Recommendations for Detecting and Addressing Barriers to Successful Supervision

Abstract

Behavior analysts who supervise staff are responsible for establishing a healthy supervisory relationship and for teaching basic behavior analytic skills (e.g., verbal repertoires, technical repertoires, clinical decision-making). In addition, supervisors should prepare their supervisees to succeed in their subsequent professional activities by developing their interpersonal skills and professionalism repertoires. Difficulties in the supervisor relationship and problematic personal and professional skills often become the focus of targeted supervision efforts after the effects of deficits (e.g., avoidance of supervision, complaints from consumers, persistent tardiness) are detected. The primary purpose of this paper is to provide guidance to the supervisor's effort to identify and address barriers to successful supervision related to a damaged supervisory relationship and persistent interpersonal and professional skills of the supervisee. A secondary purpose of this paper is to act as a general call to supervisors to continually and thoughtfully reflect on their own history, repertoires, and behavior, such that they may continue professional growth as supervisors.

Supervision for Certification in the Field of Applied Behaviour Analysis: Characteristics and Relationship with Job Satisfaction, Burnout, Work Demands, and Support

“…Evidence-based effective methods of training professionals in the use of behaviour-analytic procedures have been well established, and should form the basis of a structured supervision curriculum that is acceptable to staff members and includes performance- and competence-based training delivered in didactic and real-life work settings [20,21,22]. This endeavour could be pursued by a variety of means, such as through the establishment of reading groups aiming to enhance knowledge among human service practitioners or through the use of technology as a cost effective means of increasing collegial support [23,24].…”

Cultivating the Ethical Repertoires of Behavior Analysts: Prevention of Common Violations

“…As the supervisor and trainee continue the supervision relationship, it will be important to ensure that both parties uphold the expectations set forth in the contract. Sellers, LeBlanc, and Valentino (Sellers, LeBlanc, & Valentino, 2016a ) provided recommendations for detecting and addressing concerns in the supervision relationship. These authors highlighted the importance of addressing issues as soon as they appear.…”

“…These authors highlighted the importance of addressing issues as soon as they appear. They discussed the risk of the supervisor engaging in avoidance behaviors, such as ignoring the problems or discontinuing the supervision relationship, as opposed to addressing the concerns directly with the trainee (Sellers, LeBlanc, & Valentino, 2016a ).…”

How to Identify Ethical Practices in Organizations Prior to Employment

“…The behavior analyst may also inquire about the organizational practices for supervising employees (see Sellers, Alai-Rosales, & MacDonald, 2016 for a list of supervision practices that align with the BACB® Code). Furthermore, the behavior analyst may ask how interpersonal problems that occur between supervisors and supervisees are addressed and resolved within the organization (see Sellers, LeBlanc, & Valentino, 2016).…”

“…How are interpersonal problems, between supervisors and supervisees, addressed within the organization? Purpose: To understand systems for conflict resolution within the organization (Sellers, LeBlanc, & Valentino, 2016). (Brodhead, 2015;Cox, 2012;Newhouse-Oisten et al, 2017).…”