Coaching Supervisors--the Supervisors' Dilemma

In conversations this weekend, I was reminded of what I call the "supervisors' dilemma."  Traditionally, supervisors are usually very good in performing whatever tasks they were doing when they were selected for promotion to supervisor.  Once they are supervisors, only rarely do they receive training or coaching in how to be effective in managing others.  Frequently they are good problem-solvers and are eager to help the people they supervise.  When they step-in to do what they "did best" before they were promoted, they frequently forget to help the people they supervise learn how to perform better.

Years ago I worked with many organizations to train supervisors to be instructors and instructor-trainers in a program designed to help supervisors learn to manage the people they are supervising.  As I worked with more than 100 supervisors from many organizations, it became clear that the "supervisors' dilemma" is a common problem.

Some organizations recognize the problem and provide supervisory training similar to the training I worked with years ago.  Once supervisors received the training, they were frequently left on their own to apply it.

Another feature--rarely offered--is ongoing coaching for supervisors to be more successful.  Some of this coaching can be one-on-one, perhaps helping supervisors acquire the learning they need without having to take a formal training.  At other times this coaching can be on an "as needed" basis, helping supervisors to have a support person in place to help them move to a new perspective in their lives.

Yesterday's post dealt with "unintentional intolerance."  The connection between that post and today's post is that life-experience (slide 3) is what we bring with us to face any new challenge or decision we make in our lives.  Frequently we are not aware of all of the components of this life experience and make our decisions based on a very limited "sub-set" of our life experience--frequently what we are aware of "in the moment."  To be more successful as supervisors (and as coaches), we need habits of reflection (slide 2) to be able to access more areas of our life experience as we make our daily choices and decisions.

Coaches need to be "trusted advisors"  so that the people they are coaching can be honest with them and bring forward their real experience and thinking for assistance in reflecting on new performance choices and comfort zones.

Untentional Intolerance--Influence of Life Experience on Unintended Behavior

"Several years ago, Steve L. Robbins, PhD, coined the term 'unintentional intolerance' to define biases of which people are unaware," (JAVMA News, October 1, 2008).  Many researchers have documented various components of life experience which serves as the filter by which we find value in our experience--both tacitly (unconsciously) and with conscious awareness.

In my 1992 dissertation, I explored the components of life experience (see slide 3, then slide 2) and showed how these components of life experience are a factor in how we reflect on our experience and add to our integrated life experience.

While research such as that completed for this dissertation show how these often tacitly held beliefs influence our behavior, that does not mean that we remain aware of these influences in the moment of our action.

How often do we allow unintentional intolerance to influence our speech and behavior?  We often act in the same way a personal computer or Macintosh computer allows us to have operations working in the background of our awareness while we focus our attention on something in the foreground.