Producing business results and satisfying customer needs are dependent on the management process deployed by a business. At the heart of the process is the manager. In other words, the individual tasked with planning workloads, organising resources, controlling workflows and achieving targets. In this course, we focus on a particular type of manager i.e. the supervisor, also commonly referred to as a first-line manager. We will use the terms supervisor and first-line manager interchangeably throughout this course.

Becoming a supervisor or first-line manager is an exciting time in a person’s career. It can also at times be quite a challenging role! The challenges can arise for several reasons. Becoming a supervisor will often herald significant changes in the demands placed on a person’s working life. This is particularly true for first time supervisors. A newly appointed supervisor may have considerable operational knowledge but feel less sure about how to manage people. Some newly appointed supervisors may have previous management experience but be less familiar with the operational side of the business. Challenges can also arise where supervisors are promoted from within their peers and are now tasked with managing work friends and close colleagues. But where there are challenges there are potential solutions!

To be able to effectively manage other people, we must first be able to manage ourselves. Hence the reason we cover ‘Managing Oneself’ as the first topic in the course! In this lesson, we will explore three factors that affect a person’s ability to act competently in the role of a first-line manager, namely:

• Knowledge of the supervisory management role
• Management style
• Ability to delegate and manage time

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