Grounded in a consistent history of conquering obstacles, I vie to continue being self-motivated, consistent, disciplined, and hardworking. My mission is to remain professional in all aspects of my life as each aspect strongly reflects on the other. I will find new research-based ways to meet both my goals and goals set forth by others in serving the people and communities. Practicality and insight will continue to be key aspects of my life. Additionally, my mission will be to achieve goals through planning, organization, being persistent and consulting with experts whenever necessary to make sure that the ultimate results are achieved.
Strengths
The three strengths that will assist me in meeting my mission statement are …show more content…
Discipline, Focus, and being an Achiever. These strengths will continue helping me to meet my goals, as I have always been aware of how these strengths have aided me in accomplishing previous personal and professional goals. The key features of discipline include having a routine, maintaining structure, and being proficient. The features that align with discipline have helped me to complete both my undergraduate studies, and as a successful Child Protective Service caseworker. Discipline always made certain that no matter what obstacles I was faced with, through following structured plans and routines, my goals would ultimately be met. Additionally, those who are disciplined are motivated by timeliness. Timelines guarantees that responsibilities are completed in appropriate and expected intervals. Being focused connotes that an individual gives immediate tasks and challenges his or her full attention, and is also diligent. It's the idea that a focused individual can remain on task with little to no supervision. Moreover, as a CPS worker, I was able to self-motivate, complete my tasks on or before deadlines, and I was able to do this without direct supervision. I would only consult with my supervisor as needed, and only meet with her once a month for case reviews. I was successful in doing so for almost two years.
Throughout my life, I have had countless people mention how hard working I am, and my no nonsense approach in handling my affairs. These traits are connected to being an achiever. Achievers are also thought to study facts from all perspectives and are known to able to connect different facts, events, and resources in identifying how their goals are accomplished. I strongly believe that my hard work and tenacity have brought me a long way, but so did being aware of resources, and my awareness of federal and state policies. Furthermore, being focused, along with discipline have helped me to complete my degrees, and have brought me closer to completing my Master's degree. In addition, being focused has aided me in my personal life when immediate issues and challenges have arisen, and needed to be handled. I handled the immediate issues while I continued to maintain focus on my end goals. When projects, tasks, and goals are set, people and organizations desire an employee who can be entrusted to complete them in a timely manner while maintaining high quality.
Strength Finder
(A) What trends did you notice in your StrengthFinder 2.0 results?
I noticed several trends throughout my strengths finder results.
There were traits and suggestions that were found in several of my strength areas. For instance, several strength sections mentioned the fact that I consult the experts when necessary, and the fact that I allow individuals with more knowledge of certain skills obtain leadership at different periods. I am certain of this to be true because I have developed a self-awareness that allows me to recognize when I am not competent in certain matters, and to seek out support. Planning along with organization, and maintaining order was also found in several areas of my result. These three traits were found in numerous of my strength areas. Additionally, being diligent and verifying information was another theme, and so was being industrious. Sequential thinking and performance were common themes as well. I consider sequential thinking as my greatest and evident trait. I prefer for tasks, events to be in sequence. Even though I am able to adjust when things are not in order, I prefer following a proven pattern and …show more content…
sequence.
(B) What alignment do you find with your StrengthFinder 2.0 results and the CSWE Core Competencies of Social Work Practice?
My results aligned with the CSWE core competencies, various associations were obvious while others were subtle.
Competency 2.1.3 is the application of critical thinking to inform and communicate professional judgment. The discipline section mentioned these individuals have daily conversations with informed individuals, achiever stated that these individual study facts from different angles, and Harmony described testing ideas from experts. Being able to speak to informed individuals, studying facts from different angles and consulting experts helps to inform a social worker in making the best informed, professional judgment as they have thoroughly researched ways to best serve their clients. Moreover, Harmony stated that these individuals ought to gather a network of individuals with differing opinions in order to get new viewpoints. This aligns with competency 2.1.4 which is the engaging of diversity and difference in practice. In cooperation, the results and competency help the social worker to be able to know several perspectives and ideas in order to understand how issues affect different people and populations. In conclusion, there were many parts that aligned with the competencies as my results focused on finding strengths that will aid me in becoming a more productive and self-aware individual. Productivity, self-awareness, and strengths align with the CSWE core competencies as they require social workers to do the same for and with their
clients.
(C) What divergence do you find with your StrengthFinder 2.0 results and the CSWE Core Competencies of Social Work Practice?
It was difficult to find strengths that deviated from core competencies, however, I was able to locate a few. Competency 2.1.5 states that social workers should work to advance human rights and social and economic justice. This objective can be achieved through advocacy which every so often requires confronting an individual, organization, and polices to ensure clients receive paramount services, and to achieve social justice. However, strengths finder stated that individuals whose strength is Harmony tend to avoid conflicts or disagreements, and at times passive aggressive. This can be in conflict as seeking social justice does not guarantee that there will always be a consensus or agreements between parties so social workers should be able to professionally confront individuals and systems. In addition, Competency 2.1.10(b) requires social workers to reach mutually agreed upon intervention goals with their clients. Yet, as an individual who is an Activator, I may seek to indicate how beneficial my suggestions can benefit an Individual or groups which are a contradiction to the competency.
Radical Change the Quiet Way
All the strategies outlined in the Radical Change the Quiet Way illustrated the incredible and effective ways to become an effective leader and agents for change. However, the strategy that resonated most with me was Variable-term Opportunism. Unlike the other strategies, I know that it can be executed by virtually anyone. It requires for an individual to be prepared when random opportunities present themselves, but to be proactive as they execute their long term goals. I like the idea that at times one can change the “low hanging fruit” which means they can make changes that are more simple. This can prevent individuals from feeling overwhelmed, being overwhelmed can happen when people try to quickly make immense changes. Furthermore, Variable-term Opportunism requires people to resist the urge to criticize those that have opposing viewpoints, consequently, they should enroll in their agendas as they can be allies in meeting both their short term and long term goals. This resonated with me because most times people avoid individuals who have differing views from their own, not recognizing that those individuals can eventually become allies for portions of their agendas. In addition to creating allies, the strategy entails revealing the advantages of said changes and identifying the benefits; motivating others to make the changes. The ultimate goal of this strategy is to focused on the long term changes, though remaining alert to short term changes when opportunities present.