Superior Supervision

Ahhh, Tuesday's discussion made my nipples hard!

But I digress...or is it "regress"? Perhaps both......anyway, onwards!

Most of you probably have had a job before. Whether it was tossing chicken at Popeye's or designing poly-carbon ashtrays for NASA, most likely you've had supervisors seeing over your past positions. Of course if you have always been self-employed from high school on, congratulations and fuck off, this won't apply to you!

My question today is: "What do you think makes a great supervisor?"

Throughout my work history I've had a one or two pretty good supervisors, a whole lot of mediocre supervisors, and a few shitty supervisors (thank you restaurant industry for hiring so many retards to run your business). My main criteria when I sub-consciously evaluate my supervisor is the following:

• Mental Ability: my supervisors must be rational thinkers, highly intelligent, and flexible. They must be good problem-solvers who evaluate the situation thoroughly by the facts, while taking emotional/political factors into consideration. They must be progressive learners that encourage continual development and learning for themselves and their employees. When I mentioned "flexible", I wasn't insinuating that the supervisor must have yoga or gymnastics experience. Mental flexibility is pretty much the opposite of Mental Rigidity; which is when a person is unable to mentally adapt or assimilate information that is inconsistent with their own conceptualization of things.
• Sets, Monitors Progress, and Rewards Goals: I think that supervisors that encourage their employees to set goals and encourages them to achieve them are not only benefiting the organization, but the employees themselves.
• Organization: my supervisor must not be scatter-brained or a dis-organized mess; this is automatically associated to incompetence.
• Professional Attitude: a good supervisor must have a professional attitude that is polite, friendly, and encouraging as well as slightly distanced. A mild temperament goes along with a professional attitude because a good supervisor shouldn't transfer negative emotions to his/her employees. By "slightly distanced" I'm referring to that separation of supervisor and employee type of feeling; I don't want my supervisor to be my "best friend", he's my evil pig of a boss.
• Encourage Involvement & Delegation: I appreciate it when a supervisor realizes that I'm not a complete moron (just inconsistently one), and encourages suggestions or my opinions on projects. Also, a good delegator is a positive attribute of a supervisor. I like a supervisor who gives me an opportunity to prove my incompetence before they just assume I'm incompetent.
• Personality: for the psychology nerds reading this; in reference to Costa & McCrae(pick a year), I would like a supervisor who is Low-Neuroticism, Moderate to High-Extraversion, Moderate to High-Openess, Moderate-Agreeableness, and High-Conscientiousness.

I would love to place an order at "Boss' R' Us" for one of the models that I just illustrated, but I haven't been able to find a dealer online...I'll keep looking and let you know what I come up with...

Anyway, I'd like you to think about your past supervisors and figure out who you think was the best and why?

What would you say are the most important things to you that your supervisor must possess or do?

My caffeine levels are dangerously low and I might shut-down, so I must go grab some of that high quality cubeland Folgers.

Hit me!