Social Work Mentor - Pointing You In The Right Direction
  • Tools
  • Field Examples
  • Life of a Case
    • Front End
    • Dependency Investigation
    • Continuing/Ongoing
    • Permanency
  • Safety Mapping
    • Harm and Danger Statements
    • Complicating Factors
    • Safety
    • Supporting Strengths
  • SFQ's
  • CORE Elements Values Behaviors
  • SWM Extras
    • SWM Courses
    • SWM Store
    • SWM Podcast
    • Social Media
    • Coaching
  • Social Media
  • Social Work Organization and Prioritization Survey
  • Tools
  • Field Examples
  • Life of a Case
    • Front End
    • Dependency Investigation
    • Continuing/Ongoing
    • Permanency
  • Safety Mapping
    • Harm and Danger Statements
    • Complicating Factors
    • Safety
    • Supporting Strengths
  • SFQ's
  • CORE Elements Values Behaviors
  • SWM Extras
    • SWM Courses
    • SWM Store
    • SWM Podcast
    • Social Media
    • Coaching
  • Social Media
  • Social Work Organization and Prioritization Survey
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART

Manager Value 6
A Workplace Culture Characterized by Reflection, Appreciation, and Ongoing Learning

A proactive workplace culture of refl ection, responsiveness, and shared responsibility
​•Have an open door policy and hold regularly  scheduled supervision
•  Support case consultation, learning circles, mentoring and coaching workers
•  Emphasize the importance of warm hand-offs and complete documentation, highlight times when they work well and strategies for conducting them, and reinforce policy around who does which tasks
•  Use Appreciative Inquiry to highlight successes of best practice, and be open to sharing your own success stories or learning moments to help grow good practice
•  Utilize Appreciative Inquiry to identify strengths of PSS and worker practice, and support training and coaching for supervisors in Appreciative Inquiry
•  Respond to other managers when inquires are made over case transfer
•  Share overall lessons learned with staff on a regular basis via email or unit meetings to improve best practice
•  Provide feedback to PPS regarding impact of policies on staff
​•  Support  best  fit for workers and supervisors
Ongoing learning and professional development that include respectful mentoring and coaching relationships
• Coach and mentor the supervisors in your unit, using resources such as Deputy Directors, mentors, coaches, CQI policy analysts, peers, etc., as applicable
•  Use the CWS intranet to access policy manuals, protocols, and other resources, and encourage staff to do so as well
•  Share updates to policies, practices, and resources during meetings
•  Help workers identify and achieve career and skill-based goals
•  Use family feedback to arrange targeted training, coaching, and supervision
•  Encourage supervisors to attend training, arrange coverage, and invite them to share what they learned and practice new skills
•  Demonstrate commitment to ongoing learning and professional development by attending required training, participating in ongoing learning on Safety- Organized Practice, modeling strengths-based leadership and employee engagement, and providing strengths-based feedback to supervisors
•  Engage in ongoing self-evaluation and assessment of strengths and weaknesses of leadership practice
​•  Model authentic leadership qualities of balanced processing, self-awareness, and relational transparency
Recognition and appreciation of differences
• Identify your individual strengths and their impact on leadership practice
• Recognize supervisors individual strengths and their impact on supervisory practice
• Put into practice teaming, co-management and leveraging strengths•  Highlight trainings and experiences to expand knowledge and awareness of diversity
• Use the Multicultural Guidelines during staff meetings, supervision, and consultation
• Be objective and communicate genuinely with honesty, integrity and respect
• Discuss with supervisor the critical thinking that led to his or her decision
• Ask questions to gain a deeper understanding when concerns arise about supervisory practice
• Host dialogue when discrepancies arise between staff with regard to decision-making
• Highlight what’s working well in the unit and the Region
• Develop creative ways and incentives to achieve positive outcomes for children and families
A manageable and equitable workload and up-to-date technology to allow for quality work
• Make sure supervisors are trained on and use their SafeMeasures dashboard on an on-going basis
• Use applicable measures uniformly to ensure data accuracy
• Discuss data with staff during supervision
• Consider staff preferences for programs when making staffi ng decisions
• Make transparent staffing decisions to all staff involved, when possible
• Assist with problem-solving and redistribution of work when needed
• Work collaboratively to manage work overload and assist with taking overflow
• Monitor regional data to ensure staffi ng is equitable across all roles and functions
• Be transparent about workload across the region/program
• Communicate and advocate for improvements in technology and training
Use of real-time data by all staff to guide organization-wide decisions in support of continuous quality improvement
• Monitor regional and unit level completion of Structured Decision Making tools and CWS/CMS documentation
• Work with and value the Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) Policy Analyst (PA) and centralized CQI team
• Support CQI PA when inquiries are made about missing data elements
​• Share  data,  fi ndings from CQI projects, and cutting edge research with staff during larger meetings on a regular basis to improve best practice
 A work culture guided by the Safety Enhanced Together practice framework values
• Support and model the practice framework for all staff
• Utilize the practice framework in everyday practice with staff
• Continue discussion and highlight the application of the practice framework
​• Support and expect the coordination of cross-unit and cross-program collaboration
​A system that recognizes and addresses secondary traumatic stress and provides opportunities for staff to build resiliency and maintain a work/life balance
Provide support to the House Committee and promote fun, organized activities at work
• Provide opportunities for staff to connect and build teams through monthly unit meetings, and at least twice per year at retreats, all staff events, staff recognition, or other events
• Support interns and new workers to ensure success, and provide mentors for new staff or staff taking on a new role
• Check in on staff well-being, support workers who appear stressed, and explore strategies to minimize the potential impact of traumatic stress
• Understand how to reach out to the Employee Assistnce Program (EAP) for crisis intervention when critical incidents occur, and provide opportunities to debrief after critical incidents
• Provide staff EAP referrals when needed and discuss the confi dentiality  and benefi ts of EAP.
• Be mindful of types of cases/referrals each worker is being assigned and adjust workload
• Model Live Well San Diego activities and  work/life balance and encourage staff to take their accrued vacation time
​• Encourage the use of staff advisory/coffee with a manager
Copyright © 2016-2021     All Rights Reserved     Ernesto Bejarano