Inspirational and Empowering Child Care Business Owners To Build Successful Child Care Businesses

Archive for the ‘Employee Management’ Category

Your Staff Members Are Not “Perfect”

One the most challenging things that I have ever done was  to supervise employees. In fact, to get away from supervising staff (in the past), I have even hired an Assistant Director to directly work with my staff.

However, I must say that as a Center Owner, I can never really get away from supervising my staff, because they look forward to my feedback.

I  motivated to write this blog post, because several days before writing this post; I found myself questioning  my staff supervision abilities. In fact,  As I ended my business day; I asked myself the following questions:

  • Am I really getting what I want from my employees?
  • Do they really know what I expect?
  • Am I assertive enough?
  • Am I too assertive?
  • Am I being too controlling?
  • Am I being too flexible with my staff?

Furthermore, after asking myself all of the questions above and some questions that I did not mention; I realized that I was being too hard on myself and the staff.

After reflecting on how I deal with my staff and having a long talk with a colleague, I discovered that I was so frustrated because of the following reasons:

  1. I am a Leader not a supervisor. Leaders empower and inspire and supervisors manage people. Moreover, managing people is impossible and that is why it is frustrating for me and many other Child Care Business Owners sometimes.
  2. I was looking for perfection and not progress.
  3. I was too focused on “me” and not how I can empower my staff to do an excellent job
  4. My attitude was wrong!

I hope that my experience has inspired you to not stress over minor staff issues, but seek to empower your staff to do their best and strive to show progress or even exceed your expectations.

Please, know that I am not suggesting that you tolerate a lack of performance, but I do want to encourage you to keep things in perspective and approach every situation with an attitude of gratitude.

Moreover, I have decided to look for progress not, perfection. Also, I must say that I have a great team; my staff members are positive, they come to work everyday (on-time), they respect me as a leader and they love working with the children.

In summary, I want to share with you, 3- tips that a mentor shared with me in my early days of managing employees and they are as follows:

  • Choose your battles wisely
  • Let it Go!
  • You can’t control the actions of others

With Your Child Care Business in mind,

Shiketa

Resources That Will Empower You to Be an Effective Leader

3 Books that every leader must read

The 21- Day Master Mind eClub

Director’s Handbook

Category:

Administration, Business Management, Employee Management, Staffing

Tagged with:

Sometimes You Have To Make the Best Out of Staffing Issues

Back in December 2011, my school age teacher (of 2 1/2 years of employment) decided to work closer to home and she gave me a 3-week resignation notice. I was quite disappointed, however, I understood why she needed to work closer to home.

The hunt was on for a new teacher! As I placed ads at the local college, on Craigslist, the Missouri Great Hires website and on our social media pages, I realized how tough it can be to find a quality School-age teacher.

In fact, it seems like when I need a preschool teacher, I get a flood of applicants. At least 2-3 days a week, I would get an applicant for the position, however, they were not the perfect match for the position.

As I write this post, I am still in search of a qualified and experienced school-age teacher. I have also decided to work with the youth in my After School program until the right teacher comes along.

I must say, that they are enjoying me, I am enjoying them and the parents love to see me in the classroom. I know that soon, my new teacher is coming and while I practice being patient, I am also mentoring and coaching my teachers as I work in the classroom in the afternoons.

Also, as I work in the classroom, I am thankful that I have youth development education and that I am able to step in when we are short staff. Moreover,  decided to give myself a pay increase and pay extra on bills during this season.

I shared this post with you to encourage you to find the positive in staffing issues and use it as an opportunity to do something great for your program. Moreover, instead of getting frustrated because you have to hire someone else, embrace the staff that you have, try to have a positive mindset about it and keep in mind that…This too shall pass!

Since I have been in the classroom, my school-age program has improved, the community in the classroom is more caring, I have more blog post ideas and I feel that I have prepared a great place for my new teacher.

If you have a large center, you may not be able to teach in the classroom, however, I suggest that you have floaters to assure that you are well staffed to assure adequate child-to staff ratio. My center is licensed for 40 children with an over lap of 53 children and I can be counted in the ratio in the state of Missouri.

Moreover, one thing that I have learned during this process is to never stop interviewing or advertising that you are hiring. There many applicants that would love to work in your program, however, it takes time to find the perfect person for your facility.

Keep this in mind when looking for new staff: Be Fast to Fire and Slow to Hire!

I look forward to your thoughts about this post. Feel free to share your feedback or post your comment.

Shiketa

Be sure to subscribe to my weekly e-newsletter for weekly business tips! and check out my blog post on School-Age Care.

Category:

Employee Management, School-Age Program, Staffing

Tagged with:

Tag Cloud