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The Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training.

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Down the street from me is a house where two young men live. They love parties. Many of us call the place "Animal House."

Thirty years ago, the movie, Animal House, showed us the members of Delta House, a fraternity that would take anyone. Their war cry was " We got to do something...You know what we are gonna do? Toga party!"

At our local Animal House the cry is a little different. It's " There's [name your sport] on TV! What are we gonna do? Party!"

All of this would be OK if the parties stayed inside the house instead of spilling into the streets. It might be OK if the spilling into the streets didn't include howling and screaming. And it might be OK if that howling and screaming stopped before daybreak.

Reasonable requests have not resulted in any change in behavior. The problem is that no one's in charge here.

That illustrates one reason why we have supervisors. In the workplace, supervisors are there to deal with those who break the rules or disturb the peace.

I've trained supervisors for over thirty years. In every class I ask what task the supervisors hate most. This is it: talking to team members about performance or behavior.

I ask newly appointed supervisors what job they're most concerned about doing. This is it: talking to team members about performance or behavior.

And when I work as a coach with supervisors, talking to team members about performance or behavior is the most common issue.

It's been a problem in every workplace I've ever been around. There are two reasons.

We don't evaluate new supervisors based on their willingness to talk to others about behavior and performance. So we wind up with supervisors who have hardly ever done it in their lives and many who are terrified of doing it.

Once we've promoted people we don't teach them some simple ways to reduce the likelihood they'll have to confront someone about performance or behavior. And we don't teach some simple ways to have that conversation when it's the right thing to do.

We know how to do this. It's part of the material in my Working Supervisor's Support Kit for example. I've also blogged about it.

We need to do a better job of selecting people who have a good possibility of succeeding in the role of boss. We need to train them so they have the tools to do the job. And we need to support them on the job so they keep getting better.

Boss's Bottom Line

If you're already a boss and talking to team members about performance is something you hate, there's good news and bad news. The bad news is that it will probably never be easy for you. But the good news is that you can learn to do it better and with less stress.

You have to do it. It's part of your job. So learn to do it well.

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.