Supervision Skills
A Learning and Development Manual
Neil Thompson
and
Peter Gilbert
Learning for Practice
4 St George’s House Uplyme Road Lyme Regis Dorset DT7 3LS Tel: 01297 443948 Fax: 01297 442722 e-mail: [email protected]
© Neil Thompson and Peter Gilbert 2011
The moral right of Neil Thompson and Peter Gilbert to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Please see page xi for the special and restricted photocopying permission granted for this work and the electronic supply of the worksheets and presentation slides. Otherwise, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright holder and the publisher, or without a licence permitting copying in the UK issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London, EC1N 8TS
British Library Cataloguing-in-publication Data:
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-905541-62-1
Editing and layout: Avenue Media Solutions, Wrexham
Printed by: IQ Laserpress, Aldershot
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Contents
Preface
Who is this manual for?
Series Editor’s Foreword
About the Learning for Practice series About this manual
The series editor The authors
Introduction
What is supervision? How to use this manual Structure
Photocopying permissions for the use of the worksheets, handouts, presentation slides and guide for new supervisors Electronic supply of the worksheets, handouts, presentation slides and guide for new supervisors
Part One: Setting the Context
Introduction
What is ‘human resource development’? Lifelong learning
Investing in people Making supervision work Troubleshooting
What about the supervisor’s development? Conclusion
Part Two: The Exercises
Introduction A note on timing
Experiences of Supervision Induction
Preparing for Supervision
Worksheet: Preparing for Supervision Beginnings and Endings
Worksheet: Beginnings and Endings Giving Feedback
Worksheet: Giving Feedback Helping People Learn
Hopes and Fears
Worksheet: Hopes and Fears Part 1 Worksheet: Hopes and Fears Part 2 Giving support
Mediation
Problems in Supervision
Destructive Processes in Supervision
v v vi vi vi vii viii ix ix ix x xi xii 1 1 2 5 7 8 11 13 14 15 15 15 16 18 20 22 23 24 25 27 28 29 31 32 33 35 37 39
Worksheet: Destructive Processes in Supervision Quotes
Worksheet: Quotes
The Balance of Support and Challenge Good Management vs. Bullying
The Four Elements of Supervision Recording Supervision
Handout: Recording Supervision
Handout: Recording Supervision (Presenter’s version) Worksheet: Recording Supervision
Managing Poor Performance
Worksheet: Managing Poor Performance Promoting Anti-Discriminatory Practice
Worksheet: Promoting Anti-Discriminatory Practice Developing Reflective Practice
Worksheet: Developing Reflective Practice Avoiding the Drama Triangle
Handout: Avoiding the Drama Triangle Worksheet: Avoiding the Drama Triangle
Part Three: Conclusion
Recommended reading Organisations and websites References
Appendix: Presentation Slides and Guide for New Supervisors
Presentation Slides
Guide for New Supervisors
Electronic supply of the worksheets, handouts, presentation slides and guide for new supervisors
40 41 42 43 45 47 48 49 50 53 54 56 57 58 60 61 62 63 64 65 67 70 71 73 74 87 95
Preface
Getting the best out of staff owes so much to the skill and commitment of the supervisor. An effective supervisor is able to create win-win situations where everybody is happy: the employee fulfils their potential; the employers get the best return on their investment; and people who use the organisation’s services benefit from the quality of the staff member’s practice.
This important manual in the Learning for Practice series shows that supervison is not simply a matter of making sure that the supervisee is doing their job properly. It also involves helping staff achieve the best quality of or work that they are capable of by maximising learning, promoting high levels of well-being and addressing any conflicts, tensions or other obstacles to optimal practice.
The manual provides background information about the role and significance of supervision and a set of learning exercises carefully designed to promote professional develpment. Anyone interested in promoting learning about supervison skills will find much of interest and use in this clear and well-written set of reseources. Effective supervison is an important foundation of good practice, and this maual provides a sound foundation for helping supervisors develop the skills they need to do their job to the best of their ability.
Who is the manual for?
Actual and aspiring supervisors and leaders, and those involved in training and support-ing them, would be the obvious answer, perhaps. This would include:
• team leaders or team managers or others involved in supervising and leading groups of staff (section heads, for example);
• senior managers, both operational and strategic;
• staff in Personnel or Human Resources teams who are responsible for advising others on supervision and leadership matters; and
• councillors, trustees, directors and others involved in policy development, implementation and review.
The manual will be of value in a wide range of organisations across the private, public and voluntary sectors. It is perhaps inevitable that, at times, the authors’ public service background will be apparent, but this should not detract from the fact that supervision is an important issue across all organisations, regardless of sector or type.
We envisage the manual being used by two main groups of people. First, there will be those whose duties include organising and running training courses, workshops and seminars. This is likely to be either in-house training and development staff, such as training managers, staff development officers and so on, or those who provide training services on a commercial basis, whether individual freelance trainers or employees or associates of commercial training provider companies.
Series Editor’s Foreword
About the
Learning for Practice
series
Education and training are essential underpinnings of high-quality professional practice. This series of learning and development manuals is therefore intended to provide foundations for promoting learning across the helping professions. Each manual offers guidance for new and experienced trainers alike, for managers and supervisors
interested in promoting learning within their team or area of responsibility and for college or university lecturers wanting to go beyond simply delivering lectures.
The series has grown out of the Russell House Theory into Practice series of books which has been so successful in providing clear, short introductions to particular areas of theory as they apply to practice. Some of the manuals in this series are based on the issues covered in one or more of the books in that series, while other manuals have no direct connection with the series – although they all share a commitment to making an understanding of theory and professional knowledge more broadly accessible for practitioners and managers in order to try and make sure that our practice is informed
practice.
The authors contributing to the series have a wealth of experience and expertise in promoting learning. Each manual therefore offers important insights, ideas and guidance that should be of great benefit in delivering high-quality learning and development
events.
Experienced trainers, tutors and managers used to acting as learning facilitators should find the materials presented and the guidance given relatively straightforward. People with relatively little experience of running learning events will find the materials and guidance helpful, but may need additional support to translate the ideas given into successful learning outcomes. Such support may involve the backing of a more experi-enced colleague or the use of books and manuals specifically about running successful learning events, or indeed a combination of the two. So, whether experienced or not, this manual should offer a firm foundation on which to build.
About this manual
Supervision is a process which, at its best, can empower employees to fulfil their poten-tial and to achieve optimal outcomes, making it a positive thing for all concerned: the individual employee, the supervisor – and management team generally – the organisa-tion as a whole and its clients/service users/patients. At its worst it can be an oppressive, unproductive process of ‘cat and mouse’ where the supervisor simply tries to ‘check up’ on the supervisee to make sure they are doing their job properly while the latter does everything they can to avoid their attentions. This manual has been written to help make sure that supervision comes much closer to the former ideal than to the latter ordeal.
Many supervisors are fortunate in that they have received high-quality supervision and are therefore well placed to put into practice what they have learned from such a positive experience. Others will have had a less positive experience of supervision, but there is still much learning to be gained from that, from looking at what has not been so helpful about the supervision received in order to try and make sure that the mistakes made are not repeated in a new generation of supervisors. Yet others may have had no exper-ience of having received supervision and now find themselves in a position to give it without necessarily understanding what it involves or how it is supposed to work. This manual should offer a valuable platform for learning for all these supervisors, building on experiences of what works well, and should therefore be used to the full, and what does not work well at all, and should therefore be avoided.
So, if you are in the business of helping supervisors develop their knowledge, skills and confidence, this manual should have a great deal of appeal for you.
Please note that this manual includes materials that were previously published by Learning Curve Publishing in a training manual about supervision and leadership skills.
Neil Thompson, series editor
The series editor
Neil Thompsonis a Director of Avenue Consulting Ltd, a company offering training and consultancy across the ‘people professions’ – that is, the helping professions plus management, supervision and leadership more broadly (www.avenueconsulting.co.uk). He has held full or honorary professorial positions at four UK universities and is now a sought-after trainer, consultant and conference speaker.
Neil has qualifications in social work; training and development; mediation and
alternative dispute resolution; and management (MBA) as well as a first-class honours degree, a doctorate and a higher doctorate. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the Higher Education Academy and the Royal Society of Arts, as well as a Life Fellow of the Institute of Welsh Affairs. In addition, he is a member of the International Work Group on Death, Dying and Bereavement.
Neil is a highly respected author, with over 150 publications to his name, including several bestselling books. He is the editor of the US-based international journal,Illness, Crisis & Lossand also edits the monthly e-bulletin, Well-being(www.well-being.org.uk). He has been a speaker at conferences and seminars in the UK, Ireland, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Norway, Greece, India, Hong Kong, Canada, the United States and Australia. He is the series editor for the Russell House Theory into Practice series of books. His website is at www.neilthompson.info.
He is also the editor-in-chief of two online resources.
Well-being Zone www.well-beingzone.com
Social WorkFocus www.socialworkfocus.com
Prospective authors wishing to make a contribution to theLearning for Practice series should contact Neil via his company website, www.avenueconsulting.co.uk
The authors
Neil Thompsonhas extensive experience of supervising staff and students. He also has over 25 years’ experience of helping groups of learners to take their learning forward. In this manual he draws on this vast experience to offer readers a sound foundation of understanding of what is involved in high-quality supervision and what pitfalls need to be avoided. Neil’s experience as an expert witness for over 13 years has taught him that the difference between acceptable and unacceptable levels of pro-fessional practice often comes down to the quality of supervision. He has also learned that the difference between ‘good enough’ practice and optimal practice is also often down to the quality of the supervision on offer.
Peter Gilbertis Emeritus Professor of Social Work and Spirituality at Staffordshire Uni-versity, and Visiting Professor with both Birmingham and Solihull NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Worcester. Peter was the NIMHE project lead on spirituality from its inception to 31st March, 2008, and now works to the National Spirituality and Mental Health Forum. From 2008 to 2010 he was chair of the National Development Team for Inclusion. A former Director of Social Services for Worcestershire, Peter is a registered social worker with 13 years of direct practice. Between 2003 and 2006 he was NIMHE/ SCIE Fellow in Social Care with Professor Nick Gould, and is now a member of the NMHDU’s Equalities Programme Board..
Peter’s first career was in the army. He was principal social worker in one of the old ins-titutions; and has worked with, and managed services for, all user groups. He was very involved in partnership working in both Staffordshire as Director of Operations, and Worcestershire as Director, initiating service user, carer and advocacy fora. In the 1980s he specialised in learning disability and mental health, publishing several books on work-ing with people with learnwork-ing disabilities and their families (inc Managwork-ing to Care, with Terry Scragg, 1992).
Having experienced an episode of depression in 2000/1 Peter is very committed to an holistic and person-centred approach, and the integration of personal experience.
Peter is signed up to ensuring the integration of theory with practice, and as such has served on several national groups, such as the former CSCI Mental Health Improvement Board, and the Social Perspectives Network. Peter is an associate member of ADASS and ADSS (Cymru), and wrote the national ADSS/NIMHE guidance on the integration of mental health services. In 2008 he published: Guidelines on Spirituality for Staff in Acute Care Services (Staffordshire University) for NIMHE/CSIP. He is national facilitator for the National Social Care Strategic Network.
Peter published: Leadership: Being Effective and Remaining Human, in 2005, and he and his co-editors published: Spirituality, Values and Mental Health: Jewels for the Jour-neyin 2007. He co-authored a SCIE position paper on leadership and personalisation in 2009. His latest publications are: Social Work and Mental Health: The Value of Every-thing(with colleagues) in 2010; a leadership development pack, with Neil Thompson; editing a special edition of Mental Health, Religion and Culture; co-editing a special edi-tion of The International Journal of Leadership in Public Services (June, 2010, with Professor Bill Fulford) and a chapter on his experience of mental illness: in Basset and Stickley’s (2010) Voices of Experience: Narratives of Survival and Mental Health.
Introduction
What is supervision?
Literally, the term 'supervision' refers to the process of 'watching over'. However, we should not see it too literally as a process of 'keeping an eye on' staff. The reality of supervision is far more complex than that.
Supervision is basically the process organisations use to manage the relationship be-tween the overall organisation and its needs on the one hand, and the individual and his or her needs on the other. Sometimes the two sets of needs are compatible, but at other times there may be a degree of conflict or tension. The supervisor's task can therefore be seen as: i) helping to make the most of those aspects of working life where the individual and the organisation are 'on the same wavelength' and a lot of progress can be achieved (for example, where the organisation's need for high-quality practice overlaps with the individual staff member's need for job satisfaction); and ii) managing the tension between the organisation and the individual where there isn't such an over-lap (for example, where a new policy may be resisted because one or more members of staff disapprove of it or an aspect of it).
The specific tasks involved and their importance should become clearer in the pages that follow.
How to use this manual
This manual has been designed to help support people who are seeking to help develop standards of supervision. It provides a foundation for running training courses, carrying out staff development activities and planning teaching sessions as part of a college or university programme of learning.
We suggest that, to begin with, you read through the manual quite quickly in order to get an overview of the ideas discussed and the approach adopted. Once you have famil-iarised yourself in this way with the text, you will then be in a strong position to work your way slowly and thoroughly through the manual, step by step, making sure that you have got to grips with each section before moving on to the next one. In this way you will steadily develop a solid foundation of understanding on which to base your work in rela-tion to developing the role of leader. Once you have completed this second, more de-manding reading of the manual, your work is still not over! You will need to refer back to the manual from time to time (perhaps quite frequently at first until you get used to using it) as a point of reference.
The manual is specifically designed to be used in this threefold way:
1. A general introduction and overview – what for many will be an invaluable boost to confidence before planning and running training events;
2. A fairly detailed guide to planning and running training courses and staff development sessions on supervision skills; and
3. A reference resource to be consulted as and when required.
Effective supervision pays dividends for all concerned in terms of:
• Higher standards of work; • Higher levels of job satisfaction;
• A better working environment or ‘climate’;
• Fewer mistakes or difficult situations to deal with; • Clearer procedures and expectations; and
• More and better opportunities for learning.
This manual can therefore play an important role in helping you develop your knowledge and skills in promoting staff development.
Disclaimer
This manual has been researched, prepared and presented in good faith, with all due care and attention. However, no responsibility can be taken for any errors or oversights.
The manual and its contents are intended as a resource to facilitate training and staff development and should not be seen as a definitive statement of employment law. The manual is not a substitute for professional legal advice or guidance and should not be relied upon as such.
Structure
The manual is divided into three main parts. Following this introductory section, Part One is entitled ‘Setting the Context’, and that is precisely what it sets out to do. It dis-cusses the importance of staff development in general and supervision in particular, emphasising how important effective supervision can be across a wide range of organi-sations. The information provided here should serve to (i) provide a good foundation of knowledge to boost confidence before staging learning events around supervision issues; and (ii) provide food for thought to promote further learning and development of these important, but complex issues.
Part Two provides a set of training exercises that can be used directly by following the guidance given or can be adapted for use in different ways by trainers or tutors who are confident and experienced enough to do this. The exercises are clearly laid out for ease of reference during an actual learning session.
Part Three contains the Conclusion, a summary of the main themes and issues under-pinning the manual, together with suggestions for further reading, details of relevant organisations and relevant internet resources. It is important that this part should not be seen simply as an add on. We want to emphasise that supervision is a complex matter that is sadly often oversimplified. The deeper and broader our understanding of super-vision, the stronger a position we are in to help establish the highest quality of supervi-sion we can.
Photocopying permission for the use of the worksheets, handouts, presentation slides and guide for new supervisors.
1. Permission to photocopy the worksheets, handouts, presentation slides and guide for new supervisors is only given to individuals or organisations who have bought a copy of the manual and then only for distribution at the local level within their tion. The price of this manual has deliberately been kept affordable to smaller organisa-tions. It is therefore expected that, as a matter of honour, larger organisations – for example, national or county-wide statutory or voluntary organisations – who might want to use the photocopiable material in numerous locations, will buy a copy of the manual for use in each locality where they are using the material.
2. If a trainer or an educational organisation wants to copy and distribute these work-sheets, handouts, presentation slides and guide for new supervisorsto assist their work with clients in organisations where they are training: (a) permission is given for inciden-tal/partial use (b) but if they want to use all or a significant part of the programme, it is expected that they will buy a copy of the book for each organisation where they under-take such training and - in line with the principles set out in point 1 (above) – a copy for each locality when they are training in a large organisation at multiple locations. This expectation is based on respect for the author’s copyright and the view that providing manuals in this way will add to the benefits delivered in the training. The publisher and authors therefore seek trainers’ active support in this matter.
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Electronic supply of the worksheets, handouts, presentation slides and guide for new supervisors
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