Effective Supervisory Practices answers the questions that all supervisors ask...

• What’s my role? What are my major supervisory responsibilities?
• How can I learn to be an effective leader? What does it take?
• How can I be fair to all employees, even though they have different needs and issues?
• What do employees expect from me?
• How can I be a good team leader?
• How do I prepare for conducting performance appraisals?
• What is my role in onboarding new employees?
• How do I support and promote a culture of accountability?

Strategies for Local Government Supervisors 

We all know an organization’s most valuable resource is its employees. ICMA’s newest edition of its best-selling Effective Supervisory Practices: Better Results through Teamwork gives today’s managers and supervisors a powerful tool for understanding the many dimensions of the supervisory role and their impact on helping to improve productivity, implement quality management, and build an effective work team. 

The book serves as the core text for the study guide Effective Supervisory Skill Building, which is designed to probe the topics of the book in more detail and at a level specific to your own workplace. In combination, the book and study guide comprise what we call a course, bringing together basic principles of supervision, based on behavioral studies and other research, and practical guidelines for improving your supervisory skills and applying Effective Supervisory Practices on the job.

The bottom line: We think the course (Effective Supervisory Practices and Effective Supervisory Skill Building) will help you and your local government provide better services to the residents of your community by providing managers and supervisors extensive on-the-job training.

Cutting-Edge Theories, Practical Examples 

This edition of ICMA’s most popular text incorporates the latest information on leadership, organizational change, values and diversity, interpersonal relations, communication, management, and ethics in a sound framework for supervision.

The text pays particular attention to those issues that affect public servants working with citizens, fostering a positive public image, understanding the local government budget, and dealing with regulations that affect local governments. The result is a unique blend of theory and practice based on ICMA’s many years of research and experience in local government management.

This updated fifth edition of Effective Supervisory Practices addresses situations that supervisors are likely to encounter in an increasingly diverse workplace and community:

• Setting priorities
• Working with the budget
• Communicating with employees
• Providing quality customer service
• Leading change.

Supervisors will learn how to deal with common problems and tricky situations, including managing time and stress and giving constructive feedback. Most importantly, supervisors will learn how to provide leadership and vision, establish self-discipline, foster teamwork, and maintain open lines of communication.

One of the most difficult things supervisors have to do is adapt to a changing environment. With Effective Supervisory Practices, supervisors will learn skills that enable them to prepare themselves and their employees for change and to recognize and act on new opportunities as they arise.

Theory in Action: Aids within the Book 

All chapters of Effective Supervisory Practices include a snapshot at the start of the chapter to alert you to key points covered in the chapter and a checklist at the end to drive home in a practical way the lessons and perspective of the chapter. Some chapters also include supervisory situations designed to illustrate lessons of the chapter by asking you to think about situations that call upon your knowledge and understanding of your supervisory role and the choices you’ll be making in a variety of contexts. The supervisory situations are intended to make it easy for you to apply the information in the text to real-life situations in local government.

With the help of Effective Supervisory Practices, anyone can learn the skills and behaviors that result in effective supervision. Building good relationships with employees, strengthening their willingness to work smarter and harder, and gaining the fundamental skills that every supervisor needs make for effective supervision and help provide high-quality service to the community.

Effective Supervisory Practices ends with a list of recommended resources organized by chapter, short biographies of the contributors, and a full index.

Essential Practices for Effective Management

ICMA University, through ICMA members, defined practices that are core to effective local government management. This new edition of Effective Supervisory Practices helps managers and supervisors address the practices of staff effectiveness, functional and operational expertise and planning, diversity, budgeting, human resources management, strategic planning, and integrity. Click here to see all eighteen practices.

About the Editor and Authors
The fifth edition of Effective Supervisory Practices was edited by Michelle Poché Flaherty, who served as the organizational development manager for the city of Rockville, Maryland, from 2006 to 2012 and is currently director of performance, strategy, and innovation for the Architect of the Capitol, in Washington, D.C. This edition was substantively edited by Christine Becker, president, Christine Becker Associates, Washington, D.C., and formerly director of training with ICMA and deputy executive director with the National League of Cities. The twelve contributing authors bring to their individual chapters many years of management or consulting experience in small and large local governments across the country. Effective Supervisory Practices was originally developed in cooperation with the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia.

Related Resources

• Effective Supervisory Skill Building Study Guide
• Effective Supervisory Skill Building Training Course