Whether you are supervising students, graduate assistance, or full-time staff, identifying and sharing expectations are one of the most pivotal aspects of your role as a leader. It sets the tone in terms of how individuals are to perform within their role, ensuring that team dynamics remain positive and that tasks, whether they are door decorations or intentional conversations with students, are completed in an effective manner. Early in my career, I was unsure how to approach these discussions but found a successful way to share my expectations and for the staff to values that were important to the unity of the team. Ideally this is something that you can do with your staff during Fall Training to have a productive conversation on what’s needed for success within the role:
10 Things to Know About Me as a Supervisor
Later on during my time in housing, this was a document that professional staff used to share their values and perspectives toward their approach with supervision (and performance in their role in general). We reviewed each other as a staff team, borrowing the best from each other and learning more about how we viewed the developmental aspects of supervision. From there, we provided these to our staff members to help them get a better insight into who we were as their supervisor. I felt that this was a great way to start the conversation and provide some context for the standards I would hold myself and them accountable for.
Here is where you can find my 10 Things. I encourage you to complete this and provide to your team. Had I done this earlier in my career, I think my student staff would have had a better understanding of how I operated within my role.
Supervisor Expectations of Staff
Before diving into this during your time together, I’d encourage you to provide a copy of your staff expectations to team members for their review. Some will find it useful to review prior to the discussion so that they are prepared with any questions that they might have. When it comes time to review expectations, it’s most beneficial to read the most important points within the document. If you go through each point individually, it will quickly become a mundane lecture. If you want to check for their understanding, ask each of them to share a point that they found interesting or something they wanted additional information about.
Here is a copy of the most recent expectations that I created for my staff for your reference as some of you may find this helpful. For some departments, they have staff expectations that are the same for the entire campus, regardless of hall, to ensure equity in what staff are held accountable for. For others, you may be completely independent and have to create your own from scratch. Personally, my philosophy has been that less is more: if you have ten pages of expectations, it’s unlikely that all will be held responsibly equally and performance in the role gets to be more legalistic. If you can, focus on what’s most important for staff to know.
Staff Values of Each Other
Up until now, you have been the one leading and guiding the content shared during this conversation. Rightfully so, as your expectations set a solid foundation for the next elements of this process. I would encourage you to have a returning staff member or two lead this portion of the conversation. During this time, your staff will work together to brainstorm values that they will collectively uphold to guide their teamwork and development throughout the year. I have found it important for the staff to have autonomy in how they decide on their values of each other but have interjected if something unrealistic is brought up or when the staff would get off track. It’s important to emphasize the difference between expectations and values. Values are generally aspirational and document how individuals on the team should aim to operate. Expectations are fairly clear cut and those who break them may be held accountable with disciplinary action. So while the team has this honor code for one another, it’s not something as a supervisor that I would hold them accountable for. It would be fair for them to challenge (in a respectful, developmental manner) one another that they are missing the mark in terms of values they agreed upon at the beginning of the year.
Staff Values of the Supervisor
This is the final stage of this session with your team and it’s important that you do not skip this. It provides the staff to generate some aspirations they hope to see from you as their leader. During this time, I would leave the room to give staff members the freedom to speak freely and openly. Often I would say that they could text me when they were ready for me to return and that I’d pop back to see progress after 15 minutes if I didn’t hear anything. While I’ve heard some fun hopes, like making banana bread and other treats on a semi-regular basis, there were also values they hoped to see that had a lot of meaning and importance in building a strong supervisory relationship. You can provide some feedback in terms of what is realistic and adjust ones that may not be. Just as the team was responsible for doing their best to live up to their staff values of each other, you should do your best to live up to these values. It’s how you get the buy-in needed from your staff to be an effective and meaningful leader for your staff.
From start to finish, this process lasted between 30 and 45 minutes depending on how much depth your staff are looking for in reviewing expectations and how quickly they come up with their list of values. Do not underestimate the impact of this process: it helps you convey your expectations of them as a staff and helps them solidify dynamics in the Forming Stage of team development. While this is connected to performance, it’s also about building a culture of trust, accountability, and mutual respect that benefits everyone.
