Social Work Supervision: One Size Doesn’t Fit All

Editor’s note: This text-based course is an edited transcript of the webinar, Social Work Supervision: One Size Doesn’t Fit All, presented by Michelle Gricus, DSW, LCSW-C.

Learning Outcomes

After this course, participants will be able to:

• Match leadership styles to supervisees’ development levels.
• Consider how the spirit of motivational interviewing is beneficial to the supervisory relationship.
• Integrate motivational interviewing strategies to enhance intrinsic motivation with supervisees.

Introduction 

I am happy to be here today to share with you today's topic. In keeping with the theme of one size not fit all, I thought I would use the metaphor of shoes. Would men's size ten shoes fit you? These shoes may either be too big or too small for you. It could also be the style of the shoe that does not fit you or the context, like for a funeral or job interview. In any case, this may not be the right style of shoe. Like this shoe metaphor, a supervision style might fit some people, but it may not fit everyone.

First, we will take a look at matching leadership styles. Then, the second half of the presentation will be on motivational interviewing. If you are not familiar with motivational interviewing, I strongly encourage you to go back and watch one of the other continued.com presentations on that topic.

Part One-Supervision and Leadership

Goal of Supervision

• Haynes, Cory, and Moulton (2003): “A primary aim of supervision is to create a context in which the supervisee can acquire the experience needed to become an independent professional… carry out their goals and be a positive influence on their clients.” 

According to Haynes, Cory, and Moulton (2003), the goal of supervision is to create a context in which the supervisee can acquire the experience needed to become an independent professional, carry out their goals, and be a positive influence on their clients. As you can see in this definition, we are looking at somebody in the social services or the social work field. And, this would not always be the same definition for all types of supervisors. The definitions and the context of supervision is different depending upon roles and settings.

Goals of Clinical Supervision

• To provide…
  • …for the professional growth and development of the clinical supervisee
  • …protection for the welfare of the client so they are not harmed by the training supervisee
• To keep…
  • …a watchful eye on the supervisee’s performance to ensure the supervisee is practicing within the guidelines of the profession. 

(Haynes et al., 2003)

Furthermore, the goals of clinical supervision are to provide for the professional growth and development of the clinical supervisee and to provide protection for the welfare of the client so that they are not harmed by the training supervisee. Perhaps you are already familiar with a layer of oversight because you are a supervisor already or are working toward that supervisory level. The supervisor is responsible for the things that the supervisee does.

We also have the responsibility as clinical supervisors to keep a watchful eye on the supervisee's performance to ensure that the supervisee is practicing within the guidelines of the profession. I am interested in looking at professional behavior and what constitutes ethical and unethical behavior. Often, somebody is thought to be competent because they have done work in an area for a long time. However, this is when things can slip a little bit. The person might not need formal supervision, but they may need a checkup or a tuneup from time to time. We could all benefit from this. Supervision is going to depend on the individual, their needs, and their experience. 

Good Supervisors...

• Build relationships
• Are available
• Create learning environments toward enhancing skills
• Are nonjudgmental and supportive
• Monitor quality of work and provide timely feedback
• Challenge supervisees
• Hold supervisees accountable
• Know their role

What is a good supervisor? Are you a good supervisor? Have you had a good supervisor? What qualities come to mind when you think about that particular individual or that particular role? Let's take a look at some of the examples that are out there from several sources.

Good supervisors build relationships. Of course, we would not be in this business if we did not have good relationships and the desire to build relationships with other human beings.

Good supervisors are also available. Now, this does not mean that you have to take a phone call at three in the morning unless that is the type of work you do. Typically, this means that you have an open-door policy or are approachable when a person is having a difficult time or might need to consult during the moment instead of waiting until a scheduled supervision time.

A supervisor considered good and connected creates a learning environment that enhances skills and does not simply provide a to-do list or directing in a certain way. This is somebody who looks at what the supervisee needs and creates the environment to help them enhance the skills they currently have or may need to develop.

Good supervisors are nonjudgmental and supportive, at least outwardly. A good supervisor can assess a person's set of skills and be nonjudgmental in their approach with them. They are also supportive in variable ways. We will talk more about this when we get to some of the developmental models of supervision.

Good supervisors monitor the quality of the work and provide timely feedback. While sometimes we think that people can hear what we are thinking, that is not true. One of the best ways to support supervisees' efforts is to give them feedback in a valuable and timely way to either make repairs or continue to do what they are doing in the future. It is not helpful to get input two or three weeks after something happened when it may not even be in that person's memory or was an urgent matter at the time.

Good supervisors challenge their supervisees. When we get bored with our work, we are no longer effective. If we are not challenged, we are not going to produce our best work. A good supervisor challenges the supervisee to strengthen their skills or learn new skills beyond even what is expected of them.

Good supervisors hold supervisees accountable, and they know their role. This difference is seen in clinical supervision and administrative supervision, which we will look at in just a moment.

By knowing their role, a supervisor knows when it is a time for correction or can say, "I'm not sure you're cut out for work with this particular client." Conversely, it is essential for a supervisor to praise, acknowledge, or compliment when something is done well. Both sides of that spectrum are pivotal to an excellent supervisor-supervisee relationship.

Clinical Vs. Administrative

• Clinical
  • Professional development focus
  • Evaluates skills of supervisees’ needs and goals
  • Client and supervisee well-being
• Administrative
  • Focus on the organization’s integrity
  • Mission-focused
  • Organizational functions
  • Client well-being

Let's take a moment and look at the differences between clinical supervision and administrative supervision. Clinical supervision has a professional development focus and comes in with a set of skills. Candidates are encouraged to develop those skills further so that they may become practitioners in private practice or can be trusted to do work more independently. Clinical supervisors evaluate the skills of the supervisee's needs and their goals. They might check in regularly about how that person is doing in their goal area and the needs they have to develop. The clinical supervisor is also responsible for overseeing the well-being of both the client and the supervisee. Suppose the supervisee is not engaging with clients in a way that aligns with professional practice. In that case, that will be a challenge down the road and may cause some ethical problems, professional malpractice, or something along those lines. It is a balance for the clinical supervisor to think about the needs of the client and the needs of the supervisee.

In contrast, administrative supervision looks at the organization's integrity. How does what this individual is doing align with the job description? Is what this individual is doing matching the mission of the organization? It is looking at the reputation of the organization. An administrative supervisor is also going to be looking at the organizational functions. Is the person staying within their role? They may look at caseload numbers, budget, and how this person fits in with their responsibilities. Administrative supervisors, similar to clinical supervisors, are interested and invested in the clients' well-being because, ultimately, a social service organization serves clients. They want to mitigate complaints, make sure that clients are satisfied, and talk well about the organization out in public. This can increase the clientele being referred to the organization or wanting to stay involved in the organization. 

While there are some differences when looking at clinical versus administrative roles, there are many times where we operate in multiple capacities. Thus, you might be both an administrative supervisor and a clinical supervisor. Wearing both of these hats certainly can have its challenges as well.

Clinical Supervision

• Teacher
• Mentor
• Supporter
• Gatekeeper
• Consultant
• Developmental approaches

The focus of this presentation looks at the responsibility of a clinical supervisor, and it is essential to think about the additional roles that a clinical supervisor can take. Supervisors are teachers. A supervisee can learn from the individual by observation or, specifically, by being taught a procedure or a set of skills. Clinical supervisors can be mentors in many cases, but certainly not all. A supervisor can support what the individual is doing well and what they can continue to do to benefit clients and the supervisee themselves. Supervisors can also be gatekeepers. Supervisors can be in roles where they need to identify whether the person's skills are a good fit for the client, the agency, or the profession itself. A clinical supervisor is also a consultant. As I mentioned earlier, perhaps a supervisor is not needed formally. A clinical supervisor may be someone that you check in with regularly. These roles depend on where the person is in their process. If a person is new to the job, they will have different needs than someone who has been on the job for 20 years. This does not mean that a clinical supervisor cannot serve a purpose. And so, I am going to introduce to you a developmental approach for addressing the different needs supervisees have.

Situational Leadership Model

• Flexible, based on individual
• Competence: ability, knowledge, and skill
  • High/low
• Commitment: supervisee’s confidence and motivation; the time needed from supervisor
  • High/low

The model is not something that I created, as it has been around a long time. This model started in business, and it has applicability in clinical and administrative supervision. The Situational Leadership Model is flexible because it is based on individual needs, which can change over time. The model is based on two components of competence, defined as ability, knowledge, and skills, that can be high or low.

It is also based on commitment, defined as the supervisee's confidence and motivation to do the work. It is also connected to the amount of time needed from the supervisor, depending on what is going on for the supervisee. Like competence, commitment is measured as being low or high. We will talk about the different approaches in the high and low areas of competency and commitment. The four approaches are related to high and low commitment are listed here. 

• Four approaches:
  • Directing/teaching: not sufficiently developed and need oversight
  • Coaching/consulting: directive with some autonomy
  • Supporting/counseling: independent, active decision-maker
  • Delegating: collaborative decision-making, freedom

The first approach is directing and teaching. A person in this space is not sufficiently developed and needs a lot of oversight. This is a common experience for somebody who is brand new at a job. In a directing role, we are at the basic level of telling somebody about their tasks, informing them about the job's responsibilities, or giving clear instructions. We celebrate the positive results that a person has in their work but may also be intensively focused on the person learning the law of the land. This supervisee needs a more direct style because they do not have the confidence or competence.

The next stage is coaching or consulting. In this space, the person has some competence, and they are working on commitment. They may not be entirely sure of everything that is going on in their job. The supervisor needs to focus on tasks but can also develop a relationship with this individual. The style is less telling and more suggesting; whereas, we would see a lot more telling in the directing stage of the model. When we get to supporting and counseling, this is where we start to see a little bit of a shift.

In supporting/counseling, the person is competent at their job, but they may have some challenges in being consistent or still have low confidence in some areas. While they may have some confidence, some of the challenges may be related to motivation. They may have difficulties in maintaining the motivation that they initially had when starting the job. As supervisors, we need to check in with this person. We may no longer need to give precise instructions, but instead, we may focus on the relationship that the person has with us as a supervisor and with other team members.

The last of the areas of this particular model is the delegating model. As you would imagine, this is somebody who does not need a lot of direction or support. They are ready to take on additional responsibilities or run with something without having a lot of instruction. However, this does not mean that this person does not need supervision. The person is given autonomy but is still given praise for a job well done for new and exciting projects, especially those with outstanding performance.

In each of these cases, we see that different jobs will take on other parts of this particular model. Let's take a look at what this looks like visually in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Overview of the Situational Leadership Model. Click to enlarge the image.

We see the supportive behavior on one axis and the directive behavior on another axis. Depending on where a person is, they might be in one of these four quadrants. Now, we are going to take a look at some examples as they relate to this particular model.

Situational Leadership Model-Marilyn.

• Marilyn has been with your company for a little while now. She has learned the basics of her job rather quickly and has been able to meet deadlines and job expectations. Despite her successes, she is concerned that things are not going well, and she is fearful that she is not doing a good job.

If you are invested in figuring out these different models, go ahead and pause the recording for a moment and figure out where in the model Marilyn fits. Where would you identify her competence? Where would you see her commitment? A reminder that commitment is connected to confidence and motivation.

Marilyn can do her job very well and/or is not challenged in the competence area, but she is challenged in her confidence and the ability to do the work. We would put her in the supporting quadrant of the model (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Marilyn's model with high competence and variable commitment. Click to enlarge the image.

She has high competence but a variable commitment to what she is doing. She does not need to be told what to do, but she does need some confidence-boosting. A supervisor in this situation would focus less on the directing and more on the supporting role.

After we do a couple of these scenarios, I invite you to take a moment and think about how exactly you would provide the support to Marilyn. How would Marilyn know that you understand her needs?

Situational Leadership Model-Mark.

• Mark is relatively new to the field. He shows talent but is unsure in his new environment. He is shy, somewhat aloof, and has difficulty following through, even when a task is explained to him. 

Think about the quadrant that Mark might find himself in. Figure 3 shows Mark's model.

Figure 3. Mark's model with some competence and low commitment. Click to enlarge the image.

In this case, Mark would probably benefit from a coaching strategy. He has some competence but a low commitment. He has some difficulty following through on things. He has some talent but is not completely independent yet. What are some of the things that he needs in terms of direction? He is having difficulty following through, and we do not want to let that go by the wayside. How would we address that with him? We need to figure out how he can engage differently in work and be more successful in doing what he is doing well and those he is not doing well.

Situational Leadership Model-Francine.

• Francine has been assigned approximately 50% of her caseload, and several times her documentation has been late. Francine tells you that “once things calm down,” timeliness will get easier. You have heard from Francine’s teammates that she is often slow to return phone calls and that a couple of her clients have made complaints. 

Think about this scenario. And, at this point, you might be thinking about somebody you are supervising who is similar to Francine, Mark, or Marilyn. Thinking about Francine, where do we see what her needs are? Does she have high needs and support? Does she have high needs in direction? Figure 4 shows Francine's model.

Figure 4. Francine's model with low competence and high commitment. Click to enlarge the image.

We need to approach this from a directing standpoint as she needs a lot of direction but does not need a ton of support. She has a lot of motivation to do a good job and is confident. However, she is waiting for a magic moment when things calm down that does not exist in social work practice. As she has low competence but high commitment, we need to give her more instruction than we might for some other folks.

We are going to look at one more case, and then we will take a look at some of the things you would do to supervise and support these individuals.

Situational Leadership Model-Stephanie.

• Stephanie has been with the company for approximately 4 weeks. She has taken on tasks with enthusiasm and has followed through on new assignments with relative ease. When you have observed her in the field, she builds rapport quickly with clients. She struggles to stay within her role, however, and you recently read in her notes that she has taken a client grocery shopping and to a social event to meet people. 

Stephanie is doing things that are not aligned with her role. They might be aligned with the role you currently have, but for this case study, we will say that that is not in her role. Pause a moment if you would like to think about where Stephanie fits in, and then we can take a look at her model (Figure 5). 

Figure 5. Stephanie's model with some competence and low commitment. Click to enlarge the image.

Stephanie has some competence, but as I mentioned, she is new. She is somebody who is going to benefit from a coaching quadrant. She still needs a fair amount of direction, especially of the activities that she is doing outside of her role. She may need to have a refresher on how to do these parts of her job. Again, she might be motivated to do the job, but she is not quite there in terms of her confidence. She may not be in the same space as Mark, but she is still in the coaching quadrant because of her newness.

We took a look at several different case studies. We did not have a case study in the area of delegating. This is not because that is not important, but because we often know precisely what that looks like for an individual. Usually, the person has been there a long time and is connected with their job. You can trust them to take on new responsibilities, and that is where the delegation comes in. 

• How would you engage differently with each person according to the 4 levels of situational leadership to meet clients' needs?

How would you engage differently with each person according to the four levels of situational leadership to meet the client's needs? If you approach them the same, what would be the drawback of that? If you approach them differently, what gains might you get that you wouldn't if you applied a "one size fits all" mentality? If you find that you are struggling to consider how we would help somebody improve, we will talk about that in a moment.

How Do Supervisees Learn How To Improve?

• Direct observation
• Role/real play
• Examples: case notes, shadowing
• Training videos
• Process recordings
• Assessments/evaluations

How do supervisees improve? One way is by direct observation. The supervisee can directly observe something or even watch the interaction via a one-way mirror if this is available. The observation could also be done via the supervisee looking at progress or case notes.

Roleplay or a real play can also help as supervisee to learn. You are taking on the role of the social worker or the client so that the individual can practice. It is a little bit more specific way of learning because you can pause and say, "Let's redo that again." In comparison, a person in direct observation may hang back.

Besides the case notes, supervisees can also shadow you doing your work to know what your style is. They may have not done this work in a while. You can also go to a visit together and tag-team. They can initiate things when they feel more confident to do so.

Training videos can also be helpful. There are a lot of them out there, but you might want to watch them in their entirety before recommending them so that you know what the person is watching. You do not want them to come back and say, "That is how they did it in the video." Keep in mind that it is helpful to have a tool because the supervisee can pause and ask questions.

Recordings can be helpful in the supervisory process, especially for somebody who might get nervous doing visits with somebody watching them. A process recording means that they do not have to write down every single thing that happens. Of course, they need to get the client's permission first. They can use their phone to make a recording or whatever fits in the particular setting. Then, together you can listen and process the recording. If it is written out, you can give the supervisee feedback. The supervisee is then able to slow things down to reflect on what they are doing.

The last way that a supervisee can learn how to improve is through an assessment or an evaluation. Again, we do not want to wait until the annual review to give that person feedback. We may have a client fill out an assessment at the end of a visit or complete an evaluation at the six-month or six-week mark after a person has started. It is essential to check in regularly so that it feels much more like a helpful tool to the person than something off in the distant future.

A combination of the above ideas might be best for the supervisee, depending on what you are working on with them. It would not make sense, for example, if the person is in the delegating space to do some of these things if it is already a skill they have. However, if a person is still learning or relearning, or there is some aspect of the job that is new and different, any of these tools can help somebody in the short-term or the long-term to improve what they are doing.

Part 2-Motivational Interviewing as a Supervision Tool

We will now transition into part two of the talk, looking at motivational interviewing as a supervision tool. This section will be a different set of skills that we are going to be practicing and introducing. 

Have You Ever Heard…?

• “[Client name] keeps losing his housing. He won’t listen to me when I tell him he needs to get sober.”
• “You all are always giving us more to do. Don’t you want us to have a life?”
• “I want to complete my documentation on time, but someone is always in crisis.”

As a supervisor, you may have heard these statements from a supervisee. Hopefully, you do not hear all of these things from the same person in the same supervision meeting. What do you do in that case? How do you address these things in a way that helps the person to learn or help you understand where this individual is with this particular problem? One suggestion is to demonstrate and model motivational interviewing for your supervisees as it is a helpful strategy for approaching supervision.

Motivational Interviewing Recap

• Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a person-centered, guiding method of communication and counseling to elicit and strengthen motivation for change (Miller & Rollnick, 2013)
• “You are responsible for the intervention, not the outcome.”

This is not an introduction to motivational interviewing. Instead, it is a way to connect motivational interviewing with your supervision practice. Motivational interviewing is a person-centered guiding method of communication and counseling to elicit and strengthen motivation for change. We often think of it in terms of change that clients can do related to target behaviors like smoking or reducing drinking. It can be a helpful tool for supervision because one of the tenants of motivational interviewing is that you are responsible for the intervention, not the outcome. This is ultimately true in supervision.

MI and Supervision

• Builds an alliance with supervisees
• Uses empathetic, nonjudgmental style
• Helps supervisees minimize resistance and maximize intrinsic motivation to do their best work
• If you want supervisees to use MI, you need to model it!

Motivational interviewing can build an alliance with the supervisee. It puts you in partnership with the supervisee, as opposed to being in a top-down structure, where the person says, "I'm just doing what my supervisor says." Instead, they are engaging in things in a little bit more deliberate way. Motivational interviewing embraces an empathic, nonjudgemental style. We talked about good supervision early on as being non-judgemental. This ties in with that concept nicely. Motivational interviewing also helps supervisees to minimize resistance. If somebody comes to you and says, "Why do you not want me to have a life?" We do not want to engage in a fight with this person. Instead, we use motivational interviewing to acknowledge that pushback, probably fear, or the person wishes to make changes and do things differently. We have all been there. The idea is to minimize resistance and then maximize somebody's intrinsic motivation to do their best work. In this circumstance, intrinsic motivation is not the extrinsic motivation of "I need to do this to get a paycheck." Or, "I need to do this so that my supervisor gets off my back." Instead, it is "I want to do this because I want to improve my skills as a social worker." As with anything in our practice, if you want supervisees to use motivational interviewing, perhaps you can get training in that area or model it.

Four Processes of MI

• Engaging: Listening; striving to understand fully from the supervisee’s perspective; using OARS to understand BOTH sides of the ambivalence or dilemma)
• Focusing: Guiding supervisees to target behavior that is important to them
• Evoking: Listen for and elicit strengths, confidence, and importance regarding the supervisee’s self-awareness, client conceptualization, and intervention skills.
• Planning: Consolidating commitment by selectively reinforcing commitment language; asking key questions to determine readiness for action planning; assisting with/revisiting change plans

  • Avoid providing answers/ giving advice before working with the supervisee explore all options.

Here are the four processes of motivational interviewing. Engaging is listening to the person. A supervisee comes to you and tells you what is on their schedule for the day or things that have been on their mind. Engaging is striving to understand fully from the supervisee's perspective. We use open-ended questions, affirmations, reflections, and summaries to understand both sides of that person's ambivalence or the dilemma they are going through. They may experience an ethical dilemma about self-disclosure. "Do I tell this client about my personal history?" For example, a person may be dealing with a dilemma about custody if they work in a child protection situation. It is listening to that person as much as we can without intervening at this point.

Once we gather some information, we go to a focusing space, which guides the supervisee to target necessary behavior. What area for improvement is most beneficial for them to solve or resolve their dilemma? A person may be behind on their paperwork, and they need to catch up but it is not a priority because they need to focus on a client's emergent needs. These things can feel like conflicting ideas, but in this case, focusing will identify target behaviors by using open-ended questions, affirmations, reflections, and summaries.

We move from focusing to the evoking stage of motivational interviewing. We elicit strengths and confidence from our supervisees. We listen for self-awareness and reflection about an issue. Do they understand the clients with whom they work? What are their particular skill sets? Do they know when they are working with somebody that is beyond their skill set? Does this person feel that they have low confidence in an area, but they also understand the importance of making this change for themselves to improve going forward? These conversations can go many different places, so we want to avoid providing answers or giving advice before we find out what this person is capable of doing or what they have thought of doing. People often say, "What should I do?" We want to respond to that, not with what we believe the person should do, but instead by saying, "I'm happy to share with you what my thoughts are, but I want to know a little bit more about what you've tried." Or "Tell me a little bit more about what is stressing you about this circumstance." The evoking stage takes the most time in this motivational interviewing process. We might stop there for supervision and let the person figure out what their options are. Or, we might move into the fourth stage of motivational interviewing, which is planning.

Planning is where we hear more commitment language from the individual, like "I will do this," or "I'm going to follow up by doing these couple of steps." We will ask questions about this person's readiness to do something and problem solve with them about anything that might get in the way of that. I have worked with many people over the years, especially in the coaching space, who were struggling to complete things on time. In the planning stage, a person might say, "Yep, I'm going to do better." However, this does not set this person up for success. In the planning stage, I might say instead, "Okay, let's break that down a little bit. What do you mean?" "What are some of the steps you're going to take?" This does not mean they have to be perfect overnight. "What are the things that you will know that you can do to make progress toward the goal that we mutually have?" The person may then talk about a contingency plan if things do not work out or ways to change the plan to help it feel more manageable? Think about that just from your own life. When you go to make a change, if you say you will do something 100% of the time, you are setting yourself up. As supervisors, we can slow that process down to help the person make a plan.

MI Tools

• Processes of motivational interviewing
• E-P-E
• Importance/readiness rulers
• Responding to confidence/change talk
• Normalizing strategies

There are several tools that we can use in the course of these four stages of motivational interviewing. Again, the first is understanding those processes and slowing things down. Sometimes we do doorway supervision. The supervisee stands in the doorway and says, "What should I do in this situation?" We may only have 30 seconds and tell them what to do and move on. If the question is, "The copier is jammed, what are my next steps?" Of course, that is going to be a quick conversation. Suppose the conversation is more about developing skills connected to the person needing to do this in the future. In that case, it will be helpful for us to go through the process and identify a target behavior, evoke more information about that, and then ultimately make a plan with that person for at least a small part of that target.

We will also use the strategy introduced in motivational interviewing called E-P-E, or Elicit-Provide-Elicit. We will ask that person what they know, we provide a little bit of information, and then ask them what they thought about the information that was provided. This can happen in pretty quick ways. Modeling the strategy as opposed to "Here's what you should do" is a better strategy. Instead, I might say, "What have you heard about filing for a conservatorship for a vulnerable adult?" If the person already knows all of that information, and I am telling them everything, they will not listen. I am opening the discussion up to find out what they know and fill in the gaps.

In contrast, a supervisee may know about a particular issue, but they are curious about how the family will respond to the problem like a conservatorship. I might say, "What are your concerns about that?" This is me eliciting information. "Providing" could be giving an example of a time when I was in a similar situation as a reinforcement. Then, in the end, I would say, "What did you make of what I just shared with you?" Or "What do you think you might do with that information?" This strategy is finding out where they are and letting that person have a final contribution to that part of the conversation.

Another tool that is commonly used in motivational interviewing is importance/readiness rulers. An example is "How important is it to you to make this change on a scale of one to 10 or zero to 10," depending on how you use them. Ten is being "really important," and one is being "not at all important." We can also do that with readiness. "How ready do you feel to execute this plan we've talked about today to be able to turn your documentation in on time?" "How important is it to you to improve on this particular skill to be able to work with this client?" Finding out that number is not the only part. What we are doing from there is then asking that person, "What puts you at an eight and not a seven?" Or, "What would it take to get you from an eight to a nine?" The number in and of itself is not helpful if it is just on its own. We want to continue that conversation.

When we hear change talk, we want to respond appropriately. We are going to talk a little bit more about that in just a few moments.

Finally, there is the idea of normalizing strategies. I will introduce them a little bit here as well. I will give you some examples, and then we will talk about them a little bit further.

Motivational Interviewing Examples

• “[Client’s name] keeps losing his housing. He won’t listen to me when I tell him he needs to get sober.”
  • “[Client’s name] continues to drink despite the consequences to his housing.”
• “You guys are always giving us more to do. Don’t you want us to have a life?”
  • “You’re having a difficult time balancing your work tasks right now.”
• “I want to complete my documentation on time, but someone is always in crisis.”
  • “You care about the people you work with and prioritize them over your deadlines.”

Let's go back to the statements that we had before. "Person keeps losing his housing. He won't listen to me when I tell him he needs to get sober." We could take the approach of telling this person what to do, or we might respond with a reflection. With my response, I am empathizing the circumstances. I am reflecting and trying to get the individual shift a little bit out of their thought processes. Their statement initially would be considered as resistance or sustain talk, using motivational interviewing language. My response then is going to be to use a reflection.

"You guys are always giving us more to do. Don't you want us to have a life?" I may say, "You're having a difficult time balancing your work tasks right now."

Lastly, "I want to complete my documentation on time, but someone is always in crisis." I could respond, "You care about the people you work with and prioritize them over your deadlines."

Elicit-Provide-Elicit

• Elicit: Permission, person’s readiness, interest, current understanding
• Provide: Information in a nonjudgmental manner 
• Elicit: How did the supervisee receive the information?

Each of these is a skill of reflecting what we are hearing. If we take these same examples using an elicit-provide-elicit strategy, we elicit the person's permission to share information with them. We might be finding out where the person's readiness is or looking at their current understanding of the circumstances—going back to the example of a person wanting to feel like they have a life. They want that work-life balance. "When you say that things are stressful for you, give me an example of the last stressful day that you had." I am not judging them, but I am simply trying to understand them a little bit more. I am providing some information in a nonjudgmental manner. The number of hours or clients that person needs to see in a day may not be where this person is. They may be supposed to see five people a day, but they only see three people a day. So there is a bit of a disconnect. This person is stressed out and is not meeting the expectations of their work. "I completely validate what you are saying and know you are not quite meeting the standards."

Using a Ruler

• How important is it to you to learn MI?
• How confident are you that you are guiding others in the use of MI?
  • What puts you at a ___ and not a ____?
  • What do you need to bring you to a ___?
• How ready are you to do what you need to do to get to that number?

You are thinking about the ruler strategy. If a person is feeling stressed in their job or if a person is having a difficult time connecting with people, are they using the skills and strategies that you've talked about with them? How confident are you that you are guiding others in the use of motivational interviewing? And, how ready are you to do what you need to do to get to whatever that number is?

Using these rulers can be helpful to engage a person and model how they can use motivational interviewing in the field if that is something that you have trained folks on. You may have a circumstance where someone says, "I think you're motivational interviewing me right now." I always say, "That is fantastic that you can recognize and acknowledge that I am using the skills that we have talked about. You are changing this into more of an affirmation instead of a place of defensiveness."

Responding to Confidence Talk 

• When you hear confidence talk, it is important to respond in a manner that supports & strengthens it.
• Use OARS
• Raise problems & challenges –
  • “What might you do if…?”
  • “How could you respond if…?”
  • “What do you think would happen if…?”
• People are reluctant to commit to making a change unless they have some confidence that it is possible.

When you hear confidence talk, you want to respond in a way that supports and strengthens that. Tying this back to what we discussed earlier, when a person has a low commitment, they need to be built up. One strategy would be to use open-ended questions, affirmations, reflections, and summaries to elicit more confidence talk. "What might you do if you were in this situation?" "How could you respond if you were in this situation?" "What do you think would happen if...?" These types of "if" questions can help a person identify their options and strengthen that they have the skills. It may just be difficult for them to think about it at the moment. Slowing down can be beneficial to the overall relationship you and your supervisee have and a good predictor of what this person can do out in the field.

People fear that they cannot make a change unless they have some confidence that they can do that. I want you to think about that for yourself. When was the last time you tried to make a change? If your confidence is at a one, it is probably not going to go very well. Our job as supervisors is not to embolden people to have false confidence in themselves but to help them figure out how they can pull out their strengths and abilities.

Recognizing Change Talk: DARN-CAT

• Desire for change
• Ability to change
• Reasons for change
• Need for change
• Commitment for change
• Activation for change
• Taking steps towards change

We can help recognize change talk, whether it is about getting documentation in on time, dealing with the stress of the job, or dealing with clients who are in situations ahead of where the social worker is. We can do that by listening to these types of statements. One is a desire for change. "I do not want to be stressed out at work anymore." The ability to change is another. "I know I've had times when I've turned my documentation in on time, and it's just been a while." We are listening carefully because there is some low confidence but also hearing some ability. The reasons and the needs for change are personal for the person and might be related to their professional responsibilities. The commitment to change is next. "I am going to do this. Or, "I bet I could do this if I stopped on the way home and picked up this particular tool." When we think about the DARN CAT, the last steps are recognizing change talk activation and taking steps towards change. "I took into consideration what we talked about last time, and I was able to do something different to get my documentation turned in on time." Or, "I talked with the client about what we discussed, and they responded very differently than they normally do." They have started to take some steps to that change. We can listen to that and then respond appropriately.

Responding/Modeling

• Goal: Increase change talk, reduce sustain talk
  • When you hear change talk, respond with an open-ended question.
  • When you hear sustain talk, respond with a simple or complex reflection.

The general rule in motivational interviewing, whether in the field or supervision, is to increase change talk and reduce sustain talk. When we hear change talk, we want to respond with an open-ended question. When we hear sustained talk, we want to respond with a simple or complex reflection. This is not a 100% rule, but it is a helpful thing that I keep in the back of my mind when I use motivational interviewing strategies with supervisees, clients, and students. 

Normalizing Strategies

• Normalizing– “It’s common to feel overwhelmed in the beginning of any job, even if you’ve had a similar position somewhere else.”
• Bracketing— “People use a range of self-disclosure with clients. Some will share very little even when asked, and others may share everything but their Social Security number. What is your pattern of self-disclosure?”
• Sequencing questions— “What kind of student were you in college? What sorts of struggles did you have in school? Tell me about the areas in which you excelled? Often, college is when folks are responsible for their own time for the first time. What was your experience with deadlines and due dates at that time in your life?”

Normalizing is when we help a person not feel alone in whatever they are dealing with as a supervisee. It is common to feel overwhelmed at the beginning of any job, even if you have had a similar position elsewhere. A person's experiences are unique to them, but sometimes by normalizing, we can lessen the load for that person or make them not feel so alone. The possibility for change becomes possible when they think, "Yeah, I'm not alone in this. I have confidence now because I know this person, and they have gone through that as well."

Another strategy similar to the normalizing idea is through bracketing, where we take an idea and give it a bit of a range. People use a range of self-disclosure with clients. For example, some will share very little even when asked, while others may share everything, even their social security number. What's your pattern of self-disclosure? This might be a good strategy with the individual we talked about in the first half who is going a little bit outside of their role. Some people help out clients in many different ways, and others only offer to assist when a client has asked. Where do you see yourself fitting in there? Again, that is a starting place to a conversation. However, it will reduce sustain talk, and it will open a person up to reflect a little bit more on their practices. 

Another strategy is sequencing. Asking a series of questions all at once is not always a fantastic strategy. You have to be skillful in this. I might say, "What kind of student were you in college?" Or, "What sort of struggles did you have in school? Tell me about the areas in which you excelled." I might ask all these together, or I might ask them individually. The person might think, "Where the heck are you going with this?" I might add, "College is when folks are responsible for their own time for the first time. What was your experience with deadlines and due dates at that time of your life?" This is connecting this back to timeliness. The person may say, "Oh my gosh. In college, I was on time all the time." Perhaps they feel overwhelmed and would love to get back to that point, but they are not quite there right now. That is fine, but digging into that a little more is a valuable benefit and outcome of the sequencing question.

Normalizing Behavior Examples

• Anger management
• Late documentation
• Inappropriate use of self
• Policy violation

Here are some examples of times where normalizing behaviors (those examples that I just shared) might be helpful. Anger management may be beneficial if a person has some extensive responses to a client's situation and personalizing things. Other behaviors are late documentation, inappropriate use of self, or a policy violation. Nobody follows every rule all the time. What are the ways that you can couch a policy violation and connect it to something else in that person's life?

Summary

1. Match leadership styles to supervisees’ development levels.
2. Consider how the spirit of motivational interviewing is beneficial to the supervisory relationship.
3. Integrate motivational interviewing strategies to enhance intrinsic motivation with supervisees.

We have talked about a lot of different things in this particular presentation. I hope that you are not feeling overwhelmed. If any of these strategies end up working for you, I encourage you to keep practicing them because each supervisee will be different, as we have discussed. In summary, we need to match leadership styles to the supervisees' development levels. Whether they have been with you for a month or five years, it is vital to consider the spirit of motivational interviewing and how it can be beneficial to the supervisor relationship to enhance intrinsic motivation and help with job performance externally. In closing, remember not all of us can fit into the same shoes, and not all of us will benefit from the same type of supervision.

I appreciate your time today and encourage you to check out the references at the end of this presentation.

Questions and Answers

When thinking about this strategy or model for supervision, is there a particular area of social work practice that you have seen that works best?

That is a great question. My experience is working in community mental health, with folks doing home visits and those coming into drop-in centers. People come from all different walks of life to do the work. They may have worked many years as a case manager. Thus, they have confidence in their abilities, but they are in a new job or did things a little bit differently at other places. 

Moderator: As I was listening, I automatically thought about DCS. I was thinking about that environment and this type of supervision in that environment. So, community mental health and DCs are a lot alike.

Do you think this is beneficial when we are working with students in practicums and internships?

Yes, I do. Students can benefit from seeing that they are not just vessels to be filled up. In field instruction, we can often model for somebody to apply this to their classroom learning and personal experiences. Do they need directing? Do they need support? Students can get nervous that they will mess somebody up, and their confidence can be below. Their competence can be okay because we are giving them tools on a developmental scale. So, I think that it can be beneficial for students.

Motivational interviewing can also be helpful because we are modeling a different way of doing things and treating a student like a partner. Remember, a few months from then, they may be your colleague, and we do not want supervision to be extraordinarily different than when they are in the workplace.

I use motivational interviewing strategies with students that I work with at Hood College reasonably regularly. They come to me and say, "I'm failing a class." I do not just say, "Well, stop failing a class." Instead, I talk with them about the different strategies that they are using and discuss their confidence. I think that there is applicability for students and employees alike.

Do you have a timeframe for how long before we consider somebody to be a supervisor?

Many people are good at their job but are not great as a supervisor. Supervision is an entirely different set of skills. And unless somebody takes a specific class in their graduate school about supervision, they do not learn how to do that job. What happens a lot of times is that social workers who become supervisors too early only have their own experiences to base their feedback on. I think supervisors must get training on how to do that. They can also become enmeshed in what their supervisors are doing because they take on so much responsibility. The supervisor may be doing it differently than they would have done. Instead, there are a lot of different ways to get to the same outcome. There are some deficit areas in social services and social work because we think that only the best and brightest become supervisors without setting them up for success in that role.

Are there any resources for people who aspire to be supervisors or are currently supervisors and want to get better in that role?

The internet is a great resource. It is crucial to identify the differences between an administrative supervisor versus a clinical supervisor and understanding those roles. I think other resources can be found internally by looking at an agency's policies and procedures. This sounds like a nerdy way of spending your time, but I think the more you can familiarize yourself with those things, the more likely you are to coach other people when things are not quite where they need to be. Training can also be helpful in this area, like continuing education. In the state I am licensed in, we have clinical supervision hours, specifically continuing education. I think doing not just the minimum of those things but going to sessions focused on skill areas you want to develop is critical. Another resource is having your supervision consultation group so that you are not alone. Before getting into higher education, I was fortunate to have a consultation group of supervisors who had a similar job with a similar clientele. It was helpful to say, "Hey, I'm working with the supervisee..." The information was always confidential. We could compare strategies as I discussed here today, like motivational interviewing and understanding where that person is developmentally. All of those things can be helpful. We all need outside consultation from time to time, no matter what our jobs are.

References

Bedford, C., & Gehlert, K. M. (2013). Situational supervision: Applying situational leadership to clinical supervision. The Clinical Supervisor, 32(1), 56–69.  https://doi.org/10.1080/07325223.2013.778727

Clarke, P. B., & Giordano, A. L. (2013). The motivational supervisor: Motivational interviewing as a clinical supervision approach. The Clinical Supervisor, 32(2), 244-259.

Hagler, M. A. (2020). LGBQ-affirming and-nonaffirming supervision: Perspectives from a queer trainee. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, 30(1), 76-83. 

Haynes, R., Corey, G., & Moulton, P. (2003). Clinical supervision in the helping professions: A practical guide. Pacific Grove, CA: Thomson Learning.

Hohman, M. (2021). Motivational interviewing in social work practice. Guilford Publications.

Kozachuk, L. A., & Conley, A. H. (2021). Development-oriented situational supervision: a leadership approach to supervision in counselor education. Journal of Counselor Leadership & Advocacy, 8(1), 44–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/2326716X.2020.1835586

Rankine, M. (2019). The ‘thinking aloud’ process: A way forward in social work supervision. Reflective Practice, 20(1), 97-110.  https://doi.org/10.1080/14623943.2018.1564651 

Wahesh, E. (2016). Utilizing motivational interviewing to address resistant behaviors in clinical supervision. Counselor Education and Supervision, 55(1), 46-59. https://doi.org/10.1002/ceas.12032

Zuñiga-Collazos, A., Castillo-Palacio, M., Montaña-Narváez, E. &   Castillo-Arévalo, G. (2020) Influence of managerial coaching on organisational performance. Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, 13(1), 30-44.   https://doi.org/10.1080/17521882.2019.1619795