The difference between support and supervision
Launch library · evergreen read
Support focuses on a person's wellbeing: how they are coping, what they need, and whether the work is sustainable for them over the longer term. Supervision focuses on the work itself: whether tasks are being done well and whether standards and expectations are being met consistently.
Both matter, but conflating them can undermine each in practice. A conversation meant to check in on someone's wellbeing can feel like a performance review if support and supervision are not clearly separated, which discourages the very honesty that good support depends on in the first place.
Campaigns that keep the two distinct, even informally, tend to build more trust with volunteers, since people are more willing to admit struggle when they know that admission will be met with genuine support rather than folded quietly into an assessment of their overall performance, which discourages exactly the kind of honesty a support culture depends on.