In our world as Social Work Professionals, our self beliefs significantly shape and influence our practice. In this article I want to address two high priority concepts – self efficacy and self esteem – that will play pivotal roles in how we approach our work, how we interact with our clients, and how we navigate the challenges of our profession. It’s important to understand the differences between these two concepts. They will prove useful when reflecting on our personal development attempting to increase our effectiveness.
The first concept is Self Efficacy. Simply put, this is our confidence to succeed. Self efficacy is our belief in our own ability to execute specific tasks and achieve the standards we lay our for ourselves as well as the standards laid out for us. Why is a high sense of self efficacy important? Visualize you’re tasked with a challenging case involving an individual with a traumatic past who is currently in crisis. Your self efficacy determines how confident you feel in your skill set to assess the individual’s situation accurately, develop an effective intervention plan, and then facilitate positive change.
When we encounter complex situations like this, our self efficacy dictates whether we attack the situation with confidence, or hesitate hemming and hawing. If we believe in our skill set and our ability to make sound decisions implementing effective strategies, we’re likely to take decisive action advocating for our client and persevere through the difficulties. The other side of that coin is if our self efficacy is low and lacking, we’ll be prone to second guessing our decisions leading to a delay in action or possibly avoid any action at all.
Seeking out challenges, taking part in professional development opportunities, reflecting on past success, and engaging in peer feedback are all ways we can build our self efficacy. When we make a habit of doing these things, we reinforce our belief in our abilities and we become more resilient. We’ll face off with future challenges standing straight ahead and not shy away.
The second concept is Self Esteem. In short this is our fundamental self worth. Where self efficacy is specifically task related, self esteem relates to our overall sense of self worth. Our self worth as Social Work Professionals affects how we view our role in our agencies and how we interact with our colleagues and clients.
When we have high self esteem we’re more likely to actively collaborate with our colleagues, share our ideas, and contribute to our team discussions because our confidence is higher. We know that we’re valued and that our input will be taken into consideration. This confidence deepens our professional relationships and contributes to a more positive work environment. Everyone benefits.
This flip side to THIS coin, low self esteem. When we have low self esteem we will fight with feelings of inadequacy and look to avoid leadership roles. We’ll invite bad energy, chronic stress, and self criticism because we’ll see those things as further dings to our self worth as opposed to challenges to be met head on. We’ll hesitate to advocate for ourselves and our clients. Our chronic stress levels will spike and possibly lead ourselves right down the road toward burning out.
In order to positively influence our self esteem we need to practice self compassion, seek feedback from trusted colleagues, and make sure we’re handling our self care practice. We can record and reflect on the positive outcomes we’ve had on clients. We should recognize and celebrate our wins. We should acknowledge our growth as professionals as a way to reinforce healthy self esteem and enable ourselves to approach our work with confidence and hardiness.
So, self efficacy and self esteem are very much interconnected, but they’re also very distinct. High self efficacy can improve our self esteem by providing us with a sense of competence and accomplishment. Also, a strong fundamental base of self esteem can increase our self efficacy by making us more likely to approach challenges without hesitation and with a trust in our abilities.
As Social Work Professionals, our self efficacy and self esteem are integral cogs in the machinery of our professional identity and practice. When we understand and take care of these cogs, we increase our effectiveness, hardiness, and overall well being. Confidence begets confidence. Taking note of these concepts affects our behavior and allows us to grow as professionals better serving our clients. Investing in self efficacy and self esteem is peak self care. Self care is not selfish.
Комментарии