Often many consider the job of a supervisor or a manager to be quiet challenging: it is indeed not an easy role to take. Some people cannot imagine themselves in the shoes of their superiors because they think that supervising is something they cannot handle. The truth is you can be your own supervisor by inculcating the skill of self-supervision.

Learning how to take control or direct your own work and activities is an ability that needs to be practiced and developed over time, if you want to be effective at it. Supervisors were not born to be supervisors. It took a lot of hard work and dedication for them to get to that position. In your own ways, you can also apply internal supervision as a good start if you have a goal of being part of management yourself.

In order to effectively practice self-supervision, a definite plan and process must be followed. A self-supervision plan serves as a guideline on how to manage one’s activities effectively. This article will talk about the necessary components of self-supervision, the guidelines in individual planning and the phases involved.

The Essentials in Self-Supervising

First off, it is essential to know the components when supervising oneself.  The elements needed when learning how to direct and handle one’s tasks and activities can be classified as follows:

a. Tasks and Activities

A major tool in learning how to self-supervise is to define the tasks; determine whether these are day-to-day routines or projects. In the workplace, supervisors assign workloads to their members on a regular basis. These workloads may be given on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. The purpose of this is to let the employees know what they need to do when reporting for work. Employees can refer to their list of assignments and can even make a forecast of how to go about the tasks.

b. Skills and Abilities

Self-supervision skills are essential in becoming efficient, reliable and autonomous. A person should have good problem solving and decision-making abilities, self-management skills, and good planning and organizational skills. In addition, good time management is also important.

Guidelines in Proper Self-Supervision

Effective guidelines provide direction and a systematic approach in an employee’s undertaking. These guidelines are not as difficult as you probably thought they would be. Even supervisors follow a set of guidelines so they keep failures from happening when handling people.

1. Commit to seriously working on your assigned tasks and be mindful of the deadlines.
2. Identify if your tasks would involve delegation; if so, identify the people who will carry it out
3. Take down notes, document ideas and scribble down important notes.
4. Establish personal goals to create a level of motivation. An example of a short-term goal would be to accomplish a specific number of tasks in a day or in a week.
5. Practice accountability of outcomes and results. Soliciting feedback and criticisms from other people is very helpful in becoming more effective as a career individual.
6. Learn to evaluate the completion of your tasks. Measuring success rate is a big step to being independent at work, although your supervisor still evaluates your work performance.

Autonomous Work Approach

When you are able to handle yourself and your activities without being constantly reminded by your superior, you become independent and autonomous. Organizational teams are highly effective for a high level of work productivity and success in the workplace, but an autonomous work approach also guarantees reliable and trustworthy working individuals.

Constantly applying the guidelines of self-supervision eventually makes the employee a self-directed and self-sufficient worker. In turn, the company or organization will benefit from employees who work with very minimal supervision. Yet, without undermining the role of a supervisor, the assigned leader is still primarily responsible for overseeing the progress and performance of the members.

The ability to self-supervise is not learned and developed randomly. It has to be planned and be made systematic so that an individual will have a good level of expertise in handling workloads and tasks personally. Self-supervision can be a skill for people who want to develop their ability to self-manage and be regarded as a dependable working individual. In the long run, this ability will be recognized by the management and may possibly consider the employee for better opportunities.