CHALLENGE YOUR OWN BEST THINKING
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We are experiencing a major transformation in the workplace today. We are moving from a primary focus on things to one on thoughts. To keep up with this major change, supervisors have to be willing to embrace four transformational crucibles in their career development efforts.

Successful supervisor will become: (1) perpetual learners (2) productive thinkers (3) interpersonal magnates (4) creative problem solvers. Below is a sound prescription for supervisors to make such a successful thinking transformation.

BECOMING A PERPETUAL LEARNER

One of the most important functions of a supervisor is to help employees close the gap between their current selves and ideal selves—utilizing their knowledge and skills fully to achieve maximum job productivity and satisfaction. Supervisors have to figure out how to do this themselves first, in order to be able to demonstrate the effective gap-closing techniques they learn, to employees. They know actions speak louder than words.

Closing the gap between who we are and who we want to be, or where we are and where we want to be, is a lifelong process—a journey, not a destination. It is ironic, but when we finally overcome our egos—admitting that we don’t know it all—we become excellent students and start learning the many things that can help us become much more successful. Openness and willingness to learn is the only process that builds true self confidence.

Effective supervisors will secretly admit they don’t have all the answers to getting more out of employees and improving performance. They will take the time to get to know each employee better and take one situation at a time. Then they will resist the tendency to keep re-applying obsolete cures over and over again. They will continually look for fresh new ones, according to the situation at hand.

PRACTICING PRODUCTIVE THINKING

Often, being successful is a matter of identifying and removing barriers that are in the way of our goals. Today, successful supervision requires productive thinking. This means supervisors must become more aware of their own unproductive thinking habits and make the effort to reverse them. Examples of unproductive thinking are making too many assumptions without verifying their validity, not asking enough good questions to dig below the surface, and becoming glued to a particular point of view that has long become obsolete.

Productive thinking to help supervisors get better results with employees includes mixing their own logical, creative and common-sense thinking. It also involves mixing quality and quantity thinking. Sometimes you don’t need more information, but rather you just need to rethink what you already know in better ways. For example, you may not need to collect additional information about improving motivation with your work team. You may just need to use valuable information already available in personnel files or known to other supervisors.

Successful supervisory thinking focuses on helping employees become as productive as they can be to help the overall organization be successful. Much of that effort involves working with individual employees to find and fulfill their unique contribution to the organization—which sometimes may be beyond their formal job description. Some employees may have hidden value-added writing, training, marketing or selling skills that can be used productively.

BEING AN INTERPERSONAL MAGNATE

Good supervision is mainly being a practical psychologist—knowing what makes people tick, teaching them to get along with each other smoothly and demonstrating good social skills for others to emulate. All the most important social skills to use as a supervisor come under the general concept of likability. There is an abundance of respectable research that links the core competency of likability with success.

Likability research reveals that the following ten behaviors and characteristics influence people most into perceiving others as likable:

1. Honesty
2. Sense of humor
3. Politeness
4. Upbeat, positive attitude
5. Control of negative behavior
6. Empathy
7. Humility
8. Smartness
9. Attractiveness
10. Good listening

Effective supervisors will seek feedback from a reliable source as to the degree of their own likability and make necessary changes to become more likable. Often a small effort in one area, such as being more polite or more positive, will have a major effect on increasing both likability and respect, which in turn will increase the supervisor’s ability to influence employees in a positive direction.

DEVELOPING CREATIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS

The biggest barrier to creativity is the limited definition that most people have as to what it is or isn’t. Creativity is much more than art, dance, acting, music, literature and those exceptional things. Actually it is much more common and open to the majority of employees. A good definition of creativity is merely looking at ordinary things in common ways and then seeing how you might apply those things in new and unusual ways. You don’t always have to re-invent the wheel when you just need to improve the spokes.

Another barrier to being creative has to do with positioning. A balanced position of between extremes helps a supervisor see more alternatives and expand the vantage point in several different directions—all at the same time. For instance, the supervisor who has a set opinion as to how a certain work process should be will not see better alternatives. On the other hand, the open-minded supervisor might ask for suggestions and learn several other better approaches.

When supervisors become perpetual learners, practice productive thinking, behave as interpersonal magnates and develop creative problem solving skills, they will be assuring employees’ progress in shifting from the past world of things to the present reality of thoughts.