Personal Vision Statement
The personal vision statement that will guide my future as a social worker and as a social work leader is “ Nothing less than showing love and realizing the full potential of every human I come in contact with .” Being a social worker involves working with individuals, families, groups, and communities as part of promoting the overall wellbeing of every individual to enhance social functioning. As the statement suggests, I will focus on ensuring that I show love and work towards projecting the full potential of every person that I come with as part of my role as a social worker.
Social work leadership is most closely aligned with the model of transformational leadership, a style in which the leader identifies the needed change, creates the vision for that change, inspires and guides others to work toward that change, and executes the change as a team. Therefore, this guides my position as a social worker because it defines what I ought to do to ensure that those I interact with achieve the best possible outcomes from our interactions. The personal vision statement that I have indicated reflects on a well-structured approach that changes my understanding of the world around me to drive my vision in social work leadership.
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I intend to be a leader in social work in various ways. Firstly, I will focus on gaining insight into and understanding human behavior. Chin & Trimble (2014) indicate that a social worker's effectiveness depends on his/her ability to understand human behavior in multiple environments. I will use my experience as a social worker to understand human behavior in its general sense. Secondly, I will be a leader in social work by helping other develop and succeed. I understand the value and importance of ensuring that I build on my engagement with others, which will guide my leadership approaches, especially when I deal with persons that face significant life challenges.
Thirdly, I will also work on ensuring that I see situations from multiple perspectives, which will increase my ability to deal with a situation much more effectively. A social worker's primary role is to enhance the social functioning and overall wellbeing of the people in a social setting (Chin & Trimble, 2014). That can only be achieved by viewing situations from different perspectives, which gives a clear sense of understanding of what to expect in social work leadership. Fourthly, my social work leadership will be guided by a strong ethical framework that ensures every decision I made is moral and ethical. As a social work leader, I will be expected to make decisions that must be moral and ethical, guided by my ethical framework. Lastly, I intend to respect diversity as part of my position as a leader in social work.
Personal Leadership and Supervision Style, Skills, and Abilities
My personal leadership and supervision style based upon the profiles completed in class is transformational leadership. Leadership and supervision are some of the critical factors that determine overall effectiveness in social work, considering that they determine how social workers respond to the different situations that they experience in their everyday activities (Kaiser, 1997). My profile suggests that I am more of an individual that believes in the need to inspire change even as I push for a much better understanding of my social work skills. Transformational leadership focuses on using the general understanding of a situation to guide change and establish a clear vision to guide such change. I will use this leadership and supervision style to inspire change in my immediate environment as a social worker, which will be of great importance in advancing my position as a social worker and social work leader.
An evaluation of my leadership domains highlights specific areas that I need to build on as part of my future in social work. In the area of executing, the two main areas that I will build on are achievers and responsibility. I will need to ensure that I maximize my position as an achiever while ensuring that I take responsibility for my actions. In the area of influence, the two main areas that I need to build on our communication and self-assurance. I will work on connectedness, empathy, futuristic, and input to enhance my relationship building and strategic thinking. Working on these areas will be of great importance in pushing my abilities as an effective social worker with the ability and capacity to deliver on some of the key objectives. Additionally, this would mean that I will be much more informed when I make decisions that guide my position in social work.
Practice of Leadership and Supervision
As part of my approach to transformation leadership and supervision, I need to work on ensuring that I encourage the motivation and positive development of those I interact with as part of my social work. Eagly & Chin (2010) note that motivation and positive development reflects on the need to advance a change or shift in one’s position as a social worker, which would guide reflective leadership outcomes. I feel like my personal individual work, and goals fit well with the agency that I am pleased with. My goals include working with at-risk populations as well as marginalized communities. I feel like the agency that I am working with matches my goals. The agency I am with is in a very rural community with limited access to behavioral health options. This agency has grown and expanded over the years to be multifaceted and its delivery of care.
Another key area that I will need to work on is to hold an emphasis on the area of authenticity and open communication as a way of providing necessary support to the groups I work with in my position as a social worker. One of the things that I have been excited to work on with full agency support is the creation of an LGBTQ support group. I often hear from clients that there is little to no support in this world area, nor is there any safe place for members in that community to get together. One of my goals in my internship this year is to get that group launched. I have also just been permitted to launch it virtually so I will be beginning the group over zoom.
Leadership Role in Social Work Practice
In the leadership role, I will focus on demonstrating leadership roles by enabling others to act based on their abilities. Leaders should be in a position to ensure that other people practice their strengths and abilities to promote value in leadership. Secondly, I will encourage unity and love, which is a significant aspect that promotes value and ethics in social work practice. It is necessary to ensure that individuals understand the value of unity in social practices, thus promoting collaboration and effective operations. Lastly, I will focus on engaging in continuous learning to obtain a wide range of information that relates to leadership roles and engaging individuals in social work practices, which helps in demonstrating value. When focusing on enhancing the leadership roles, it is essential to note that the things I do in my day to day life will have a significant role in cultivating humility.
The process of promoting values, ethics, and cultural responsiveness/humility requires the implementation of leadership principles that results in the effectiveness of the process. While in leadership roles, it is important to capitalize on three main actions that help to improve leadership commitment. The actions are a vital part of the leadership principles that help to promote value in leadership (Holosko, 2009). The first significant action involves encouraging the heart, which is an important measure that helps to promote leadership engagement. In this leadership action, it is necessary to recognize the contributions of individuals by focusing on different measures that relate to the appreciation of individual excellence. Additionally, encouraging the heart may capitalize on celebrating values and victories, creating the spirit of community, and focusing on a personal reflection. In leadership roles, a personal reflection is significant as it helps in defining how well a leader praises people for showing appreciation.
The second significant leadership action that is necessary for promoting values and ethics involves inspiring a shared vision. Leaders should be in a position to envision the future by imaging exciting and ennobling possibilities. To inspire the share vision, the leaders should enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations and engage in a personal reflection (Holosko, 2009). The reflection in leadership roles helps to promote effectiveness by defining personal vision statement that guides towards promoting value in social work practices. The third significant action that is crucial in leadership roles involves challenging the process of promoting value, ethics, and cultural responsiveness. To challenge the process, an individual in the leadership position should focus on searching for opportunities, which is an important aspect that helps to seek innovative ways to change and improve. Additionally, challenging the process involves experimenting by taking major risks so that to identify areas that require different kinds of improvements.
Leadership Roles I Intend to Pursue
Looking into my vision, I must say that I intend to pursue several leadership roles that will impact change at different levels. The first leadership role I will pursue is encouraging the heart. O’Brien and Resnik (2009) recognize the importance of appreciating individual efforts and excellence to ensure that one maximizes the need to advance one’s ability to promote social wellbeing. My leadership role will involve recognizing others based on their service in social work and creating a community spirit. The second leadership role I will pursue is inspiring a shared vision. O’Brien and Resnik (2009) indicate that the whole idea around a shared vision reflects on the need to ensure that people understand some of the underlying values that promote the wellbeing of society. As a leader, I will focus on identifying persons that share a common vision, which will allow me to appeal to their shared aspirations.
Thirdly, I will use my leadership position to challenge the process, which is another important leadership role that I need to consider, even as I define myself as a leader. Challenging the process involves the idea of ensuring that I find new ways of achieving specific objectives to determine my abilities as a social work leader. Lastly, I will use my leadership to deconstruct binary and dualistic thinking. Anderson-Nathe, Gringeri, & Wahab (2013) highlight the importance of a leader in social work creating an environment that encourages multiple perspectives of thinking, focusing on advancing a shift in how a leader appreciates his/her position. Personally, I will use this as an opportunity to ensure that I create an environment that is reflective of my vision in social work while considering the importance of advancing a broad perception of social work leadership.
Who am I as a social worker and how will I impact change?
My position as a social worker is defined by the extent to which I help others overcome some of the challenging situations they encounter. My professional practice in social work reflects the idea of promoting change in everything I do intend to promote social wellbeing. I focus on working with individuals or small family groups to ensure that they are in an effective position that would allow them to learn some of the coping mechanisms to help them move past the problems they are facing. I will use my position in social work as a tool to change how society responds to different issues considering that I will ensure that I work with the vulnerable groups as a way of motivating them towards performance.
I will impact change by advocating for social justice in every scenario or circumstance. Lack of social justice creates an imbalance in the society because it creates a high likelihood of persons experiencing discrimination or inequality. As a social worker, I will ensure that social justice becomes part of the society I am dealing with by advocating for changes in harmful laws that are likely to promote inequality. Additionally, I will impact change by highlighting the dignity and worth of a person regardless of existing diversities. For example, I am currently working with the LGBTQ community, which has encountered serious challenges in terms of recognition. I intend to use my position to ensure that members of these communities are viewed as individuals rather than being viewed based on their sexual orientation. I will also impact change by promoting service to others. My social work position will be determined based on how I provide service to others in my bid to promote social justice and wellbeing.
References
Anderson-Nathe, B., Gringeri, C., & Wahab, S. (2013). Nurturing “critical hope” in teaching feminist social work research. Journal of Social Work Education , 49 (2), 277-291.
Chin, J. L., & Trimble, J. E. (2014). Diversity and leadership . Sage Publications.
Eagly, A. H., & Chin, J. L. (2010). Diversity and leadership in a changing world. American psychologist , 65 (3), 216.
Holosko, M. J. (2009). Social work leadership: Identifying core attributes. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment , 19 (4), 448-459.
Kaiser, T. L. (1997). Supervisory relationships: Exploring the human element . Thomson Brooks/Cole Publishing Co.
O’Brien, M. U., & Resnik, H. (2009). Chapter 13: Orienting ideas in leadership. In Building Leadership . London, UK: Guilford Publications.
