Category 1
This is the process of planning, prioritizing, and organizing your tasks and activities to use your time effectively and meet deadlines.
What is time management?
This refers to clearly defining your responsibilities, knowing what tasks you are personally responsible for, and ensuring you follow through without overstepping or letting others’ work interfere with yours.
What are boundaries, ownership, and accountability?
Clue:
This is the clear understanding of your job responsibilities, what tasks you are accountable and responsible for, how your role fits within the team, and knowing when and how to delegate tasks appropriately.
What is Role Clarity
Clue:
This is the process of monitoring staff schedules, workload, and coverage to prevent unnecessary extra hours, ensure deadlines are met, and maintain budget and staff well-being.
What is effectively managing Overtime
This is the process a supervisor uses to identify, address, and resolve disagreements or tensions between staff, clients, or both, in a fair, safe, and constructive manner.
What is conflict resolution?
Alex is a supervisor who wants to be supportive. Staff message them constantly — during breaks, after hours, even on weekends. Alex responds every time.
What happens to Alex?
What is Alex becomes overwhelmed, misses priorities, and risks burnout?
It’s 4:45 pm, your shift ends at 5:00 pm, and a staff member asks to “run something by you real quick.”
As a supervisor, you’re accountable for this.
What is managing my time, setting boundaries, and scheduling follow-up appropriately?
Two clients are arguing and DSPs are present in the common area.
As a supervisor, your job is not to run to every argument. What should you do instead?
What is observe from a distance, intervene only if safety is at risk, and follow up afterward?
It’s Friday and the staff supervisor already worked an extra shift on Tuesday, putting them at 40 hours. They have reworked their to-do list, there are no coverage gaps, and nothing is due today.
What should the staff supervisor do?
What is ask the regional manager to leave early to prevent unnecessary overtime?
A staff supervisor is in their office working when they overhear a client become upset and refuse to participate in an activity. The DSP responds with frustration and raises their voice.
What should the staff supervisor do?
What is leave the office, intervene calmly, separate staff and client if needed, coach the DSP on appropriate responses facilitate resolution, and document the incident?
You walk in at the start of your shift, and within minutes, three DSPs approach you:
You also have a one-on-one with your supervisor in 15 minutes and need to check your emails before the meeting.
Scenario:
DSP 1 comes to you complaining that DSP 2 is not completing their checklist.
When you review the checklists, you notice that DSP 1 is also not completing tasks on their own checklist.
You already have one-on-one meetings scheduled with both DSPs later in the day but have other deadlines to do on your to-do list to manage before the one to one.
To make things more challenging:
Question:
How should you handle this situation while maintaining fairness, accountability, and meeting your time-sensitive responsibilities?
What is separate tasks, set expectations, delegate, if possible, complete your work, and follow up?
A staff member is cooking dinner, and you overhear them telling a client, “Wait just a minute, I’ll be right there to help you.”
What should the staff supervisor do?
What is observe, ensure client safety, let the DSP manage, and follow up if needed?
A DSP is scheduled to work extra on Saturday, bringing them to 50 hours for the week, and the home is already over allotted overtime hours. There is plenty of staff scheduled on Monday.
What should the staff supervisor do?
What is move the DSP from Monday’s schedule to Saturday to avoid unnecessary overtime while maintaining adequate coverage?
A DSP is constantly complaining about a client’s behavior but is not using data sheets or writing incident reports.
What should the staff supervisor do?
What is meet privately with the DSP, discuss the client’s behavior and concerns, coach them on professional communication and documentation, facilitate strategies to manage the client effectively, and follow up to ensure resolution?
It’s mid-shift, and you notice that some DSPs are:
On top of that, a client comes to your office asking you to make them a snack. You need to leave for a meeting in 10 minutes, and this behavior is affecting client engagement and team accountability.
Question:
How do you handle this situation as a supervisor?
A DSP is not completing audits despite:
This issue has already been raised by your supervisor, and you have been short-staffed, making it harder to manage workloads and deadlines.
You have other tasks and deadlines to meet today, but this is affecting quality standards.
Question:
How should you handle this situation?
What is address it in a one-on-one, set clear expectations, document noncompliance, and follow up to ensure accountability?
The home is out of cleaning supplies. A staff supervisor says they’ll pick them up on their way home.
In reality, this is a task for DSPs and the client.
What is the DSPs and client are responsible for getting cleaning supplies, while the supervisor ensures expectations are clear and follows up?
DSPs are consistently staying late to finish routine tasks and say they cannot get everything done on time.
What is a staff supervisor’s role to prevent unnecessary overtime?
What is observe staff during shifts, identify task priorities, and adjust workload or delegation as needed?
All the staff feel you have a favorite, but in reality, you don’t — you just know this particular staff completes tasks efficiently and reliably.
What should the staff supervisor do?
What is address staff perceptions in a team meeting or individually, clarify expectations for everyone, ensure equitable task assignments, and monitor interactions to maintain fairness?
It’s mid-shift, and two DSPs approach you at the same time:
You also have other priorities and a one-on-one with your supervisor in 15 minutes.
Question:
How do you handle these requests while maintaining leadership, accountability, and boundaries?
What is defer the concern, hold DSP 2 accountable, provide guidance if needed, and communicate deadlines clearly?
You have a long-term DSP who is running off new hires.
Question:
How should you handle this situation while maintaining staff accountability and meeting your critical deadline?
Question:
How should you handle this situation while maintaining role clarity, accountability, and meeting your critical deadline?
What is assign the task, set expectations, follow up, and leave on time?
Several staff want the same week off, but the home cannot function without every staff member. You are already over your overtime budget and cannot afford additional OT until next month.
What should the staff supervisor do?
What is deny additional time off for that week, communicate the reason clearly, and help staff plan alternative weeks while maintaining staffing and staying within budget?
Two staff members are constantly gossiping, disrupting the team environment.
What should the staff supervisor do?
What is address privately, set expectations, follow a progressive plan, and follow up?