WHAT SYSTEMS DO YOU NEED IN YOUR CHILDCARE?

Coaching Your Team towards Excellence

08

To coach your team towards excellence is totally different from managing your staff. Coaching your staff is encouraging your staff and providing them with opportunities to step up and lead on different levels.

Staff empowerment is key to a smooth operation. In the field of childcare there are so many people who fail to realize their ultimate potential and that translates into a passive or aggressive abundance of:

“ I can’t “  “I am not paid enough for this” “It’s too much”

Maybe you have or haven’t heard these statements from staff but they do exist.

However, instead of responding with irritation, be patient, listen, and restate that you understand what the person feels and point out that even though it may be hard but that the you see that the staff has the strength and ability to learn and act on new knowledge.

Leave them with the thought that you are looking forward to them achieving more and that you are open to hearing their ideas and seeing their leadership in action.

Start out by encouraging your staff to set goals for their classroom management operations, their professional development and for the development of their assigned children. Allowing your staff to create their own strategies for achieving their goals brings in more energy and a “can do attitude”. This type of empowerment will contribute to the growth of your organization as a learning community.

To empower you staff try this:

  1. Schedule a 1 hour staff meeting
  2. Send Out  A Memo explaining the purpose of your goal setting meeting
  3. Along with the memo send out poster boards for staff to write their goals on
  4. Be sure to reiterate that you want the boards completed and brought back to the meeting
  5. Discuss Your New Plans for Staff Participation (on your subject choice)
  6. Ask for staff to discuss their goals out loud together
  7. Set an accountability marker to review their progress
  8. and Celebrate every success.