Supervision and Management
Understanding Leadership, Supervision, and Management
Within our organization, leadership, supervision and management play essential and interconnected roles in driving team performance, supporting employee growth, and achieving organizational goals. While these functions often overlap in practice, they serve distinct purposes and require different skills.
Leadership:
Leadership at the City of Madison is action-based, not title-based. It reflects how we influence, inspire, and motivate others regardless of our position in the organization. Everyone can lead from where they are by modeling the City’s values, strengthening relationships, supporting colleagues, and contributing to solutions. Leadership is about behaviors and impact, not formal authority. It is the thread that connects all roles across the organization.
Supervision:
Supervision is the practice of providing hands-on support, oversight, and direction to employees in their daily work. Supervisors ensure that team members have the clarity, tools, and guidance they need to perform effectively and safely. Supervisors are required to provide performance evaluations, issue discipline where appropriate, and make hiring related decisions.
More on Supervision
Supervisor’s work is rooted in people and performance management, developing talent, fostering engagement, addressing barriers to success, and maintaining the smooth operation of day-to-day activities. Effective supervision is grounded in relationship-building, coaching, mentoring and continuous feedback to support individual and team success.
Lead Workers:
Lead workers provide field-based or task-based oversight that supports day-to-day operations, often acting as on-site points of coordination. Lead workers do not hold formal supervisory authority — they are not responsible for hiring, evaluations, discipline, or long-term personnel decisions.
More on Lead Workers
Lead workers may train staff, assign daily tasks, share technical expertise, or ensure work is completed safely and efficiently, however, because they do not hold formal supervisor authority, this distinction differentiates lead work from supervision while still acknowledging the critical leadership contribution lead workers make operationally
Management:
Management is about planning, organizing, delegating and problem solving. While managers may also have supervisory responsibilities, their primary focus extends beyond day-to-day oversight to include designing systems and strategies that sustain performance and drive progress over time.
More on Management
Managers are responsible for setting direction, allocating resources, shaping team structure, and ensuring that operations and initiatives support departmental and citywide goals.
In practice, these roles complement one another. In some departments (think Metro Transit and Streets) both supervisors and managers may exist within the same reporting structure. In others, (think Human Resources) managers may hold dual responsibilities, balancing strategic leadership with the ongoing need to mentor, coach, and support employees directly. Understanding and honoring the distinct yet connected nature of supervision and management allows us to build stronger teams, clarify expectations, and align our collective efforts toward both immediate excellence and long-term sustainability.
Below you will find a list of management competencies that will support you in increasing your knowledge, building your skills, and expanding your capability to effectively lead people and/or manage operations.
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Competency 1: Accountability
The obligation and willingness to take responsibility for actions and results, ensuring tasks are completed and owning outcomes – whether things go right or wrong.
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Competency 2: Change Management & Agility
The application of structured processes and tools to manage the "people side" of change, ensuring desired outcomes are achieved. Managing change also includes the process thinking and understanding quickly while remaining flexible to change, allowing you to adjust as needed.
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Competency 3: Communication
Sharing Information and ideas in a way that is effective and appropriate for a given situation.
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Competency 4: Developing Individuals & Building Teams
Supporting individual growth that helps teams to work better together through skill building and collaboration.
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Competency 5: Emotional Intelligence
Understand and manage your own emotions while recognizing the emotions of others and how both impact interactions and relationships.
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Competency 6: Influence & Trust Building
The process of building trust and respect that motivates others to support your ideas, while also having an effect on (influencing) their character, development, or behavior in a meaningful way.
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Competency 7: Solution Finding
Appropriately identifying the issue, exploring possible solutions, and choosing the best option when faced with different options.
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Competency 8: Strategy Development
The process of deciding what you want to achieve and the why/purpose behind those goals, while also determining how to allocate resources and maximize impact through people to achieve those objectives.
Learning + Development Resources:
Learning + Development for Supervisors
- Supervisor Orientation - Gain knowledge, tools, and skills to set you and your team(s) up for success.
- Mandatory Supervisor Courses - A list of courses that are required for all supervisors.
- Values-Based Leadership - Develop and grow your leadership skills.
Other Learning + Development Resources
- Performance Excellence - Performance Excellence provides tools to think strategically and align our work to our City's vision.
- Cross-Departmental Initiatives Inventory - Initiatives are an opportunity to apply your skills and experience toward citywide goals.
- Toolkits - Tools and services you may need for your daily work. Includes resources for Budget, Contracts & Purchasing, Customer Service, Marketing, Technology, and Travel & Cars.
- HR-OD Toolkit - Enhance your daily work with these helpful resources, tools, and templates.
- Individual Development Plan (IDP) - A workbook for you to reflect, plan, and discuss your professional goals.
- Online Courses - On-demand, recorded course content to learn when it's convenient for you and your staff.
- Online Learning Resources - Free or low-cost online learning resources.
Learning + Development for Your Staff
While employees are responsible for their own development, supervisors have a great impact. To make an impact, nurture and support on-the-job learning through the following:
- Watch and track your staff's development through regular 1:1 discussions and annual employee check-ins.
- Suggest opportunities and approve development requests.
- Arrange for coverage and support in managing your staff's workload while they’re away.
Resources for Staff Learning + Development
- Upcoming Courses - Bookmark this page and check it often—new offerings are added regularly.
- New Employee Onboarding - Help new hires understand their role and expectations and make connections. Make a plan for their learning and development.
- Leadership Development - These leadership courses and programs are not restricted to supervisors and managers, but can develop leaders at all levels.
- Individual Development Plan (IDP) - A workbook for employees to reflect, plan, and discuss their professional goals. Your staff might bring their plan to you and ask for feedback and guidance.
- Cross-Departmental Initiatives Inventory - Initiatives are an opportunity to grow leadership and other skills while working toward citywide goals.
Training Policies and Procedures
APM 2-10 outlines the official policies, practices and administrative procedures that relate to training and development activities for employees of the City of Madison.
View APM 2-10: Policies and Procedures for Internal and External Training for more information.