- What are you worried about? Why do you want this person or task supervised?
- How much time and effort will the recording and reporting cost the person being supervised?
- How much motivation and goodwill?
- Is the supervision actually going to happen the way you think? How much time and effort will reading the reports, checking the output, meeting with the person being supervised cost the supervisor?
- Who will supervise the supervisor?
- What other costs are there?
- Besides the supervisor knowing what’s going on, what positive things will come out of this?
Accountability is necessary, and supervision can be helpful… but a lot of the time it isn’t. And the cost of supervision is often far more than we think in terms of time, mental overhead and money.
If you can’t do it well, and if the benefits don’t significantly outweigh the costs, don’t do anything until you’ve found a better way.