One of the cornerstones of effective relationships is effective communication. The place to start forging these communication links is during orientation, but sometimes the link can grow weak when members are scattered across multiple sites.

Here's how three veteran program directors deal with this challenge:

Kate Douton of Ocean State Environmental Education Collaborative (Providence, RI) has members at three sites. Because Rhode Island is such a small state, she's able to visit members and check-in at least once a week. She also sends out frequent e-mails. Click play to learn what the messages contain.

Addell Anderson of Michigan AmeriCorps Partnership (Detroit, MI) also makes heavy use of e-mail. She lets members know during orientation that they can phone or message her anytime. She often connects her weekly e-mails to journal prompts that are discussed in monthly meetings. Click play to hear more about this. For more on prompts, check out reflection topics in the EnCorps collection.

Lee Gault of Montana Conservation Corps (Bozeman, MT) has crews deep in the woods, at sites almost 1,000 miles apart. He relies on written communications and biweekly reports to keep up with what members are thinking and doing. Click play for Lee's comments on reaching members who are physically inaccessible. For more on reports, read the tips in the EnCorps collection.

These three supervisors also suggest:

• Use paper or electronic newsletters to share what's going on and recognize members' efforts.
• Use Internet tools like Google calendar to let people know about mandatory meetings and local events. (For more on using technology to connect members, check out these ideas in the EnCorps collection.)
• Send birthday cards to members, to let them know you think of them as individuals.
• Incorporate communication-building exercises into your regular trainings (For some ideas, see the section on designing effective training in EnCorps.)

Go back to Creating Effective Relationships

Review this scenario to see how one supervisor coaches a VISTA in her assignment. There are three interactions for you to explore. At the end of each interaction, you will be prompted to make a decision about a coaching challenge.

The interactions takes place at the Butte County Bread Basket, a nonprofit food bank serving a rural, low-income county in Northern California. The VISTA is to design marketing plans for recruiting volunteers. Volunteers are needed to drive food donations to shut-ins and isolated families. The VISTA is also supposed to solicit donations of fresh food from local farms.

Arlene, a new VISTA, is a local recruit with organizational skills from her work as an administrative assistant and part-time school secretary. She is socially connected, knows almost everyone in town and is related to quite a few. She was also a volunteer at the Butte County Bread Basket before her service term.

Katherine, the supervisor, is a fifty-something marketing director for the Butte County Bread Basket. She left a career in public relations and moved to Butte County five years ago when her husband accepted a job in the area. This is her first year as a VISTA supervisor.

Background: Arlene sees her VISTA service as a way help her friends and community. Katherine sees the value of Arlene's "social capital" and hopes to use it to build networks in the community that she has a harder time doing as an outsider. However, while Arlene dutifully completes all work assigned, she does not take the initiative in identifying and taking on tasks that will help move her project forward and she spends a lot of time in the food bank. As a result, Katherine has to be a little more hands-on in supervising Arlene than she thought she would need to be.

Let's see how Katherine coaches Arlene

Even though supervisor orientation covers a lot of the bases, you're likely to face unanticipated situations and challenges.

EnCorps asked some seasoned supervisors what they wish they had known going into the job:

• "Being a sup takes a lot of time and, if that's not your main job, you have to make sure you carve time into your schedule to deal with it. Keep that time sacrosanct: Don't let other kinds of meetings intervene." —Patricia Rivera, Chicago Public Schools Homeless Education, Chicago, IL

• "I wish someone told me how important informal supervision is. Because I'm not there [with my members] everyday, it's important that I sometimes say, 'Let's get a cup of coffee or go for a walk.' I almost get more out of those sessions than the formal ones." —Melissa Burwell, Minnesota Alliance With Youth Promise Fellows, Minneapolis, MN
• "It's so much about building relationships. It's not just the time, but the emotional investment. I didn't realize [at first] how much supervising would be about establishing and maintaining communications. The flip side of that is you also have to set boundaries. Don't be so available that people take advantage and you aren't able to do some of the other work you need to get done." —Karen Mauldin-Curtis, Peace Corps Fellows Program, Macomb, IL

One program—America Reads-Mississippi (Jackson, MS)—gathered advice from supervisors, team leaders, and members into a booklet "so others don't have to learn lessons the hard way." The book, "If I Knew Then, What I Know Now", covers topics such as:

• One Thing I Wish Someone Had Told Me Early On…
• Here's the Best Advice I Can Give You
• It Took Me Awhile to Figure Out…

The book points out that "there's no one magic formula for success." But, a main thread running through all the lessons is to keep "a positive attitude, an ample supply of patience, a spirit of teamwork and the ability to get along with others, a willingness to give of yourself and go the extra miles, and a belief that you are responsible for your own happiness."

Go back to Problem-Solving

As with any relationship, supervisors and members can clash over any number of things. Some common sticking points include:

• Different work ethics
• Differences in personalities, work habits, communication styles
• Not keeping each other informed about emerging issues
• Power struggles over responsibilities and credit for work done
• Failure to follow through on commitments

Here are some ways to address these issues:

• Negotiate a solid set of working agreements
• Clarify expectations from the beginning
• Address the behavior, not the person
• Give specific, timely feedback
• Try to understand the situation from multiple perspectives
• Commit to working together for a win-win
• Consult a neutral third party (like your CNCS State Office)

However you tackle supervisor-member conflicts, document every conversation.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed? Don't worry, you're not alone. Read what expert supervisors say "I wish someone had told me... "

See what advice experienced supervisors gave incoming supervisors in one program.

Test your own problem-solving skills with these supervisor scenarios, drawn from actual field experiences.

Go back to Creating Effective Member-Supervisor Relationships

Coaches aren't just for athletes! Your members are likely to encounter many situations where personal coaching will make a big difference in outcomes—whether it's improving communication, resolving conflict, making better decisions, managing transitions, or negotiating with agencies, supervisors, and clients.

AmeriCorps programs are intentional about the personal growth and goal setting of its members. In the VISTA Supervisor Orientation, supervisors explore how coaching can benefit member-supervisor relationships. They look at the following benefits of coaching:

• When you coach members, you increase interaction with them. You listen, inquire, communicate and search for solutions.
• Coaching allows people to share their perceptions of what happened in an event or situation, and discuss the perceptions.
• A coach asks open-ended questions and guides someone to think something through, instead of giving answers.
• Coaching is performance focused and provides feedback on both strengths and weaknesses.
• Coaching requires people to slow down, listen more deeply and become less reactive. A coach could be wrong. A coach does not have all the answers.

Use these resources to become a better coach to your members:

• Good coaches use tools that help members discover their own paths for personal growth. The Personal Growth Plan is a tool for your members to use when setting goals.
• Critical Coaching Areas highlights four critical areas you can use to understand your strengths and weaknesses related to coaching AmeriCorps and VISTA members.
• The Johari Window is a training activity that helps individuals or groups look at how their behavior influences productive personal and working relationships.
• The Reactive Thought Exercise presents different stories and related questions to help members examine how our thoughts influence our feelings and behavior.

Go back to Creating Effective Member-Supervisor Relationships

An effective member-supervisor relationship creates layers of benefits. It impacts:

• The work the member does during service
• The life of the member
• The spirit and work of the supervisor
• The engagement and involvement of the community
• The work of VISTA and the Corporation for National and Community Service

Look at the benefits:

For the term of service

For the member

For the supervisor

For the community

For VISTA and CNCS

One way to get the most of the member-supervisor relationship is for the supervisor to take on the role of coach. Read more about how to coach members.

Go back to Creating Effective Member-Supervisor Relationships

Habitat for Humanity Minnesota asks seasoned supervisors to offer advice to "newbies" during a training session they hold for incoming staff. Here are some of those tips:

About Successful Supervisor-VISTA Relationships:

• Communicate, communicate! Have a weekly meeting, if feasible.
• Go for balance: Don't ignore your VISTAs, but don't smother them either.
• Turn to other supervisors for support or advice when struggles occur.
• Remember it's your job to keep the VISTA on track.

About OSOT for VISTAs:

• Share the history of the umbrella organization as well as the affiliate that the VISTA will be working for.
• Ask your VISTA what she or he learned at PSO.
• Break down the components of the project plan and share it with your VISTA.
• Discuss preferred methods of communication and learning.
• Network: Introduce your VISTA to key community members.

To learn more about how to plan and implement your member's OSOT, visit the Orientation section of the EnCorps collection.

About Writing and Using the VAD (VISTA Assignment Description):

• Make it clear and easy-to-understand.
• Have a limited number of goals.
• Use it as a conversation starter.
• Review the VAD weekly with your VISTA.

Go back to Problem-Solving

Effective member-supervisor relationships can change lives and impact communities. When a member and supervisor click, both parties feel engaged and excited about their work. The community benefits and goals are met.

But not all member supervisor pairings are a good match. Even veteran supervisors have members they struggle to communicate with. Or disagree over values.

There are no easy answers or formulas for creating effective relationships, but these tips and resources offer some insights into the process:

• Coaching offers strategies to listen to and understand your members.
• Communicating with members shares tips to keep in touch with members near and far.
• Problem solving describes how to avoid sticking points and work out issues.

No matter how much experience you have working with members, read about the multilayer benefits of an effective member-supervisor relationship.

Go on to Coaching