I was running a training course on leadership recently and it reminded me how important leadership is for social work. For me leadership isn't just about management. I would like to think that managers see leaderhsip skills as part of their repertoire, but I think that practitioners have a leaderhip role too - indivdiually and collectively. Leadership involves having a clear idea of where we want to get to and how we are going to get there, and I would like to think that practitioners are not waiting for managers to decide that for our profession. I would like to think that we can all play a part in deciding our direction and pursuing it. For me that is one of the things that makes social work a profession - the fact that the direction we move in will owe much to our values and our own sense of why what we do is important and valuable.