Building supervisory coaching skills: The key to strengthening critical thinking by staff

Child protection and other child welfare staff have a mandate to work with families to keep children safe from child maltreatment. To demonstrate optimal performance, staff must possess competency to interview, conduct... [ view full abstract ]

Child protection and other child welfare staff have a mandate to work with families to keep children safe from child maltreatment. To demonstrate optimal performance, staff must possess competency to interview, conduct assessments, think critically, and make informed decisions. Coaching has been established as a critical supervisory skill to support staff to ultimately facilitate positive child and family outcomes. Participants who attend this workshop will achieve the following OBJECTIVES: (1) understand the elements of a coach approach to supervision; (2) identify and practice core coaching skills; (3) understand and observe the steps in the coaching process as part of the supervisory role; (4) develop an action plan of how they will apply coaching skills on the job. METHODS: Using content from a U.S. federally funded developed and tested coaching learning program, participants will be guided to understand and apply core-coaching skills: presence, listening, reflecting, questioning, feedback, and accountability. Discussion will highlight the ways that supervisors use coaching skills to support staff to conduct thorough assessments and make critical child protection decisions. Participants will leave the session with coaching resources and an action plan about how they will transfer learning to their jobs. RESULTS: evaluations from participants in numerous state and local child welfare systems indicate that participants highly rate the usefulness of this learning program and report how it has helped them support staff to be more effective decision-makers. CONCLUSIONS: Supervisors who use the coaching approach report that they feel more effective in their supervisory roles; feel less stress by supporting staff to think critically and make appropriate decisions; observe staff performance improve; and ultimately see improvements in child and family outcomes.