It is imperative that a social worker leader has sound leadership skills within the context of both the macro and the micro field.
The 6 social work Core Values are below. I would argue that in order to be effective at these, one must be a leader.
An example of this in the Macro Field is when working with social justice issues. As a social worker fighting against social injustices, one needs to advocate well for laws and policies to be changed. It is necessary for the social worker to be able to take a stand and be willing to help lead change or take charge of new policies, laws, educational events, awareness etc. Social workers do not have the luxury of simply taking a back seat and simply waiting for someone else to take action, instead, it is part of our professional responsibility to leverage our voice, position, and knowledge for the benefit of others.
Then an example of this in the Micro Field– when practicing micro social work people are giving you the privilege to speak into their lives, to influence their present and their future to help them heal, grow and learn and that is a big responsibility to be able to influence the lives of others– thus it is essential to building those trusting therapeutic relationships in order to effectively influence, care for and serve those clients that you are working with.
As social workers, we need to be on par with our peers not only within the social work field but also with those who are outside of our field. It can sometimes be difficult for professionals on an interdisciplinary team to be able to work well together. Thus it is essential to have strong leadership skills and insights in order to be able to help work effectively on a team. Otherwise, an interdisciplinary team can easily end up looking like a tug of war for power as seen in this Madagascar clip:
In order to prevent this, as social workers we must do our job to be as competent as we can in our leadership skills so that we can effectively engage with others, listen well and know what types of people and behavioral styles we are engaging with in order to help build a healthy team where everyone feels heard, seen, valued and is able to provide their input. When we are able to engage well and with competent leadership skills this will place the profession of social work in a positive light among interdisciplinary teams and will cause the other professionals such as doctors, psychologists, teachers etc. to respect the profession and desire to hear input from social workers.