not totally clear on this issue personally. I know I enjoy it and seem to have been in such a role for a long time now, but I've never really reflected on what it is that 'rewards' me about it. My gut tells me this is something I should reflect on and be able to discuss; almost as if it's more important for me right now than many of the other tips we got ("learn from a mentor", "don't be afraid to make tough decisions", etc.)
Overall, there was a lot to cover in this class and we didn't have time to get to all of it. This was fine with me because I felt that we got a lot of quality out of the material that we did cover. Now I just need to think about what is so rewarding to me as a leader/manager/supervisor.
Excellent post Matt. I'm curious about the parenthetical near the end in which you rough together other tips you received. One is "learn from a mentor." Where and how are you to find one?
Thanks, Dave. It's so ironic you point that out. I have no idea where to "find" a mentor. As I thought about my early days of becoming a manager/leader, I really never had one. I did have bosses of course and I think what I have done over the years, like so many of us, was try to pick up the 'good' from them and REALLY learn from the 'bad' from them. I think instructional design folk still call this learning from "non-examples". Professionally, I think I have cobbled together a style learned from peers, staff as well as other bosses. My true mentor of life, however, is still my Dad- no question about it.