Supervision and Management
- Jon Weingarden
- Jun 23
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 12
Training as a psychologist also sets a good framework for supervision. Let's consider three ingredients:
Empathy
Encouragement
Expectations (including boundary setting)
The most important factor in starting a supervision relationship is setting the framework from the beginning.
What are my roles and responsibilities?
What will supervision meetings look like?
Are you trustworthy and will I be treated kindly, with dignity and respect?
Can there be openness, bandwidth for questions and support? Can I come to you before problems, or hope you don't notice and apologize later?
Do you want to encourage my growth?
And creating transparency.
Most people who struggle with management, supervision or leadership have difficulty giving constructive feedback. Constructive feedback is only hard when it is not already part of the culture. If the culture is regular feedback including not only a focus on growth edges (constructive feedback) with shared responsibility in overcoming those hurdles, but also encouragement and acknowledgement of strengths, then these discussions are actually looked forward to by supervisees.
If the culture is that they assess their strengths and growth edges first, you often don't even need to be the one to bring up problems or constructive feedback. Your supervisees will start coming in with solutions to their own problems or eagerness for your support in these growth edges.
However, when we lack this transparency and culture, we see a problem, we don't know if the supervisee is aware of it, cares (about the job, company, or changing the problem and growing), is doing it intentionally, or how they will react to feedback even given with the utmost sensitivity. We imagine in our mind's-eye that they will be defensive, we are angry to be put in the position of having to give feedback and being "the bad guy," and we project this onto them, imagining they are the angry, disgruntled one. It becomes a stalemate but only in your mind, not in reality.
The problem is that once we finally go in to give this feedback, after this intrapsychic drama - imagining the defensiveness of the supervisee, justifying our anger - we appear upset, angry and anxious. All of which give cues to the supervisee to be defensive or upset rather than open-minded. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Supervision Guidelines
Good supervision starts from on-boarding. We are starting with transparent structure and expectations, and setting a culture. See and purchase my supervision sheet template for a guide to use with your supervisees or in your company. It is brief at the start of a supervision meeting and leaves time for free-form discussion.
Get this template Free: Review us on Google, then send us a message confirming the review and that you'd like this template.
From the first meeting, we discuss supervision culture, structure and relationship.
Second, we gather information about our new hire / supervisee. This not only shows our interest, helps us understand and support this person, and provides direction or trajectory for our supervision meetings. For example, if this person wants to be a leader, we can discuss growth edges in terms of getting to this goal: "You've been chipping away at some of the timeliness hurdless and that is great! It is still showing up in these circumstances - let's explore why, because with your goal to be a leader, being late will create a culture and trickle down. I think you are someone who can be a leader and set an example. What's working and now working, and how can I support you?"
This leads us to the third part - regular supervision meetings. The supervisee should re-assess their strengths and growth edges, as well as their needs from you as the supervisee or the company. We review this, then the supervisor's assessment of the same factors. This guides the discussion, such as the above example about timeliness.
A fourth component is a live-document review of the supervisees responsibilities and projects. This lets them boast their bandwidth, responsibilities and acheivements, while also letting the supervisor know everything under this individuals umbrella: if it is too much or if there is more than can be assigned. Additionally, it communicates needs for reach project so the supervisor can support these efforts.
Finally is the supervisors notes on supervision and rating of the supervisor. This includes an assessment of the congruence between the supervisees self-assessment and supervisors assessment of the main factors: strengths, growth edges and needs.
Typical Constructive Feedback
One popular model is the oreo-cookie model: positive, constructive, positive. This may seem circumscribed, especially if you don't genuinely feel like the positives exists (which is another problem in itself). But the model in the supervision guide available for purchase starts with strengths and we review project achievements and/or progress on the stoplight report. Then we review growth edges and supportive problem-solving including the supervisees attributes that would support these efforts. This is innately a positive experience, negative the need for the oreo-cookie approach.
Addressing Problems
If the supervisees is still not meeting goals and expectations or behaving in line with the companies culture and expectations, we can now address this directly without wondering if there is miscommunication - the supervision model above has given every and ample opportunity. We can use the DBT Interpersonal Effectiveness DEARMAN skills:
Describe the problem behavior
Express how this effects you, the company, and others
Assert what needs to happen/change
Reinforce that you think this is possible
Mindfully repeat that this is the bottom line and non-negotiable
Appear Confident - remember that you've followed a clear, structured supervision model, been open and supportive, and their behavior this theirs, not yours.
Negotiate as appropriate if they want to problem solve how to meet the goal or if they had unmet or unexpressed needs, as well as contingencies such as changes (reductions) in pay, a formal Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) if you have an HR department, or employment status, if there is a better fitting position
And finally ask the person to explain why this is happening despite your efforts to address the behavior and create the opportunity for the supervisee and company to be a fit/match.
Conclusion
Supervision is very doable. This makes constructive feedback exciting for growth-focused and eager employees. You will surprised how quickly supervisees get on board. If you start this with existing employees, give them a heads up that this is the new model, explain it to them, then review in the next meeting. If you or your company would like a more comprehensive review of this process, reach out to us to schedule a business consultation!
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