Rachel Johnson-Williams

I attribute my success to being humble, being a great listener, and thinking outside the box. I understand that no two families are exactly alike, so when you're working in human services or social services, you have to recognize that every single family and every individual is totally different. One of my greatest strengths is pulling out people's strengths and helping them see their own value. A lot of times, people don't realize some of the values they do have are actually strengths because they're on the inside, not looking from the outside. I love pointing out things like having a job you go to every day, having a house, having transportation. These are things we take so lightly but don't realize are such strengths nowadays in our society and economy. When people realize 'oh yeah, I do have this going for me,' it makes them feel good and empowers them to build on those strengths.

The best career advice I've ever received is to give 100% when you're at work, but understand that when you get off work, you have to disconnect to be able to give when you go home and unwind. One of the biggest things I really focus on with my team and with people is self-care. I'm really big on that. On Fridays, when you get off work at 5 o'clock, you get off work at 5 o'clock. You're not working on the weekend. You literally have to disconnect, leave everything either in a closet or whatever - the cell phone for your job, all that stuff. You have to disconnect and debrief and just unwind in order to be back in a good headspace come Monday morning when you go back to work. You have to do that in order to take care of yourself, or you burn out.

Be patient with yourself when you're learning. When you're talking with someone, listen to understand, don't listen to respond. That's big. Because when people are talking, if you're just automatically listening just to give them back feedback, you haven't really listened to what they said at all. And that's key when you're working with people and real life situations that are going on. You really need to be able to listen to them to effectively be able to help them down the road. You have to be present.

I think some of the challenges have been deciding whether you want to move up in your career. The more you move up within child welfare and get higher rankings, just like with anything in the human service field, you really don't have as much client contact. You don't have as much day-to-day work with clients. Instead, you're building people and training them so that when they're out there working with clients, they're doing the best work possible. That's where it really matters - that's where you're building those relationships, that's where you're teaching those people. For example, when you're going out and knocking on these doors, don't come off so aggressive. Take a step back, let them vent for a minute if they're upset, whatever it may be, and just come at them calmly. You'll get much better resolution out of it in the end. So you have to think about whether you want to stay at the level you're at, or do you actually want to move up and no longer have that ability to work with them hands-on, or do you want to work in a different field where you will still have that kind of hands-on work because you know that is so vital.

Making sure that you have a good work-life balance is most important to me. I need to be at an agency that respects the fact that I do have an actual life outside of the job and understands that sometimes life happens. You're going to have your own emergency that you need to go handle and take care of, and I need to be able to work with an agency that acknowledges that and understands that 100%. But one of the biggest values for me is always just, no matter what position you're in or who you're working with, treating people the same way you want them to treat you. It goes a long way. It really, really does. A smile, a thank you, have a nice day, or hey, can I be of help - do you need any help doing this - it's invaluable with being able to make an impact, particularly because I'm working in an industry that really requires a tremendous amount of interpersonal skill set.