Over the past few months, I have asked my supervisee what three things she thinks she is going well, and what three things she wants to improve. We have a 5 minute chat about this about once a month, in one of our weekly calls.
She now knows that I am going to ask the question, so she comes prepared!
What I love about this approach is that she knows what she’s doing well, and she knows what she needs to do better. She doesn’t generally need me to tell her. She does usually ask me back, “is there anything else you think I should be working on” and if there is anything she hasn’t mentioned, that opens the door to me giving her that feedback.
And because she identifies these things herself, she seems so much more motivated to do something about them – both building on her strengths, and developing in areas that could do with a little polish.
I notice her blossoming, and taking on more and more responsibility.
And it’s easy.
People seem to fear giving feedback. We’re not comfortable with hard conversations. But this really isn’t a difficult approach to build into your supervisory toolkit. Go on, try it.
What other ways have you tried that help a person to grow?
Hi Clare; at DAU we worked with David Langford and incorporated a similar approach but also included a Capacity Matrix and a portfolio to document, describe, and defend what we were doing well.
David is at Langford Learning International. Cheers, mjh
Thanks for sharing MJ. Hope you are well; speak with you in Feb