Servant leadership inverts the traditional management hierarchy: rather than the organization existing to serve the leader's vision, the leader's role is to serve the people doing the work — removing barriers, providing resources, and creating the conditions under which each team member can perform at their best. For BCBAs in supervisory roles, this model is not merely philosophically appealing; it maps directly onto the behavioral principles they already understand.
Provider: BehaviorLive — via Women in Behavior Analysis
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Join Free →The common challenge we face in ABA: how do we reduce BCBA burnout while pushing for high clinical quality and balance that with our responsibility to our employers? This presentation is an overview of how I used the principles of servant leadership to gain buy-in and align values within my clinical team to effectively increase quality of care metrics and business key performance indicators. By setting clear cut expectations, providing hands-on training, conducting regular discovery-sessions to identify barriers and skill deficits, and assessing progress towards monthly metrics, my team was able to significantly increase performance across clients receiving recommended monthly supervision ratios, parent training attendance, average learning opportunities per hour, and company billable requirements - all while maintaining a 40 hour work week to promote work/life balance. I will address the basic framework of creating meaningful goals for the team, training clinicians on the tools to track progress towards these goals, common barriers identified and how to address them, pivoting when necessary, and prioritizing accountability across the team. I will be presenting 11 months of data to support these claims: from March 2023 to January 2024, the percentage of clients receiving at least 10% supervision of direct therapy per month increased from 2% to 100%, the percent of clients receiving at least one hour of parent training per month increased from 35% to 82%, average learning opportunities per hour across clients increased from 23.56 to 28.58, and percent of the teams billable expectation achieved per month increased from 71% of the target to over 131%. It should be noted that the employee net promoter score across the clinical team in our center increased from -33 in June of 2023 to 75 in January of 2024, demonstrating high clinician satisfaction. The clinicians also scored leader accessibility, comfort engaging with their leader for help, and the helpfulness of feedback from their leader unanimously as 100% for the last two quarters of 2023. I have found utilizing the key components of servant leadership can increase positive culture, accountability, overall performance toward key performance indicators, and employee satisfaction, while reducing burnout. Giving a psychologically safe space for my team to address barriers and lean on one another to work towards common, values-aligned goals has directly impacted the quality of care for our clients and the accessibility to services for future clients.
| Certification Body | Credits | Type |
|---|---|---|
| BACB® | 1 | Supervision |
| COA | 1 | — |
Casey Russ is a behavior analyst with over fifteen years of experience in Education and Behavior Analysis, including direct therapy, caregiver collaboration, supervision of clients and behavior technicians, mentorship of behavior analytic trainees, and inter-departmental collaboration. Casey has participated in initiatives focused on comprehensive fieldwork programs for practicum students, leadership training, reflective practices, and ongoing clinical development for current behavior analysts. Her passions include assent-based care, organizational behavior management, and servant leadership.
Dig into the research behind this topic — plain-English summaries written for BCBAs.
279 research articles with practitioner takeaways
232 research articles with practitioner takeaways
225 research articles with practitioner takeaways
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All behavior-analytic intervention is individualized. The information on this page is for educational purposes and does not constitute clinical advice. Treatment decisions should be informed by the best available published research, individualized assessment, and obtained with the informed consent of the client or their legal guardian. Behavior analysts are responsible for practicing within the boundaries of their competence and adhering to the BACB Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts.