Social Work Journal: Supervising Others Paper Example

Introduction

Effective leadership skills are imperative attributes that all individuals in a supervisory capacity should have to promote their effectiveness in executing their functions. Good leadership is an imperative function of organizational management that aids in maximizing efficiency and promoting the attainment of institutional goals and objectives. Some examples of good leadership skills that can be adopted by a supervisor in an organization include honesty, integrity, creativity, and effective communication skills among others. The focus of this research is to execute an analysis of Petrakis case study as depicted in this week's video and to identify how supervisory and leadership skills are portrayed.

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Leadership skills are those qualities that enable an individual to lead and manage the actions of others in an organization (Holsinger, Carlton, & Jadhav, 2015). For instance, effective leaders are good communicators, motivators, inspirational, innovators and relationship builders. Moreover, good leaders are individuals that promote integrity and honesty in the work environment and ensure that their staffs abide by such practices. Contrary, supervisory skills are the qualities that enable organizational leaders to manage or coordinate the actions of their subordinates while executing various functions in an organization (Biech, 2015). Examples of such qualities include the abilities to solve conflicts, time and prioritize management functions and use critical thinking in decision making.

Attributes of Leadership Styles and Approaches that Facilitate Quality Supervision

There are certain qualities of effective leaders that characterize their leadership styles. Examples of such attributes are inclusive of a leader's values, vision, traits, style, competencies, skills, behavior, motives, and habits among others. Moreover, such attributes are embedded into an individual's leadership design in the management of all individuals under his/her authority. In this case, the type of leadership style employed by an individual is solely dependent on the quality of his/her leadership. In the featured Petrakis case, it is evident that the supervisor has strong ethical standards and values when managing the staff under her management.

The stated premise can be supported by reason that the supervisor is quick to advise her subordinate that it is wrong to offer biased advice to a colleague to save him/her from punishment or an unfavorable outcome. The supervisor also acknowledges that the wrongdoing by a subordinate in focus should be reported instead of sheltered. That is a good leadership attribute that illustrates the importance of the leader in promoting integrity in the workplace. It is thus plausible that if a leader adopts and employs the right leadership attributes in the course of his/her management, his/her organization will have a high-quality supervision of workers (Sever, 2016).

Supervisory and Leadership Skills Demonstrated In the Petrakis Case by the Supervisor

Effective communication is the first supervisory and leadership attribute in Petrakis case that can significantly facilitate quality supervision. As a good communicator, a supervisor should learn how to listen to his/her subordinates and also speak clearly and eloquently pertaining prevailing problems affecting his/her staff. In Petrakis video, good communication is a fundamental leadership attribute that can be observed in the supervisor. In the stated example, the supervisor takes time to carefully listen to the problems being reported by her field agent with minimal interruptions. The quality enables the supervisor to understand the nature and magnitude of the prevailing problem so as to adopt an effective solution.

In such a scenario, good communication enables the supervisor to save time that would have otherwise been wasted through miscommunication. It is also through effective communication in Petrakis video that a timely development of an amicable solution has been possible. The ability to offer a viable advice or guidance to others is also a core attribute of leadership or supervisory advice that has been manifested in Petrakis video. Through offering quality advice on a prevailing problem, organizational leaders can be in a position to avert conflicts between their personnel. In the event such conflicts may occur, they could lead to losses in an organization or a decline in its overall productivity.

Examples of High Quality Supervision As Manifested in the Video

The Petrakis video provides several examples of high-quality supervision of persons in an organization. The first instance is manifested by the supervisor's ability to seek a meeting with her subordinate to address the issues affecting the latter while executing her job. The video shows the supervisor in her office with the subordinate having a meeting to solve the prevailing problem. The ability of a supervisor to have a dialogue with discontented employees in an organization is normally an important step in averting conflicts in working environments (Chatterjee & Kulakli, 2015).

The supervisor also discusses the problem affecting the staff with her and even proposes they make collaborative efforts to attain a solution to the problem. The act is also a good instance of supervision, which can be manifested in the Petrakis video. That is because by working collaboratively with the personnel in an organization, it is possible for a supervisor to identify, manage or develop a solution to possible problems (McEwan et al., 2017). That is those that may emerge in the course of the organization's performance. Lastly, good leadership skills can be manifested in the field supervisor's willingness to educate her field agent on how to handle the current problem in the event it occurs again in the future.

It can be seen in the video that the field supervisor is trying to educate her subordinate that it is important not to advise clients with wrong information. The supervisor mentions that issuing a client bad advice amounts to acting unethical in a profession. In this case, by learning how the personnel in an organization relate with customers, a supervisor can maintain a high-quality management of the treatment issued to his/her clients. Subsequently, this results in the issuance of high-quality services to clients and it could also lead to the development of a loyal clientele base for an organization.

Conclusion

In conclusion, leadership skills are imperative attributes that all individuals in a supervisory capacity should have to promote their effectiveness in executing their organizational functions. In addition, leadership skills are those qualities that enable an individual to lead and manage the actions of others in an organization. Contrary, supervisory skills are the qualities that enable organizational leaders to manage or coordinate the actions of their subordinates while executing various functions in an organization. Moreover, leader's values, vision, traits, style, competencies, skills, behavior, motives, and habits among others are some of the attributes of leadership styles and approaches that facilitate quality supervision. Ultimately, some aspects of good supervisory capabilities in an organizational leader can be manifested through his/her actions to hold meetings with his/her staff to solve problems. Additionally, supervisory capabilities can also be manifested through the ability of a supervisor to work collaboratively with subordinates to find solutions to problems and in educating the staff on proper ethics when interacting with clients.

References

Biech, E. (2015). New Supervisor Training. Alexandria: Association For Talent Development.

Chatterjee, A., & Kulakli, A. (2015). A study on the impact of communication system on interpersonal conflict. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 210 , 210, 320-329.

Holsinger, J. W., Carlton, E. L., & Jadhav, E. D. (2015). Leading People - Managing Organizations: Contemporary Public Health Leadership. Johanesburg: Frontiers Media SA.

McEwan, D., Ruissen, G. R., Eys, M. A., Zumbo, B. D., & Beauchamo, M. R. (2017). The Effectiveness of Teamwork Training on Teamwork Behaviors and Team Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Controlled Interventions. Plos One , 12 (1). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0169604

Sever, R. (2016). Supervision Matters: 100 Bite-Sized Ideas to Transform You and Your Team. New York: She Writes Press.