When you hire a new worker for your business, you select him or her because of the special skill or ability he or she has which you feel you can use.

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Whether you like it or not, you get the whole person, not just the employee’s skills and abilities. That includes the habits formed; you may not want these.  That employee’s interests are his own and not necessarily like those of any others in your group.  He may approach his job with little hidden fears and misgivings; and may be filled with a myriad of unanswered questions about the new environment.

You must answer the questions and, to a certain point, cater to his personal interests, and perhaps go so far as to help him mold a whole new set of habits.  As a manager or supervisor, you must make him feel welcome and give him a feeling of being useful, desirable part of your group.  What you do for this worker is a part of his induction for which you are responsible.

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His ultimate value depends, to a large extent, upon how quickly and how well you help him adjust to his new, unfamiliar surroundings.  This cannot be postponed; it must start the first time you meet the new worker and continue as long as he remains with you. 

Instructing and Empowering your Worker

Teaching in some ways is not different from other work.  You either like it or you so not.  If you do not like to teach, you cannot do it successfully.

There is, in this, peculiar hidden truth not too often admitted.  If teaching is an essential part of a supervisor’s job, the person who cannot teach successfully is not a truly effective supervisor.  All those who define the job supervisor include instruction as an essential part of it.  Therefore, you must do instruction if you are to do the whole of a supervisor’s job.

There is, though, a brighter side to the picture.  You usually like to do the things you know how to do and learning to instruct is not too difficult.  Once you begin to do it and like it, you will find that it can be one of the most interesting parts of your job.  It is fascinating to watch people learn and grow.  Knowing that you are part of that growth gives you a feeling of actually seeing a part of yourself grow along with the workers.

Good instruction, then, actually produces two very desirable results.  First, your workers become more competent and, thus, are capable of doing a better job.  Second, you have the personal satisfaction of knowing that through your efforts, each of your workers has improved.