All leaders approach leading their teams with their own unique point of view. Their point of view, or lens, is the culmination of life experiences. Leaders greatly benefit from understanding the lens each person uses to view the world is unique and not necessarily the same view others may have. Understanding this helps leaders be more aware of how they make decisions in their day-to-day work.

What leaders think about themselves and others directly impacts how they lead and supervise. Understanding our Leadership Point of View provides insight as to why we may be stuck and to ultimately find ways to be more effective. Supervising people to think like you do is not important; supervising them to understand the impact of their actions is what is important.

To be our best selves as leaders, we must understand how our values influence our beliefs, and how our beliefs influence our behavior. We can continue to hold onto the beliefs we choose to keep, but we are so much more effective when we do so consciously and with intention, rather than passively and unknowingly.

The Thought Model

As supervisors and leaders, our responsibility is to help people do their job well. To do this we must understand ourselves and be aware of our own thinking and understand that how we think about the people on our team affects how we feel and act towards them. Leaders who make the effort to be self-aware create tremendous trust and respect with their team.

We need to be aware of the things we are thinking about and the consequences of those thoughts. We have preconceived thoughts about how people should act and behave. When they act in ways that are contrary we often don’t know how to respond. The way we think about someone influences how feel. How we feel dictates our actions. Our actions give us specific results.

Positive and Productive Work Environment

A supervisor is instrumental in creating a good work environment. This is not an easy accomplishment; it takes hard work and a positive attitude. An employee’s first day in a new center will go a long way in determining their attitude moving forward. This is an important time for supervisors to foster positive and responsive communication and set an example for the types of behavior that they wish to see. Setting and communicating expectations early and often is critical in maintaining a positive work environment.

Expectations are the broad umbrella that help govern the behaviors and performance of all team members. Expectations work in conjunction with workplace rules and policies. Rules allow us to establish what people do. Expectations take it a step further and allow us to establish how they should do it.

When supervisors clearly lead with expectations they foster the ability to truly develop an engaged, critical thinking focused, mature culture. If expectations are properly set, it is much easier for a supervisor to address performance issues, redirect behavior and give the employee the opportunity to self-correct in the future.

Finally, it is important to let employees know when they are doing their job well. By giving positive feedback you show an employee you care and are aware of their contributions to the team. If an employee understands that their efforts are contributing to making a positive difference in the lives of our children and families, they are more apt to continue performing at a desirable level.

Accountability

Accountability is your tool to engage, motivate, encourage, and teach employees at all levels of performance. It should be a positive part of leadership although it is often thought of in negative terms because of our unique experiences and our own thought process.

It is a leader’s job to hold their team accountable. Lack of accountability is a sign of mismanagement, it is a lack of accounting for your employee’s abilities and results. It is an indicator that leaders are also not holding themselves accountable. When we frequently have conversations with our employees about accountability, our employees are much more likely to stay on track or be noticed if they are significantly off track. Additionally, they are much more likely to repeat the behaviors you want them to be repeating.

In order to hold employees accountable, you must have three elements in place: expectations of performance and behavior, individual performance goals, and a feedback loop. If these elements are in place, you can hold your high performer, your steady performer, and your poor performer accountable for their results.

There are two different kinds of accountability conversations that we practice: tactical and developmental.

The tactical accountability conversation is used when we need to address very simple performance issues. You should expect a very quick change in this case. The developmental accountability conversation involves helping people change a certain behavior which requires patience and availability from you as a supervisor. You will need to spend time with this employee, which means that you are not going to see results right away.

Communication

Effective communication is an integral component of any organization. Communication is about relationship building and fostering a positive working atmosphere that leads to collaboration and cooperation. This mutual collaboration and cooperation paves the way for our employees to focus on achieving our mission:

Shasta Head Start is dedicated to making a positive difference in the lives of young children, one family at a time. We provide opportunities for education, parenting support and resources to families in our communities.

Creating and nurturing an environment where positive communication is prevalent can be challenging. It is important that employees have buy-in, that positive communication has a direct correlation to serving our children and families. Employees must trust their supervisor before any communication is possible.

Non-verbal communication is a critical factor to consider when communicating with your employees. Often what you are saying is not nearly as important as how you are saying it. Studies have shown that less than 10% of the impact of communication is derived from the content of the words being spoken. In contrast, more than 90% of the impact of our communications is from body language and tone of voice.

Many of these shortcomings can be avoided by actively listening, repeating what the person has said, and by being empathetic.

How Thoughts Drive Results

The How Thoughts Drive Results worksheet is a helpful tool to when thinking through difficult situations as a supervisor.

References

How Thoughts Drive Results worksheet