“First appreciate who your people are. Then think about how to lead them.”

Most of you during your careers will end up managing people. There are many things to know to manage a group well. You will learn a lot by watching the successes and mistakes of other managers as well as experiencing the successes and mistakes of your own. Hopefully your mistakes, although you will learn the most from them, will cause little harm and be corrected quickly.

Many of us have experienced at least one supervisor who failed to appreciate what we could contribute to our jobs. That supervisor was focused only on supervising — on having their authority followed. If you find yourself in this situation and it cannot be rectified, you will need to find another job. This post, however, aims to help you when you are on the other side: how to avoid unintentionally becoming the supervisor who tries to lead before appreciating who they have as a team. Many, if not most, supervisors think first about “leading” before evaluating the people in their charge.

In 2016, I reentered the workforce after a ten-year hiatus, extremely lucky that a health and safety supervisor in the School of Engineering at Stanford (not in EH&S) chose to hire me. Soon I found myself however, because this supervisor left, with a boss who had no idea what to do with me. When she was hired, I knew that she would never have selected me for her team. This did not feel good. When I left the position, a mentor who had observed what transpired commented about my boss, “She did not do a good job taking advantage of what you had to offer.” He said as well, “You needed to get out of that situation, because ultimately an employee needs to respect their boss.”

When you become a supervisor, be sure to think about who your employees are as individuals. Do not think about your employees only according to their titles.

Different employees with the same title will do their jobs differently, doing their jobs well and making unique contributions. Acknowledge this wonderful phenomenon.

Exerting authority will be effective when you truly comprehend the value that comes from the unique paths that your employees have taken through life.