Chief Content Officer Karoliina Jarenko from Academy of Philosophy, i.e. Handy Mandy of future worklife, visits the New trends in occupational healthcare series of the Mehiläisen Pisto podcast to discuss with Mehiläinen Working Life Services’ Director of Major Clients Andréa Alvarez-Tarjasalo about the transformation of the working life and its impacts on the supervisor work.
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Added value generated by humans is created through humanity
The transformation of working life has been frequently discussed within the past few years. According to Karoliina, the most dramatic change in the working life is related to the growth of expert work. Added value generated by humans is no longer created as part of the production machine, as was the case in the industrial era, but through humanity, creativity, problem-solving skills and encounters. The working life structures and operating methods built for the industrial era are no longer functional when the employees are required to adopt a different role.
According to Karoliina, the future supervisor is required to have special skills in understanding people. The supervisor must create prerequisites for the employee to express and want to express their thoughts and ideas. Karoliina says that every supervisor should understand the basics how the human brain and motivation work, how people learn and in what kind of emotional environments people dare to throw around ideas. In addition, the supervisor must know how to encounter each employee as an individual and understand their changing situations in life.
According to Andréa, one of the most important tasks of the supervisor is to lead the performance and, in this task, set clear goals:
“The goals and direction create safety, but every employee should be provided with an opportunity to come up with their personal ways to achieve them,” says Andréa.
Speaking out is the greatest way of showing caring
According to Karoliina, when switching to a self-regulating organisational model, the role of the supervisor will change from the orchestrating role into a role of an enabler. Simultaneously, more is required from the team’s internal dynamics than in the traditional top-down management, as the team members are setting their own goals and sharing tasks accordingly. In order to function, this requires strong trust between the team members and, according to Karoliina, a prerequisite for the success of a self-regulating organisation is an atmosphere of mutual trust.
Karoliina says that an atmosphere of mutual trust means also openness and especially provision of constructive feedback. She empahasises that colleagues should be able to discuss even the more challenging issues in a constructive manner. Identifying your own weaknesses and preparing development measures is also important.
In human work, success is strongly linked to work motivation and, therefore, it is crucially important to take care of the atmosphere in the work community, according to Karoliina. Work of people in difficult situations or poorly performing persons must be intervened in as soon as possible.
In other words, the skills requirements of the supervisor are increasingly related to social and human skills instead of technical skills: understanding the human character, psyche and situations. Karoliina has even stated that every new supervisor should go to therapy in order to learn to process emotions.
To take care of the other person, you have to take care of yourself
According to Karoliina, in human-oriented management, the supervisor must know how to be what the employees need at any given time. In order to do this, the supervisor must feel well. She highlights that, in addition to sufficient rest, exercise and nutrition, the supervisor should take some time to reflect their own emotions.