Podcast Episode: 

Preventing Crisis and Building Culture: Leadership Lessons with Dr. Paul "Paulie" Gavoni

In this episode of In the Field: The ABA Podcast, I sit down with Dr. Paul Gavoni (better known as Dr. Paulie), BCBA® and organizational leader, to talk about leadership through the lens of behavior analysis. Dr. Paulie shares how his experiences in schools, coaching, and organizational behavior management shaped his approach to leadership. His core belief: leadership is not about titles, it is about behavior.

Key Topics:

1. From Frustration to Leadership: How Dr. Paulie’s early experiences with coercive leadership inspired him to study educational and organizational leadership, and why he sees behavior analysis as the foundation of all great leadership models.
2. Leadership as Behavior, Not Title: Why the measure of leadership is found in the behavior of followers, and how anyone in an organization (BCBA®, RBT®, teacher, or parent) can be a leader.
3. The Four Hats of Leadership: Dr. Paulie introduces his framework for leadership behavior:
   • Leading Hat (inspiration and motivation)
   • Training Hat (building fluency in pivotal skills)
   • Coaching Hat (supporting generalization and independence)
   • Managing Hat (maintaining systems and preventing drift)
4. Feedback as the Core of Leadership: How feedback functions across hats, why good leaders create feedback-rich environments, and how radical vulnerability helps leaders model reflection and growth.
5. Crisis Management and Systems Thinking: Drawing from his work with PCMA, Dr. Paulie explains how prevention, fluency, and system design are the best crisis management strategies for schools, clinics, and organizations.

Key Takeaways:

• Leadership is defined by behavior, not position, and anyone can engage in leadership practices.
• Effective leaders inspire, train, coach, and manage with intention, aligning their behavior with the needs of their people.
• Feedback is not just about correction, it starts, maintains, and shapes behavior across all levels of an organization.
• Systems should be deliberately designed to reinforce valued behavior and prevent coercion.
• The best crisis management is prevention disguised as daily practice, built on fluency and behavioral principles.

Keywords: Leadership in ABA, Organizational Behavior Management, Feedback, Four Hats of Leadership, Performance Diagnostic Checklist, Crisis Management, PCMA, School-Based ABA, Behavior Systems, Paul Gavoni, Applied Behavior Analysis

Connect with Dr. Paulie Gavoni:

• LinkedIn: Paul Gavoni
  
  
• Instagram: @drpauliegloves
  
  
• The Crisis in Education Podcast: Listen here
  
  
• PCMA: Professional Crisis Management Association
  
  

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