Question: I recently became the Supervisor of the Internal Audits department of my company and I am facing challenges in supervising - specifically People Management and Time Management. What do I have to do to make my department really successful?
Answer: I'm guessing that this was a sudden and surprise promotion. So, first thing right out of the gate is to apologize to your staff for your lack of People and Time Management skills. Let them know that you realize you have shortcomings and that you're not trying to hide them in order to look like you're in control (people who do try to hide it can't and end up viewed as inept by their people). Ask for their patience and suggestions to help in the short-term while you deal with the long-term strategy. They will look up to you for having the courage to be honest.
Then, get yourself into a good management course. You're feeling like you have no Time-Management skills because you're overwhelmed by having to manage people - something you're not familiar with. (Remember this though, the higher-ups wouldn't have promoted you if they didn't think you could do it.) Once you get a good handle on the managing people part, many of the Time Management issues will start to sort themselves out.
Right now, you're too busy trying to figure out what to do next that it seems like you need to organize better because you don't want to miss anything. After all, it's in your genes - you're in Audits. Stressing the details is what you do. Get that Resilience Attitude working for you. Get up and get at it. There's a challenge here in front of you but it's not insurmountable.
The truth is, your organizational skills will improve the moment you improve your management skills and build your confidence in managing your people. Relax, you can do this.
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1 comment:
Good topic but I want to comment on something you mentioned at the begging of your article, which is to proactively communicate your short comings to your staff. In fact you can gain credibility from your staff by being proactive in acknowledging the issue as long as in parallel you are providing solutions rather than an excuse about the issue. But a key point is to communicate to your staff before it's too late; if your communication is in response to recent attrition or backlash from your employees your message will lose its sincerity and will be challenging to receive empathy from your staff.
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