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You need to know what your strengths of your team is
so that they are being put into situations
when they can work on their strengths
'cause that's where they'll flourish
and you'll get the best where their shoulders are the broadest.
That's where you'll get the best effort
and the best return for your responsibility.
"OK, you've told me that. Here you go."
And everyone responds to that type of appeal.
So, yeah, team captains and...
..well, captains and a crew, they need to find those things out
so that each of their crew members are actually doing that,
they're actually working with their strengths more than their weaknesses.
HUGHES: But where I've seen super vision being utilised successfully
is where the supervisor actually works as a support level
to the frontline engineer as such.
For example, going back to our discussions earlier
about distractions.
Often the engineers that we talk to in organisations will tell you
that one of their major distractions is management
or the customer or operations constantly trying to get updates
on the status of an aircraft,
particularly when it's in an AOG state.
And sometimes the supervisor actually ends up
becoming part of that distraction
because they're also being quizzed about the status of the work
and so they're trying to get live updates
from the frontline engineer as well.
What success looks like
is where supervisors deal directly with their frontline engineers,
get the information that's important, relevant, timelines, etc,
and then they take all the pressure away from the engineers
that are actually performing the task and provide that...
I use the term "air cover"
so that they can allow the engineer to get on with the job
and they deal with all the distractions
that would normally be directed at the frontline engineer.
I've seen some organisations where the customer feels
that because they own the aircraft or the engine or component
that it's their rights to be able to walk anywhere within the facility
and ask anyone in the facility any question they like.
It may sound good if you're the customer
and you may have genuine intent.
However, they're completely oblivious to the fact
that they're actually causing disruptions, distractions
and potential errors to occur whilst they're doing that.
The supervisor needs to step in and be able to redirect that person away
from the engineers doing the actual tasks
and be able to answer those questions for them.
To, as you say, act as the intermediary rather than sit back.