A511.2.3.RB-Supportive Behavior

Yukl (2012) defines supportive leadership as a variety of behaviors that show consideration, acceptance and concern for needs and feelings of others; all used to help build and maintain interpersonal relationships.  There was a point in time where leaders were expected to remain business oriented and strayed away from any getting to know their followers personally.  This made for a cold office environment, with very little interactions and low morale.  Supportive leadership changes this situation.

I have used supportive leadership in my position as a supervisor, I feel connecting with employees is the best way to encourage people and to get through rough times.  In my field of hospitality some nights are extremely difficult, we deal with unhappy guests, people who have been driving for hours and are tired and some that are just plain miserable in general.  There are times when there is one agent whose interactions with guests are all negative, not due to the agent’s performance but the guest’s behavior or circumstances beyond their control.  On nights like these I use a few of the guidelines for supporting Yukl (2012) outlines: provide sympathy and support when person is anxious or upset and bolster the person’s self-esteem and confidence.  In the case of an agent having multiple bad interacts with guests that were not a result of the agents actions it can be important to remind them they are doing a good job, even if they don’t feel like they are.  It can be difficult to return to the counter after being berated for a period of time, I have found that after showing sympathy and reassuring the agent they are doing what they need to be it makes it a bit easier. 

I have not had a chance in my career to develop subordinate skills, however I feel Yukl (2012) makes some very good points on how to accomplish this.  As I have recently applied for a promotion these guidelines come at an opportune time for me.  If I am hired as assistant manager then I will be responsible for training and overseeing all agents’ performance.  After reading the guidelines I mentally broke them down into two categories which when combined will lead to success for the agents.  The first category is developing a person’s performance internally by acknowledging and supporting their desires and goals. The second category would be providing external training and reinforcement for specific job skills and tasks.  Providing external support seems most obvious: encourage attendance at relevant training activities, provide opportunities to learn from experience and encourage coaching by peers when appropriate.  Some leaders overlook the importance of developing an employee internally; they are only looking at the employee’s completion of specific tasks and not the whole picture.  When a leader shows concern for each person’s development, help the person identify ways to improve performance, provide helpful career advice, be patient and helpful when providing coaching and promoting the person’s reputation (Yukl p66-67), the entire company can benefit.  

Yukl’s (2012) guidelines for recognition struck a cord with me.  When it comes to recognition my experiences have been that the people that are most deserving don’t always get the praise they deserve.  Multiple times in my career I have seen people recognized for mediocre performance only because they routinely perform subpar, while people who consistently perform at high levels are not recognized as their work is always of high quality.  This is negatively reinforcement, the message is sent that if you perform poorly most of the time you will be more rewarded when you do something well than if you consistently perform at a high level.  This type of behavior on the part of the leaders can lead to resentment among employees; I have seen it first hand.  Leaders need to understand all levels of recognition and that at some point everyone is worthy of it.  

Supportive leadership as set forth by Yukl (2012) has given me a great perspective into the type of leader I want to be.  I want to be a leader that people can turn to when they are having an issue and trust that I can help them solve it.  I want to be a leader who can develop not only person’s external skills on a job but their internal skills as well.  And lastly I want to be the type of leader who can find a reason to recognize every person on my team.  Hopefully with these skills I can become the great leader I desire to be.      

 

Yukl, G. (2012). Leadership in Organizations (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New

Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.