Samantha Horner is a previous contributor to the newsletter and will be featured on our podcast, The Clear Voice, soon. Check out her previous article, Making Roll Call Matter, or grab a copy of her book, How Do You Roll Call.
A while back, I was sitting with a first-line supervisor when they received a phone call from a team member.
I could not hear what the team member was asking, but I could gauge, by the supervisor's reaction, that it was a trivial question. The supervisor's answer caught me by surprise. They said, “What does policy say? Why did you even call me before you looked up the policy?”
It was a conversation I could not get out of my mind. Should the team member have known the policy? Yes, probably. Part of being a professional is spending time learning policy and procedure. I have known plenty of supervisors who don't like being asked basic questions.
They may consider it incompetence or laziness for a team member to ask a supervisor questions they could figure out themselves. But it made me wonder whether the supervisor considered the consequences of their reaction.
The Hidden Cost of “Look It Up Yourself”
Most organizations provide some form of entry-level training to their new hires. For a police department, that may be a months-long academy setting, followed by a prescribed amount of field training. For other jobs, it may be as simple as a short “shadowing” period, where the new employee follows a well established and trusted veteran to learn the ropes.
Whatever the onboarding process may be, it has been my experience that no amount of training will ever prepare anyone for everything they will see on the job. This is one reason why the experience of a supervisor is so important to their team. Simply by means of time on the job and with that organization, a supervisor will have a knowledge base the entry-level employee won't have.
The part of the interaction that stuck with me was: How did that interaction permanently affect the way that employee will work with supervisors for the rest of their career? I can’t imagine that employee will ever call a supervisor again when they get stuck on a problem.
Here’s why this matters and why supervisors should consider a change of mindset. When employees don't share knowledge gaps with a supervisor, the supervisor will never know what needs to be addressed through training. Instead of getting annoyed, be a teacher. If it were as simple as looking up the policy, the supervisor could walk the employee through the steps to find the answer. This way, the supervisor helps the team member solve this problem and future ones. And chances are, if one person has that question, more employees have the same knowledge gap. At the next roll call, huddle, or team meeting, bring the topic up to the group. Now you have expanded your entire team's knowledge.
Shift From Enforcer to Teacher
When your team lacks knowledge and skill, and trust is broken, the mission will be delayed or not accomplished. The goal on any given day is to accomplish the task assigned to your team. But as small problems become bigger, the team works less efficiently, making everyone’s job harder. Instead of being a teacher or problem solver, the supervisor will have to become an enforcer. Their role on the team will shift to catching mistakes and handing down punishments. If you choose to supervise this way, you should be aware that you will not add value to the team. You are the equivalent of an overpaid hall monitor playing “gotcha” with people’s careers, just waiting for them to crash.
A supervisor needs to recognize that for most people, humbling oneself to ask for help can be difficult, but it is better than making a mistake that can lead to bigger problems down the road. If you ridicule your team when they ask for help, they won’t ask. They will make preventable mistakes. They will lose trust in the supervisor and avoid interacting with them.
Trust takes time to build in a team but is easy to break. And it won’t affect just one team member because there is a 100% chance they shared that interaction with other team members. Morale is essential when a job requires a group to work together. A supervisor must set the tone and make adjustments when negativity or low enthusiasm for the mission affects performance.
Why Teams Need Guardrails, Not Hall Monitors
As I was driving home from work, I looked at the guardrails and road signs. They made my trip easier and helped me prepare for what was ahead. The responsibility for getting home safely was all mine. I had to use my own skills to navigate that road, but I appreciated any information that made the trip easier. I will need to take that road again, and it is nice to know I will have the help I need to do it. I will feel secure and drive that road with confidence. That’s what a supervisor can give an employee: security and confidence. In high-stress careers, being that guardrail for your team is very valuable to the team and the organization you work for.
