Dr. Charles Small | Director of Athletics | Valparaiso – One Question Leadership Podcast

I asked Valparaiso University Director of Athletics, Dr. Charles Small about how social work concepts fit on campus and specifically within college athletics. He covered the concepts below:

1. Understanding the balance of the overall support system while being flexible enough to have an individual approach as everyone’s experience is different
2. Understanding the capacity within the community to meet the needs of the different subgroups on campus
3. Levels of Practice
   1. Micro – Understanding the individual and their identity, as well as their well being within their respective environment. 
   2. Mezzo – Understanding and identifying small groups based on identities. 
   3. Macro – Understanding the larger institutions and communities such as athletics department, or the campus as a whole
4. Understanding and implementing Culture Humility – having the humility to maintain self-awareness while respecting and working with others from different walks of life.

Dr. Small has a social work background and comes from a family of social workers, so his insight on the ‘person in the environment’ is excellent. He covers all this in the context of his work at Valpo here on the One Question Leadership Podcast.

@1QLeadership Question: Is there an intersection between social work concepts and leadership?

-Tai M. Brown