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

Posts tagged ‘dealing with difficult employees’

Staff Potlucks Are A Great Way To Create Unity On Your Team

 

Five years ago it seemed to me that I had the worse childcare team ever! In fact, there was gossiping, a lack of teamwork, poor morale and some of the teachers could not stand to work in the same room together.

Moreover, I was getting tired of putting out fires amongst the staff and quite frankly, I was getting tired of all the drama on my team. That’s when I decided to read the following books written by Leadership Guru John Maxwell:

  • The Laws of Teamwork
  • Winning with People

After reading both of those books, I was empowered to build the unity on my team, I developed a zero tolerance for gossip and the Status Quo change to—> Teamwork, Unity and Positive attitudes or work somewhere else!

Also, I decided to hold monthly staff potlucks and this really helped to  create more unity amongst the staff. In fact, I noticed that the team appeared to care for one another and they began to work well together as a team.

If you are not already holding a staff potluck for your team, here is a great way to get started:

  1. Set a date for your potluck
  2. Hold the pot-luck when all staff are able to attend
  3. Create a sign-up sheet to invite all the staff members to bring their favorite dish
  4. Develop a staff code of: “Whatever we discuss at our potluck…stays at the pot-luck.”
  5. As you all enjoy food together, encourage the staff members to share something about themselves or their families. Most importantly, get them to laugh together!

Potlucks are also a great way to informally welcome a new staff member to your team. Be sure to only hold the pot-luck for a minimum of one hour and bring a sign-up sheet for the next pot-luck.

If you are not able to hold a monthly pot-luck, consider holding a potluck at least 4-6 times a years to give the staff a chance to fellowship and get to know one another. Bringing your staff together is a great way to re-build or maintain the unity on your team!

After all….for your peace of mind, it is very important that you promote unity and teamwork. If you are having difficulties managing staff, I have the perfect solution for you:  Download my ebook, The Art of Owning a Center or a copy of The Director’s Handbook.

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to

dwell together in unity.

Psalm 133:1

With Your Child Care Business in Mind,

Shiketa

Category:

Employee Management, Staffing

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How to Turn Your Staff Meetings Into a Sharing, Mentoring and Training Session

As I finished up my weekly staff meeting today, I realized how far I have come with leading staff meetings. My first staff meeting was held in the spring of 2003 and I thought the purpose of a staff meeting was to address issues.  In fact, I hated conducting staff meetings. Moreover, I thought that staff meetings was a great time vent to my staff and listen to their complaints.

I also believe that my prior experience with staff meetings was simply a reflection of my leadership at that time and an indication that I needed more training in the area of conducting staff meetings.

Over the years, I have become quite effective at conducting staff meetings. In fact, I am a firm believer that practice makes perfect!

However, today I want to encourage you to not discuss problems at your staff meetings. Instead of discussing problems at your meetings, turn your meetings into a training, sharing and mentoring session and discuss problems in a brief informal one-on-meeting meeting.

What happens when meetings are boring and  problems are discussed at meetings…

It has been my experience that when you discuss problems at meeting, the staff members are up tight and afraid to share their point of view. Also, they may not give as much feedback. Moreover, I have noticed that at staff meetings where problems are discussed, the body language includes, “the crossed arm posture.”  Moreover, when arms are crossed, this usually means that your employees are feeling vulnerable and they are closed for argument.

Meetings take away valuable planning time from teachers and not to speak of how valuable your time is as a business owner. So…..why waste 30 minutes on discussing problems; when you can easily correct problems with mentoring, training and sharing at weekly or monthly staff meetings.

What happens when meetings are all about Sharing..Mentoring and Training...

Recently I decided to start my meetings with a thought-provoking question; to encourage the teachers to talk about quality care practices and how to solve problems in their classroom. Then I invite the teachers to give one another feedback. Furthermore, after the teachers coach one another through problem solving in their classrooms, then I offer suggestions and resources.

When it is my turn to offer suggestions, I notice that the teachers are writing while I am talking and this really encourages me to share more; and then I give a challenge for the week.

For example, a week before writing this blog post, we discussed “Excellence” at a weekly staff meeting. I asked the teachers this question; When you go to a restaurant or a hotel, what type of service do you expect and they replied..“Excellent Service.”

This is where I gave them the challenge to evaluate their classrooms with excellence and whatever was not excellent, to change it and make improvements accordingly. A week later, we discussed excellence and the teachers decided to focus on having a more organized classroom and they were really detailed about how they wanted things to look.

You may have noticed that I did not give orders, I simply posed a challenge and they delivered more than I could have imagined. I realized that the teachers were finally looking forward to meetings, when they all gather in our meeting circle without me and my Assistant Director, reminded me of the meeting today!

Today I want to share with you 5 easy ways to spice of your staff meetings  and make your meetings more enjoyable:

  1. Start your meeting with a question or a joke to loosen up the atmosphere
  2. Invite the teachers to share a funny observation from their classroom
  3. Be open and allow the teachers to challenge you or offer their suggestions
  4. Have one main focus for the meeting and discuss no more than 5 points
  5. Smile and always bring a resource or tips to the meeting that your teachers can use in their classroom

I encourage you to implement the tips above in your next staff meeting and be sure to share your feedback with me. What are your thoughts about this post?

For more Business & Staff management tips, I want to invite you to join me  in the Child Care Center Owner eClub!

Shiketa

Category:

Administration, Business Management, Child Care Center, daycare, Staff Meetings

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