6.4 Challenges of Supervision
You may encounter problems reaching some of your goals during the internship. Typical issues include not feeling you are learning as much as you expected, feeling lost, or feeling like a burden. Such problems can be discussed with the supervisor, professor, and classmates. Classmates and professors are outstanding resources and can be used as information tools for self-monitoring and reflection during the internship. They may help you find ways to make the experience more satisfying. Often, people use role-playing scenarios in the classroom to help deal with a problem concerning one’s supervisor or a given staff worker. The goal of a good “working alliance” with your supervisor is to create an atmosphere where both of you feel free to talk to one another honestly.
Sometimes, students find themselves feeling like they are not getting the type of experience they expected. For instance, their priorities or goals may have been pushed aside or their work at the agency has become routine. These situations arise for several reasons, most of which are not the students’ fault. For example, it could be the agency’s busy season is at another time of the year, or the funding streams have changed in ways that make original agreements impossible. It is vital to continue to advocate for your learning, even if the situation has changed. Many students found themselves in this predicament when the COVID-19 pandemic shifted the way services were provided. The most successful outcomes involved the student and supervisor working together to adapt to the changing environment. Some of these examples are listed later in the chapter.
In general, the agency’s priorities come first, so the intern needs to adjust, not the other way around. The professor and your peers can help you adjust your goals or find new ways of meeting them during the remainder of the internship. Brainstorming ideas may help you know how to approach the supervisor, find other alternatives to meet your goals, and restructure your goals.
Challenges can arise when your goals do not match your assigned work. Jane was interning at a crisis center and had the goal of working face-to-face with clients in crisis. Unfortunately, since starting her internship, she was unable to sit in on an intake session for various reasons not of her making. Instead, Jane’s work was focused on organizing paperwork and making copies for her supervisor. While Jane understood the importance of the work she was doing, she feared she would go through the entire internship missing out on other valuable experiences. Jane discussed her concerns in the classroom, and classmates encouraged her to have a discussion with her supervisor. Jane then made some suggestions to the supervisor about how to include more client contact into her routine without dumping all the paperwork on someone else. The supervisor tweaked the suggestions a bit, and together they found a strategy that met Jane’s goal of increasing her clinical skills with clients in crisis while still meeting the clerical needs of the agency. It is important to come to a meeting or discussion with options to solve the issue rather than just a complaint. This shows you are invested in achieving your goals and not just waiting for someone else to take charge.
In Focus: Setting Goals During a Pandemic
During the spring of 2020, many students were finishing their year of supervised internship and looking forward to increased opportunities and responsibilities that spring term. As we all know, most social services agencies closed their offices for at least a few weeks that spring while everyone tried to figure out the best approach to provide services during a global pandemic. Students struggled to figure out how to complete their hours when they could no longer go into the office or visit clients at their homes. Through creative thinking by the supervisors, the students, and the instructors, students were able to finish their internships in a variety of manners, including:
- working remotely on projects such as gathering resources or outlining new projects
- connecting with clients via phone to offer services
- continuing to work in the office while masked and observing social distancing
- completing training modules in specific areas, such as trauma-informed care
Students were able to complete their internships in novel but rewarding ways. Another example came in the spring of 2021, when three interns were working on an outreach program focused on decreasing loneliness in older adults living in rural areas. When vaccines became available, all three interns pivoted their goals to help staff phone banks, calling those same elderly clients and getting them scheduled for a vaccine. It is important to be flexible and look for opportunities when your plans get disrupted.
Sometimes, interns reach the point where they feel they have met the goals that were set down in the original learning agreement and have time to do more. Of course, it is wise to make sure you have met those goals before discussing the situation with your supervisor. Take a moment to make sure all expectations have been met, and then try creating a goal or set of them that would help you grow while also offering something of value to the agency. Next, approach the supervisor with a tentative plan. If the supervisor feels you are ready, and if there is no longer a need for you to continue to perform your current duties, you may be able to take the next step in your professional development.
Handling Feedback and Constructive Criticism
A good supervisor will regularly assess your ability to take on new tasks. However, it is important for interns to evaluate themselves from time to time as well. Most interns will want to review their objectives periodically and conduct reflective self-assessments. This process can be done informally or through keeping a journal, a file on a computer or phone, and so on. Near the end of the internship, the instructor often requests the supervisor do a final report, evaluation, or summary of the student and their performance at the site.
Of course, you are likely to have a general feel about how things are going based on the supervisor’s reactions or meetings regarding your work performance. So, if the internship does not seem to be allowing your goals to be met, requesting time for a meeting before the semester is over can prevent problems. Regardless of how challenging the tasks may be, always do your best work. If you take pride in your work, coworkers and supervisors will notice. Remember, these people are now in your network. When it comes to future jobs, they could be potential references.
No two interns will progress at the same rate. Sometimes, interns feel they are not given the freedom to develop more fully. Other times, they may feel they were asked to do too much. You may look at the situation and feel discouraged or lose confidence in your abilities. If this happens, discuss this reaction with your supervisor and ask for suggestions for improvement.
Constructive criticism is a crucial component of this process, as is being able to hear and accept such feedback. Try your best to listen, but also realize the supervisor is looking at the bigger agency picture that you cannot see. In situations where it seems that the supervisor and staff are talking about you in a way that does not feel good, be sure not to jump to any conclusions. It may be tempting to overgeneralize, personalize, and surrender to emotional reasoning (refer to figures 6.4 and 6.5). After all, they may be discussing progress as well as the lack of it and your potential rather than your limitations. Here are some common patterns we use to jump to conclusions and ways to resist this habit.
| Common Cognitive Distortions | Example | How to Combat This Pattern |
|---|---|---|
| Overgenerationization: Taking one fact and applying it to everything | “My supervisor corrected my documentation. I can’t do anything right!” | Focus on the specifics: “This is helping my documentation skills.” |
| Personalizing: Believing you are responsible for everyone else’s actions | “My supervisor is in a bad mood because she’s mad at me.” | Expand Your Focus: “The agency is very busy right now and there are many reasons my supervisor might be stressed.” |
| Emotional Reasoning: Basing your judgment of a situation solely on how you are feeling about it | “I feel like I did an awful job with that client, so that means I did do an awful job.” | Separate Emotions from Facts: “That client interview did not go well, but parts of it were fine.” |
If you feel that the discussions are taking place in a negative way, or if it seems that the problem is a personality conflict you are having with the supervisor or their style, it is advisable to talk with your instructor about it. After all, the instructor is the individual who oversees your internship and who has the responsibility to make sure it is progressing properly. It is also likely the instructor is more interested in your professional development than anything else.
Asking for What You Need
As this chapter shows, the value of supervision relies on lots of factors, including the agency, the work, and the goals and personality of both the student and the supervisor. Due to these factors, there could be a mismatch between the experience you were expecting and the experience you are having. You may think others are aware of the problem and ignoring it, but often your supervisor and instructor are not as aware of the issue as you are. An essential skill in this situation is self-advocacy. This means being comfortable asking for what you need in your placement and in supervision. There are several ways to go about this.
Remember, your college or university instructor is there to be a resource for you. They can help you talk through issues and problems and help you develop solutions. Do not assume they will step in and “fix” it for you. If the issue is urgent or beyond the scope of your internship, the instructor may contact a supervisor directly to resolve the issue. Most of the time, instructors will support you in your efforts rather than take over.
When things are busy for everyone at the site, it may seem as though the supervisor or the staff does not care about what happens to the intern because they are a lower priority. Hannah, for example, was interning with Child Protective Services while the pandemic was still active. As a result, each supervisor was only in the office one day a week. Hannah found she was rarely in the office with her official supervisor. She called me as her field instructor, very frustrated and ready to switch sites. I encouraged her to be more creative and proactive in finding ways to become involved. Hannah began approaching whatever caseworkers were in the office each day, asking how she could help. The caseworkers were extremely appreciative of her help, and she was asked to apply for an open position when her internship was ending.
Sometimes, you have to take some responsibility for making the internship a good training experience as well. So, instead of showing up and simply following someone around, you may need to be flexible and even creative. For example, if you spot something that needs to be addressed and feel doing so is within your range of abilities, you might volunteer to take on the project. In addition to filling in hours that otherwise might go unused or be less than educational, you will also show you have initiative and the willingness to help where you can.
It is also very helpful to have a concrete idea of what you need and a few possible paths to reach that goal. If you feel you are not getting enough client contact, for instance, brainstorm ways you can increase contact, maybe by shadowing other workers or providing support via phone or video. If you feel you are mostly doing office work or paperwork, have a list of other activities you would like to try.
Lastly, remember your supervisor may not be as aware of the problem as you think. Busy supervisors will often assume everything is going fine unless they hear differently.
Managing Up
Books and articles have been written about the concept of managing up, which is the practice of using the traits of the identified leader to help you be the most productive employee. Luke Wiesner, a conflict resolution coach for the University of California, Merced, offers these guidelines for what managing up is and is not:
- NOT supervising or overseeing your boss
- NOT going above your boss’s head to have your voice heard
- NOT evaluating or judging your boss’s management or leadership style
- NOT about changing or developing your boss into a better manager or leader
- NOT about challenging decisions or actions your boss takes
- Managing your relationship with your boss
- Developing and cultivating a productive working rapport with your boss
- Learning your boss’s management, leadership and communication styles and preferences
- Increasing your awareness of your own work and communication style and preferences
- Adapting and aligning the work styles of you and your boss to form a productive working relationship centered around mutual growth and understanding, work productivity, and career development. (Wiesner, n.d.)
In the Harvard Business Review article “What Everyone Should Know About Managing Up,” managing editor of HBR’s Insight Centers Dana Rousmaniere identifies the following actions as important for any employee wanting to improve their performance:
- Anticipate your boss’s needs and ask how they prefer to have problems or concerns communicated.
- Disagree respectfully and productively.
- Build and maintain trust with your boss.
- Be friendly, but don’t assume a friendship with your boss.
- Be helpful and make your boss look good by doing your job and doing it well. (Rousmaniere, 2015)
The key in all relationships, formal or informal, is to be authentic, honest, and impeccable with your word.
Challenges of Supervision Licenses and Attributions
“Challenges of Supervision” is adapted from “Using Supervision Effectively” in Succeeding at Your Internship: A Handbook Written for and with Students by Christopher J. Mruk and John C. Moor, which is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Edited for style and clarity, inclusion of diverse images, and specific examples by Elizabeth B. Pearce.
“Managing Up” by Elizabeth B. Pearce is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Figure 6.5 Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash.
A credit class in which students apply theory to practice by using what you have learned in coursework in a real-world setting with a supervisor/mentor who is invested in your growth and development (often also referred to as fieldwork or practicum).
A document created by the student, instructor and work supervisor that outlines the goals and objectives for the student’s learning during the internship or field experience.
any method of measuring performance at your position. This may include informal methods, such as check-ins or discussions, or more formal evaluations such a report or grade.
the belief that you can be successful when presented with a challenge.
feedback designed to help the listener improve their performance.
the written record of the interactions between the client and the agency, as well as work done by the agency for the client’s behalf. Documentation often exists as part of an agency’s official records, and may also be used for billing purposes.
the ability to speak up for one’s desires and needs.
the practice of using the traits of the identified leader to help you be productive.
the verbal, and non-verbal exchange of information between two or more people.