What if, as a boss, your client is your staff member? Then would the concepts of behavior shaping, instructional control, consequence and antecedent interventions, motivating operants apply? If your answer is Yes, keep reading.

Managing. Management. These are real words with real meaning that require real time and responsibility. In an age of memes of what a boss is vs. a leader, it would make one who manages or is responsible for the daily execution of an ABA Therapy or Private Practice that they are missing the mark.

Consider this: The work of business leadership ownership requires the dual responsibility of boss and leader. And just as in a marriage or any relationship, it is never 50/50. – SealsGreen, 2019

When we add on the complexity of being in charge to the fact that nothing we do is really private when social media culture enters in the form of staff people who Instagram, Tweet, IM, Meme, and Snapchat their emotions. Added to this complexity is that professional circles are not what they once were. What do I mean? Well, the increased number of online schools and degree programs in ABA forces distance learners to seek their professional circles in Facebook and various question boards. Community is redefined as bold, brazen( at times), without the communication apptiude and experience…and it is applauded by the community. And, like it or not, the acceptance of such has created a culture of

Instagram: Show me in pictures. Facebook: as the Encyclopedia of Fact

Twitter: short answers Meme: is it funny? Snapchat: I can say it and it disappears without consequence.

When we shift how we view social media and its implications of human behavior in the workplace, it does require us as leadership-managers-bosses to adjust the measuring stick…with an upward movement…for workplace expectations.

So How Do We Do This?

1. Make the mission of the organization important by overcommunicating it.
2. Run shop like ABA Theory in full manifesto. This means antecedent and consequence interventions for staff
3. It means that preference assessments are good within alignment of what is good, in alignment with budgets.
4. Be clear in your communication by utilizing “No”
5. Understand that invitations to enter the workplace are as important as invitations to exit the workplace
6. Covenant Restrictive Policy including a social media policy that requires that no language and discussion about your organization is for public consumption in a verbal form nor on social media.
7. Enforce your policy. You will need to be a boss and #bossup.

This is what I have learned. One bad apple truly does spoil the whole bunch AND it gives you insight on how quickly rot can grow within an organization based upon proximity of the apples and our slow movement in getting the ROT – ROOT cause out. And most times the rootcause is the culture we have created and allowed. #culturebeatspolicyallthetime

The best thing we can do for ourselves as leaders and owners is not define who we are by the latest quote by Richard Branson. While that is a great thought, many of us are working knee to knee with people who will tweet and Instagram about you and your workplace if not for the boundaries and perimeters we have established. The truth is that it is a jungle out here and authentic leadership is your friend. It’s the only way you make it. Because YOU matter.

Stay Empowered. #BossUP

~Landria Seals Green, TherapyBiz GURU