The New Supervisor: How To Thrive In Your First Year As A Manager

If you are a new supervisor or will be promoted as a supervisor in near future, you may find this book ¡§The New Supervisor¡¨ is useful for you. This book covered a wide range of areas that a new supervisor needs to concern and make notice, including: a new attitude toward the job, the subordinate, and the boss; supervisors¡¦ relations with their coordinates; stress management, effective communications; planning and organizing; directing and controlling; delegation; motivation; interviewing; training; good meeting; problem solving; presentations; team building; and self development. The author gives advices on each area and there are chapter summaries provided which recap the important points for the readers.The most important thing for the new supervisors is that they need to understand their new role; they have to supervise their subordinates to achieve the goals instead of doing the job themselves. They need to trust their subordinates¡¦ abilities and motivate them to do the job. Therefore, appropriate level of delegation and motivation is good. They also need to trust their boss and share the burden with their boss and remember not to create any extra problems to their boss. Treat the boss as the way you want the subordinates to treat you. It is a good guideline for the new supervisors to think of.The new supervisors also need to keep good relations with supervisors in different departments and have an effective communications among them. They should work cooperatively to achieve the common goals. This can help to facilitate the efficiency and effectiveness of the work in an organization. There are some important skills that are required for the new supervisors such as leadership skill, interviewing skill, and problem solving skill. They are all included in this book.Although I¡¦m not a new supervisor, this book still provides some insights to me. This book enhances my knowledge about what a supervisor needs to do and his roles. Moreover, I think some of the contents of this book are useful for all people and not only for new supervisors. For example, the six principles for handling stress mentioned in this book are useful for all people including me because everyone would be under stress in facing this challenging and highly competitive world. In addition, problem solving skill is also useful to me, the author mentioned eight steps to solve a problem, including 1) identify the problem 2) search useful information 3) find out the origin of the problem 4) list out all possible alternatives 5) choose the best solution 6) apply the solution to the problem 7) mark down the results 8) see whether the problem is really solved. I would try to use this problem solving skill when I face problems. Since I¡¦m a university student, and most of my coursework are in a team base, the chapter that about the team building is also quite useful to me. The author suggests some criteria for developing a successful team and what the team members should do in a tea

This book is loaded with practical advise covering a very broad range of key areas including: power; relating with subordinates, superior and peers; managing stress; communications; planning and organizing; directing and controlling; delegation; motivating by enriching the job; interviewing; training; meeting leadership; problem solving; making presentations; team-building; and self-development. There are helpful chapter summaries and exercises. This is a highly useful work, especially for those just getting into the role and also of value to more seasoned supervisors. Reviewed by Gerry Stern, founder, Stern & Associates, author of Stern's Sourcefinder: The Master Directory to HR and Business Management Information & Resources, Stern's CyberSpace SourceFinder, and Stern's Compensation and Benefits SourceFinder.