Book excerpt: Essentials of Social Work Management and Leadership: A Competency-Based Approach helps students not only build critical knowledge but also cultivate the unique skills that will help them develop into competent and successful managers and leaders. Experiential exercises, informative case studies, and carefully crafted assignments based on the 2015 Council on Social Work Education's (CSWE) Educational Policy Accreditation Standards (EPAS) show students how to apply key concepts to gain career success. Each chapter of the text combines knowledge with competency-building exercises that fit into a newly refined conceptual model of the material. The model places the 2015 CSWE EPAS into strategic categories according to orientation, helping readers better understand how each skill functions within the discipline and how collectively, they can support a thriving and effective social work practice. The text delivers excellent insight, opportunities for action, and material that inspires students to become effective, confident, and capable leaders. Essentials of Social Work Management and Leadership is well suited for courses in social work and nonprofit leadership and management at a specialized or advanced level. The text is co-sponsored by The Network for Social Work Management, an international organization focused on strengthening and advancing social work management within health and human services. Richard Hoefer is the Roy E. Dulak Professor for Community Practice Research in the School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Arlington. He holds a Ph.D. in social work and political science and a M.A. in political science from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. He also has a B.S.W. and M.S.W. from the University of Kansas. Larry D. Watson is a licensed clinical social worker in private practice in Arlington, Texas, providing individual and family therapy with an emphasis in marital and relationship therapy. He holds a Ph.D. in urban and public administration and a master's degree in social work from the University of Texas at Arlington.