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Employed speech pathologists: timeless tips to manage oneself at work

10 September 2024 By David Kinnane Leave a Comment

Strengths: Concentrate here. Seek and use feedback. Build skills and knowledge to bolster existing strengths.
Weaknesses: Don’t waste energy, resources, and time trying to be good at everything.
Respect: Say please and thank you. Know your clients’ names and ask after their families and interests.
Learning: Do you prefer reading or listening? Do you express yourself better by talking or by writing?
Team player? Do you work well with teams, or alone?
Decisions: Do you prefer decision-making or advising?
Environment: Are you best under pressure surrounded by uncertainty, or in a highly structured, predictable environment?
Personal values: Must be close enough to your employer’s values to coexist.
Contribution: Where and how do you want to make a meaningful difference within the next 18 months?
Communication: As speech pathologists, take responsibility for communicating with others.
Act now: Strengths + self-knowledge + optimal work environment for you + meaningful contribution = career excellence.

Key source: Drucker, P.F. (1999). Managing Oneself. Harvard Business Review, reprinted, January 2005.

For information on supervision, check out our book “How to supervise speech pathologists properly in private practice“.

SLP Mentors and Supervisors – fight for your rights to avoid burnout

30 August 2024 By David Kinnane Leave a Comment

Speech pathology mentors and supervisors commit time, attention and resources to develop other speech-language pathologists (SLPs).

Mentors and supervisors have the tricky job of simultaneously supporting SLPs while gatekeeping their competence on behalf of the profession and our clients.

Most mentors/supervisors are busy with case- and workloads, and family, community, and other commitments outside work.

Supervision and mentorship increase SLPs’ significant burnout risk. SLPs mentoring or supervising too many SLPs, SLPs from underrepresented groups, and SLPs who lack time, training, and resources to do the job are at even higher risk.

Mentoring and supervision can be rewarding: you can be a good mentor/supervisor and avoid burnout. But we need to be honest about the costs.

Exhausted, overwhelmed and disengaged SLPs make poor role models, mentors, and supervisors. Watch for early burnout signs: e.g. exhaustion, cynicism and inefficiency.

Mentees and supervisees are not responsible for mentor/supervisor burnout. The true culprits are underinvestment in systems and training, insufficient time and resources, and a lack of management and peer-support.

For the future of our workforce, mentors and supervisors must speak up about their bandwidth, boundaries and self-care needs, and demand sufficient time, training and resources to mentor and supervise SLPs properly.

Key source: Gotian, R., Pfund, C., Cook, C, & Johnson, W.B. (2022). Don’t Let Mentoring Burn You Out, Harvard Business Review, July, 2022.

For more on supervision of speech pathologists, check out our book “How to supervise speech pathologists properly in private practice“.

Good mentorship is about more than the occasional chat over coffee

30 August 2024 By David Kinnane Leave a Comment

Good mentors serve as role models, advisers, teachers, guides, sponsors, and protectors. They help junior professionals forge identities and realise dreams.

For senior professionals, mentorship fulfils a deep-seated urge to guide younger generations of professionals.

Authentic relationships lie at the heart of good mentoring. But not all mentoring relationships are created equal: some are superficial and transactional.

According to Professor Herminia Ibarra, senior-junior professional relationships can evolve naturally through five stages:

Mentor: The senior provides advice and support privately.
Strategiser: The senior shares ‘inside knowledge’ about how the junior might advance.
Connector: The senior provides introductions to key stakeholders and includes the junior in meetings/events that give the junior access to people who can be instrumental for career development.
Opportunity giver: The senior seeks out high visibility projects/roles for the junior to take on, e.g. a presentation, strategic project, or membership of an external board.
Sponsor: The senior is committed to the junior’s long-term success, with both professionals giving and receiving value, openly sharing ideas and a mutual sense of competence and confidence, as well as a bias for taking concrete actions.

The ideal mentor relationship includes career-advancement help, public advocacy for growth opportunities, and support and validation. Done well, mentorship bolsters confidence and fosters the development of a caring, mutually satisfying bond.

Source: Ibarra, H. (2022). How To Do Sponsorship Right. Harvard Business Review, Nov-Dec, 111-119.

Related articles:

For more on supervision, check out our book “How to supervise speech pathologists properly in private practice“.

“Do you have any questions for me?” 10 questions you can ask speech pathology employers in job interviews

19 August 2024 By David Kinnane Leave a Comment

10 questions you can ask speech pathology employers in job interviews

Can you tell me more about the team I will be working with?
What would a typical day for me in this role look like?
How will I be supervised, and who will I work with most closely?
What is your performance review process like?
What goals and metrics will my performance be measured against?
What are the current goals that [the organisation] is focused on, and how does the team work to support hitting those goals?
What are [the organisation]’s plans for growth and development?
How do you typically onboard and train employees?
Is there anything I should read before starting that would help me to get up to speed?
What’s your favourite part of working here?

Source: Gallo, A. (2022). 38 Smart Questions to Ask in a Job Interview, Harvard Business Review, May, 2022.

Hot topic: Will all Australian SLP practices have to register with the NDIS Commission?

6 August 2024 By David Kinnane Leave a Comment

Breaking news:

On 2 August 2024, the NDIS Provider and Worker Registration Taskforce Advice was released, with their views on mandatory registration.

SLP views were heard:

“The Taskforce acknowledges there are a number of allied health practitioners who are not required to register with AHPRA, including…speech pathologists. Some of these practitioners operate in a self-regulated environment (e.g. for National Alliance of Self Regulating Health Professions (NASRHP)). These frameworks may be accompanied by a certification process and Code of Ethics. We have heard that members of these bodies would prefer to not be required to operate under duplicate accreditation and registration requirements, through mandatory registration with the NDIS Commission.”

Existing CPSP self-regulation arrangements may count as NDIS registration:

“The Taskforce recommends consideration be given to the appropriateness of extending a recognition of those registration schemes to self-regulating allied health professionals. Any such assessment would need to consider the requirements of the self-regulated environment and other relevant matters. This recommendation is in relation to registration only and does not apply to worker screening.” (Our emphasis.)

Why it matters:

SLPs are well-regulated in Australia with certification processes, professional standards that mirror AHPRA standards, and a robust Code of Ethics with complaint processes.

Mandatory NDIS registration would increase compliance costs and red tape, duplicate existing rules, and discourage some SLPs from offering NDIS-funded services, reducing participant choice and control.

Go deeper:

Read the NDIS Provider and Worker Registration Taskforce Advice.

Watch this space:

We now await the Government’s response to the Taskforce advice.

This article also appears in a recent issue of Banter Booster, our weekly round up of the best speech pathology ideas and practice tips for busy speech pathologists, speech pathology students and others.