About supervisor planning responsibilities:

Every organizational unit leader reports to and is accountable to a supervisor who is, in turn, the leader of a larger domain umbrella unit under which the sub-unit is nested. The supervisor’s planning responsibilities include both serving as unit leader for the larger unit as well as actively supervising the planning activity of the leader in all subordinate units reporting to the supervisor.

As part of his/her planning oversight responsibility, supervisors are expected to remain current and familiar with changes, additions, or deletions to the formal functions and plans of subordinate units by periodically reviewing and signaling their familiarity with these tasks and plans by recording formal evidence of their review and reactions. Evidence of their periodic review and reactions is left by permanently recording ad hoc textual “comments” where and as appropriate within the plans of subordinate units.

In the case of mission, vision, positioning statements as well as lists of professional values, groups served, and competitors identified, the supervisor should leave (at least annually) some informal comment signaling professional concurrence, any objections raised, conditions preferred, or other ideas or thoughts as appropriate. The “comment” record is maintained permanently in the Strategic Planner database and is available for review by interested stakeholders. [There is a “comment” button on each screen of the strategic planner which, when clicked, opens a window were comments may be reviewed and/or left by readers, including the supervisor.]

In the case of functional tasks and long range planning goals, supervisors are expected to review each individually (at least annually) and to insert comments relating to the tasks and goals as appropriate. It is important that record of the supervisor’s review of these tasks and goals be maintained at least annually as evidence of formal on-going review. As above, the “comment” record relating to each task and goal is maintained permanently in the Strategic Planner database and is available for review by interested stakeholders.

The supervisor’s responsibility in the case of “immediate planning objectives” for a subordinate unit is somewhat different. Here, in addition to the ability to record textual comments at will, the supervisor is expected to also record a formal reaction to each of the unit’s objectives by selecting suitable option buttons listed under the “Supervisor Response” button. Further, the supervisor is expected to choose from the pull-down menu one of several statements summarizing his/her overall reaction to the specific objective, as written and to indicate (again by selecting an option button) whether or not the supervisor has communicated directly with the unit leader about the specific objective.

In reviewing planning objectives, two supervisor actions are particularly important:

At the outset of a planning cycle, the supervisor should review carefully each “objective’s characteristics,” located in the planner under the “objective’s characteristics” button. Here is where individual objectives may be linked directly to accreditation and professional standards, system and institutional initiatives, research findings, professional standards, and the work of other organizational units. These linkages are vital for documenting the level of importance and centrality of particular objectives to the larger institution; this documentation, in turn, is important to assist with decision-making for allocating resources, as necessary, in support of the objective. Supervisors should counsel carefully with their unit leaders about making appropriate connections for important unit objectives.

Later, toward the end of each planning cycle, and in anticipation of completing performance evaluations on unit leaders, supervisors should review carefully the unit leader’s evaluation of progress on each objective (as well as the units’ success in effecting its normal functional tasks). Evidence to these ends may be found documented behind the “Evaluate Objective” and “Evaluate Functional Task” buttons on the respective “Unit Planning Objective” and “Functional Tasks” windows. It is important that supervisors review their subordinate unit leaders’ evaluation processes and validate that they have been properly recorded.