Many professionals in residence life start their careers in a position where they get to supervise student staff. Roompact’s blog has many a post providing guidance, encouragement, and good advice for supervising students, whether they be RAs, peer mentors, front desk staff, or other positions. Today’s supervisory suggestions are geared toward those who supervise professional staff who, in turn, supervise students. While some principles of supervision remain true no matter the positional level, there are some unique nuances to coaching supervisors of students.
Supervising Students: Student staff have relatively little decision-making power, particularly when it comes to decisions that affect the larger team or department.
Supervising Supervisors: Professional staff have a larger degree of freedom to make choices, take the reins, and steer their projects forward in the way they see fit.
One of my biggest goals when supervising my professional staff team is helping each individual understand their latitude and empowering them to make decisions within that scope. None of us can do whatever we want, but most of us can make an executive decision here or there. When is it possible to do that, or even expected that one does so? The skill of discernment takes some time to develop as you coach a staff member to understand your department’s written policies as well as any unwritten, cultural/institutional expectations. As a supervisor, it’s critical to provide clear instruction on the limits of your staff’s decision-making power and then encourage them to operate freely within those limits. And even when a staff member knows, “I should be able to make this decision,” it can take a while before they become confident in doing so. A simple strategy to build confidence is to ask “What do you think?” when a staff member asks how to solve an issue. This helps them narrow in on a decision and receive affirmation in the moment that their gut instinct is sound.
Supervising Students: Students require more direct instruction and may need help building their task list and understanding how to prioritize their work.
Supervising Supervisors: Supervision can be more collaborative. Staff should share in leading the conversation and identifying priorities.
Working with student staff often requires an instructive approach. They’ve likely gone through some amount of training, but there are still many teaching moments throughout the supervisory relationship. You might have a lot of “how to” conversations or you might find yourself providing explicit guidance on dealing with a disruptive resident. With a professional staff member these moments still exist, but at this point the staff member is more likely able to assess their own work, bring their own agenda to a one-on-one meeting, and seek input rather than direct instruction. I am happiest as a supervisor when my staff and I spend our time together engaging in problem-solving, planning, or reflecting on shared concerns. We can’t erase positional hierarchies, but we can foster an environment to let staff know that their contributions are critical and desired.
Supervising Students: As the supervisor of a student, it’s just you and that student. Your main concern is the one person sitting in front of you.
Supervising Supervisors: As the supervisor of a supervisor, it’s just you and that staff…and all the students they supervise in turn. Your main concern is…all of them!
As a supervisor of professional staff, you likely don’t sit in on the one-on-one meetings between your staff and their students, but you probably hear all about how those relationships are evolving. You know who’s the star student, who has trouble with their administrative work, and who’s going through a personal crisis. Your job isn’t to step in and intervene in those supervisory moments, but to serve as a sounding board and coach off to the side, often invisible to the student staff themselves. Sometimes this looks like providing affirmation to a supervisor who is handling conversations with ease. Other times, this means gently questioning or redirecting a supervisor who is challenged by one of their staff members. You have a level of responsibility to know how your staff is performing in their own supervisory duties and providing appropriate feedback.
In my opinion, supervision is one of the most challenging but rewarding parts of the job in a human-centric field like residence life. I am fueled by those moments of connection and shared success and humbled by the moments where I feel I’ve let my staff down or not met my own standards of excellence. As a soft skill, there’s no point at which I’ll feel I’ve “conquered” supervision with nothing left to learn. If you’re a supervisor of supervisors, what advice would you give me?
