Leadership in Human Services

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Leadership in Human Services

• Values, Self-awareness, Empowerment,

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Values

• A value is an idea or way of being that you
  believe in strongly.
• It is something you hold dear and is visible in
  your actions.
• Values influence how we see the world and relate
  to others, how we behave and ultimately how
  others behave around us.

3
Values Leadership

• Values may influence the way a leader plans, sets
  goals, divides resources, and makes decisions.
• What a leader values has an impact on the entire
  organization.
• This may include valuing competency, integrity,
  diversity, teamwork, and accountability.

4
Values Leadership

• As guidelines for behavior, values are much more
  than emotional reactions they can be considered
  the fundamental factors in driving
  decision-making.
• The most insidious aspects of values is that they
  are often hidden.
• Many values are evident but others lie deeply
  embedded at a subconscious levelwe are unaware
  that they exist.
• Hidden values can be harmful in that they allow
  our biases and prejudices to be manifested
  unintentionally.

5
Values and Leadership

• Scenario
• A male leader of an organization may be unaware
  of his bias toward women. Subconsciously, he may
  not value the leadership competence of women at
  the higher levels of his organization and
  therefore not promote them at the same rate as
  equally qualified men. He may value men as
  leaders.
• This is an example of how a hidden value can
  manifest into a discriminatory practice. Beyond
  this particular behavior, he may be very
  supportive of women relative to other issues such
  as paying for daycare and promoting them in other
  areas. He may appear to be supportive of women to
  others and himself.

6
Values Leadership

• Scenario
• The leader of an organization has decided to
  impose a policy of double-booking clients to
  decrease the problem of no shows which would be
  more cost-effective but when both clients appear,
  each only receives 15 minutes of treatment
  instead of 30. Many of the clinical staff were
  bothered by this process because they felt that
  it was an unethical practice.
• This is an example of values in conflict. One
  value system was oriented toward economic
  considerations, whereas the other stressed
  humanistic concerns.
• For organizations to be responsive to changing
  times, the value systems of both administrators
  and staff must be taken into account.

7
Self-awareness

• Self-awareness is the active process of examining
  oneself with the intended purpose of growing and
  developing from the information that has been
  uncovered.
• The ability to reflect honestly about ones
  motives, biases, weaknesses, mistakes, and
  decisions is an ongoing process that takes
  courage and integrity.

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Self-awareness Leadership

• A leader must be aware of how his/her management
  style, personality, and other factors impact
  his/her employees.
• A leader must be aware of how organizational
  policies and practices impact consumers and the
  surrounding community.
• Ongoing reflection is a continuous process that
  serves to refine both personal and organizational
  purposes and practices and aides in refined
  decision-making.

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Self-awareness Leadership

• Scenario
• A leader of an organization has become very
  distant from his/her managers, staff, and
  consumers. The leader is constantly overwhelmed
  and as a result, isolates from others in the
  organization. The leader models the behavior for
  the organization.
• Lower-level managers begin to act in similar ways
  towards the direct care staff and the direct care
  staff begins to act in similar ways towards the
  consumers. The leader is made aware of the impact
  his/her interactive style is having on those who
  look to him/her for direction.
• The leader is courageous enough to engage in
  honest self-reflection and adjusts his/her
  behaviors and creates a more open system, which
  results in other employees modeling similar
  behaviors.

10
Empowerment

• Empowerment is the social process of encouraging
  and authorizing workers to take the initiative
  and develop their strengths and skills toward
  improving organizational operations, reducing
  costs, improving service delivery, and customer
  service.
• This can be done through including employees in
  the decision-making process and through employee
  education and training.
• When employees feel empowered, they are more
  likely to share the mission of the organization
  and to work diligently toward achieving that
  vision.

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References

• Corliss, L. Corliss, L. (2006). Human Service
  Agencies. Brooks Cole.
• Hesselbein, F. Cohen, P. (1999). Leader to
  Leader. Jossey-Bass.
• Offerman, L. Cultures Consequences for
  Leadership Behavior. Journal of Cross-Cultural
  Psychology, 28, 342-351.

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IN THEIR OWN WORDS

• I meet with about 20-30 leaders of organizations
  per semester and I ask these leaders two
  questions.
• What knowledge, skills, and abilities do you
  prefer that graduate students in
  administration/leadership programs possess upon
  entering the leadership workforce?
• What do you find lacking in new leaders?

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IN THEIR OWN WORDS

• The following list is an ongoing compilation of
  responses from these leaders.
• Self-awareness
• Resourcefulness
• Political Intelligence
• Personal Responsibility
• Positive Attitude

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IN THEIR OWN WORDS

• Being open to alternative points of view
• Multi-level thinking
• Written and verbal communication skills
• Use of language
• Ability to support position
• Networking Ability
• Being accountable

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IN THEIR OWN WORDS

• Vision
• Continuous Learner
• Self-directed
• Purpose-driven
• Ability to handle pressure
• Ability to see possibilities instead of
  limitations

16
IN THEIR OWN WORDS

• Meeting Deadlines
• Organization
• Possessing a polished presentation
• Ability to empower others
• Passion
• Ethics/Integrity
• Ability to locate and research information

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IN THEIR OWN WORDS

• Advocacy
• Initiative
• Respect for others
• Ability to interact with difficult people
• Understand Policy