A recent (temporary?) shift in roles at work means that I know have direct reports, for only the second time in my career. The first time was during the "dot-com" boom when there was a large amount of turnover and a highly-competitive recruiting environment. Within the space of a month, two people left my small group of 6, and I was the only person who could inherit their roles. Greatly overworked, that 5-month experience was not pleasant and made me feel like I did not do a good job as a supervisor.
This time, I feel more comfortable in the role and don't feel as overwhelmed, but at the same time most of my responsibilities are not as a supervisor. Mostly, I'm liaison to our client management, working on presentations or analyses, and interfacing with our India team on various escalated issues. So I haven't really been able to devote a whole lot of time to being a supervisor to my direct reports; instead, I am relying on their abilities to self-manage most of their day-to-day activities. That has worked out OK.
I have noticed one curious thing - I think one of my new direct reports is giving me the "boss laugh". I like to think I'm reasonably amusing at times, but sometimes I think this person is laughing too readily at my only marginally funny comments. It may be this person is an easy laugher, but that's not the impression I get.