Effective Supervisory Practices

First, the supervisor must work to establish an effective supervisory relationship. It is the supervisor’s responsibility to communicate expectations and continuously work toward a positive, working relationship.

Next, the supervisor should create a plan for structured supervision and competency-based evaluation. To assist supervisors in understanding performance strengths and deficits, frequent observations of staff performance should be conducted. This information provides supervisors with critical information on what skill sets to work on with each individual supervisee. Continuous performance monitoring and feedback are critical for the initial and ongoing success of supervises.

Bidirectional feedback is critical in a supervisory relationship. This means that supervisors should evaluate the effects of their supervision through informal (e.g., conversation) or formal (e.g., anonymous survey) feedback. Once feedback is provided, supervisors should work toward accepting the feedback and responding to it accordingly.

Lastly, supervisors should be invested in the professional growth of those they supervise. Conversations about growth within the organization and field should occur with each supervisee. The information gathered can be used to assist supervisors in creating goal plans to help their supervisees reach those goals. Additionally, ethical or other difficult situations may arise at any time. The supervisor should make themselves available to role-play how to respond to various situations or provide support to their supervisees in other ways.