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The Behavior Analyst as

Supervisor: Creating advanced supervision and

mentoring repertoires

• The importance and goals of supervision

• Five recommended practices

• (1) Establish an effective relationship

• (2) Establish structured approach with specific

content and competencies

• (3) Evaluate effects of supervision

• (4) Incorporate ethics and professional

development

• (5) Continue professional relationship post

certification

• Conceptualization Skills and Mentoring

Overview

The Importance of Supervision

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• Effective supervision is critical to . . .

• Quality of ongoing behavioral services

• Professional development of supervisee

• Continued growth of supervisor

• Overall development of our field

The Importance of Supervision

There is no more

valuable contribution to

the field than the shaping

of the repertoires of our

next generation of

professionals

• Many clearly established guidelines and

requirements for effective supervision

• However

• Specific content and strategies employed

during supervision are not directly dictated by

the BACB.

• We often don’t receive explicit instruction on

how to be a supervisor!

• Non-optimal experiences with supervisors

may influence our behavior

BACB

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“Try to be the

supervisor you

always wanted, but

never had.”

Bailey & Birch (2010)

The Goals and Scope of Supervision

Personal Growth and Professional Development

Clinical Conceptualization

and Decision-making

Professionalism and Ethics

Basic Concepts, Principles

and Procedures

Competency Domains

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Professionalism and Ethics

Basic Concepts, Principles and Procedures

Competency Domains

Recommended Practice Guidelines

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EstablishEffec veRela onship

EstablishStructuredApproachwithSpecificContent,&Competencies

EvaluateEffectsofSupervision

IncorporateEthics&ProfessionalDevelopment

Con nueProfessionalRela onshipPost-Cer fica on

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5

• Establish an Effective Supervisor -

Supervisee Relationship

• Supervision contract

• Set clear expectations

• Describe process and motivation for receiving

and accepting feedback

• Create a committed and positive relationship

Guideline 1

Supervision Contract

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1.05 Professional and

Scientific Relationships

• (a) Behavior analysts provide behavioral

diagnostic, therapeutic, teaching, research,

supervisory, consultative, or other behavior

analytic services only in the context of a

defined, remunerated professional or

scientific relationship or role.

Code 5.03: Providing Course or

Supervision Objectives

• The behavior analyst provides a clear

description of the objectives of

supervision, preferably in writing, at the

beginning of the supervisory relationship.

• The behavior analyst provides a clear

description of the demands of the

supervisory relationship (e.g, projects,

reports, intervention plans, graphic

displays), preferably in writing, at the

beginning of the supervisory relationship.

Code 5.04 Describing

Course Requirements

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Supervision is an ongoing

experience, not just a meeting!!

But a great meeting helps!

• Teach Supervisees to prepare an agenda

• Lesson learned in doing so:

• Plan ahead and craft thoughtful questions

• Make good use of supervision time

• Prepare information (graphs, data sheets,

articles, related materials, protocols) that will

ensure optimal supervision experience

Agenda

5.07 & 5.08

• 5.07 Feedback to Student/Supervisees

• The behavior analyst provides feedback to the

supervisee in a way that increases the

probability that the supervisee will benefit from

the feedback.

• 5.08 Reinforcing Student/Supervisee

Behavior

• The behavior analyst uses positive

reinforcement as frequently as the behavior of

the supervisee and the environmental

conditions allow.

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• Provide explicit instruction about the fact

that feedback is going to happen

• “You will hear about things that are going well

and things to improve”

• Remind of purpose

• Remind of motivation

• Provide feedback that is positive, direct,

specific, supportive and valuable

Feedback

The overarching goal of the

supervisor should be to develop and

foster a relationship where feedback

and guidance is valued and the

supervisee wants to attend and be an

active participant at the meetings

• Create positive working relationship

• Establish clear expectations

• Provide positive support and feedback

• Address issues quickly as they arise

• Express commitment to experience often

• Model appropriate ethical and professional

behavior

• BE A LEADER AND ROLE MODEL!

Relationship

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• Create a feedback rich

environment that helps

people become better at

what they do

• Create opportunities for

others to shine

Leadership is the

Essence of a Supervisor’s Job

• Positional Power: job title, reporting lines

• Relational Power: affiliation with others

• Personal Power: interpersonal skills

• Trustworthiness, expertise, charisma,

accomplishments, enthusiasm, self-

confidence

• Soft Power: personal status as a reinforcer

• “In it’s simplest form, power is nothing but

the use of reinforcers to change behavior.”

Sources of Power

“Many people give up any semblance of

authority just by the way they manage

people. Managers who are petty and

arbitrary erode their own power to

engage and influence their workplace. ”

Bailey & Burch (2010)

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• Aversive consequences are highly

reinforcing to the person who delivers them!

• Deters annoying behavior

• Might spark renewed effort

• Also evokes lots of other behaviors:

• Count-controlling behaviors

• Avoidance and hiding problems

Negative Effects of Coercion

“You get the best effort from

others not by lighting a fire

beneath them, but by building a

fire within”

Bob Nelson

• Establish a Structured Supervision Content

and Competence Evaluation Plan

• Performance and competency based!

• Knowledge based• Demonstrate an understanding of the concept, principle,

or technology

• Performance based• correct performance of a skill at some indicated mastery

criterion

Guideline 2

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Developing and using competencies

during supervision will ensure the

supervisor has a well-constructed plan

to develop the supervisee’s skills,

enabling the supervisee to have

experiences that will increase the

likelihood of being successful in her

new career

• Checklists

• A list of all competencies for the team member

to manage with opportunity for supervisors to

initial when competencies are met

• Manual

• Includes all competencies with exercises,

answers, teaching strategies and references

• Timeline Graphic

• Suggested progression and timing for each

Overview of Materials

ChecklistsTeam member’s responsibility

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• Overall category

• The competency

• The exercise

• Answers

• Teaching points and strategies

• References

Manual

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• The team member should be able to define and give

at least 2 examples of each of the following:

• Positive reinforcement: the contingent presentation of

a stimulus immediately following a response, which

increases the future rate and/or probability of the

response

• Negative reinforcement: the contingent removal of an

aversive stimulus immediately following a response

which increases the future rate and/or probability of

the response.

Exercise

• If the team member does not define the above

and give at least 2 examples, consider providing

the definition and having the team member say

what it is (e.g., that is an example of positive

reinforcement) and why it is an example of

positive or negative reinforcement. Then, have

them give the definition. Also, generate lots of

examples and have the team member provide

you with examples. Continue until the team

member accurately gives the definitions and

provides 2 examples of each.

Teaching points & strategies

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• Evaluate the effects of supervision

• Track competencies completed• Technical language used

• Types of errors in permanent products

• Monitor improvements in client outcomes• Ongoing, informal, non-threatening

• Solicit feedback directly from the supervisee

• Structured survey for supervisee• Include specific areas (e.g., provision of praise and

feedback)

• Open ended questions (e.g., “What could we do differently

together to enhance the supervisory experience?” )

Guideline 3

Thoughtful reflection, honest

discussion, and measurement

of some performance that

should be expected to change

as a result of supervision will

allow the supervisor to make

well-informed, data-based

decisions about their ongoing

supervision activities.

• Incorporate Ethics and Professional

Development into Supervision

• Often extremely difficult for new clinicians!

• Expose supervisees to a wide variety of

ethical dilemmas

• Actively analyze the situations for the core

ethical issues that should control responding

• Evaluate the benefits and concerns of multiple

potential responses together

• Engage in ongoing discussions about actual

ethical dilemmas as they occur

Guideline 4

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Having ample opportunity to

discuss issues and tackle

hypothetical or real problems in

supervision will increase the

supervisee’s confidence and

skill set in dealing with ethical

dilemmas.

• Encourage subscription to journals

• Model professional behavior

• Share articles and resources

• Encourage conference attendance

• Provide guidance on professional behavior

and strategies for maximizing learning and

networking opportunities during the

conference

Professional Development

Supervisors can model

appropriate professional

development behavior by

consuming literature,

identifying relevant articles,

and analyzing those articles

with the supervisee

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• Continuing the Professional Relationship

Post Certification

• Celebrate!

• Overall analysis of experience

• Provide feedback to one another

• Relationship should transition but not end

• Plan for ongoing mentorship and collaboration

for the future

Guideline 5

The supervisor should

become an ongoing source

of support for the supervisee

though the nature and

frequency of contact and

support will necessarily

change.

• Invite to peer group for networking

• Continued regular meetings

• Share articles and other resources

• Introduce supervisee to other professionals

• Letters of recommendation

• Introduce to next group of supervisees

• Work on research or clinical projects

together

• BE A MENTOR OR HELP THEM FIND ONE

Ongoing Support

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Personal Growth and Professional Development

Clinical Conceptualization

and Decision-making

Professionalism and Ethics

Basic Concepts, Principles

and Procedures

Competency Domains

Conceptualization and clinical

decision making skills

• Teach people how to think about their own

decision-making and problem solving

• Ethics, Clinical Choices, Interpersonal

choices

• How and why do you design programming,

data collection, intervention components,

etc the way you do?

• Guiding Values, Evidence Base, Special

Considerations

Purposeful Decision Making

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• Any situation for which you do not have an

immediate response that is likely to work

• Any situation for which you have multiple

potential solutions with a single clearly

advantageous one

What is a problem?

• Prompting and probing your own

behaviors

• Your actions to alter stimulus conditions

enough to evoke the “appearance of a

solution and response that is likely to be

reinforced.”

What is problem-solving?

• Responding quickly even though you don’t

have a probable solution at the ready -

impulsivity.

• Waiting doing nothing. Problems don’t

get better with time, they get worse with

inaction.

What is NOT problem – solving?

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Problem Solving Steps

• Detect or identify the problem

• Define the problem

• Generate some possible options

• Evaluate the possible options and pick one

• Evaluate how well that worked

• The crisis is a RESULT of the problem rather

than the actual problem

• Detect the subtle indicators of a problem or

the conditions that produce problem states.

• “Nuanced Noticing” – subtle change and the

missing things

• Analyze the A, B, Cs

Detect/Define the Problem

• Universe of possible solutions but people tend

to do “the thing that worked before”

• Pause and think systematically

• Try to describe how this situation is

DIFFERENT – specific questions

• Link your solution ideas to the causes from

STEP 2 – function based solution

Generate possible solutions

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• Do a thorough pro-con analysis of each

option

• Determine if you need more data and

EXACTLY what that is and how to get it

• THEN PICK ONE or more of the options you

have - no “analysis paralysis”

• Try, evaluate, revise as needed

Pick One and Evaluate

http://jim-carr.net/geiger.pdf

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Mentoring and Ongoing Professional

Development

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What is mentoring?

What is a mentor?

Understand Yourself!

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• How were you introduced to behavior

analysis and what motivated you at the

time to pursue it as a career?

• How did your relationship with your

major professor and other faculty

influence you?

• Early in your career, who were your

primary leadership role models and

what did they teach you?

Ask yourself . . .

• What advice did your mentor give you

that still influences you?

• Of all of the roles you have served,

which ones have you valued/enjoyed

most

• Is it important to have mentors that are

the same gender?

Ask yourself . . .

Mentoring and

Mentor Trees

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Critical

Formative

Mentors

Mentors for

Principles,

Procedures, &

Professionalism

Career /Life

Mentors:

Professionalism,

Conceptualization,

Decision-Making

Career &

Life

Mentors

Critical

Formative

Mentors

Mentors for

The Basics

Parents

Vol Coord

School

Counselor

Matson

Vollmer

Northup

Hagopian

Piazza

Fisher

Matson

Lerman

Deb Smith

LeBlancs

Fuqua

Spates

Dickinson

Malott

Piazza

Fisher

Friman

Charlop

Shook

Favell

Linda’s Mentor

Tree

Critical

Formative

Mentors

Mentors for

The Basics

Career &

Life

Mentors

Your Mentor

Tree

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• The importance and goals of supervision

• Five recommended practices

• (1) Establish an effective relationship

• (2) Establish structured approach with specific

content and competencies

• (3) Evaluate effects of supervision

• (4) Incorporate ethics and professional

development

• (5) Continue professional relationship post

certification

• Conceptualization Skills and Mentoring

Overview