Provider Power with Sara Sherman

About Provider Power with Sara Sherman

Provider Power Moves is where developmental disability leaders stop surviving and start leading. If you’re tired of staffing chaos, compliance stress, burnout, and “why is this still a problem?” — you’re in the right place. Each episode delivers practical strategy, tough-love clarity, and real-world tools you can implement immediately to strengthen supervisors, empower DSPs, and build services that actually move the needle on independence. Less theory. More action. These are the moves that change everything.

Publisher

Sara Sherman

Category

education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

25 Mar 2025

Latest episode

6 Jul 2026

Latest episodes

16 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   6 Jul 2026

   Why behavior plans fail in real life

2. 

   29 Jun 2026

   Change Fatigue is Real and Youre Probably Causing It

3. 

   9 Jun 2026

   If Everything Is Urgent Your Operations Are Failing

   Being “nice” feels safe, until your team stops taking you seriously, boundaries disappear, and accountability quietly dies.

4. 

   19 May 2026

   Being Nice is Killing Your Authority

   Being “nice” feels safe — until your team stops taking you seriously, boundaries disappear, and accountability quietly dies.

5. 

   28 Apr 2026

   If You Avoid Hard Conversations, Your Team Already Knows

   You might think you’re avoiding conflict—but your team thinks you’re avoiding leadership. It’s time to facilitate hard conversations with clarity, confidence, and facts, instead of fear, anxiety, and dread.

6. 

   21 Apr 2026

   The Hidden Reason Your Staff Don't Take Ownership

   When staff don’t take ownership, it’s not an attitude problem—it’s a design problem. Learn how organizational structure shapes behavior and why accountability depends on clarity.

7. 

   14 Apr 2026

   You Got Promoted, But No One Listens to You. Here's Why.

   Promotions are great! Leading your former coworkers can get a little tricky. Learn what's wrong, how to fix it, and what happens if you don't.

8. 

   7 Apr 2026

   How to Be a Leader Staff Actually Respect

   A team doesn’t become “respectable” because of authority—it happens when leadership earns it in everyday moments. Let's breakdown what supervisors actually do (and don’t do) that makes staff want to follow…or quietly check out.

9. 

   31 Mar 2026

   Not the Best Supervision Philosophy

   Transcription It’s a very well-meaning philosophy. I totally understand where supervisors are coming from. Unfortunately, this philosophy is sabotaging your success as a supervisor and diminishing your impact as a team leader. Welcome to the Provider Power Moves Podcast. I’m your host, Sara Sherman. Here, I leverage my 35 years of experience in the field to give you practical steps that create big results in your agency and in your workday. It usually happens at the end of a frontline supervisor training. Someone pops into the chat or proudly strolls up to me and says, I don’t ask my staff to do anything I don’t do myself. As gently as I can, I have to say — mmm… that might not be the best approach. This is where I say, I’m sorry. If I didn’t say something here, I wouldn’t really be serving you. Here’s where this idea of not asking anyone to do anything you wouldn’t do yourself comes from. And there are many sources. See if any of these resonate with you. We’ve been abandoned. The people in our lives who were supposed to help us and support us simply didn’t. We were left alone to struggle and figure things out — at home, at work, or both. And we know what that feels like. It feels bad. Our response to this trauma is to make sure no one else feels that pain — at least not within our circle of control. And that is noble, kind, and loving. Not very effective — but noble, kind, and loving. We view being a good boss as pitching in, leading by being willing to get our hands dirty. We did that job. We earned internal promotion because we were good at it. The work is familiar. It feels comfortable. And sometimes we think it’s just faster or easier if we take care of things ourselves. This is our first management role. And we don’t want to be seen as above getting our hands dirty. The team we are managing — they were our coworkers. We know what they said about the boss. And we don’t want them saying those things about us. We’ve had crappy, hands-off bosses. And quite frankly, they sucked. We saw and felt the burden of having ineffective bosses — and we don’t want to behave like that. We’re disgusted by the idea that we could become like them. We don’t know what else to do. We want to be productive. We want to be a team player. But we didn’t get very good supervisor training. We want to be busy — or at least not look unbusy — so we default to what we know and what we see needs to be done. Hopefully, we’ll figure out what else we’re supposed to be doing. Our team demands that we help them do their jobs. They smile and complain that they have too much to do. They accuse us of being lazy — thinking we’re so fancy now. We feel pulled in to help because we feel bad for them, or we’re concerned they won’t follow our instructions. And that will hurt the individuals we support. And that will reflect badly on us. And we might even lose our position — along with the increased income. And we really need the money. We don’t know what else to do. The staff aren’t doing the work. There’s no support from above. And the work has to be done. So we jump in. We want to be a team player, and we don’t know any other way to show it. Staff are grateful for the help — and that feels great. Or maybe they’re just less mean — and that feels great too. I get all of this. I really do. I once held this philosophy myself — for all of these reasons. Then I hit a snag. I wasn’t getting my work done. Staff came to expect that I would pick up at least a portion of their tasks regularly. They began to treat me poorly — demanding I do more, following directions less, talking about me behind my back, rolling their eyes when I gave instruction. I was exhausted. Confused. And not really seen as a leader. Think about it. If something goes wrong on the computer soldering line, would you expect Bill Gates to run down to the line, put on a welding cap, and start melting parts together? If the Amazon website crashed, would you expect Jeff Bezos to log in and start codi

10. 

    24 Mar 2026

    Lazy Doesn't Matter

    Transcription Do you have lazy staff? I know it’s pretty common to think that you do. I hear about “lazy” staff every time I do a frontline supervisor training. Lazy. Here for the wrong reasons. Don’t care. Basically broken humans beyond repair. But they just keep showing up to the job. Supervisors and managers feel frustrated, angry, and stuck. In the meantime, work is not getting done. Compliance isn’t happening. And most importantly, the precious minutes of the lives of the individuals you serve are slipping by. Those individuals are not getting the services they’re supposed to be getting, and they aren’t living the lives they want to be living. Welcome to the Provider Power Moves Podcast. I am your host, Sara Sherman. Here, I leverage my 35 years of experience in the field to give you practical steps that create big results in your agency and in your workday. This episode is brought to you by TrueLink. TrueLink partners with hundreds of IDD organizations nationwide to streamline how clients receive and use their funds. Many programs still rely on paper checks, cash, and manual receipts — which creates risk and makes audits difficult. The TrueLink platform replaces that entire process with reloadable Visa debit cards, built-in spend controls, and audit-ready reporting. TrueLink keeps clients safer, gives staff back valuable time, and provides clear visibility into every transaction. If your organization is interested in learning more, check the show notes for contact information. What if I told you that you wouldn’t recognize lazy if you were looking at it — and that it didn’t matter anyway? Would you believe me? Let me ask you this. How do you un-lazy someone? You can’t, can you? And that’s the beauty of judging someone’s character and giving them a negative assessment. There’s nothing more to do. The verdict is in. The staff are lazy, and you’re stuck with them. It’s kind of like saying, I just washed my hair and I can’t do a thing with it. You’ve judged them, and now you’re absolved of any further obligation to address the situation. I mean, what could you possibly do about someone who has decided to be lazy? Sure — these are people who have managed to find housing, drive and maintain a car, shower, have clothing, feed themselves, and often raise children, maintain relationships, and even attend college or have another job. But once they get to work, it all falls apart. It’s very frustrating when staff are not completing their work — or aren’t completing their work without a lot of nagging, reminding, and accommodating. Because supervisors tend to be diligent employees, they don’t understand this behavior. They can’t figure it out. So they’ve decided the problem must be a character flaw — and that character flaw is being lazy. The truth is, we don’t know if they’re lazy or not. What we do know is that they aren’t doing their work. When I hear staff say people are lazy, I ask this question: What is it that you see that is leading you to conclude that the staff are lazy? Let me ask it again. What is it that you see that is leading you to conclude that the staff are lazy? Here’s what I hear when I ask that question. They don’t take people on outings.They’re on their phones.They don’t interact with individuals.They’re visiting with each other.They don’t document.They don’t clean.They don’t cook. Wonderful. Why wonderful? Because we can work with this list. You’re not going to un-lazy someone, but you can address the fact that they’re on their cell phone. You can help someone figure out how to interact more with the individuals they serve. And because this list is specific, you can coach and correct on these topics. You can track performance expectations. You can move through corrective action procedures if staff decide they’re not going to be receptive to coaching. All of a sudden, lazy doesn’t matter. The truth is, these staff could be the most ambitious people on the planet. Unfortunately, they are not executin

11. 

    17 Mar 2026

    The 6 Ps of Constructive Customer Service

    Transcription Let’s talk customer service. I hear this all the time from provider agency leaders and managers. New hires come in, and they don’t know anything about customer service. And honestly, sometimes even long-time staff still haven’t quite gotten it. So I ask a simple question: are you teaching your expectations around customer service? Almost every time, the answer is no. Here’s the hard truth. If we don’t teach it, we can’t expect people to know it. I mean, it would be great if people already knew — but that’s not our situation. So instead of complaining about what people should know, we need to get clear about what we expect, and then how to teach what we expect so that staff can deliver. That’s why I strongly recommend covering customer service expectations in new-hire orientation, creating a review of those expectations in your ongoing training plan, and formally revisiting customer service at least once every year as part of your annual training. Welcome to the Provider Power Moves podcast. I’m your host, Sara Sherman. Here, I use my 35 years of experience in the field to give you practical steps that create big results in your agency and in your workday. So who are your customers? Before we go any further, we need to answer that important question. Who exactly are your customers? And this list is longer than most people think. Your customers include individuals receiving services, families and guardians, case managers, other service providers, regulators and auditors, community partners, and additional professionals. And don’t forget your internal customers — your departments, coworkers and colleagues, supervisors, managers, and direct support staff. Customer service is not just an outward-facing skill. It’s how work actually gets done. I like to think of good customer service as falling into six Ps. Let’s walk through them. P number one: polite and pleasant. Yes, this sounds basic — but basics are where things fall apart. Polite and pleasant means please and thank you. Yes ma’am, yes sir. Smiling, making eye contact, being attentive, and giving the customer your full attention. It means being kind and considerate. Customers — both internal and external — can immediately tell whether they are an interruption or a priority. P number two: patient. We want staff to be patient enough to really work with the person in front of them. That means taking the time needed, allowing space for someone to explain, creating safety and comfort, and making people feel heard and understood. If customers don’t feel comfortable asking questions or explaining a problem, we can’t provide good service — no matter how efficient we think we’re being. And patience includes something critical: clearly expressing what we understand the concern to be. That matters because if staff don’t understand correctly, time is wasted, problems aren’t solved, and customers aren’t happy — even though staff put in the effort. P number three: precise. Precision is where customer service often breaks down. We want staff to take notes, not rely on memory, gather all relevant details, and — this part is key — repeat the information back to the customer. This does two things. It confirms accuracy, and it shows the customer they’re being taken seriously. Precision also means making sure staff truly understand what the customer wants as the outcome — not just the complaint. The clearer we are about the desired resolution, the closer the agency can get to solving the problem. And if the desired resolution isn’t possible, good customer service means explaining why, offering alternatives, or connecting the customer to someone who can help. P number four: predictable. Customer service in your organization should be predictable. Predictability comes from dependability. Both internal and external customers very quickly decide what kind of service they can expect from your organization — not based on what you say, but on what they consistently experience.

12. 

    10 Mar 2026

    The Hidden Reason DSPs Quit

    Transcription Did you see the Relias report that said 50% of DSPs report leaving their jobs because of their supervisor? And if you spend any time at all on LinkedIn, you’ve likely seen post after post talking about how employees don’t leave jobs — they leave bosses. In fact, in the Gallup research report entitled The State of the American Manager, 50% of those polled said the number one reason they left their job was to get away from their boss. Fifty percent. That means half of Americans are reporting that the number one reason they leave their position is because of their manager. That really caught my attention, given that I work in a field with incredibly high turnover. Welcome to the Provider Power Moves podcast. I am your host, Sara Sherman. Here, I leverage my 35 years of experience in the field to give you practical steps that create big results in your agency and in your workday. This episode is brought to you by TrueLink. TrueLink partners with hundreds of IDD organizations nationwide to streamline how clients receive and use their funds. Many programs still rely on paper checks, cash, and manual receipts — which creates risk and makes audits difficult. The TrueLink platform replaces that entire process with reloadable Visa debit cards, built-in spending controls, and audit-ready reporting. TrueLink keeps clients safer, gives staff back valuable time, and provides clear visibility into every transaction. If your organization is interested in learning more, check the show notes for contact information. So I wanted to pursue this idea of people leaving their managers at this massive scale a bit further. And here’s what I found. Gallup goes on to say that employees who are engaged are much more likely to stay in their jobs. So where does engagement come from? It turns out that managers account for at least 70% of the variance employees experience in engagement. Seventy percent. We all understand that communication breeds engagement, so it’s no surprise that with all of this disengagement, there are a lot of complaints about communication. When I work with providers, staff tell me the same thing over and over again: communication is always the number one complaint. Communication — or lack of communication, however you choose to look at it. I work with DSPs, frontline supervisors, upper-level management, CEOs, and people in between, across many departments. And I hear the same complaint repeatedly. That leads me to believe Gallup is correct. And it’s not just that information isn’t getting where it’s supposed to go — it’s that managers are afraid to speak at all. They don’t know what to say. They don’t know what they can say. They don’t know how to say it. If you’re watching on YouTube, you can see the chart that describes when managers are uncomfortable giving feedback. And if you’re listening on the podcast, I’ll link you to it in the show notes. The chart shows that 70% of the time, staff are unhappy with communication in general — which lines right up with those Gallup numbers. Thirty-seven percent of the time, the discomfort is around giving direct feedback or criticism. Twenty percent of the time, it’s demonstrating vulnerability — identifying that you, the supervisor, made a mistake and learned from it. Another 20% reflects an inability to recognize employee achievements. We know the number one and number two things people want from their jobs are acknowledgment and appreciation. Pay is actually third. Yet here we see that one-fifth of managers aren’t even comfortable acknowledging and appreciating an employee’s work. Another 20% of managers don’t feel they can seriously communicate the company’s message. And almost 20% struggle to give clear directions. Sixteen percent have difficulty identifying when a good idea actually came from someone else. And 16% of supervisors report that they struggle to speak face to face and would prefer to communicate by email. I’ll talk about email communication in anothe

13. 

    3 Mar 2026

    Time Management is the Biggest Lie

    Transcription Time management is the biggest lie in the book. You’ve been told your whole life that if you just managed your time better, everything would work. You’d hit your goals. You’d get everything done. Your staff would perform better. But here’s the truth: time cannot be managed. You can’t stop it. You can’t move it. You can’t stretch it. Calendars and apps don’t manage time. They only organize tasks. Welcome to the Provider Power Moves Podcast. I am your host, Sara Sherman. Here, I leverage my 35 years of experience in the field to give you practical steps that create big results in your agency and in your workday. Pause for a moment. How often do you blame yourself or your staff for poor time management? I hear it all the time. I continually hear about employees who simply need to manage their time better. Given that time management is simply not possible, these staff will never achieve success. They’re focused on the wrong thing — and so are you. Further, think about all the time and energy that is devoted to nagging, harassing, pestering, and writing up employees who fail to “manage their time.” Now you may be thinking, Okay, so Sara, if time management isn’t the issue, then what is — and how do we get staff back on track? Well, I am so very glad that you asked. Here’s what we know. We know that staff are not getting their tasks done. And right now, that’s all we know. So let’s start there. Because staff are not getting their work done in the time allotted, something must be getting in the way. Somewhere, there is a barrier that is impeding the completion of the tasks assigned within the allotted time. This means we have to investigate. If the work isn’t getting done, there are only two possible reasons. First, there may be too many tasks for the time available. So you need to think about whether the amount of work assigned to that period of time is actually completable in that amount of time. This is a process issue. We know that before we can identify a people problem, we have to rule out a process problem. This means you have to first confirm that the work can be done within the time allotted. You can complete a formal time study to figure that out. You can observe staff, or meet with them and discuss the workload. If the work cannot be done within the time available, you’re going to have to make changes in order for you or your staff to be successful. That means you have to move things. You have to figure out what work will be eliminated from the task list and where that work is going to go. If the work can be done within the allotted time, then you have a different problem. You probably have a people problem. While we do not control time, we do control attention. I remember when I was working in case management or service coordination. In social services, we tend to spend a lot of time talking, and not everything we talk about has to do with the tasks of the day. Sometimes we get a bit philosophical. I have to confess, there were days when I was talking to lots of people and felt really tired at the end of the day because I had expended a lot of energy. But when I got back to my office, I realized I hadn’t done anything on my list — and the day was gone. And I thought, Oh my gosh, how did I lose a full day? Was everything I was talking about necessary for the job and for the day? And I had to be honest. The answer was no. Not all of those conversations were necessary. I gave my attention to those conversations in error. It was a mistake. I did not have the available minutes to have some of the conversations that I had. This means I put my attention in the wrong place. Now the good news is that I have complete control over where I put my attention. And so do you. And so do your staff. So if the work can be done in the allotted time, then we know attention is drifting. And we have to ask: Where is our attention drifting? Think about it. Is there anywhere right now that members of your team are exper

14. 

    24 Feb 2026

    3 Critical Communication Steps that Create Independent Staff

    Transcription Today, we’re talking about one deceptively simple goal that changes everything about supervision and staff independence. No, we’re not talking about they can do it if I remind them, or they’ll get it done if I follow up, or even if I nag, beg, plead, and do that for days, I’ll actually get the work done that’s supposed to be done. We’re not talking about any of that. True independence means doing the work correctly and on time without you, the supervisor. Expecting staff to do their work correctly and on time without requiring ongoing supervision is the standard. This is normal work. If you’ve been in my trainings, you know I often talk about the expectations of me as a 16-year-old worker at Wendy’s. I was expected to do my work correctly and on time, make appropriate decisions, and make sure that the food was done per regulation within the allotted timeframe. You should have the same expectations of your staff. Once they are trained, they should be able to do the job correctly, on time, and without you. Welcome to the Provider Power Moves podcast. I am your host, Sara Sherman. Here, I leverage my 35 years of experience in the field to give you practical steps that create big results in your agency and in your workday. This episode is brought to you by TrueLink. TrueLink partners with hundreds of IDD organizations nationwide to streamline how clients receive and use their funds. Many programs still rely on paper checks, cash, and manual receipts — and this creates risk and makes audits difficult. The TrueLink platform replaces that entire process with reloadable Visa debit cards, built-in spend controls, and audit-ready reporting. TrueLink keeps clients safer, gives staff back valuable time, and provides clear visibility into every transaction. If your organization is interested in learning more, check the show notes for contact information. Independent staff are happier staff. They aren’t being corrected all the time. They can confidently execute. They get to make that difference you promised they could make when they chose to work for your organization. Think of one staff person you regularly remind or rescue. Are you training them or supporting them for independence? Or are you training them for dependence? And if you don’t supervise anyone, think about your supervisor. When you need help, when you need correction, does the help that you get empower you to be more independent in your job — or more dependent? So today, we’re going to talk about three critical communication steps that support independent staff. And we’re going to start with the least talked about, but highly important, communication skill: listening. Active listening builds competence because you’re really hearing what your staff are telling you. When management trains, when management corrects, it’s all about telling — and not at all about listening. And let’s face it: if we were great about training and correcting, staff would not need to ask an endless array of questions, because they would have all the knowledge they need to execute independently. There are six steps to active listening. First, we want to ask open-ended questions. These are questions that cannot be answered with a yes or no response. So instead of saying, did you do the work that’s on the schedule? you can say, tell me about the work that you did on the schedule. Tell me how you did the work on the schedule. Describe your day to me. These are all open-ended questions. Ask what or how questions. If you’re stuck on how to ask a good open-ended question, simply start your question with what or how. What and how questions cannot be answered with a yes or no. Easy peasy. Be attentive. This means put your phone down. Look someone in the eye. Don’t be distracted. Don’t be talking to several people at the same time. Give the person who’s speaking to you your full attention. Listen effectively. Listening effectively means that you’re hearing what’s not being said. For ex

15. 

    29 Jan 2026

    Are You Sure You Have a People Problem?

16. 

    25 Mar 2025

    Compliance...or Quality

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