Social workers need to:

Communicate

• Listen to others and ask questions.
• Speak clearly so listeners can understand.
• Understand spoken information.
• Understand written information.
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• Write clearly so other people can understand.
• Read and understand work-related materials.

Reason and Problem Solve

• Notice when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong.
• Analyze ideas and use logic to determine their strengths and weaknesses.
• Use reasoning to discover answers to problems.
• Combine several pieces of information and draw conclusions.
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• Recognize the nature of a problem.
• Judge the costs and benefits of a possible action.
• Think of new ideas about a topic.
• Follow guidelines to arrange objects or actions in a certain order.
• Understand new information or materials by studying and working with them.
• Think of original, unusual, or creative ways to solve problems.
• Develop rules that group items in various ways.
• Recognize when important changes happen or are likely to happen in a system.
• Concentrate and not be distracted while performing a task.

Manage Oneself, People, Time, and Things

• Check how well one is learning or doing something.
• Manage the time of self and others.
• Motivate, develop, and direct people as they work.

Work with People

• Be aware of others’ reactions and understand the possible causes.
• Look for ways to help people.
• Change behavior in relation to others’ actions.
• Persuade others to approach things differently.
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• Solve problems by bringing others together to discuss differences.
• Use several methods to learn or teach new things.
• Teach others how to do something.

Perceive and Visualize

• Identify a pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in distracting material.