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		Supervision By Ginny Arthur Associate Director for Residence Life Iowa State University Supervision. You can't work in residence life without it. You either supervise or are supervised...or both. You have probably read about it, attended workshops on it, or been trained how to do it. And on any given day, you probably love it or you hate it. If you love it more often than you hate it, you've probably discovered that supervision is one of those phenomenons where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. You can break supervision down into several parts or functions, such as setting expectations, providing appropriate training, giving on-going feedback, and conducting regular performance appraisals. And all of these functions are important and necessary in order to be an effective supervisor...but they are not sufficient. Really excellent supervisors understand that the essence of their role is teaching and learning. Like good teachers, people who are good at supervision do the following: Know their subject matter and their staff Identify and share measurable outcomes Understand and use a variety of teaching methods Create an active learning environment Engage in dialogue Encourage risk taking and exploration Learn from their staff Provide resources Insist on excellence Experience teaching as a calling Let's look at the elements identified above. Good supervisors know their subject matter and their staff. It is important to understand the basic elements of supervision, and how to implement them. Assessing the knowledge and skill level of staff members, providing necessary training, and keeping staff informed about issues as well as their performance are crucial to successful supervision. Clearly, supervisors must understand something about who their staff are and what they value in order to successfully implement basic supervisory functions. Identify and share desired outcomes, and their measures. In order for staff to succeed and meet supervisory expectations, they need to know what the goals, or outcomes are. Just as in the classroom, the supervisor as teacher must clearly state the outcomes, and how they will be measured. How will the staff know when they've achieved excellence? How will the supervisor know? What are the minimum outcomes? What will the consequences be of great achievement (in other words, what is the workplace equivalent of earning an "A") or of lack of achievement? Understand and use a variety of teaching methods Just as in the classroom setting, a variety of teaching methods are necessary to both stimulate the learning environment and respond to different learning styles. Knowing your staff will help you figure out which style(s) will be most effective with which staff members. If a staff member isn't responding in the way you would like, a different approach might do the trick. Likewise, when working with a group of staff, using a variety of techniques or teaching methods can keep the group's interest and lead toward greater understanding of issues. Create an active learning environment Engage in dialogue Encourage risk taking and exploration Learn from their staff If you want staff to grow, learn and become more skilled, then you must create an active learning environment within the workplace. The overall goal of supervision should be to assist staff to become creative, out of the box problem solvers and critical thinkers who understand and effectively function within the political and cultural environment in which they work. To achieve this goal, the supervisory environment must be dynamic and interactive. Staff must be encouraged to speak their minds, challenge the status quo, take risks, and explore alternative methods of operating. Time to dream, to read, to think and to dialogue must be made available. The teacher-learner concept must be embraced: we are all learning, and all teaching. It is not a one-way street. Provide resources Resources, be they in the form of professional development, funding, access to institutional leaders and faculty, collateral experiences, advanced course work, or time to reflect and/or dialogue, are critical. And providing access to them is a supervisory responsibility. It is not necessary to have a large budget to make this happen (although monetary resources are certainly a benefit!) Cultivating relationships with people within the university who will share their expertise by engaging in the learning environment with staff members costs you nothing but time. Insist on excellence Just as in the classroom, when one expects excellence and provides the necessary tools cited above, the chances of achieving excellence become higher than if one expects mediocrity. Challenge problem identifiers to become problem solvers; fuzzy thinkers to sharpen their critical thinking; people comfortable with business as usual to break the mold; staff content to operate within their comfort zone to stretch their boundaries. And challenge them to do these things in pursuit of the outcomes that have been identified for them and their work unit. Experience 'supervision as teaching' as a calling This is why the whole of supervision is greater than the sum of its parts. You can perform all of the functions of supervision, and maybe even do them with technical skill, but if you don't experience supervision/teaching as a calling, then you won't be an inspired supervisor. If you experience supervision solely as an administrative or management responsibility, your supervision will be lacking. If you delight in engaging with the people you supervise, if you see yourself as an educator first and an administrator second, then your supervisees will be fortunate. And so will you...because the days you love what you do will far exceed the days when you wish you were responsible for and to no one but yourself. About the Author Ginny Arthur is the Associate Director for Residence Life at Iowa State University. She is also a member of the Graduate faculty, teaching and serving on Masters and Doctoral committees in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. Ginny has an active history in ACUHO-I, having served as member and Chair of the Program Committee, a 3-year term on the Executive Board as Secretary, and another 3 year engagement as President-elect, President and Past-President. Currently she is Associate Editor of the Journal for College and University Housing. Ginny has participated on numerous external review teams for institutions such as Oregon State University, University of Alaska-Fairbanks, Colorado State University, The Evergreen State College and Auburn University.