#339 trickle down

At an evaluation meeting with one of my staff members we were discussing her goals.  She came prepared with three wonderful ideas, but they were all independent of the goals she had determined for her staff members.  

I suggested instead that some of the supervisor's goals be the advocacy stage for her staff's goals -- in other words, the staff could do the research to develop a proposal for a major change, but she would need to be the one to sell it and bring it home.

Sometimes as supervisors we forget that almost everything on your staff's plate is somehow on your plate too.  Their balls in the air are also your balls in the air.  As a result, part of your job as an effective supervisor is to help your staff prioritize and focus.  You can sometimes be your best when you help staff decide what NOT to do.

-- beth triplett
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