SWOT Analysis: Strengths-Based Leadership

I. The Building Blocks: Strengths, Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
a. The Strengths-Based Leadership (SBL) report revealed my top Five Clifton Strengths Finder themes as arranger, adaptability, positivity, developer, and strategic. The strategic theme insight states that I pay close attention to what is going on around me; I listen and take notes on key points. The strategic theme states that I am able to talk communicate with ease, making it possible to talk with newcomers and outsiders. The adaptability theme reveals that I am able to adjust to events as they occur, continually adjusting as needed based on the circumstances and the needs. Adaptability theme also refers to me as being easily tired when spending a lot of time with individuals
who stay busy and don’t take a moment to enjoy their lives. Positivity is the next theme, which addresses how one is easily able to establish a rapport with others, celebrating the uniqueness of others. Freely giving of self, offering to share what you possess and know by way of skills, money, knowledge, food, shelter and time. The developer theme states that by nature I am able to cheer people up regardless of the circumstances and my sensitivity allows me to help people express themselves, making me effective as a coach, trainer or guide. Arranger is the final theme that describes that I have a strong sense of commitment and I persevere until I finish to my endeavors and I experience great satisfaction with accomplishment (Rath & Conchie, 2008)
b. In the strength bombardment conducted in class, I learned that I am able to reach people to boost their confidence to help them resolve issues, cope with change and overcome obstacles, encouraging him or her to strive to reach their goals. The strength bombardment further verified the strengths that emerged in the SBL report (developer), and the emotional intelligence (motivation). My success story was about a soldier who became my subordinate because he had been labeled as a problem child, he was sent to me as a last chance before separation from the military. His past leaders treated him as a troubled individual. When I spoke with him three years later, he thanked me for treating him as a valuable part of the team, stating that was what caused him to choose to make the necessary changes in his life to remain a soldier in the United States Army. The Emotional Intelligence (EI) Questionnaire that I completed reveals that I am extremely strong in the areas of self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills (Northouse, 2013). I also took DISC personality style assessment under the work environment version. The DISC is a popular system coined by American psychologist William Moulton Marston in the 1920’s, measuring four preferences Dominant, Influential, Steady and Conscientious (DISC). The assessment is in place to focus on a participant’s behavior. The assessment results revealed my natural/internal style and my adapted/external style. The natural/internal style is a representation of what you think and feel about situations, the part of me seen mostly by those closest to me. The adapted/external style represents how I act or behave, which is the part of me others tend to see. My style is an S/IC (Steady/Influential and Conscientious), which means I have a blend of supportive, inspiring and cautious traits, revealing that I am possess both people-oriented and task-oriented traits, with the supportive trait being my strongest trait of the three. The DISC assessment pointed out that my preference is to work with people one on one or in small groups (123 Test, 2012).
c. The 360 degree feedback includes feedback through two assessment tools, the Emotional Intelligence (EI) Questionnaire and the Servant Leadership Questionnaire. I had four individuals complete the EI questionnaire to assess my strengths from what they have observed. The EI questionnaire was completed by my husband, coworker, friend and my supervisor. Three of the four questionnaire participant’s responses placed me as being extremely strong in each personal competency. The last participant, who is my husband, rated me as being extremely strong in all of the personal competencies except in the area of self-awareness. His assessment came with a note, stating “you have a strong self-awareness for the most part, but you do not accurately assess yourself. You are humble, but the inaccuracy in assessing yourself comes from you not giving yourself reasonable credit for your abilities.” The Servant Leadership Questionnaire was completed by my Pastor, his responses revealed that I strongly exhibit the servant leadership behavior of emotional healing, creating value for the community, conceptual skills, helping subordinates grow and succeed, putting subordinates first and behaving ethically. Empowering is a servant leadership behavior that I display at a moderate or average range (Northouse, 2013).
d. The Strength Based Leadership report was broken into four categories, Executing, Influencing, Relationship building and Strategic Thinking (Rath & Conchie, 2008). I did not have a strength listed in the Influencing category and initially I felt like the assessment was inaccurate because many people have provided me feedback stating how I have influenced their lives in areas such as decision making, recognizing or implementing change in their lives. As I look further into the strength as a developer, I recognize that based on the feedback I have been an influence to others through my developer strength by listening to people, genuinely caring, sharing any knowledge
e. The strengths that emerged in each assessment or questionnaire are an accurate account of my strengths. I do not believe there to be any inaccuracies. The strategic theme stood out for me because I never viewed myself as being strategic. Having explored the text to gain a better understanding of the strategic theme I do recognize that I do possess some strengths related to the strategic theme such as my ability to help others to achieve his or her desires by considering all possibilities to make a vision a reality.
Table 1. Identification of Strengths
Strengths Based Leadership (a)
Strengths identified in other assessment activities (b)
360 evaluation strengths (c)
Unidentified Strengths (d)
Strengths you question or believe are not accurate (e)
Strengths you would like to have (f)
Arranger
Self-awareness
Self-Regulation
Harmony
Strategic
Discipline
Adaptability
Motivation
Motivation
Includer

Focus
Positivity
Empathy
Empathy
Input

Self-Assurance
Developer
Social Skills
Social Skills

Strategic
Self-Regulation
Emotional healing

Helping subordinates grow and succeed

Conceptual skills

Creating value for the community

Putting subordinates first

Table 2. Summary of Net Core Strengths
Net (Core) Strengths
Extremely Strong
Strong
Self-Regulation
Social Skills
Motivation
Adaptability
Adaptability
Positivity
Social Skills
Developer
Empathy
Developer
Self-Regulation
Arranger
Emotional Healing
Emotional Healing
Conceptual Skills
Putting subordinates first
Putting subordinates first
Creating value for the community
Helping subordinates grow and succeed
Helping subordinates grow and succeed

Table 3. Developing and Augmenting Strengths
Strengths to develop and augment
Strengths to be augmented
Strengths to be developed
Discipline
Discipline
Focus
Focus
Self-Assurance

Self-Assurance

II. Application of Strengths and Knowledge and Abilities (KSAs)
1) Leadership Approaches
a. Servant leadership is the leadership approach that I believe to be most important in the field of social work. Being a servant leader is what being part of the social work field is all about. The ten characteristics of servant leadership are indicative of the qualities needed to be effective social workers regardless of area of concentration. As social worker we offer services to our clients as individuals, couples, families, organizations and communities that lead them toward a change in emotions, behavior, patterns of thinking, opportunities and much more. As a social worker it is important to look at clients as whole persons and be committed to their growth through, based on what motivates them, which is a method employed by many social workers, known as motivational interviewing. Social workers are helping professionals, required to leave personal values and judgments at the door, using open ended questions, affirmations, reflections and summarization when communicating, which are methods are indicative of servant leadership.
Authentic leadership is the second most important leadership approach in social work in my opinion. Most people prefer leaders who are charismatic and can motivate them and make them feel good about their abilities and accomplishments. While being charismatic is a good trait for a leader, we live in a society where many leaders have abused their position, fostering an environment filled with great distrust; some of these leaders have been clergy, teachers, police officers and more. In the field of social work authenticity is vital to the relationship building with individual clients, organizations and the community.
b. The children and families concentration and military sub concentration for social work are the areas that I plan to work in throughout my social work career. As I addressed in question 1a, servant leadership is the most important leadership approach in my preferred concentration and sub concentration field because I will serve families by assisting them discover the best way of thinking, behavior, opportunities or course of action that will best suit the client, their lives and future goals. I come to serve the client through my commitment to help them gain and enhance awareness, healing and growth; my role is as a servant because I am in place to ensure the clients success.
Authentic leadership is still second important as I stated in question 1a. Authentic leadership is extremely important when dealing with families and children. As social workers when we deal with families and their children there is often a fair amount of trauma that has occurred in some form and the families need to know that the social worker they are working with is in position because they genuinely care about helping the family to improve their circumstances. Too many people have been exploited because someone chose to push his or her personal agenda for their personal gain, placing people in an already difficult situation into a further state of physical or emotional harm.
c. My KSAs are indicative of a servant leadership with the desire to help others do better and be better. My net core strengths such as emotional healing, putting subordinates first, developer, motivation and empathy are great indicators as to why I have chosen servant and authentic leaderships’ as being the most important leadership approaches. Based on my KSA’s through my personal assessment and the 360 feedback I operate as a servant leader as well as an authentic leader, seeking to help others reach their goals.
d. To be more successful in the areas of servant leadership and authentic leadership I believe I need to further develop empathy so that I can be more aware of what my clients may be feeling or have experienced without him or her having to fully communicate the feeling or experience to me. With the further development of empathy I will be able to be successful at being an authentic and servant leader because I will listen to what my clients are saying verbally and nonverbally, which requires me to be genuine in my steps to assist my clients reach the goals he or she has set for themselves.

2) Social Work and Servant Leadership
Area 1: Groups and Teams
a. Teamwork is a complex phenomenon. A clear mission and high performance standards set the scene for effective teamwork, putting each member of the team in the position to understand what the team is trying to achieve and the level of performance each team member must operate at to successfully complete the team’s mission. Effective team leaders analyze the available skills within their team and work to secure any available resources and equipment needed to ensure the team is able to be effective. High levels of communication helps team members remain focused on the goal achievement which allows the skills, knowledge and resources to be readily available, producing effective team members (Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy, 2012).
b. My strength’s and KSAs allow me to interact with all of the team members individually to help to draw in the cohesiveness of the team with motivation, arranging and developing. I am driven on getting the job done and I adapt easily to change which is good because in team settings change can occur regularly. I am able to see the positive aspect of things and communicate it to others so that they can see situations from a positive perspective as well.
c. To function effectively in a group or team I would like to augment the strength of discipline. I am disciplined and able to accomplish goals in a timely manner, but I often wear so many hats and have so much going on that I am very easily distracted. I need to learn to place myself in positions where distractions will not hinder me from completing my goal. In terms of developing strength, I would like to develop focus, when working in a team setting each team member needs to be able to focus on the mission at hand. I have the tendency to focus on multiple tasks at once. Multitasking can be beneficial at times, but when working with a team, each member must be able to bring a collaborated effort to the team and if my focus is on various tasks, it is likely the team would not be receiving my best effort.
Area 2: Dealing with Conflict
a. Conflict can occur in various settings, team, work group, committee and organizational. The differences in values, beliefs or goals, high levels of stress, competition for scarce resources or reward, facing incompatible or uncertain demands, or high levels of task or lateral interdependence are sources of conflict that can occur with group or team members. Many conflicts occur as a result of a breakdown in communication or misunderstandings. Networking with others and improving listening and communication skill are ways to minimize conflict (Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy, 2012).
b. The Strengths Based Leadership (SBL) report reveals that my dominant strength is in the Relationship Building. With positivity and developer as strengths I am able to keep the team on track by minimizing distractions and guide team members to push toward bigger and better achievements. With relationship building as my dominant strength, I am in a position to keep conflict minimal and to easily resolve conflict amongst others (Rath & Conchie, 2008).
III. The Leadership Development and Self-Efficacy Plan
When I entered into the Master of Social Work program with the University of Southern California, I never seriously considered the use of leadership in the field of social work, nor my potential as a social work leader. I wondered how I would possibly be a leader in a clinical setting. I assumed leadership in social work was applicable in supervisory positions. It has been a time of great personal growth. In fact, I am still adjusting to my new understanding as a social work leader.
Now as I continue to toward completing my social work degree, I realize being an effective leader is crucial to my success.
Though my experience in social work is limited, military service previous employment, community service and learning activities have helped establish my current leadership style. By building a leadership development plan, I will assess the strengths and weaknesses of my current leadership abilities. After analyzing the results of these assessments using various leadership theories and competencies, I will establish goals to improve my leadership style and a plan for how to attain them.
As a social worker I want to be well rounded, with a vast array of knowledge, experience and expertise. It is my vision to deliver comprehensive service to clients, in the areas of emotional healing, behavioral changes, and the restoration of love for individuals and families. With the use of my existing strengths, I will seek to enhance my skills and strengths through continued education and other available experiential opportunities that will afford me the opportunity to augment my areas of weakness and learn and cultivate the areas of strength I desire to
develop.
Following graduation I would like to work for the federal government, assisting service members and their families cope with military life, the stressors of combat through the development and enhancement of resiliency. I would like to achieve the goal of becoming a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) within three to five years after graduating with a Masters of Social Work (MSW), to achieve this goal I will need to be supervised in a clinical setting for a minimum of 3000 hours and take the social work clinical licensure exam (Work, 2011). In tandem with my previously mentioned goals, I would like to be challenged with opportunities to build upon my current leadership abilities, while augmenting and developing new strengths to help mold me to be an effective social worker.
Five to seven years into my career as a social worker I would like to become trained and certified as an Imago Couples Therapy. This is an area that is very important to me because as far back as I can recall I have been approached by family, friends, coworkers, church members and complete strangers, being informed of the difficulties they were facing in their romantic, marital, parental or mutual relationships. My mentor, Valeria McCants, LCSW, is certified in Imago Couples Therapist introduced me to the concept of Imago Therapy. Having conducted further research on the subject matter has increased my desire to receive the training and certification in Imago Couples Therapy, with the hopes to assist couples along the way to restore the love in their relationship (Getting the Love You Want, 2012).
My long-term goal as a social worker is to develop and operate my own counseling private practice, where I provide services to individuals, couples, and families with extensive personal and professional experience working with the military. The building of a successful private practice may take several years before physically operating in the practice. My plan to begin understanding what I need to do to develop a successful practice is to purchase and read “Building Your Ideal Private Practice: A Guide for Therapists and Other Healing Professionals” by Lynn Grodzki and any other resources recommended by my mentor, peers and supervisors.
The following information lists the outline of my goals and my plan to achieve them.
Goal 1: Improve my sense of self-efficacy as a social worker.
Plan: Use self-study and continuing education courses to familiarize myself with the social work knowledge through the National Association of Social Workers (NASW).
Plan: Ask for help and/or ask questions from more experienced social workers.
Plan: Adopt the mindset that challenging situations are learning opportunities rather than an opportunity for failure.
Goal 2: Seek employment and/or volunteer opportunities to achieve supervision hours for LCSW requirements.
Plan: Learn LCSW requirements for the state I plan to seek licensure.
Plan: Research available employment or volunteer positions to receive licensure required supervision.
Plan: Study for licensure exam.
Goal 3: Seek federal employment working with the United States Military.
Plan: Apply for federal employment positions with military agencies such as, Veterans Affairs (VA); Army Community Service (ACS); Family Advocacy Program (FAP) or the military health system.
Goal 4: Become a trained and Certified Imago Couples Therapist
Plan: Enroll in Imago Couples Therapy training program
Plan: Fulfill the Certification requirements
Plan: Seek guidance for experienced Certified Imago Couples Therapists
Goal 5: Develop and Operate private counseling practice
Plan: Network with other private practitioners
Plan: Develop business plan, advertisement and location
options
Plan: Determine billing options

By creating leadership goals that enhance my strengths and address my weaknesses as a leader, I can start to track my progress towards becoming a more effective social worker. Keeping a reflective journal is one of the ways that I can assess my growth, track the achievement of my current goals and set new goals. Intentional reflection can allow an individual to see potential benefits in experience that wouldn’t be initially referred to as relevant to leadership in organizational settings (Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy, 2012). Reflective journaling will also help me cultivate a sense of internal motivation and identify the various learning opportunities encountered throughout my career. By reviewing the reflective journals regularly, I can use lessons from these learning experiences as needed in future clinical situations and track any progress that I have made towards my career goals. As a leader feedback is very important to learn from my leadership experiences, both formally and informally (Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy, 2012). I will create opportunities to get regular feedback from my mentor, peers, and supervisors. By receiving regular feedback, I will be able to identify what aspects of my leadership style works, what doesn’t work and modify my behavior accordingly.
I do not anticipate any challenges as I plan to go forward in my career as a social worker. I am an African American woman, moving into a career that is female dominated, bringing to the nine years of military experience and eight years working with the federal government in social service positions. As a female veteran, in terms of building private practice, I may be at an advantage because the Veterans Affairs encourages female veterans to begin small businesses. Although I do not anticipate challenges I need to be prepared for challenges by paying attention to my surroundings. The looking over my journal reflections could also bring to light some challenges that are not as obvious, when I am able to look at my reflections from a fresh perspective.

References
123 Test. (2012, 12 09). Retrieved from DISC Personality Test: www.123test.com/disc-personality-test/
Getting the Love You Want. (2012, 12 08). Retrieved from Imago Relationships: http://gettingtheloveyouwant.com/professionals/certification-program
Hughes, R. L., Ginnett, R. C., & Curphy, G. J. (2012). Leadership: Enhanching the lessons of experience. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publication, Inc.
Rath, T., & Conchie, B. (2008). Strength Based Leader. New York: Gallup, Inc.
Work, V. B. (2011, 03 02). Virginia Department of Health Professions. Retrieved from Virginia Board of Social Work: www.dhp.virginia.gov/Social/social_forms.htm