6 Key Steps To Developing Your Top Childcare Staff As Top Leaders

Are you ready to take your business to the next level overall?

Did you know that in order for you to that, you need to have top performers on your team? If so, today’s blog post is going to really help you transition by using my top secrets that I have concluded work best for childcare business owners who are ready to take their businesses to the next level.

In today’s blog post, I want to share with you my story of how I initially created my marketing plan and how I had planned out everything that I needed for hiring my staff.

In my initial marketing plan, I knew and understood that the type of service that I was providing would require that I hire some of the best people in the industry, some of the professionals, some people who were ready for assisting my childcare dreams to grow really big. However, over time  my vision became cloudy because I never referenced my marketing plan after the first 30 days of writing it. It became just an old piece of paper, a document that was lost somewhere on top of my desk amongst piles and piles of paperwork. At this point, I can’t even tell you where it is. It’s lost.

Fast forward a bit, about four years later, I realized why the struggle of owning my business was so strong. It was because I never stuck to my marketing plan. I never stuck to my key success indicators to let me know that I was on track to growing the business of my dreams. This is why it’s so important that you create your business plan and review it every three to six months to ensure that you’re meeting your key success indicators.

In my story, I knew that I needed to hire professionals who were more skilled than I was so that I could do what I did best in my business. Over time, I noticed I was working in the kitchen and doing the bus runs. I went through over 50 staff members in one year. The turnover in my business just was not what I had anticipated.

Honestly, when I got a moment to settle down and think to myself, I realized that my hiring from the initial start was not comparable to my vision that I had for my business. In today’s blog post, I want to talk to you about how to grow some top leaders around you and how to clean up what you may have messed up in your childcare business. 

The more I grow, the more I learned, the more I read, I discover that this is a particular area that I have to improve in if I’m truly going to take my business to the next level. In today’s blog post, I’m going to share with you about five to six key points that you will need in order to hire and grow top leaders to work with you.

The first step is to hire happy people. You want to surround yourself with people who are solid amd who are strong enough to take a licking and keep on ticking. That’s what my grandparents used to say at one time. That means that they have some stick-with-it ability. They have courage, tenacity, and they’re happy about their lives. They’re happy about their jobs. They’re happy about their skill sets, and they’re ready to assist you. Having happy people around you keeps you encouraged and happy, and it keeps you moving forward in your business.

The next one is to hire according to your vision. As I so openly told you earlier, I did not hire according to my vision. I hired according to my comfort level. As a matter of fact, I made the mistake that many of you make.

I hired the person that was available. I hired the person that was least expensive. I hired the person that was least intimidating. I hired the person that was less demanding, and I hired the person that was more likable. I even hired some relatives.

Throughout my childcare career, I’ve made these mistakes time and time again, but I recovered from them. I’m open enough to say if you follow my strategies today, they will help you avoid these pitfalls that we tend to make in this childcare industry.

As I’ve gotten older, I realized that I have to hire according to excellence. I have to hire the best of the best to assist me in this industry. I did the calculations. If I wanted to pay a person 75 cents to a dollar more, it doesn’t put a big dent in my budget. It’s doable, and I understand that in order for me to get the best staff to assist me on my journey, that I have to be sure that I offer them the best.

Number three, hire your admin staff that possess better admin skills than you. There’s a world of difference when you hire someone who has an admin skill that reaches far beyond your own. You will begin to see that your newsletters, your marketing, your social media, your blog posts, your timing for documents, the way documents are laid out, spreadsheets, sign-ins, sign out sheets will be done more professionally. You will begin to see how their ability to create these documents and to assist you in your admin tasks would change your business forever.

If you decided to hire someone whose skill only matched yours or was less than yours, you’re in trouble. I know this from experience. Hiring an admin staff that has more skills than you will help your business to succeed.

Number four, learn more about recognizing excellence in others. As I began to write this blog post, I began to ask myself, “What does excellence look like? What am I looking for that’s excellent in others?” You know what? I can’t give you an answer to that in this blog post. It’s totally up to you. It’s up to you to know what excellence means to you.

Number five, never be afraid to invest in top performers. As I said earlier, had I invested in those who had more childcare skill and more childcare experience, I do believe that my journey would have been a lot easier. Now that I know, things are a lot different. I’m learning to identify the people with more skill. I’m willing to take a leap and pay them what they’re worth.

Number six, spend time allowing yourself to be a part of their world. I have some women that assist me on my staff. They’re younger than I, but they have some stick-with-it power. I have one particular staff member who was on and off a bit with my business, but she always came back. There have been some tough decisions that we’ve had to make, but she stuck those things out with us. I’m super, super proud of her. I told her one day, “I’m ready to cause you to be on my leadership team.” My goal is to get into her world and to help her grow because I see it in her.

Those are the tips that I have for you today. Solomon was one of the kings that asked God for wisdom. One of the things that he always did was he always pursued excellence. Realizing that excellence is not common in this childcare industry, you should never forget to grow your top leaders. Encourage them and motivate them to be the best that they can be, especially if you see something good in them. To help you grow as a leader to develop your staff and to provide them with the tools necessary to be successful, get my Staff Appreciation Week Special for only $97 by clicking here