Lesson l/Learning Event 3
SUPERVISORY TECHNIQUES
Maintenance supervision is a demanding and difficult job and is influenced
by many factors. There is usually a high sense of urgency to get results.
There are conflicting demands for the supervisor's time.
Each supervisor
develops an individual style to meet the challenges of the job. There are
different approaches to supervision, but the following are most common:
Reactive Management.
The inexperienced supervisor usually reacts to
requirements as they occur and confronts one challenge at a time. This is
called reactive or crisis management.
The theory is to concentrate
resources against a particular requirement, overwhelm it, and move on. This
works well in a true crisis. In day-to-day maintenance operations, however,
there is seldom one crisis at a time.
Unit mission requirements and the
training schedule change frequently. What is important today may not be so
important tomorrow. The reactive manager has to constantly juggle limited
resources and stays too long on individual projects to effectively manage
the overall operation.
Proactive Management. The strategy of proactive management is to influence
events before they happen. The proactive manager anticipates requirements
and plans for the best use of resources.
Time is his most important
resource and he uses it to gain the most benefit for the organization. He
directs the efforts of personnel productively while finding time for
management.
The most important part of supervision is identifying
objectives and priorities.
The proactive manager knows that effective
planning depends on determining what needs to be done and in what sequence.
He directs available resources first toward those actions that will be most
productive for the organization.
SUPERVISORY FACTORS
Maintenance supervision deals with various factors--command emphasis,
management supervision, motivation, skill, and resources--which affect the
way the unit does its maintenance mission.
The supervisor uses these
factors as tools to help him guide the effort in the proper direction.
Failure to achieve desired results often stems from failure in one or more
of the maintenance factors. Corrective action depends on the supervisor's
ability to recognize which factors need to be influenced.
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