Courageous conversations in supervision
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11157/anzswj-vol31iss3id649Keywords:
Supervision, courageous conversations, professional expectations, preparation, interventionsAbstract
INTRODUCTION: Courageous conversations, commonly identified as conversations which are associated with some form of emotion, are features of many social workers’ daily routine. In supervision, such conversations are typically required to address issues of supervisee professional competence, ethical issues or the supervision relationship and/or process. These conversations, which are challenging, are at times avoided and, at other times, may be poorly handled.
APPROACH: Following identification of the obstacles which may impede addressing challenging issues in professional practice, this article focuses the supervisor’s role in courageous conversations. The importance of building a supervision environment which can support robust conversations is highlighted. Here the contracting process, where the expectations of supervision are negotiated and the power inherent in the supervision relationship can be identified, is considered foundational. The skills and attributes needed by the supervisor to manage these difficult encounters are explored and three kinds of interventions are identified as helpful: relational, reflective, and confrontational. A framework for a courageous conversation is provided which highlights the need for clarity about the motivation, purpose and desired goals. Finally, a structure for the proposed conversations is presented.
IMPLICATIONS: With an understanding of the dynamics and of the skills required, supervisors can better prepare themselves for courageous conversations. When supervision relationships are based on negotiation and shared understanding about power, difference and expectations, hard issues can be raised and honestly confronted and at the same time the integrity of all involved can be maintained.
References
Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers. (2015). Supervision policy. Christchurch, NZ: ANZASW. Retrieved from http://anzasw.nz/anzasw-publications-2/
Bang, K., & Goodyear, R. K. (2014). South Korean supervisees’ experience of and response to negative supervision events. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 27(4), 353–378.
Beddoe, L. (2010). Surveillance or reflection: Professional supervision in “the risk society”. British Journal of Social Work, 40(4), 1279–1296. doi:doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcq018
Beddoe, L., & Davys, A. (2016). Challenges in professional supervision: Current themes and models for practice. London, UK: Jessica Kingsley.
Beinart, H., & Clohessy, S. (2017). Effective supervisory relationships: Best evidence and practice. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Bernard, J. M. (2006). Tracing the development of clinical supervision. The Clinical Supervisor, 24(1), 3–21.
Brown, A., & Bourne, I. (1996). The social work supervisor. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.
Brown, J., Lewis, L., Ellis, K., Stewart, M., Freeman, T. R., & Kasperski, M. J. (2011). Conflict on interprofessional primary health care teams—can it be resolved? Journal of Interprofessional Care, 25(1), 4–10. doi:10.3109/1356 1820.2010.497750
Browning, D. M., Meyer, E. C., Truog, R. D., & Solomon, M. Z. (2007). Difficult conversations in health care: Cultivating relational learning to address the hidden Curriculum. Academic Medicine, 82(9), 905-913.
Cohen-Filipic, J., & Flores, L. Y. (2014). Best practices in providing effective supervision to students with values conflicts. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 1(4), 302–309.
Davys, A., & Beddoe, L. (2010). Best practice in professional supervision: A guide for the helping professions. London, UK: Jessica Kingsley.
Ellis, M. V., Berger, L., Hanus, A. E., Ayala, E. E., Swords, B. A., & Siembor, M. (2014). Inadequate and harmful clinical supervision: Testing a revised framework and assessing occurrence. The Counseling Psychologist, 42(4), 434–472. doi:10.1177/0011000013508656
Falender, C. A., & Shafranske, E. P. (2014). Clinical supervision: The state of the art. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 70(11), 1030–1041.
Grant, J., Schofield, M. J., & Crawford, S. (2012). Managing difficulties in supervision: Supervisors’ perspectives.’ Journal of Counseling Psychology, 59(4), 528–541. doi:10.1037/a0030000
Grenny, J. B. S. (2009). Crucial conversations: The most potent force for eliminating disruptive behavior. Health Care Manager, 28(3), 240–245.
Hair, H. J. (2014). Power relations in supervision: Preferred practices according to social workers. Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services, 95(2), 107–114.
Hawkins, P., & Shohet, R. (2012). Supervision in the helping professions (4th ed.). Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press.
Henderson, P. (2009). A different wisdom: Reflections on supervision practice. London, UK: Karnac Books.
Hernández, P., & McDowell, T. (2010). Intersectionality, power, and relational safety in context: Key concepts in clinical supervision. Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 4(1), 29–35. doi::10.1037/ a0017064
Hernández, P., & Rankin IV, P. (2008). Relational safety and liberating training spaces: An application with a focus on sexual orientation issues. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 34(2), 251–264.
Hewson, D., & Carroll, M. (2016). Reflective supervision toolkit. Hazelbrook, NSW: MoshPit.
Koenig, S. A. (2013). Courageous conversations. The Nebraska Lawyer (July/August), 16(4), 27–29. Retrieved from https://issuu.com/nebraskabar/docs/julyaug_2013
Ladany, N., Mori, Y., & Mehr, K. E. (2013). Effective and ineffective supervision. The Counseling Psychologist, 41(1), 28–47.
Lamiani, G., Meyer, E. C., Leone, D., Vegni, E., Browning, D. M., Rider, E. A., ... Moja, E. (2011). Cross-cultural adaptation of an innovative approach to learning about difficult conversations in healthcare. Medical Teacher, 33(2), e57–e64. doi:10.3109/0142159X.2011.534207
Meyer, E. C., Sellers, D. E., Browning, D. M., McGuffie, K., Solomon, M. Z., & Truog, R. D. (2009). Difficult conversations: Improving communication skills and relational abilities in health care. Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, 10(3), 352–359.
Nelson, M. L., Barnes, K. L., Evans, A. L., & Triggiano, P. J. (2008). Working with conflict in clinical supervision: Wise supervisors’ perspectives. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 52(1), 3–13.
Nelson, M. L., & Friedlander, M. L. (2001). A close look at conflictual supervisory relationships: The trainee’s perspective. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 48(4), 384–395.
Quarto, C. J. (2003). Supervisors’ and supervisees’ perceptions of control and conflict in counseling supervision. The Clinical Supervisor, 21(2), 21–37. doi:10.1300/J001v21n02_02
Rock, D. (2006). Quiet leadership: Six steps to transforming performance at work. New York, NY: HarperCollins.
Rousseau, D. M., Sitkin, S. B., Burt, R. S., & Camerer, C. (1998). Not so different after all: A cross-discipline view of trust. Academy of Management Review, 23(3), 393–404.
Social Workers Registration Board. (2015). Supervision expectations for registered social workers: Policy statement. Retrieved from http://www.swrb.govt.nz/policy
Social Workers Registration Board (SWRB). (2018). SWRB Code of conduct 2018). Retrieved from https://swrb.govt. nz/for-the-public/code-of-conduct/
Tsui, M.-s., O’Donoghue, K., & Ng, A. K. T. (2014). Culturally competent and diversity-sensitive clinical supervision. In C. E. Watkins & Milne D. L (Eds.),
The Wiley international handbook of clinical supervision (pp. 238–254). Chichester, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Veach, P. M., Yoon, E., Miranda, C., MacFarlane, I. M., Ergun, D., & Tuicomepee, A. (2012). Clinical supervisor value conflicts: Low-frequency, but high-impact events. The Clinical Supervisor, 31(2), 203–227. doi:10.1080/07 325223.2013.730478
Werman, A., Adlparvar, F., Horowitz, J. K., & Hasegawa, M. O. (2019). Difficult conversations in a school of social work: Exploring student and faculty perceptions. Journal of Social Work Education, 55(2), 251–264. doi:10.1080/104 37797.2018.1520665
Whyte, D. (2004). Five conversations on the frontiers of leadership. Leader to Leader, 33, 20–24.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
By completing the online submission process, you confirm you accept this agreement. The following is the entire agreement between you and the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW) and it may be modified only in writing.
You and any co-authors
If you are completing this agreement on behalf of co-authors, you confirm that you are acting on their behalf with their knowledge.
First publication
By submitting the work you are:
- granting the ANZASW the right of first publication of this work;
- confirming that the work is original; and
- confirming that the work has not been published in any other form.
Once published, you are free to use the final, accepted version in any way, as outlined below under Copyright.
Copyright
You assign copyright in the final, accepted version of your article to the ANZASW. You and any co-authors of the article retain the right to be identified as authors of the work.
The ANZASW will publish the final, accepted manuscript under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY 4.0). This licence allows anyone – including you – to share, copy, distribute, transmit, adapt and make commercial use of the work without needing additional permission, provided appropriate attribution is made to the original author or source.
A human-readable summary of the licence is available from http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, which includes a link to the full licence text.
Under this licence you can use the final, published version of the article freely – such as depositing a copy in your institutional research repository, uploading a copy to your profile on an academic networking site or including it in a different publication, such as a collection of articles on a topic or in conference proceedings – provided that original publication in Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work is acknowledged.
This agreement has no effect on any pre-publication versions or elements, which remain entirely yours, and to which we claim no right.
Reviewers hold copyright in their own comments and should not be further copied in any way without their permission.
The copyright of others
If your article includes the copyright material of others (e.g. graphs, diagrams etc.), you confirm that your use either:
- falls within the limits of fair dealing for the purposes of criticism and review or fair use; OR
- that you have gained permission from the rights holder for publication in an open access journal.