Welcome to Dear Social Worker, the podcast that prioritises
you, the person behind the title Sounded like an American advert
then, right? I'm your host, Lisa Ran, and I
founded Social Work Coaching hub.com to support you with your
confidence, your emotional and leadership skills.
I am so excited to bring you this brand new episode today
where we are turning up the energy on this podcast.
I know it's all about personal development and growth and
looking into yourself, but we can do that with a bit of spice,
right? So today you're going to be
leaving feeling inspired, and you're going to leave filling in
a brand new application to step up in social work.
In the past week, I've had three emails from three social workers
from three different local authorities, all expressing
their joy and excitement at securing a brand new senior
level post. It's the most wonderful feeling
when my coaching clients e-mail me and say, guess what?
I got the job and I'm sending so many emojis back because I'm so
excited for them. And it's amazing what can happen
when you just take a risk on yourself.
And I wanted to talk to you about that today.
It's it's, it's inspired me. It's energized me because some
of you may be listening to this thinking, I'm not sure if I can
stay in social work. I'm not sure if I can stay in
this authority. I'm not sure if I want to retire
as a social worker. But my question to you is, are
you in the right social work position?
Do you need to energize yourself and encourage yourself by
stepping up now? When my manager turned round to
me and said you're going to be the next senior practitioner and
I interviewed, I got the job, etcetera.
I truly did not want to do it. And part of the reason was
because when I was training, the lady I was training with, she
was very experienced over 50 years.
And she was still in practice, a highly respected social worker.
And she always said that she would never become a manager.
And her view about that hadn't changed for all those years.
And I used to think she really must have a reason for this.
There's something that I don't know, you know, there's
something that I need to to understand about all of this.
Why wouldn't you, after years and years have been so respected
and so effective at your job, would you not want to step into
a management role Now, each to their own, of course.
But the other side to that is that had an impact on what I
wanted for my social work career and the amount of work, the
level of stress that I encountered as I began my
career, I inadvertently, I would say, took on that belief that
imagine having to manage this at manager level.
That's not possible, but the truth is, it is.
And I did step up to management and it was OK.
It's all about how you manage, right?
How you navigate. So when we're talking about the
evolving landscape of social work and why it's important to
continually be advancing in your career is number one, it gives
you confidence. You don't grow in your career.
You don't sit in the same career to be there in that same
position for 40-50 years. Particularly if you're a person
who's innovative and you want to grow, you want to learn, you'll
become stagnant and that can increase risk to children and
families because you're just stuck in the same routine.
I'm not saying this happens to everyone, of course, but there
are a good handful of people who would agree with me on that.
The next thing is it's going to increase your impact and ability
to influence change. That's the reason why you
stepped into social work, right? You wanted to make a change.
You wanted to make a difference in people's lives.
You wanted to keep children and families safe.
You want to make sure people have got the right intervention
plan. The other thing is around
enhancing your skills and your professional growth.
You are demonstrating by applying for jobs that are more
senior than the one you're on. You are demonstrating self
belief. You are showing that yourself.
You are showing yourself, more importantly, that you have what
it takes. And I want to share a quote with
you by Gandhi that says the best way to find yourself is to lose
yourself in the service of others.
Let that marinate for a moment. I'm inviting you my podcast
listeners to the first UK National Black and Diverse
Safeguarding Professionals conference.
We're coming together to network, to collaborate, to
create a safe space for each other, and to strategize
solutions for those from ethnic groups who are working in public
services here in the UK. I am so excited to bring you
this conference and I want you to go to
socialworkcoachinghub.com/events and register to get your ticket.
I'll see you there. When you think about where you
are in your social work career, I want you to consider this
question, What are your next steps?
Setting goals for your career growth plan.
It's key to you having some milestones as to where you're
going. Otherwise, what are you doing?
You're just going round in circles doing the same thing
every day. And whilst we're supporting
families, saving children and being super men and super women,
we still have to think about the best ways in which we can serve
the communities that we support. And within that, thinking about
your career growth and how your career growth can best serve the
communities that you're working with.
So I want to take a moment for you to think about your career
plan. I want you to think about it
from the end point. So what is your end point in
your social work career? Is it being a social work
lecturer? Is it being a service manager or
perhaps you just would like to stick with being a social work
manager? What is your end point?
What is your end goal with this career now?
One of the mistakes I made that I highly recommend you don't
make because I'm telling you now so you've got no excuse.
I stayed in local authority social work.
I felt as if I couldn't practice in other areas because I had a
commitment to the families and the local authority I was
working for. And whilst I was being effective
in practice, at the same time I could have served other families
in other areas such as mother and baby units, such as working
as a parent assessor. There are other areas of social
work that you can enjoy and where you will thrive.
So wherever you are right now, even if you are a student just
heading into your new role, don't think that that is the
only place that you can be. So step #1 when you're thinking
about your career plan, what is your end point?
Where do you want to go? Who do you want to serve #2 do
your research. I've done a podcast episode a
few weeks back on the different types of paths and social
workers you can be. Go back and listen to that and
consider the different options that are available to you.
Local authority social work isn't for everyone.
It's great to get that behind you.
It's a great starting point, but it's not the only place you can
go #3 networking, build relationships with mentors,
coaches like myself, colleagues who can offer guidance and
support. Reach out to other workers,
other social workers who have the role that you would like to
have in the future. Ask them some questions.
Most people love talking about themselves.
We know this was social workers, right?
Use that. Use that to create conversation
and learn about someone else's role.
I want to leave you with this quote.
A goal without a plan. It's just a wish.
Very soon I am going to be releasing my brand new social
work coaching online hub where you can access audios, videos
and downloadables to support you with your personal and
professional development. We're going to be starting a
brand new community and I want you to be part of it.
So stay tuned to future episodes where I'll share more about
that. And of course, as always, check
out the links in the podcast notes.
OK? Are you feeling like you want to
step up now? If not, I've got two more points
I want to raise with you and then I'm going to be out of your
way, right? Overcoming challenges and
staying motivated. I'm not going to sit here and
list all the challenges that we face as social workers,
particularly when trying to progress your career.
It's going to happen. We know it exists.
We've got a good idea of what they look like, what they are.
So you have to think ahead of time and plan.
It's as simple as that. What is your self-care plan?
What is your work life balance plan?
That horrible phrase again. But there has to be something in
place, right? What are your boundaries?
Your work life boundaries? Who will be your mentor?
Do you need a coach? Do you need a counsellor?
How are you going to stay updated with the latest social
care news? These are things that are worth
considering when you're thinking about stepping up.
Stepping up means you're going up to another level of new
responsibilities, a new way of working, and new challenges.
Plan ahead, No need to walk into it blindly.
Not only have you got me, but I know for a fact you've got some
common sense too. We need to just put it all
together when we're stepping up, right?
So I want you to think about these steps as you walk away
from this podcast. I want you to walk away.
First of all, setting 1 short term goal.
Now that short term goal could be, let me just see what the
workforce landscape looks like right now.
What are managers being paid right now?
What's the working schedule of a a social work lecturer at this
time of the year? Then I want you to think of 1
long term career goal. Are you going to study to become
a practice educator? Are you going to become ADEI
officer? Diversity, equality and
inclusion officer that stands for?
Is that what you'd like to do in social work moving forward?
The next thing I've mentioned this before, I'm going to
mention it again, reaching out to a mentor or a professional
support group. Hey, you could join my online
hub. It's going to be opening soon
and you will have access to a range of professionals who'll be
more than happy to support you. Lastly, as I've just mentioned,
but it may not relate to DEI, so I want to make sure I clear this
up. Signing up for a workshop or
training that aligns with your interests, the interests that
align with your career goals, your plan.
And as you do that, I want to wish you the best of luck
stepping up, believing in yourself, showing yourself that
you can do it. Because that's all it took for
me to step into management all those years ago.
It's been a pleasure talking to you, as always, and I will be
back next week with some inspiration, education and
support. As usual.
I trust you've enjoyed this episode and please share it.
Let someone else hear the message.
Let someone else be inspired. I'll see you next week.