Dear Master Interpreter – Fall 2024/Winter 2025

Your questions answered!

Dear Master Interpreter:

I am a lead person for a group of employees in a lower classification than I but I’m not their supervisor. I don’t understand the difference between a lead person and a supervisor. I want to be sure to do my job but not “over” do it in my lead person capacity. Thanks for clarifying!

—Leading The Way (but not supervising)

Dear Leading The Way:

This question is common in the state park interpretation world as so few classifications technically have supervisory authority. That said, there is a great need for leadership in the interpretive ranks and this can be accomplished through giving an employee “Lead person” responsibility.

Our colleagues in HR have shared with us a breakdown between the different responsibilities of these two roles. I’ve included that below.

It’s important to note that only the supervisor has final decision making authority and signs documents on behalf of the department such as time sheets and employee evaluations (Leads can conduct RAPPORT evaluations). Thank you for your leadership role. I encourage you to seek out training opportunities both within and outside of the department to hone your leadership skills.

Gratefully yours,

—Master Interpreter

Supervisor Responsibilities

• Direct Authority and Accountability: Supervisors have formal authority to hire, assign, discipline, and evaluate employees. They are accountable for the performance and outcomes of their team members and make decisions that affect personnel actions.
• Employee Management: Supervisors are responsible for creating and maintaining a productive work environment, which includes setting performance expectations, evaluating performance, providing feedback, and addressing disciplinary issues if needed.
• Resource Allocation and Planning: Supervisors often allocate resources, approve leave requests, manage schedules, and oversee the distribution of workloads among employees.
• Policy and Procedure Implementation: Supervisors ensure that their team follows departmental and state policies and procedures, and they implement and enforce these guidelines within their unit.
• Higher Level of Responsibility: Supervisors have a higher level of accountability and responsibility to manage risk, make decisions, and contribute to the overall direction of their team’s objectives within the organization.

Lead Responsibilities

• Informal Guidance and Coordination: Lead workers, sometimes called “lead persons,” do not have formal supervisory authority (such as hiring or disciplinary power) but are tasked with providing guidance and coordinating the work of peers. They assist in directing daily activities and serve as a point of reference for others in their team.
• Mentorship and Support: Leads help develop skills and support other team members by providing informal training, answering questions, and guiding them through complex tasks. They play a key role in skill-building and support without holding formal authority over their peers.
• Task Delegation (Without Managerial Authority): Leads may help assign tasks or coordinate project work, but they do not have the authority to discipline, formally evaluate, or take personnel actions.
• Ensuring Task Completion: Leads help ensure that tasks are completed according to timelines and quality standards but do so by coordinating efforts rather than exercising formal decision-making power over other employees.
• Liaison Role: Leads often serve as the communication bridge between the supervisor and the team, relaying information, updates, and guidance to ensure smooth operations.

Key Differences

• Decision-Making Authority: Supervisors have formal decision-making and personnel management authority; leads do not.
• Accountability: Supervisors are responsible for the team’s performance and outcomes, while leads are responsible for supporting task completion but are not held accountable for personnel actions.
• Role Focus: Supervisors focus on management and enforcing policies, while leads focus on supporting, coordinating, and mentoring their team without direct authority.

Dear Master Interpreter:

I am an interpreter assigned to oversee a docent program of approximately 50 active docents. Each year additional docents arrive while some leave. As our season gets into full gear for school group tours, I’m fretting over my responsibility to evaluate my docents.  I often receive rave reviews from teachers and visitors about my docents, yet I also get occasional complaints and have even overheard some misinformation.  I am feeling overwhelmed as I just don’t have the capacity to do a standard RAPPORT evaluation on each docent and yet I know I need to get a handle on the quality of their interpretive tours. What should I do?

—Feeling Overwhelmed

  Dear Feeling Overwhelmed:

It’s understandable that you are struggling with the magnitude of this daunting task to evaluate all your docents. Given your workload, you may only have time to complete a standard RAPPORT on a few of your most active docents. There are other tools you can use from “The Aiming for Excellence” Evaluation Handbook (2009) to stay on top of evaluating your docents and still keep an eye on their performance. You’ll find the section for “Docent Evaluation” begins on page 7.

I suggest you require every docent to complete a self-RAPPORT evaluation DPR461d within the first month of their season or after they have completed training. This detailed form reminds docents of the rubric required for an effective interpretive program. The questions on the form (such as “Did my presentation have an introduction, body and conclusion?”) will lead the docent to self-evaluate and discover areas where they need to improve.  Ask docents to send you a copy of the self-evaluation so that you can understand their strengths and weaknesses from their perspective and provide resources accordingly.

Another option for a well-established docent program with strong mentorship is to facilitate peer evaluations with the standard RAPPORT form. Be very selective as to who participates in this program since you will be relying on these mentor docents to carry forth the standards required for excellent interpretation. To that end, you’ll want to provide some materials and have some discussions with the mentor docents about coaching techniques and the proper method for evaluating.

Audience RAPPORTS should be distributed frequently, and this also gives you an idea of who is doing a great job and deserves validation and who could use more support and guidance.

Most importantly, don’t let this daunting task take over so that you don’t do any standard RAPPORT evaluations.  Aim for a reasonable number per month or per year and eventually you may get close to evaluating many of your long-time docents. Validation is equally important to the success of your program as are recommended improvements, so be sure to get to those shining stars as well! They may then fit into the role of a mentor docent.

Hang in there Overwhelmed- you’ve got this!

In admiration of your work,

—Master Interpreter

Send your questions for the Master Interpreter to interpretation.staff@parks.ca.gov