Supervisory staff lofty around group's leader (10)
I believe the answer is:
managerial
'supervisory' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Perhaps you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'staff lofty around group's leader' is the wordplay.
'staff' becomes 'man' (as in staffing or manning a particular place).
'lofty' becomes 'aerial' (I've seen this in another clue).
'around' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'leader' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'group' is 'g'.
'aerial' going around 'g' is 'agerial'.
'man'+'agerial'='MANAGERIAL'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for managerial that I've seen before include "In administrative control" , "of top staff" , "executive" , "On board" .)