Chapter 33 – Bernie Breen (D2SOP10)
Domain 2 Standard of Proficiency 10
Understand and be able to recognise the impact of effective leadership and management on practice.
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KEY TERMS Management Leadership Power Culture Practice implications |
Social care is … ensuring that particularly vulnerable people receive quality service provision where respect, dignity and unconditional positive regard are shown and always upheld. |
Fundamental to social care practice, leadership and management is that the person receiving the care and support feels genuinely cared for and the environment reflects this. You may not remember what people say to you, but you will never forget how someone makes you feel. Where outcomes are concerned, that is the biggest outcome you can have for someone in your service – that they feel genuinely cared for. People in our services do not have a choice in why they are there, but we do have a choice as to the career we go into. We can leave or choose different options, but the people we care for do not have that option. There is no doubt that it is a stressful and challenging sector, but we made the choice to pursue it and must ensure we are in it for the right reasons and that we understand trauma-informed practice.
Task 1
Take a pen and paper and complete the four leadership styles worksheet to identify your own style.
https://cdn.we.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Part-2-Activity_Four_ Leadership_Styles_May271.pdf
Leadership and management are crucial factors in any organisation, but particularly in social care, where vulnerable people rely on quality service provision. Having worked as a manager for a number of years, I am aware that quality service provision comes from the top down. When people think of leaders, they often think of people in well-paid positions of authority and official roles such as managers, people in charge and social care leaders. Although they may share similar characteristics and are often linked together in generic literature, there is a growing focus on leadership as being an essential component in social care management. It is important to realise that simply holding a managerial role does not necessarily make one a leader. It’s commonly asked, Do good managers make good leaders? Do good leaders make good managers? A definitive answer can be difficult to come up with. We can, however, say with certainty that, although leadership and management are not contextually the same, in my view they are both essential for best practice in social care.
If managers are to be successful in their role, it is vital for them to absorb certain leadership skills. Likewise, if leaders want to be effective, they must understand how to manage their employees so that they feel inspired, empowered and connected, ultimately leading to quality care provision and a successful organisation. Managers and leaders need an understanding of human behaviour and personality traits to create a more engaged workforce and a more dynamic workplace. This in turns creates an environment conjunctive to best practice.
Management in Social Care
The term ‘manager’ refers to the person who is responsible for the effective running of a centre, or operations within an organisation, and co-ordinating and managing resources such as staffing and budgets. The manager is expected to have strong organisational skills and to hold a position of seniority. In residential social care the manager/person in charge (PIC), deputy manager, social care leaders, and people with various other titles, make up the centre’s management team and set the culture within the organisation. Within these roles they provide supervision to staff and oversee the administerial requirements and work practices in the centre to ensure they run effectively. This governance should ensure that operations are running in line with national standards and legislative requirements, particularly, in residential centres, in relation to safeguarding. Job titles may vary, but the effective running and management tasks remain the same. In contemporary practice, social care workers are increasingly occupying leadership and management positions, in line with requirements from their Tusla service level agreements (SLAs). In contemporary practice, social care workers are increasingly occupying leadership and management positions, in line with requirements from HIQA requirements and Tusla service level agreements (SLAs).
However, a leader does not necessarily need to be in a position of authority to influence others.
Leadership in Social Care
Managers may effectively run the day-to-day operations but may not lead the team or inspire others to share the vision of the organisation or motivate people within their roles. Leadership can be defined as any behaviour that influences the actions and attitudes of others to achieve certain results. The ability to manage should be coupled with the ability to be a leader to achieve maximum efficiency. Leaders need to believe in themselves and their ability if they expect others to believe and trust in them. Knowing your own limitations is also essential as a leader and that can then be served and balanced by surrounding yourself with a team of varied skillsets that complement each other and work together in collaboration.
One aptitude that distinguishes leadership from many other competencies is the capacity to teach and mentor others. Effectively teaching staff, role modelling and directing creates professional growth. Often, this skill necessitates leaders thinking less about themselves and more about the team as a whole and how to create successful outcomes, and this requires drive, ambition and motivation to achieve planned outcomes and to cultivate more leaders within the team.
A key attribute in cultivating other leaders within the team is mastering the art of effective communication. As a leader, you need to be able to explain clearly and concisely to staff everything from the purpose and function and ethos of the organisation to specific tasks. Leaders must grasp all forms of communication, from one-to-one meetings such as formal supervision to group forums such as team meetings. They must also be able to communicate effectively by phone, email and webinar, considering what approach works best with each individual as well as the team as a whole. Professional development plans for staff are paramount in providing a sense of purpose and growth, and balanced feedback on performance should be provided through supplemental and formal supervision. This creates a growth mindset. A leader cannot promote the leadership capacity of an employee through performance management alone. Evaluating performance leadership entails exploring the qualitative ways an employee has exhibited positive behaviour. When recognition and acknowledgement are given to the leadership attributes of staff members, they not only receive the support and encouragement they need to continue their journey as leaders, but they become better engaged with and content in their work overall.
TASK 2
Think of some leaders you admire. What makes them stand out to you?
Why do you admire them? How do they influence others?
Power
Management and leadership positions denote a sense of power which, within the context, is legitimate. It can, however, be detrimental to organisations if the individuals in these roles see themselves as superior to others as human beings, not just by virtue of their positions. Attitudes are a pivotal part of what makes effective leaders. While accountability must be a part of managing performance of staff, if this is not balanced with support, it can seem authoritarian. This in turn may lead to people operating out of fear, which impacts on transparent practice and in turn promotes a blame culture. Respect is earned – it does not automatically come with an official job title. If staff feel they can openly admit to mistakes/errors of judgement and this is used as a learning and reflective tool, it will in turn lead to improved practice and reduce the incidence of such errors. Having said that, with all support and learning opportunities being provided, if there are safeguarding concerns or if individuals do not respond to this constructively, if they have a laissez faire attitude and do not adopt a professional approach to their work, then disciplinary procedures may need to be implemented.
TASK 3
Download a copy of the Workplace Bullying Power Control Wheel by Scott (2018) available from https://socialscienceandhumanities.ontariotechu.ca/ workplacebullying/power-control-wheel.phpDiscuss how the categories of power and control can exist in social care settings.
Culture
Ultimately poor leadership and poor culture impacts negatively on the staff team and the lived experience of the service users and there may be a controlling culture in place. This can also lead to greater instances of challenging behaviour, particularly if there is a culture of ‘them versus us’. The staff team may feel disempowered or coerced into practices they may not necessarily agree with, especially in how they are instructed to relate to a service user group, for example a punitive as opposed to therapeutic approach. This can impact on the social care worker’s confidence and motivation in their role.
Without being in a formal leadership/management role, we are, as practitioners, very powerful. We are the people who ultimately have control over the environment and daily running of the centres. Hanlon (2009) states that staff have the power to influence, ignore, coerce and manipulate but also have the power to intervene, identify the person’s feelings, needs and wants and to make each day a positive experience and a learning opportunity. With increased governance through the inspection processes, there is more emphasis on providing evidence for our work through report writing and record keeping. It must be said that this too gives power as practitioners generate the data and the data is only as good as the author and the culture in which we operate. Reports can be phrased in a way that frames the service user’s behaviour as the issue. For example, the author might omit the actions practitioners took that may have become a trigger for the service user. A good leader should encourage transparent practice that reflects actual events, not how we want the event to be perceived. At times reports can neglect to identify all the positive aspects of the day and focus on the negatives. Significant event notification forms are generally negative and focus on an incident of behaviour that challenged or a behaviour of concern. There are positive significant events too, such as a young person engaging in school for the first time, or a positive overnight family access visit. It is important to report and record the positives – you can imagine how it would feel to access reports on your life in years to come and find that everything reads as negative. Recording these details also reflects not only the achievements in someone’s life but also the progress and soft outcomes as well as tangible ones.
To ensure accuracy and transparency a manager or leader needs to provide supervision on the go, observing practice, not just seeing supervision as a formal process. A good leader will oversee paperwork and ask questions for clarification on daily logs and incident reports, for example, and use them as a source of learning. Exploration of the approaches and responses to service users should be discussed with the staff, ensuring that they are therapeutic. Outcomes should focus on natural consequences for behaviours as opposed to punitive sanctions. Exploration through debriefing of incidents is paramount to support staff and ensure accountability and learning for everyone. Positive organisational culture is engrained in any organisation by the leaders and managers.
Formal supervision should occur frequently or as per organisational policy. It is a dual process between the supervisor and the supervisee. The supervisor is usually the manager or deputy for full-time staff and social care leaders may be involved in the supervision of relief staff or students. A dual process means that both parties should be active participants and it should not be seen as a box-ticking exercise. Best practice would involve both parties having an input into the agenda, and the supervisee should be proactive in seeking supervision if for some reason it has not been scheduled or has been missed. The supervision process ensures that the supervisee receives focused time to reflect on work practice, professional development and feedback on their practice. There should be a balance between accountability and support. Leaders can ensure that the vision and purpose and function of the organisation are upheld and that expectations are clear. Staff should feel valued and motivated following the session. It is not a disciplinary meeting; neither is it a counselling session. In my experience supervision provides opportunities for workers to reflect on their practice in the following seven ways.
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Supervision in Social Care Work |
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Workers can reflect on the content and process of practice |
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Monitor and ensure the quality of work |
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Review and plan work |
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Consider any responsibilities and input of the supervisee |
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Develop understanding and skills |
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Seek and receive information, support and feedback |
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Voice and examine concerns. |
Central to the process is that both parties (supervisor and supervisee) should be trained in their role. Very often supervisors have said that they were given the task and role of supervisor, but were not adequately trained and they did not feel that they were equipped to provide it effectively.
Practice Implications
‘Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal’ (Northouse 2010: 5). Research by Hicks et al. (2009: 59) stresses the importance of getting the ‘right personnel in place’. The leader should aim to improve the collective performance and should be able to take feedback from other members of staff without feeling threatened. It is important that managers and leaders recognise themselves as human beings who do not know everything, although they strive to be as informed as possible to inform others. It is okay to admit to not knowing something, as long as you commit to find out or to research more.
Social care environments often experience crisis-driven and difficult times. This leads to increased pressure on managers and leaders to oversee and manage complex care needs of service users, implement systems, support and debrief staff teams and participate in the multidisciplinary team with social workers, inspectors and other relevant parties. It is crucial, according to MacKian and Simons (2013), in order to ensure efficiency and to implement programmes supportive of the service users’ needs, to endeavour to have the most effective managers and leaders in place. This extends to senior management to support social care managers and their management teams, particularly in challenging times, when they may feel isolated in supporting their teams, trying to stabilise the centre and ensure that service users’ needs are being met. It is vital that support is provided and even a physical presence of senior management, who may usually be working quite a distance away, can provide reassurance to the leaders on site. During critical times, managers may be caught up in the crisis and therefore unable, emotionally, physically or because of time constraints, to provide the necessary supervision and debriefing. It is crucial that managers recognise this, seek support and are transparent about their capacity during these times in particular, and also that they engage in their own regular supervision and are themselves debriefed. Everyone is accountable to someone, and senior management will also need support from their peers and the board of management. They may require external supervision as their source of support as they carry the weight of their organisation.
The critical skills leaders require are to be able to manage diverse situations, comprehend relationships and their development, understand how people work and how the organisation shapes staff members’ ability to function. An effective manager should also possess leadership skills to ensure that the organisation’s vision is shared across all staff and to create a positive organisational culture. Therefore, it is important for leaders and managers to understand contemporary leadership theories and how they can influence their own development and approach.
It is important to understand the theories of leadership and how they relate to your own style to identify areas for professional and personal development to be versatile and adaptive. Much like the nature/nurture debate, leadership theories also debate whether you are born a leader or whether it is something that is influenced and developed. The great man theory and trait theory for instance suggest that leadership is innate, and people are born with the traits that lead them to attain powerful positions of authority. In contrast, the leadership skills approach sees leadership skills as being cultivated in individuals so they can develop into leaders. Contingency styles of management allow for the ebbs and flows within the complexities of social care and ensure flexibility and variations in approaches to respond effectively and appropriately to each situation.
The style approach then considers what people can do as opposed to how they are in the above theories. It looks at behaviour and attitudes, and incorporates interpersonal skills and relationships that the leader builds with the staff team.
MacKian and Simons (2013) critique the issue that research often focuses on management and leadership styles exploring the individual traits while ignoring the organisational influence and failing to critically analyse its impact on even the most effective leaders and managers. Northouse (2019) claims that it is advantageous to use the trait approach as a viewpoint for leadership and argues that research validates the basis of the trait’s perspective. He states that a specific focus on the leader themselves leads to a greater understanding of this element of the process of leadership. To lead effectively, it is essential that managers themselves are managing their stress and receiving support (MacKian & Simons 2013).
In a caring management style, managers and leaders build on their own self-awareness and emotional intelligence to support staff, recognising them as emotive human beings. Professional development in leadership occurs in this process. Managers and leaders who developing emotional intelligence, MacKian and Simons (2013) argue, are more likely to retain staff, increase morale and increase productivity in times of stress. Ward (2014: 213) highlights the discourse for leaders in holding the responsibility for the wellbeing of children and staff while trying to self-care and states, ‘it’s not a position or state that one can take on, or put aside too casually’, continuing, ‘you need to be and feel on top of everything since you hold ultimate responsibility’ (2014: 216). The position as a leader means you hold so much responsibility that trying to self-care at the same time is difficult or sometimes impossible – you cannot just put your responsibilities to one side.
When leaders are self-aware, they can become group-aware, which enables them to modify their own behaviour or responses to staff and situations. Increased self-awareness ultimately leads to constructive relationships in the working environment as staff feel listened to and understood, which generally leads to greater productivity. Self-awareness is something that is continually developed and involves constant reflection, not a one-off event such as a training course that becomes focused on achieving a certificate rather than putting what has been learned into practice.
An effective manager and leader should also recognise leadership traits in the staff team and recognise the influence they can have on the team. This can be both positive and negative as individuals can lead the team in actions that are not always positive for the manager or organisation. For example, if a staff member become demotivated or begins to speak negatively, this can influence others to think the same; suddenly there is a toxic atmosphere, which impacts on retention and staff turnover. If the same staff member receives praise and recognition for their efforts and perhaps is delegated areas of responsibility, they can influence progression and morale in a positive way. It is crucial to ensure that managers or leaders do not feel threatened but recognise the positive aspects. They should cultivate this by giving individuals tasks to utilise their strengths. Generally, this dissolves negative feelings and makes leaders in the team feel appreciated and recognised, but it needs to be managed if it is an issue or threatens the organisational culture or demotivates the team.
In my experience, I have identified six key elements in effective leadership that impacts positively on social care practice.
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SIX KEY ELEMENTS OF EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP |
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1. Positive Communication: This is considered one of the largest influencers in the workplace. If you choose praise and recognition over orders and criticism, the tone of your leadership will be set. |
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2. Gratitude: Acknowledging the hard work of the staff will increase morale, build trust, and create a strong and robust team. |
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3. Team Building: Create an environment where gossip or negativity is not tolerated and ensure value and respect are promoted within the team. Recognise strengths and areas for development and show that you are human. |
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4. Empower and Develop the Team: Create opportunities for learning. Provide and participate in training, share knowledge, and empower others to become leaders. |
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5. Take Responsibility: Admit mistakes and do not let others take the blame. This encourages others to do the same and creates transparency and trust. |
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6. Show Empathy: Emotional intelligence is a requirement in effective leadership. You need to understand where people are coming from even if you do not agree with them (i.e. group awareness). Showing empathy makes people feel understood and therefore leads to greater job satisfaction. |
TASK 4
Read ‘Lessons from Geese: A Better Way to Lead’ by Lolly Daskal, available at https://www.lollydaskal.com/leadership/lessons-from-geese-a-better-way-to-lead/
Tips for Practice Educators
An important element for students’ understanding of this proficiency is to experience and observe different leadership and management styles while out on practice placement. It will be useful to the student to make notes and reflect on the approaches and their impact on team dynamics, morale and productivity. In turn, they should reflect on their experiences and the impact of management on the service users’ daily life events. How these correlate with the leadership and management in the organisation will form part of pivotal learning.
Students should be provided with a placement supervisor. This supervisor should be experienced and a member of the management team who can provide a platform for the student to reflect on their experiences and ask questions. This should be considered constructive feedback for the organisation as it is highly beneficial to see the perspective of the student from their placement experience and as a future practitioner and potential colleague.
It would be a positive experience for the student if they could attend training that is provided to the staff team as it will enhance their understanding of the core elements of care provision and allow them to form an association between the training and how it translates into practice. An activity could be introduced whereby the student creates a reflective piece to bring to a team meeting based on the training and the team can reflect and give feedback on how the core concepts are integrated into day-to-day practice. This would be a useful tool for everyone to see the concepts from a range of perspectives, to enhance the correlation of training and provide a great learning and professional development opportunity for the student.
References
WE Charity (2017) ‘Finding Your Leadership Style’. Available at <https://cdn.we.org/wp-content/ uploads/2016/05/Part-2-Activity_Four_Leadership_Styles_May271.pdf> [accessed 5 July 2021].
Daskal, Lolly (website) ‘Lessons from Geese: A Better Way to Lead’. Available at <https://www.lollydaskal.com/leadership/lessons-from-geese-a-better-way-to-lead/>.
Hanlon, N. (2009) ‘Valuing equality in Irish social care’, Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies 9(1), article 3, doi:10.21427/D7X72R.
Hicks, L., Gibbs, I., Weatherly, H. and Byford, S. (2009) ‘Management, leadership and resources in children’s homes: What influences outcomes in residential child-care settings?’, British Journal of Social Work 39(10), doi: 10.1093/bjsw/bcn013.
MacKian, S. and Simons, J. (2013) Leading, Managing, Caring: Understanding Leadership and Management in Health and Social Care. United Kingdom: Routledge.
Northouse, P.G. (2013) Leadership Theory and Practice (6th edn). California: Sage.
Sari, J. (2020) ‘Lewin’s Leadership Styles’. Available at <https://www.toolshero.com/leadership/lewin- leadership-styles/> [accessed 5 July 2021].
Scott, H.S. (2018) ‘Extending the Duluth model to workplace bullying: A modification and adaptation of the workplace power-control wheel’, Workplace Health and Safety 66(9), 444-52, doi:10.1177/2165079917750934.
