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

A social services director plans, organizes, and coordinates all the activities in the social services department. He/she sets goals and policies to ensure that the facility be it a nursing home or any other meets the specific needs of the residents.

Other tasks include planning and organizing admissions into the facilities and planning budgets for the facilities. They are also responsible for seeking more funds for running the facilities and participates in the recruitment of the staff to care for the varying needs of the residents. In addition, he/she evaluates the performance of the employees. Lastly, they ensure that the on-going programs within the department meet the quality assurance guidelines

Core Skills Required to be a Social Services Director

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

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 Social Services Director 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 Social Services Director 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 Social Services Director 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.

Evaluating Others:

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

A Social Services Director 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.

Persuading Others:

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

A Social Services Director 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.

Goal and Objective Setting:

Goal and Objective Setting is the strategic plan that is set and laid down identifying how goals should be accomplished, by who and by what time.

A Social Services Director must detect and schedule each employee's goals, strategy, and objectives and keep motivating them to ensure all of them are met within the set time bringing growth to both the company and the employee.

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 Social Services Director 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 Social Services Director 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.

Project Management:

Project Management is structuring a to-do list for your project or company containing tasks and responsibilities as well as creating a roadmap for the execution of those duties promptly.

A Social Services Director must place emphasis on the application of the project management methodologies and principles by the staff in the daily functions and responsibilities to foster efficiently as well as create a competitive advantage in the heavily competitive business space.

Quality Management:

Quality Management is the management approach to the long-term success through customer satisfaction that directly involves the employees in the continual improvement of the daily tasks.

A Social Services Director should consider the quality management earnestly for the success of the business by improving the processes, products, services, the discipline and the culture in which they work under to warrant the improvement of profitability and productivity.

Hard Skills Required to be a Social Services Director

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

Social Services Director: 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

Related Articles