New Leadership as a Way of Introducing New Parctice
Strong, supportive leadership is an essential pre-requisite in the introduction of new ways of working. Currently many social work managers are experiencing stress and pressure as a result of flattened hierarchies and extended roles with wider responsibilities. They are often seen by practitioners as unresponsive and unsupportive, communicating a sense that they are embattled and unable to do more than be reactive. Alongside this there is demand for greater accountability and an increased focus on better outcomes for service users.
Trotter(1999)describes a method for improving outcomes for involuntary service users, using a pro-social approach. This way of working was introduced in a large new children's residence in New Zealand. To support it, Goleman's (2003)approach to new leadership was used. Training in both methods was given, outcome data was collected and used as a baseline for comparative purposes.Follow-up contacts for both groups were arranged sustain motivation and deal with any issues that arose.
This paper reports on the introduction of the two approaches, the findings from the study and discusses the implications for practice and management.