13 Don’ts of an effective supervisor – should NOT DO

13 Don’ts of a supervisor

You have worked with many different supervisors in your professional life and you’ve noticed the good qualities of an effective supervisor and the bad ones.

You will come across several inexperienced and bad supervisors in your career.

Only 10% of supervisors have good qualities of an effective supervisor, stated by Gallup.

One important quality of an effective supervisor is to know what TO DO and what NOT TO DO as a leader.

What NOT to do, to become an effective supervisor

Follows our 13 Don’ts that you or your supervisory team should never do.

Here are some things and behaviors that a supervisor should not do.

1. Don’t comment on confidential information.
   There are three kinds of information that should protect: employee information, management information, business information.
2. Don’t give a pass on company rules and policies to your close friends or family members.
   Do not be “blinded” by the rules and policies of the company because of a friendship with an employee or family member at work.
   It is not ethical to do this.
3. Don’t let your ego take control.
   When you get caught in your ego, it will gradually reduce the effectiveness of your role and the company.
   The success of the company does not lie on any one’s shoulder.
   Know what the needs of each team member are to help everyone reach their main goal.
4. Don’t think and act as if you know everything.
   Just like having the ego, a know-it-all cannot be an effective supervisor.
5. Don’t make comments about an employee with someone else
   This is gossip. You shouldn’t talk about the behavior or performance of an employee with anyone else.
6. Don’t allow personal relationships influence you
   When it comes to evaluating an employee, you should be objective and fair.
   Also, you should document the low performance or bad behavior of that person.
7. Don’t approve unsatisfactory performance for an employee who has been through a hard time
   It’s a ok to empathize when an employee when they admitted having personal problems.
   But this should not be an excuse to approve unsatisfactory performance.
8. Don’t diagnose or give recommendations to an employee regarding their personal problems.
   Even if you studied psychology, if you were not hired to do that, you should not give any advice about personal problems or behavior to your employees.
9. Don’t moralize or make value judgments of others
   It’s better to respect the privacy and life of employees.
10. Don’t allow behavior that could be dangerous to another person
    Don’t let any action jeopardize your employees at work. For example, it is illegal to harass any person at work, physically or mentally.
    Therefore, supervisors should always keep your team compliant with the law.
11. Don’t allow genuine concern for an employee to interfere with the management of his performance.
12. Don’t abuse of your authority or position
    Be reasonable and fair in delegating the tasks and providing them with the resources they need.
13. Don’t treat any employee disrespectfully
    Be aware of your body language, the tone of voice and never use sarcastic or bad language

Do NOT assume they know when things are obvious

As you can see in this list, some things seem obvious; however, experienced supervisors still commit some of these actions.

It would be good for your company to review this list, especially if they were never formally informed.

Also, there may be some other actions and behaviors that are not included in this list that should be discussed and explained to new supervisors.

You must be careful not to assume, because many of these are obvious, that all people automatically know them.

I hope this list has served you.

In another article, we will share what; the effective supervisor must do.