Before I started in the social work program, I always thought that being a leader was about supervising, but I have since come to realize that anyone can be a leader. In social work, it is important for us to be effective leaders. Like I said in my last post, we impact people daily– sometimes without even knowing it. Example:
Choosing social work as a profession requires us to have leadership skills, whether we recognize them or not.
From the beginning of our training as social workers, we are taught fundamental aspects of leadership such as:
- How to help others change/develop/succeed
- How to understand others’ perspectives
- How to collaborate with others
- The importance of understanding ethics in practice
- How to recognize/solve problems
- How to listen and communicate with others
- How to resolve conflicts
- How to recognize power differentials
Leadership skills can help social workers at both the micro and macro levels of practice. Micro-level practitioners use these skills to work with individual clients/groups, to help them see their potential, and to empower them toward change. At the macro level, we use leadership skills to fight for social justice through impacting policy and advocating for others. Social workers at all levels of practice are focused one thing: making the world a better place for everyone. Being an effective leader in social work is important, because leadership is who we are. The ability to lead and to help others is what the profession is all about.
Social workers regularly work with people from other disciplines. Leadership in the social work profession might look different from what other professions think leadership is. This can have both positive and negative effects on how other disciplines view the social work profession. The skills that we have as social work leaders that will most likely be viewed positively by people in other professions include: helping others, listening, collaborating, and resolving conflicts. Utilizing these skills will make teamwork go so much more smoothly. On the other hand, our ethical framework looks completely different from other professions’. As social work leaders, we must always practice with our Code of Ethics (https://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics/Code-of-Ethics-English) in mind. People in practice areas such as teaching, nursing, law enforcement, etc. have different ideas of what ethical practice is. For example, a teacher may refer a student to a social worker for a problem that the student is dealing with that is impacting the teacher’s ability to work with that student. Since the teacher was the referral source, he or she may want to know what is being discussed in therapy sessions. However, one of our ethical standards is confidentiality, and as social work leaders we must utilize ethics in our practice. This may cause the teacher to view the social work profession negatively because he/she believes that the social worker should share the information.
This video made me redefine what I believe leadership to be! I have found myself reaching out to individuals that have been “lollipop moments” in my life and telling them so!
it was very helpful this was for my social work class
it was helpful this was for my social work class at Ball State University