As a social work student and future practitioner, leadership goes beyond delegating tasks and creating schedules. Leading is about identifying what change you want and figuring out how you can make that change happen. Leadership, to me, is also about empowering others to do the same. As a leader, I want to be able to empower my classmates and clients to know that they are able to create whatever change they want to see in the world. Further, I want to empower clinicians specifically by creating cultural competency trainings.
Being an effective and competent social work leader means providing culturally competent and trauma informed care. It also means, when placed in a leadership role, acting in a way that is congruent with social work values and ethics. At a macro level, it looks like helping create or change policies so that they are inclusive and mindful of people whose identities are marginalized. On a micro level, it looks like engaging in practice with clients and providing care that is humble and trauma informed. When social workers focus on creating inclusive space for marginalized identities, other disciplines are empowered with the relevant knowledge to provide care that is effective and well-received by stakeholders. For example, a doctor may have never seen a transgender client before, but after working directly with a hospital social worker on how to provide culturally competent care, is then able to be an effective and sensitive clinician to the transgender patient.
Check out this video below to see a unique example of what leadership can look like in social work practice!
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