Leadership
"You must do the thing you think you cannot do"
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
21st century social service literature increasingly explores the important role of leadership in creating effective organizations. Successful leaders operate from principle and vision, orient toward service, and empower individuals to achieve their highest developmental capacities.
Leadership sets the tone around which a culture develops and sets policy that can help create supportive systems promoting recovery and transformation from ACEs and other life traumas.
In order to develop healthy environments and relationships that support (HEARTS) to empower staff and clients within an agency, leaders engage in their own self care which fosters the ability to role model.
Thus, leaders set the example for staff who role model how to be well-regulated adults for the clients. Self care by staff persons is crucial to accomplish relationship-building and role modeling. HEARTS empower staff in self care practices. Cooperation and mutual aid take place in the context of HEARTS as staff support one another in their transformation processes.
The Committee on the Shelterless (COTS) provides a great example of how leadership and staff develop HEARTS for homeless people overcoming ACEs.