Findings of a study that examined novice supervisors' understandings of supervision are presented in this paper. Data were collected from 110 graduate-level students enrolled in an introductory supervision class. Four themes emerged from students' definitions of supervision-domains, relationships, traits, and tasks. The most surprising finding was how adamantly respondents mentioned traits the supervisors have or should have. Four major categories of supervisory traits centered on skills, experience, knowledge, and dispositions. Novice supervisors agreed with the literature that the bifurcation of supervision and administration is artificial and erroneous. However, they identified the following tasks that are not identified in the literature--cheerleading, modeling, liaisoning, and shuffling paper. The question is raised whether the superhuman traits identified by novice supervisors are preexisting or developable. If supervisors are, like nurses, clinical practitioners, then more work needs to be done in the clinical setting of the school. This includes more field work by academic professors and experienced practitioners acting as mentors. One table and three figures are included. (Contains 35 footnotes.) (LMI)