How Being A Leader Makes You Perfect For A Career As A Youth Worker

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When we take a look into the required attributes for a range of careers, there’s one skill or quality that stands out far above the rest – and that’s leadership.

Although leadership can certainly be developed and strengthened over time, if you find that you’re someone who possesses great leadership skills and is often called a leader by your friends, family or coworkers, then you might be well-positioned to forge a career as a youth worker.

As you will likely already know, youth workers are often required to help people push for change in their life and to develop programs and routines that assist with this change coming to fruition, and as a leader, you are immediately someone your patients or clients will be able to look up to.

With those points out of the way, let’s take a deeper look into how being a leader makes you perfect for a career as a youth worker.

You Present a Voice of Power

Off the top, one of the biggest perks of having leadership qualities is that you will come across as a force or voice of power to all those you work alongside.

Given that you’re better able to understand people’s situations and be more of a driving force behind people, and rather than a passive and subtle voice, you’re on the way to offering up some really helpful support to your clients.

In line with this, as you will find when you take online classes, leadership qualities and the resilience that comes with these attributes will mean that you’re better able to absorb and compartmentalise your patient’s struggles and set aside your own personal opinions or emotion and offer better support.

With that, you’re in a position to provide far improved and more tailored support based on your client’s circumstances, rather than focusing too heavily on your own emotional responses to their problems.

Your Communication is Adhered To

Another point to keep in mind is that when considering a career in youth work, there is sometimes a requirement to be rather ‘firm’ or ‘forceful’ in a sense when things aren’t running to plan, and this is often as a result of poor communication.

As we all know, it is far easier to listen and understand someone who is confident and direct in their communications to us, and with highly developed communication skills you will already have these downpat. Given that youth work deals with younger adults, there is an even deeper need to be as confident and ‘heard’ as possible, and so the good news is that if you’ve been identified as a leader, or have had other people tell you that you boast excellent leadership qualities, you’re given a far better chance to have the team listen and heed your instructions or recommendations.

You’ll Boast a Collaborative Skillset

As you will already know, when we’re working with other people to improve and better their lives, it is absolutely integral that you have the ability to work as a team with your patients. In youth work this is especially important.

That in mind, as a leader, you have a better chance of connecting, understanding and having the confidence to adapt and challenge poor collaboration with your peers and patients. This will, in turn, make the outcomes of your work a lot stronger and will almost always result in a client or patient, such as a youth, finding their rhythm with your suggestions and being able to better follow your advice and instructions.

To add, many workplaces will place a heavy emphasis on group work and collaboration, and because you may already have this skill, you will be a shoe in for a role in youth work. However, it is good to note that collaborative skills can be developed if you’re not too confident with them.

You’re Able to Easily Spot Fine Details

One key point to always understand when working in youth work is that every move you make and each suggestion you offer is essentially going to have an impact on someone’s life, and so with this, it is vital to have the attention to detail to understand what impacts will be made.

As someone with great leadership skills, you will typically already have a good dexterity when it comes to understanding the domino effect and what one change can potentially do to someone’s lifestyle, and with that, you’re on the way to being able to develop treatment or general patient plans that are highly detailed and positive-outcome-focused.

You’re Dexterity in Other Skills is Transferable  

To end, as a pronounced leader, there is a pretty good chance you’ve been blessed (or worked hard) to master a number of other skills to really excel in your workplace or college.

With that in mind, all of these skills won’t go to waste when you’re heading into youth work given that youths you work with will often have questions about these skills when it’s time for them to apply for jobs, or you might even be asked to teach and plan to develop their skills too.

Making a note of this is important given that for a lot of people considering youth work have a tendency to believe that the roles are primarily communication and talk-based, rather than relying on any specific skill – though this is not the case.