1. Knowledge:

Two  pertinent pieces of knowledge from the article leadership has been studied in the business sector and although there are a lot of leadership models and theories, they may not be suitable for leaders in human service jobs who focused on social justice.  

Research have shown that for leadership to be effective in social work the focus should be strength based where leadership focus on building relationships, trust, empowerment, and respect

2. Personal Thoughts

When reading the article, I didn't understand why at first why research was being conducted on leadership since it didn't seem like a social issue. However, after reading the article, I understand why research is needed and realize the importance of leadership in social work.

1. What new understanding did you come to?

I understand now traditional leadership models do not align with social work code of ethics, social work research in leadership is needed. Social workers' leadership focuses on the employee rather than the product/service meeting goals as many traditional leaders do and therefore a leadership model should be invented to adapt social work leadership style.

Additional sources of knowledge:

Two sources of knowledge I mentally drew from when thinking critically were:

1. The code of ethics.
2. Competency 1: Demonstrate Ethical and Professional Behavior

In the article, it is mentioned that there is a lack of leadership in social work, resulting in a lack of social workers in senior management, which makes me think about the Code of Ethics and how 3.07 Administration states: "(a) Social work administrators should advocate within and outside their agencies for adequate resources to meet clients' needs", yet in most social service jobs, the leadership comes from people who are not social workers. So how can we as clients or employees advocate for ourselves to have our needs met? Are we not following the code of ethics in these organizations when we don't have a social worker in leadership in these agencies?

This led me to thinking about Competency 1: Demonstrate Ethical and Professional Behavior 1.1 “Use supervision and self-reflection to process thoughts and emotions and implement strategies to manage biases that may adversely affect outcomes.” Reading the article made me do self-reflection and think about how going forward in my professional journal I feel that I will pay close attention to leadership and seeing if their expectation meets up with my code of ethics.

3. Personal affect or emotions:
   1. What affect or emotions arose when you experienced engagement challenges at your placement?

Whenever engagement challenges arise at my placement, I immediately feel like an imposter. If I cannot connect with my clients or engagement is challenging, I will question whether I possess the skills needed, or if I am qualified enough.

2. When this happened, how did you manage your professional behaviors to increase your engagement success?

I allow the client to lead when engagement becomes challenging, allowing them to use the time with me to "calm down" or not engage and keep to themselves. As a result of doing this, I learned that most of the time, the client does not know what the current issue is, so allowing them to lead or simply keep to themselves allows them to open on their own. Knowing when to use “silence” in engagement has helped a lot.