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The Opportunity to Supervise

Making good things happen on a scale bigger than yourself is what supervision is all about.

As a government supervisor, you are the critical link between government directives and action. You have the greatest influence on the values, perspectives, work activities, engagement, and organizational alignment of others. You have the opportunity to implement the decisions of the President and Congress through the services your government organization provides to the American people.

Whether you are serving at the first level, middle level, or top level of your organization and you have others from within the organization reporting directly to you, your work is about accomplishing things through others. This direct reporting or supervisory relationship naturally creates variation and ambiguity because you are engaging with others to help make their work more efficient and effective. Balancing the tensions between the people aspects and the work aspects as you organize, guide, and support the work of others is what enables you to make good things happen and to ensure accountability for results.

You may be thinking: “I understand what supervision is, but how can I possibly be successful as a supervisor amid all the challenges I face in the government environment today? I have to deal with budget cuts; cumbersome processes for recruiting, workforce development, and knowledge sharing; resistance to change; poor performance; and low engagement and trust among individuals and groups.”

Numerous studies conducted by government and nonprofit organizations over the past three decades have acknowledged these challenges as realities for government supervisors—and they are not going away anytime soon. Yet there is a lot that you can personally do to influence how you show up and perform as a supervisor every day to elicit the best work from others.

This first chapter is about creating a context for you to think about being a government supervisor. You will find stories written by or about supervisors who have learned through their experiences the importance of deciding whether supervision is right for them. You will also find guidance and ideas to ensure that you are ready to take on new and different supervisory challenges with both feet on the ground and a plan in hand, including a supervisor readiness self-assessment. Our hope is that the stories and self-assessment will enhance your understanding of what it means to be ready and to feel good about the work you accomplish through others.