Drive Performance with More Supervision and Less Management

We've got a post up on the Fistful Of Talent site today.  

The gist of the post is that business may be making a big mistake by elevating the function of management above the function of supervisor.  As most of you can attest – folks will want to have a "Manager" title versus a "Supervisor" title.  For some reason, over time, we've decided that "managing" is a better thing than "supervising."  Our post today on Fistful takes the opposite tack.

From a purely performance standpoint, research is showing that people do better work, have a more positive mindset, are more engaged and are happier when they believe they have control over the outcomes from their day-to-day activity.  It is something called "locus of control."  

Those that believe the locus of control is with themselves – work better and are happier.  Those that see the locus of control outside themselves – feel the opposite.

Managing = External Locus of Control

When "managing" projects to you "tell" people what to do, when to do it by and how to do it?  Most would say sure because  - "I'm the manager and my butt is on the line if we don't deliver."

Supervising = Internal Locus of Control

Supervising however means watching – overseeing and correcting when something goes awry.  In this case the real locus of control is with the individual with the supervisor allowing them to do their work, their way (obviously with some constraints such as time/cost.)

In the second case your employees will see that their own style, process and input contribute to the outcome.  

In the first case it is the manager's style, process and input that control the output.  The employee is simply an extension of the manager versus a contributor.

Jump over and see if you agree and provide some commentary.  Discussion is the name of the game here.