36 Key Attributes Social And Community Service Managers Need To Succeed In Their Career

by Ava Rodriguez

Monday, September 14, 2015

Social and community service managers plan, direct, or coordinate the activities of a social service program or community outreach organization. Oversee the program or organization's budget and policies regarding participant involvement, program requirements, and benefits. Work may involve directing social workers, counselors, or probation officers.

The core tasks that social and community service managers are likely to carry out include:

Evaluate the work of staff and volunteers to ensure that programs are of appropriate quality and that resources are used effectively.
Provide direct service and support to individuals or clients, such as handling a referral for child advocacy issues, conducting a needs evaluation, or resolving complaints.
Recruit, interview, and hire or sign up volunteers and staff.
Establish and maintain relationships with other agencies and organizations in community to meet community needs and to ensure that services are not duplicated.
Establish and oversee administrative procedures to meet objectives set by boards of directors or senior management.
Direct activities of professional and technical staff members and volunteers.

In order to successfully forge ahead with their careers, analysts in a survey carried out by U.S. Department of Labor (via O*NET) have marked out the following as important attributes that social and community service managers would need. These attributes have been selected from characteristics and requirements strongly associated with the occupation. They are

Abilities: Enduring attributes of the individual that influence performance
Interests: Preferences for work environments. Occupational Interest Profiles (OIPs) are compatible with Holland's (1985, 1997) model of personality types and work environments. Six interest categories are used to describe the work environment of occupations: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. An OIP consists of six numerical scores indicating how descriptive and characteristic each work environment (or interest area) is for an occupation
Knowledge: Organized sets of principles and facts applying in general domains
Skills: These include basic skills, which are developed capacities that facilitate learning or the more rapid acquisition of knowledge. Plus cross-functional skills, which are developed capacities that facilitate performance of activities that occur across jobs
Style: Personal characteristics that can affect how well someone performs a job

We have listed out attributes which were scored 80% or more in terms of importance by the analysts.

Being honest and ethical.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 97.2%

Having a strong preference for enterprising work environments. Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.
Attribute Type: Interests Score: 95.29%

Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
Attribute Type: Knowledge Score: 93%

Being reliable, responsible, and dependable, and fulfilling obligations.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 93%

Being sensitive to others' needs and feelings and being understanding and helpful on the job.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 91.6%

Being pleasant with others on the job and displaying a good-natured, cooperative attitude.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 91.4%

Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
Attribute Type: Knowledge Score: 90%

A willingness to lead, take charge, and offer opinions and direction.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 89.8%

Accepting criticism and dealing calmly and effectively with high stress situations.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 89.6%

Developing one's own ways of doing things, guiding oneself with little or no supervision, and depending on oneself to get things done.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 89.2%

Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
Attribute Type: Knowledge Score: 88.6%

Maintaining composure, keeping emotions in check, controlling anger, and avoiding aggressive behavior, even in very difficult situations.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 88%

A willingness to take on responsibilities and challenges.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 87.8%

The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
Attribute Type: Abilities Score: 87.6%

The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
Attribute Type: Abilities Score: 87.6%

The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
Attribute Type: Abilities Score: 87.6%

Being open to change (positive or negative) and to considerable variety in the workplace.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 87.2%

Being careful about detail and thorough in completing work tasks.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 86.4%

Preferring to work with others rather than alone, and being personally connected with others on the job.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 85.8%

Having a strong preference for social work environments. Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.
Attribute Type: Interests Score: 85.71%

Persistence in the face of obstacles.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 85.2%

Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
Attribute Type: Skills Score: 85%

Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
Attribute Type: Knowledge Score: 82.8%

Talking to others to convey information effectively.
Attribute Type: Skills Score: 82.4%

Managing one's own time and the time of others.
Attribute Type: Skills Score: 82.4%

Establishing and maintaining personally challenging achievement goals and exerting effort toward mastering tasks.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 82.2%

Analyzing information and using logic to address work-related issues and problems.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 82%

Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
Attribute Type: Skills Score: 80%

Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
Attribute Type: Skills Score: 80%

Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
Attribute Type: Skills Score: 80%

Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
Attribute Type: Skills Score: 80%

Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
Attribute Type: Skills Score: 80%

The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
Attribute Type: Abilities Score: 80%

The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
Attribute Type: Abilities Score: 80%

The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
Attribute Type: Abilities Score: 80%

The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
Attribute Type: Abilities Score: 80%