My social work friend…whose needs are you meeting?

My social work friend…whose needs are you meeting?

Idealism in Social Work

I found a paper I had written for my undergraduate social work degree. In it, I alluded to the fact that I wanted to change the world. My idealism was prolific throughout the paper; however, my vision of how I fit into the world may have been a tad skewed.

Interestingly, I am not the same professional in social work that I was when I began this journey many decades ago. Furthermore, I am not the same person. Personal experiences, professional encounters, and traumatic cases have provided me with a new outlook on how I view our profession.  Looking back at the time that paper was written is almost embarrassing. I wonder if I truly helped my client’s or rendered them dependent upon me.

Social Work Goals

As a social worker, I have always made it a point to be more personable and open. I worked hard to break the stereotypical vision that most people appeared to have of the white gloved woman going through your house and looking for things you have done wrong. I focused on what was going right and after I earned some trust, we could go into what wasn’t working so well.

There is such a fine line between enabling and empowering our clients and that line is often drawn in the sand. Additionally, that line appears to be always moving and being redrawn. As a young social worker, my goal was to “fix” everyone and every situation I was called into. I didn’t want anyone to suffer, nor did I feel accomplished unless a problem was solved. Only once the issue was taken care of, was I comfortable leaving the people involved.

Enabling or Empowering?

As the years progressed and I gained more experience, I learned how damaging enabling a client can actually be. While in the short-term those identified problems may have been taken care of, there were no skills learned by the client during that process. Once I was removed from the case, the same issues were likely to return, leaving the client in the same situation as they were when I entered.

Listen, I get it. It feels good to help. It feels good to be needed. However, when we solve every problem for our client, we are meeting OUR needs, not theirs. The client may be grateful and express themselves as such, but who did we actually help? Who’s needs were fulfilled?

In social work, our jobs can be diverse. Many of us went into the field because of our personal experiences and many of us are very good at what we do. At some point in our career, there must be a defining moment where we see the clarity of our responsibilities. If we are continuously enabling our clients, we are not working for them, we are working to meet our own needs.

Check Yourself as a social worker

It is our responsibility to draw that line in the sand. We are the social work professionals. We were brought in to meet the needs of a client, not meet our own needs. It is our job to continuously monitor ourselves so we can meet the needs of our client’s. It is our job to empower our individual client’s in order they do not need us anymore. And don’t forget to take care of you, my friend.

 

 

The hidden monster…danger is in plain sight!

The hidden monster…danger is in plain sight!

The hidden danger

Danger. The word itself can make me shudder and create an overload of real or perceived anxiety. It also conjures up a vision of a space-traveling robot from the 1960’s show “Lost in Space”. How lucky were the Robinson’s to have a danger alerting robot?

As parents, we teach our kids to look both ways before crossing the streets. We talk to them about “stranger danger”. As mom’s, we hold their hands when we are in public and we take our boys into the women’s bathroom for as long as we can. Parent’s teach their kids to NOT talk to strangers and to never help someone find their lost puppy. 

We teach our children to yell “NO” if someone tries to grab them. We enroll our children in martial arts classes so they know how to defend themselves. We talk about “being kind” and how to handle bullies. We meet their friends and the parents of said friends. Essentially, we are teaching our children how to handle any physical danger they may face…or to avoid opportunities where these dangers may exist.

But we are sorely missing something.

The monster we can’t see

The real danger isn’t in the physical threat. The real danger is in the person we cannot see. It is in the person who has unlimited access to our children without our knowledge. People all over the world have access to our children and often, we as the parents are the ones allowing the direct assess.

Take a peek at your social media. Did you post back to school pictures of your littles? Many of us do as we want to share the moment with our family and friends. However, someone scrolling social media may come across a photo of your little and zone in. When that happens, they will learn how old your child is and more often than not, they learn what school your child goes to.

Consider your next post. In it, you show your son with a valued leggo set that he has proudly built. Another post shows him riding his bike with his little brother through the neighborhood park. Now a stranger knows that your son enjoys legos and bike riding. She also knows he has a little brother.

The dangers of social media

While these posts are innocent enough, consider this. Every time you check into your favorite coffee shop, you are alerting someone that you go there often. When you check into the martial arts school, you are sending out a message that your boys are involved in taekwondo. These are two more pieces of information for a groomer to utilize when they make contact with your child.

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Contact has been established and common ground has been made.

Communication is key

In the above scenario, the chances of this happening are greater than you would think. And if it occurred with my son, he probably wouldn’t even think to mention it to me. That frightens me even more. As much as we communicate, we see the world very differently and he doesn’t see dangers all around him, nor do I want him to. It’s my job to worry endlessly about his safety.

Children are easily redirected by other adults when they do not feel of value. So as parents, our job is to let our children know that we value them for who they are. We find creative ways to praise them for a job well done. We have open-ended conversations with them. We leave opportunities to grow and learn together and we teach them to safely navigate the world (both seen and unseen) while we can provide them guidance.

And as parents, we need to sensor what we share with the world on our social media. We need to know our audience and remember that while we are proud of our kids, we also need to protect them. We do that by leading by example when it comes to protecting their privacy.

 

3 reasons why live video will increase your relationships – and your sales

3 reasons why live video will increase your relationships – and your sales

Live Videos, the future is here

It’s no secret that providing a live video on your social media feed can increase your interactions with current and potential followers and improve your algorithms. Furthermore, providing live video enables your followers to become better acquainted with who you are and what you have to offer them.

Why?

Video is authentic

Let us teach you how to do live videos well from the comfort of your own home or office. Give us 14 days to help you change your business. Simply click here and follow the prompts to join our 14-day trial. You can do so much in just… Click To Tweet Additionally, typing your feelings leaves too much room for subjectivity and open-mindedness. Remember, people react to a stimulus according to their experiences.

Therefore, if you are making an attempt to sell your followers a product or service, they have no idea of how to gauge your authenticity within the text. After all, we are a culture of multiple stimulations and we want to touch people on more than one level or more than one sense. Putting yourself out there on video allows your followers to SEE your facial expressions while HEARING your tone of voice. There is little left to the imagination allowing others a glimpse into the real you.

There are no filters

A rule of thumb that we follow in A Cup of Content is this;

  • Know me – people want to know who YOU are. Remember, you are the business you represent. Branding is imperative and providing live video gives you the opportunity to show your expertise and passion while providing the groundwork for your branding.
  • Like me – followers will watch your live videos because they are curious about who you are and why you are live. Maybe you have the ability to laugh at yourself or say something inspiring that will stick with them…that is what will keep them watching.
  • Trust me – as you build your audience with live videos, you will have the opportunity to prove your worth. During your live videos, provide tiny tidbits of expertise, however always leave room for more. After all, you want them coming back.
  • Buy me– relationships cannot be forced and take time to culminate. Each time you create a live video, you are planting seeds for a future harvest. If you are authentic, your audience will buy you.

Sell yourself

A live video doesn’t have to be daunting or scary. Furthermore, going live is critical to growing your audience. People want to be engaged with you, particularly when you are taking the time and effort to go live. If you are raw and true, your followers will know. Personally, I rarely script out what I am going to say on a live video, as doing so takes away from my authenticity. Accordingly, I may leave out a few things I wanted to cover, but at the end of the day, my followers know that when I am doing a live feed, they are getting the authentically raw version. Not one that is watered down for their approval.

 

If you understand why you need to do live video however you are still stuck, let us help you get unstuck. Let us teach you how to do live videos well from the comfort of your own home or office. Give us 14 days to help you change your business. Simply click here and follow the prompts to join our 14-day trial. You can do so much in just two weeks and we can’t wait to help you!