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Self-regulation:

Goleman describes self-regulation as an internal conversation. “It is like an ongoing inner conversation as a component of emotional intelligence that frees us from being prisoners of our feelings. People engage in such a conversation feel bad moods and emotional impulses just as everyone else does but they find ways to control them and even to channel them in useful ways.” (Goleman, 1999)

I continue to struggle with how I react to making decisions and responding to questions or criticism.  It took a few times reading this article as well as a few videos on the subject to realize I struggle the most with this position of emotional intelligence.  It is my weakness because I tend to reactively respond to questions instead of taking a moment or pause.  The video below it talks about how a negative comment or thought may just be a true statement on something I need to work on.  Pausing and thinking about what was said may remove any snap decisions or regrets later.

Strategies for Growth

1. Pause before responding.  Taking just a moment to reflect on what was said this may provide just enough clarity to provide a well thought out response
2. I like the idea to have a “filler phrase” ready for incidence where you need to reflect on a comment.  When a question is posed that you are not prepared for maybe acknowledging it by saying “that’s an interesting point of view let me think on that.” This will provide the chance for my body to seek an answer and not feel attacked.

Goleman, D. (1999). What makes a leader? Clinical Laboratory Management Review: Official Publication of the Clinical Laboratory Management Association, 13(3), 123–131.

Macro-Level Social Work

As a social worker battling social inequalities, it is critical to effectively advocate for changes in societal laws and policies. A social worker must be able to take a stand and be willing to help lead change or take leadership of new policies, regulations, and awareness campaigns, among other things. It is our professional responsibility, as social workers to utilize our voice, position, and knowledge to help others.

Micro-Level Social Work

Having any sort of influence over another individual is a huge responsibility.  In the micro-level field of social work, clients grant us the ability to influence their present and future by helping them grow and learn. In doing so we have an ethical responsibility to build relationships with our clients through professionalism, tact, and leadership.

Leadership Significance

We as social workers have an obligation to engage our clients in positive, healthy, and competent ways. When we can engage with competent leadership, we place the profession in a positive light that will allow other professions to respect and desire input from social workers.  Interdisciplinary team members carry responsibility for the team process and outcomes, that shift according to the situation. (McCallin, 2003) Conducting ourselves in such a manner that we gain the respect of other professions will not only improve our personal status as social workers but also elevate that of the profession in general.

References

McCallin, A. (2003). Interdisciplinary team leadership: A revisionist approach for an old problem? Journal of Nursing Management, 11(6), 364–370. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2834.2003.00425.x

All in all, I feel the leadership content is very strong within this program.  We need to remind ourselves that leadership is never a one size fits all style.  Every person will develop their leadership differently.  The great leaders I have worked with and for have achieved that position because they have taken the opportunity to get to know their staff.  Social workers, we get to know our clients, communities, and profession in very similar ways.  We need to find what motivates and inspires, this is not an interrogation but a sharing of ideas, and philosophies.  As social workers, we must understand what talents and strengths our clients have and therapeutically utilize them. Doing so will develop trust and confidence in the Clinciaian-Client relationship.

Peters & Hopkins (2019)wrote, “ a lack of leadership education and training may contribute to the deficit of social workers in leadership positions.”  Social workers may experience a secondary status on interdisciplinary teams.  The inclusion of leadership education may enable the social worker to become better, more assertive leaders that are confident in advocating for the services of their clients.

For social work practitioners to effectively compete with those in an MPA or MBA program we must include in our curriculum leadership education.  Social workers with training in management and leadership bring unique skills to the social service agency setting. (Wilson & Lau, 2011)

We as future MSWs must be prepared to lead from the front.  We are the proverbial tip of the spear.  Gaining leadership exposure early on will aid us in our peer-to-peer interactions, advocacy work, professional expectations, and internships.  We must understand how to advocate for the profession even in the face of adversity.

References

Peters, S. C., & Hopkins, K. (2019). Validation of a Measure of Social Work Leadership. Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance, 43(2), 92–110. https://doi.org/10.1080/23303131.2019.1606869

Wilson, S., & Lau, B. (2011). Preparing Tomorrow’s Leaders and Administrators: Evaluating a Course in Social Work Management. Administration in Social Work, 35(3), 324–342. https://doi.org/10.1080/03643107.2011.575347

To define the term leadership, I am reminded of how we defined it in the United States Marine Corps. General John A. Lejeune stated that leadership is “the sum of those qualities of intellect, human understanding, and moral character that enable a person to inspire and to control a group of people successfully.”(Maslowski, 2021).  We have committed to being something better than ourselves.  We owe this not only to our clients but also to our profession.

When I think of good quality traits of a leader in the field of social work, I don’t think you can overlook the value of interpersonal skills. We operate in an environment where people often feel very emotional and under a great deal of stress, having the ability to listen and communicate with people who are experiencing a rough patch in their life, all while maintaining a calm demeanor is critical to our success. Problem-solving skills are almost a cornerstone of what we do as social workers. Finding solutions for our client’s challenges requires us to be skilled in critical thinking and problem solving as well as developing plans to resolve conflicts for our clients. We as social workers cannot put any of this together if we do not have empathy. Empathy involves our ability to understand the experience of others and once again help find solutions to their concerns. Lastly, as social workers, we will find ourselves juggling many different clients, at different phases of treatment and this will require a high level of time-management and organizational skills to keep up with clients, paperwork, profession, personal life, and self-care.

References

Maslowski, M. (2021, June 17). Research Guides: QPME: History and Traditions of the United States Marine Corps: Ethics, Values, and Leadership Development: 1. Definition. https://grc-usmcu.libguides.com/pme/qpme/marine-corps-ethics-values-leadership-development/definition

As social work students, we are developing the skills we will need to enter the profession and be successful.  As college students, we will have to overcome problems and challenges daily. It is the problem-solving skills that we learn here that will make us better leaders out there. In the classroom, we will work with other students and will deal with and present solutions to problems. We will discover in our coursework that the problem-solving skills we develop will be vital to our professional workplaces.  Developing a sense of responsibility is another leadership trait that we learn here in the classroom. We strengthen these traits by working in groups and on group projects.  As college students, we are no longer responsible just for just ourselves in these situations, but now responsible as a member of a group or team.  This helps us develop the understanding that we have responsibilities, and our failure will effectively affect the group.

Mood Elevator 

Dr. Larry Senn writes that “ the mood elevator is our moment-to-moment experience of life. It encompasses a wide range of feelings. Together these emotions play a major role in defining the quality of our lives as well as our effectiveness. The purpose of learning about the mood elevator is to help people live life at their best.” (Senn, 2017)

In working with clients, the mood elevator can help an individual become self-aware of where they are in a moment of crisis and how they are emotionally responding. Enabling them to utilize the elevator to determine whether it is a suitable response and/or think of methods that can bring their mood back to the curious level when they find themselves on the lower levels of the elevator.

Mood Elevator in Education

During this opening semester of my ASAP, I have been faced with three family deaths, a wedding, and the recent stroke of my uncle.  These incidents have created the feeling s being stressed, overwhelmed, and frustrated.  All culminating in a conversation about withdrawing from the program altogether.  Being able to step back and look at the mood elevator I can ask myself am I being reasonable and what can I do to move back to a position of curiosity or neutral.  Reflecting on the elevator throughout the next year will greatly improve my thinking when it comes to hurdles, stresses, and setbacks.  The more I use the system myself the better I can express the process to clients.

Reference

Senn, L. (2017). The Mood Elevator: Take Charge of Your Feelings, Become a Better You. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

This Blog is designed to take a look at the Social Work profession and discuss the role sound leadership plays in promoting effective practice, achieving social justice, impact social policies, opportunities for mobility and represent the profession with distraction.