Situational Supervision: Applying Situational Leadership to Clinical Supervision

Abstract

This article examines Hersey, Blanchard, and Johnson's (2001) model of Situational Leadership and adapts and applies it to clinical supervision. The authors propose a model that centers around four primary supervision styles which are aligned with four primary readiness levels of supervisees. The article describes the four supervision styles, contrasts the approach to developmental stage models, provides advice on assessing trainee readiness, and considers the implications of adopting the wrong supervision approach or misjudging the readiness level of supervisees. The authors close with a discussion of shortcomings of the approach and recommendations for future research of the model.

KEYWORDS:

• clinical supervision
• situational leadership
• student supervision
• supervisor roles