The Complete Leader - Handbook of Essentials for Human Services Leadership
Copyright © 2014 Robert Shaw
All rights reserved
Printed in Canada
International Standard Book Number: 978-1-927355-42-8
ISBN 978-1-927355-44-2 EPUB
Published by:
Castle Quay Books
Pickering, Ontario, L1W 1A5
Tel: (416) 573-3249
E-mail: [email protected]
Edited by by Karen Stiller and Marina Hofman Willard
Cover design by Burst Impressions
Printed at Essence Publishing, Belleville, Ontario
This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form without prior written permission of the publishers.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Shaw, Robert, 1925-, author
The complete leader : handbook of essentials for human services leadership /
Robert Shaw ;
Karen Stiller, Marina Hofman Willard, editors.
Includes bibliographical references.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-927355-42-8 (pbk.).—ISBN 978-1-927355-44-2 (epub)
1. Human services—Practical Leadership—Handbooks, manuals, etc.
2. Nonprofit organizations—Leadership
3. Holistic Leadership—Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title.
HV41.S53 2013 361.0068’4 C2013-906817-1
C2013-906818-X
Dedication
This book is dedicated to Myrlin (Angel 24/7)
And many dear colleagues, including
Aileen, Fred, Ed, Jack, Eric, Bernyce, Alice, Bruce, Bram, Phil, Georgina, Dick, Bill, Helen, Bill, Neville, Gerard, Emerson and Corinne
Table of Contents
Introduction
Section I - The Leader
Chapter 1 - Leadership in the Voluntary Services Organization
• Leadership is about vision, learning and character. It comes from experience on the job, a mentor and a handbook. Its big test is the growth of those being led.
Chapter 2 - The Challenges of Voluntary Service Leadership
• There is no avoiding these seven big challenges. The leader builds teams to deal with each one. There are no short-term solutions.
Chapter 3 - Delegation: Where Organization Begins
• Delegation frees everyone to do his best. This shows the little known, big secret of leadership: accountability.
Chapter 4 - The Magic of Teamwork for Families
• Every human problem is complex. Helpfulness comes when different views are combined for each client. That takes teamwork.
Chapter 5 - The Art of Human Services Leadership
• The leader’s job is orchestration. The leader needs a vision of the whole effort and its people. To do that, she must be growing in self- awareness.
Chapter 6 - Leadership Grows by Learning: One Leader’s Story
• Here is the story of one leader’s growth. It is a long process of painful learning. It results in a person with a changed view of others and himself.
Chapter 7 - The Supervisory Relationship: Keystone to Client Benefits
• The main qualification of the helper is her experience in significant relationships. The key to client benefits is the quality of the supervisory relationship. Requires job/person balance.
Chapter 8 - Making Decisions for Client Benefit
• Decisions that benefit clients must be client decisions. Each of us is responsible for himself. Helpfulness requires decisions that are made mutually. Here we see the neglected art of mutual decision-making.
Section II - The Client
Chapter 9 - The Family is the Heart of our Society
• Our society is changing faster than anyone can recognize. The classic family is replaced by the blended family. Values and beliefs, like fashions, are new every day. Can the human services change to match today’s needs?
Chapter 10 - The Ugly Gulf in the Human Services
• Fragmentation is the greatest risk to our families. There are two sources. The big systems of governments, business and the media draw families to follow in their images. The human service organizations are themselves fragmented in our communities. All of this is too complex for families.
Chapter 11 - The Best Help for the Most People
• If fragmentation is the family’s big challenge, their need is for coordination of services designed for their unique needs. A case manager for each family, one at a time, does it—it’s called case management.
Chapter 12 - The Five Essentials of the Helping Process
• With too many counselors of different colors, the family can’t be sure to get the right help. The helpers need some common standards. Here are five basic steps drawn from the fields of family counseling and psychotherapy.
Chapter 13 - Faith: The Pickle in the Muddle
• Families are really confused by all the different religious organizations. Each seems to claim the truth. While churches are important to families, a clear distinction is needed between religion and faith. Religion is found in organizations. Faith is the choice of the family and its members—it is essential in all human services.
Chapter 14 - Wellness is the Better Way
• Is it better to wait for the problem to come or to get fit now to face whatever comes? Wellness is building on one’s strengths—avoiding all the obvious conditions of obesity, addictions and interpersonal binds. Here is the alternative to a problem view of well-being.
Chapter 15 - Finally, Family Wellness is Arriving
• Attention to wellness is just arriving—not even a movement yet. The first step is a definition of wellness. Here is an early approach that places the wellness job in family hands.
Chapter 16 - Pioneers of Client-Centered Services
• New family wellness projects are popping up. They feature family responsibilities and professional collaboration.
Section III: The Organization
Chapter 17 - The Mission: The Heart of Human Services
• The mission statement answers two questions: Who? Why? It defines client benefits. It is the acid test of every decision.
Chapter 18 - Strategic Planning: Leading, Not Lagging
• We all need to know where we are going. Here is a simple, annual half-day event led by the board that tells us just that.
Chapter 19 - The Volunteer: Soul of the Human Services
• The volunteer donates herself to the mission. She does this freely. Her presence ensures that the organization and the professional services are charitable.
Chapter 20