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Where should a first-time supervisor start? This is the question Joseph F. Duffy sets out to answer in his book Being a Supervisor 1.0 (Business Books, 2018). After 45 years as an executive with Catholic Charities, Duffy knew there needed to be one resource—a "cookbook," as he calls it—that provides all the basics of supervising, from decision making to conflict resolution to strategizing. Heralded for his insights into the nonprofit world and extensive work in supervisor-training, Duffy recently discussed with us how his book will change the way supervisors approach their roles by shaping them into "better listeners, better communicators, and better delegators."
How does your book cater to both new, young supervisors as well as older, more experienced ones?
With regard to the younger or less experienced supervisors, I intended for it to be a stand-alone "cookbook"—a how-to for handling conflict resolution, decision making, etc. For the more experienced supervisors, it's still a cookbook, they're just looking at it through the lens of someone who has already been doing those things. They get the opportunity to question how this book may suggest a recipe different from theirs, and from there they can evaluate their processes and alternatives. It might even stimulate some thinking as to even more ways to do the job.
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