Critical Evaluation of Leadership Skills and Theories in Social Care

LEADERSHIP IN SOCIAL CARE
COURSE:
MODULE LEADER:
INSTITUTION:
Leadership in Social Care
“A leader knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way” is a John Maxwell insight that forms the basis of what it takes to be a successful leader (Maxwell, 2007, p. 97) . From the quote, one learns that leadership is a vital prospect in an organization as it steers a sense of direction. Presently, each company demands insightful leadership because the operational environment is growing increasingly diverse and dynamic (Andrew et al., 2014). The changes happening in the operational environment, including growth in technologies and advancements in cultural diversity, all reflect the need for leaders to stay more skilled and knowledgeable. Social care is one industry that demands leadership with a diverse and insightful understanding of the operational environment (Rahn, 2010ibid.). It is a people-oriented profession that focuses on supporting individuals from diverse demographic backgrounds. Children, adults, and people with different needs all fit within the confines of social care. To that extent, success in social care, for a leader, requires a detailed understanding of the prevalent position of the institution, what it intends to achieve, and how it intends to achieve the set goals. As implied in Maxwell’s quote, only leaders with relevant skills stand a chance of succeeding in a diverse institution such as social care (Todman, 2016). This paper emphasizes the skills that leaders must manifest to master the way, go the way, and show the way to their institutions. Hence, the inputs of the study range from basic skills such as problem-solving abilities to the actual applications of such skills in real social care settings. The study, for instance, will address the issue of change management, which is a vital factor in a dynamic institution such as social care. With diversity in its activities, social care is prone to changes that, if not handled carefully, can trigger ills such as adverse institutional politics that often lead to failures (Underhill, 2018). For leaders in social care, the analysis will be vital in understanding the skills required for industry-wide success, exploring the models of leadership in social care, and advancing different leadership and change theories to adapt to the dynamism of the social care settings.
Leadership in social care comes in different dimensions considering the characteristics of the profession. Social care professionals offer social, practical, and emotional support to a wide range of individuals. Such workers, hence, must approach their inputs through a range of leadership dimensions to stay relevant. The first dimension of a social care leader is awareness (Stengård et al., 2021). A leader in a diverse environment must manifest an advanced understanding of him/herself in terms of his/her strengths, weaknesses, or biases (Underhill, 2018). Such awareness is what steers a leader into consistent learning and development to become a better leader. The second dimension of leadership that social care professionals demand is vision. EAccording to Rahn (2010), every leader should clearly understand what they want to achieve with the organization within a specific time frame. Visionary leaders set targets for their organizations. They invest their energy to ensure that the set targets are achieved as intended. A leader must also have a vision in terms of how much he/she intends to transform the organization to achieve even better outcomes (Rahn, 2010). The other dimension of a social care leader is imagination (Harris et al., 2020). Social care is a changing prospect. That is stakeholders in the industry showcase different demands with each passing day. To a leader, the changes and aspects of dynamism pose the challenge of imagination. A leader in such a setting must imagine what he/she wants to become or what he/she intends to leave as a legacy upon completing the role.
The other valuable dimensions of leadership that must be considered in social care are responsibility and action. In any leadership setting, organizational or professional, there is a sense of responsibility associated. Leaders must be responsible for the behaviors of their followers (Hussain and Ashcroft, 2020). They can be responsible for how their organizations utilize the scarce resources. that they manifest. However, such leaders must understand that the global scope of social care is wide. As such, they can only stay responsible within the boundaries of their prerogatives. Ultimately, leaders must take action. From an individual perspective, a leader must understand how to activate the strength of character that is likely to inspire trust and the walk-the-talk attitude (Waibel, 2011). Still, a leader must take action at the organizational level in which he/she must be courageous enough to give voice to the organizational values while also inspiring other stakeholders to do the same (Havig et al., 2011). Globally, a social care leader must take action in building a society where people understand the needs of others and support those needs to steer collective growth.
Mastering leadership skills is a primary step in any individual’s success in becoming an ideal leader in social care. Primarily, social care is a uniquely structured profession that must be accompanied by specific characteristics (Chamberlain et al., 2016). That is, in social care, there is a need to interact with people consistently on different levels. A leader in social care interacts with individuals who support the organizations, those who execute the operational strategies, and those who need social support. All the stakeholders in social care demand different kinds of attention. To that effect, a leader in social care must manifest exquisite interpersonal skills, allowing a leader to interact with people from diverse cultural groups, genders, age groups, and socio-economic groups. A leader in social care cannot be discriminative, a prospect that is efficiently addressed in the mastery of interpersonal skills (Waibel, 2011). Social care is also a diverse institution that is characterized by conflicts (Kanste, Halme and Perälä, 2016). Considering the understanding that all the stakeholders come from different backgrounds, their needs and perceptions differ. To that extent, stakeholders in the industry are more likely to engage in consistent conflicts. A leader in social care, hence, must be skilled in problem-solving. That implies listening carefully to all the warring factions before addressing the conflicts objectively. To be insightful in solving problems, such a leader must manifest proper communication skills (Horishna et al., 2019).
Various leadership models and theories exist for social care leaders to understand the scope of the dimensions and skills needed to prosper in the industry. From a global perspective, no single leadership style can befit all the situations that social care settings face. Practitioners within social care are faced with varied situations that demand different leadership inputs at all times (Wilson, 2008). That makes it necessary for leaders to understand the basis of individual leadership models to help them navigate through different situations. Despite the existence of different models and theories, true leadership is defined as the ability to persuade others to reach a better outcome for a company or group. Employee satisfaction, a healthy bottom line, a culture of innovation, positive social change, and more are indicators of a leader’s influence in the workplace (Horishna et al., 2019). ManagersLeaders, for example, are said to affect 70% of workforce engagement, which is defined as an employee’s level of dedication and connection to his/her job (Underhill, 2018). Leaders must develop styles that match the needs of their organizations. 
There is a range of traditional leadership models/theories that relate to social care depending on the industry’s unique needs. The first common leadership model is transformational leadership (Austin, 2014). Transformational leaders believe in the changing paradigms of the operational environment. They understand the need to make changes to grow and become relevant in future operations (Horishna et al., 2019). In social care, a transformational leader must bear characteristics and skills in open lines of communication, demonstration of integrity to have the trust of the staff, and the manifestation of care both for oneself and others to have the trust of others who can join in the process of transformation (Horishna et al., 2019). Transactional leaders, conversely, focus on a reward-based model to execute their roles. They set performance goals for staff and associate the achievement of those goals with rewards. Transactional leaders largely emphasize the organization’s interests at the expense of individual needs (Horishna et al., 2019). Social care leaders can also manifest servant leadership styles. Servant leaders are skilled in mixing selflessness with emphasis on the higher needs of other people. They are visionaries who partake in the change process. Servant leaders are those who lead by example (Havig et al., 2011). In social care, servant leaders are important in ensuring that teams operate efficiently.
Other common leadership models befit various aspects of social care. Primary among the models is autocratic leadership. Autocratic leaders make decisions without consulting other stakeholders within the social care settings (Folkman, Tveit and Sverdrup, 2019). Naturally, every person affected by a particular decision should be consulted before the decisions are made. Autocratic leaders employ swift decision-making skills often in situations such as emergencies that do not require consultations. Autocratic leadership can be successful when the leader is visionary to understand the needs of the entire stakeholder group or when they are culturally competent enough to make decisions that befit the needs of all the affected individuals (Waibel, 2011). Social care can also have democratic leaders who consult extensively with other stakeholders in decision-making. According to Hussain and Ashcroft, 2020), dDemocratic leaders are more reliant on communication and collectivism when it comes to making decisions. In social care, long-term decisions such as implementing new technologies require extensive consultation as defined by the democratic leadership model. A laissez-faire model is an approach that encourages passivity. In the confines of laissez-faire leadership, each stakeholder is viewed as responsible and capable of making the right decisions. Laissez-faire can perform better if there is an organizational structure that confines the behaviors and decisions of the stakeholders (Hussain & Ashcroft, 2020).
Transformational leadership and laissez-faire models mark the contrasting leadership approaches in social care. Laissez-faire is a style that heavily depends on the organization’s structural soundness to be successful. In laissez-faire, a leader trusts that employees will be guided by the values of the organization or their job descriptions (Chamberlain et al., 2016). To that extent, a leader does not manifest much control over the activities of individuals, especially in conflicts. That is different from transformational leadership, where interpersonal relationships are valued. In transformational leadership, the leader educates, motivates, and prepares all the stakeholders for the prospect of change. When change comes, organizations structured around transformations are often more prepared than those that foster self-control and maintain the status quo, as defined by the laissez-faire leadership model (Folkman, Tveit, & Sverdrup, 2019).
Managing change in a dynamic operational environment such as social care has been used as the yardstick in measuring the validity or reliability of different leadership models within social care. Change is one consistent prospect in every social care setting. Changes come in terms of structure, culture, leadership, or even resource allocations (Dearinger, 2011). Partly, the need to fulfill the set organizational goals steers the desire to implement consistent changes in social care. Remarkably, change is a good thing in social settings. That is, the operational environment itself is changing consistently. Hence, it calls for every stakeholder to match the changes or be rendered irrelevant (Chamberlain et al., 2016). While change is an important aspect of social care, it often attracts resistance. Harris, et al. (2020) assert that rResistance to change is the unwillingness of individuals or groups to accommodate the changes that they face. Individually, people resist change if it threatens their roles or jobs within the organization. Also, individuals can resist change if they deem the changes unhelpful. On some occasions, individual resistance to change can stem from a lack of participation in the change process. Resistance to change can also come from groups (Rahn, 2010). Collective resistance to change imply that a group of individuals who should execute the change resist the change partly or entirely. Multiple factors can lead to group resistance. For instance, organizational politics is an issue when dealing with groups. Engaging groups in the change process through formulation up to implementation and evaluation can be necessary. Leaders must understand how to structure their skills and philosophies to address resistance to change, whether it emanates from an individual or a group.
The first step in addressing resistance to change is understanding the barriers to the change itself (Folkman, Tveit, & Sverdrup, 2019). Every change process is linked to specific activities that can lead to resistance if not conducted efficiently (Kameli et al., 2020). Some of the steps that leaders must consider while implementing changes include the scope of impacts of the changes, communication, psychological and emotional preparedness by the stakeholders, and understanding the scope of possible barriers to that change (Kanste, Halme, & Perälä, 2016). If the steps in change management are not explored, the barriers to such a change emerge. According to Folkman, Tveit, and Sverdrup (2019)Fear is among the most significant barriers to change. In every change initiative, people develop the fear of the unknown. People are threatened whenever they do not understand a change, how it can affect their personality, and how it can affect their jobs. Combating fear comes with open communication during the change process. To that extent, poor communication is also a barrier to change. Every change should be accompanied by open and detailed communication at all levels. When people are informed efficiently, they forget the fear of change (Kanste, Halme, & Perälä, 2016). Change should also showcase identity. A change that instills drastic alterations to organizational values, structure, or culture is likely to face resistance (Huff, 2019). Ultimately, poor leadership is a barrier to change. As noted by John Maxwell, a leader must know and show the way. According to Stengård et al. (2021), lLeaders play a vital role in the change process. Every employee expects his/her leader to manifest a better understanding of a prospective change. Leaders ...