Briefly explain the qualities that a good supervisor should have.

Answers will vary. Research on manager-employee communication identifies five communication skills that distinguish good supervisors from bad ones. A good supervisor is an expressive speaker, an empathetic listener, a persuasive leader, a sensitive person, and an informative manager. Some supervisors are effective without possessing all of these skills, however, and some organizations value one or two skills over the others. But because dyadic relationships are at the core of much organization-based communication, possessing all five skills makes a supervisor that much more effective in communicating to employees. Please see the section "Communication Skills for Effective Managers" for more information.