Book Review: The Supervision Solution: Manage Performance, Not People by John Roulet

If you’re a manager and are looking for a formula to apply to your team so as to improve their performance, a word to the wise: this is not the book for you.

If you’re a manager and are looking for a great, easy, and fast way to increase your team’s performance and thus hopefully decrease your workload – why are you a manager again? – in any case, if that’s so, the same advice applies: this book is not for you.

Ever heard of the expression: “give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, feed him for life”? Well this expression could be remodelled thus, summing up this book: “Give a manager a formula, help him manage for a while, help a manager understand management, help him manage for life”.

Hey, I’m a writer, not a poet.

The author of The Supervision Solution: Manage Performance, Not People, John Roulet, tells us early on that the leader who most inspired him is Gandhi. The implications are huge: you, as a manager, are expected to be humble, to work hard, to stay true to your principles and to expect nothing in return. See what I mean about this book not being for the faint of heart?

The fact that the author’s manager of choice is Gandhi bodes quite well. However, I have to admit that I wasn’t ready to believe John Roulet did consider Gandhi as ‘the real deal’ unless, having finished the book, I found that all of it reflected his philosophy.

Then I realised that I didn’t know as much as I thought I did about Gandhi. Oh well. I tried.

In all seriousness, this is a great book for managers and leaders of all sorts to read. For it doesn’t go into complicated diatribes about the philosophy of leadership, nor does it give boring, one-dimensional formulas that are said to work; rather, it accompanies managers to understand how they can become leaders, and bring out the inherent qualities in the individuals forming the teams they manage.

The premise is simple: all people inherently possess the potential to contribute positively to any organisation or team that they belong to. A manager, who is also a leader of sorts, helps bring about the conditions making it possible for the team’s potential – which is higher than the sum of each individual’s potential – to be as high as it can possibly be. It’s about removing obstacles so that people can become who they potentially can be. This is why humility is so important, for a true manager realises that he is a facilitator rather than a creator of greatness.

Article Author: Sahar

The author of The Spirit Within Club, Sahar was born the first of three siblings and the first of eight cousins. Thrust in the role of head of the brood at a very early age, she honed her imagination by creating stories and plotlines the eight of them could play to all summer long. …

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