Find out the top 10 core skills you need to master as a director of social services and what hard skills you need to know to succeed in this job.

A director of social services works as the overall overseer of the community services in various settings. He/she monitors and coordinates the staff to ensure that they are performing their duties depending on the policies and the existing social work regulations.

Besides, overseeing community services, the director coordinates the process of identifying community needs as well as delegating duties to the staff based on the identified needs and service gaps. In addition, he/she sets budgets and searches for more funds and is also responsible for evaluating the performance of the staff in the department of social services. Lastly, he /she participates in the quality assurance committees.

Core Skills Required to be a Director of Social Services

Core skills describe a set of non-technical abilities, knowledge, and understanding that form the basis for successful participation in the workplace. Core skills enable employees to efficiently and professionally navigate the world of work and interact with others, as well as adapt and think critically to solve problems.

Core skills are often tagged onto job descriptions to find or attract employees with specific essential core values that enable the company to remain competitive, build relationships, and improve productivity.

A director of social services should master the following 10 core skills to fulfill her job properly.

Team Building:

Team Building represents various types of activities used to enhance social relations and define roles within the different teams at the workplace.

A Director of Social Services ought to provide team building activities to his team to cultivate better communication, morale, motivation, productivity and help employees know each other better as well as their strengths and weaknesses to be used in building a better workplace.

Assertiveness:

Assertiveness is the inclination to stand up for your rights or other people's rights in a calm and concrete way without being aggressive or accepting a wrong.

A Director of Social Services must be self-assured and confident to master the skills to put his points across without upsetting others or becoming angry and allowing the employees to do the same while complying with the company's policies and procedures.

Attention to Detail:

Attention to Detail is the capacity to achieve a thoroughness and accuracy when accomplishing a task.

A Director of Social Services needs to have this prime characteristic and utilize it in a high performing organization that allows both the customers and staff to understand the need to be keen to all the details required to avoid massive costs for overlooked details that are common in the workplace.

Commitment to the Job:

Commitment to the Job is the feeling of responsibility that a person has towards a mission and goals of an organization.

A Director of Social Services should be diligent in helping the employees connect and commit to their job by creating proper communication channels that make the employees feel listened to and encouraged to provide feedback thus creating mutual trust and respect in the workplace.

Enjoyment of the Job:

Enjoyment of the Job is the ability to enjoy what you do rather than enjoying what you earn from it.

A Director of Social Services needs to creatively learn of ways to motivate his employees to benefit from the workplace by matching their personality to the culture of the organization where they fit best and allowing them to explore their hidden talents to grow and mature with the team.

Evaluating Others:

Evaluating others is the capacity to see the individuality in others and recognize a person's unique point of view.

A Director of Social Services must master the skills of evaluating others to help his staff members to identify their talents and match those talents to the proper job without trying to judge them by their actions that can create a misinterpretation of who they are.

Personal Accountability:

Personal Accountability is the feeling that you are entirely responsible for your actions and consequences taking ownership without blaming others.

A Director of Social Services should provide a list of duties and responsibilities that every employee is expected to perform and define timelines and supervisors who oversee the work to ensure each knows what she /he should do and remain accountable without passing blame.

Persuading Others:

Persuading others is making sure your best ideas get a fair hearing without manipulating others or using trickery.

A Director of Social Services needs to creatively learn how to introduce new ideas that will boost growth for the company without managing the staff or put them under pressure with more work but with manageable goals that the employees will delight working on and grow as they do.

Long Range Planning:

Long Range Planning is setting long-term goals and objectives for your business or project to ensure its growth and sustainability is reached by all the employees.

A Director of Social Services needs creativity in defining long-term goals that ought to be proactive, putting together a full employee focused management strategy that analyzes the major initiatives and translates them into functional goals that employees handle.

Managing Details:

Managing Details is the skill of paying close attention to details of every element of your job performance to ensure nothing is overlooked.

A Director of Social Services should be keen to handle every detail using strategic planning and organizational techniques that make it easy to keep track of everything that is happening in the organization consistently desiring to improve their knowledge and skills.

Hard Skills Required to be a Director of Social Services

Hard skills are job-specific skill sets, or expertise, that are teachable and whose presence can be tested through exams. While core skills are more difficult to quantify and less tangible, hard skills are quantifiable and more defined.

Hard skills are usually listed on an applicant's resume to help recruiters know the applicant's qualifications for the applied position. A recruiter, therefore, needs to review the applicant's resume and education to find out if he/she has the knowledge necessary to get the job done.

A director of social services should have a good command of the following hard skills to succeed in her job.

Director of Social Services: Hard skills list

Active Listening Techniques
Administration and Management
Analyzing aerial, satellite, and radar imagery
Computer
Analyzing Data or Information
Behavior Modification Techniques
Case Management
Clerical
Communicate with children and adults
Community and Social Service Specialists
Computers
Conduct Investigations and Research
Confidentiality procedures
Cultural and Religious Awareness
Current Social Research
Counseling Techniques
Databases
Documenting/Recording Information
Emergency Management Principles
Enterprising
Foreign Language
Grammar, punctuation and spelling
Group psychology principles
Home Safety Hazards
Interpret Psychological Test Results
Interviewing Techniques
Institutional Care Procedures
Intervention Techniques
Labor Market Information
Law and Government
Lead recreational activities
Mediation Techniques
Microsoft Word
Operating weapons targeting, firing, and launch computer systems
Oral Communication
Presentations
Principles of Group Dynamics
Promoting Stability
Psychology
Psychology Theory
Public Safety and Security
Recognize physical and emotional abuse
Schedule Appointments
Social Service
Social Trend Awareness
Sociology and Anthropology
Sociology Theory
Systems Analysis
Systems Evaluation
Therapy and Counseling
Teaching Techniques
Technology
Understand needs of the elderly
Understanding of issues faced by families living in poverty
Written Communication

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