Supervisor Reflection

1. As a new supervisor in a department I was barely familiar with, I was eager to prove myself as an effective people and process manager. I wanted to implement changes quickly that would speed up our processes and make up for milestones that were months behind. After studying our workflows and seeing we were under our staffing estimate, it seemed to make sense that we ramp up the team to produce more work more quickly. I recommended we hire four new employees. In theory, this should have increased productivity because we had a set population of work that could be divided and conquered by the larger group. I didn’t do enough research or collect enough data to understand the full consequence of bringing new people onto the team, however. The

When I first transitioned into my current role, I was assigned a team of direct reports whom I had little time to get to know. One employee was impatient when anyone offered an opinion on his work, was sloppy and rushed his assignments, and would vent loudly about how his time wasn’t being utilized properly. He was also always texting and always seemed somewhere else. I assumed he didn’t care about his work or didn’t understand the importance of producing quality experiences for customers. I had several conversations with him to stress the importance of quality and asked him frequently to not use his phone unless he was on break. I grew frustrated that he didn’t take feedback seriously and didn’t try to improve. I didn’t learn until months later when delivering his review that there was more to the story. He had been with the company for years and had expressed interest dozens of times in transitioning to the systems team. He had recently completed an MS in computer science per recommendation from HR. After all of his work and years of trying, HR continued to tell him if he worked hard, continued to do good work, and built up his skills, he might potentially be considered for the role he wanted. He expressed that he felt demoralized and was tired of working toward a “moving goal that had no end in sight.” He also informed me that he was frequently on his phone because his wife recently had two miscarriages and he needed to be there to support her. He resigned later that

A few months ago at a charity event, a gentleman told a story of a young boy he met at a camp sponsored by the organization while he was a counselor. The children were doing a ropes course in the woods, and he said he was terrified because of his fear of heights. He said what really moved him about his time at this camp was a 7 year-old boy who grabbed his hand and said, “I know you’re scared. I’m scared every time the nurses come to put in my IV. But if I can do that, you can do this, too.” The story has stuck with me because it struck an emotional cord. It also checked all six principles outlined in the Heath and Heath reading. It was an emotional story that was both simple and profound. It brought to life a boy going through fear and overcoming it on a daily basis, and in doing so provided inspiration. It was credible because it was a first-hand account, and it was unexpected because no one expected such maturity from such a young boy. I think where it really succeeded was that it was vivid and relatable. Instead of talking about himself or the broader organization, he brought the story back to one little boy and made the audience feel a connection to