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Know

Social-emotional development has been shown to be a critical area that lays the foundation for enhanced positive cognitive outcomes for children. Building a strong attachment to a primary caregiver is important to later life outcomes. As a Program Manager, you will lead the staff in promoting relationship-based care. Your attention to individual children and staff members’ needs will facilitate this approach. Authentic leaders consciously plan and promote experiences that positively influence staff job satisfaction, and child and family satisfaction with the program.

The program should have written policies to address how the staff members communicate with children, families, and one another. The program mission or foundation must be explicitly stated. As a Program Manager, you will oversee the written program policies. These policies should be made available in the family handbook and the staff handbook. A focus on relationship-based care and a positive learning community should be evident in your program policies and practices. All program policies should reflect your beliefs about treating each person with respect and care. You serve as an example and must uphold the program’s policies in your daily interactions with staff.

In your role as a Program Manager, you will want to make sure that the staff members are aware of all policies and how those policies translate into practice. The following topics (all of which should be included in a staff handbook) are important to re-visit on a regular basis:

• Written roles and responsibilities for specific jobs
• Expectations for respectful communication
• Procedures for staff evaluation
• Orientation and mentoring for new staff members
• Team planning and meeting time
• Expectations for professional growth and development
• Procedures for addressing conflict

You can use program policies to create a program-wide foundation of understanding about what it means to provide relationship-based care. It is important to focus your energy on team building and attending to the tasks that teams must complete, as well as the process they use to accomplish those tasks. Watch and listen to learn more about how fostering relationships and wellness can benefit your program and community.

Team Building

Just as staff members focus on children’s social-emotional development by incorporating cooperative activities and games, managers can facilitate cooperative staff experiences by scheduling shared meeting times for classroom teams. Staff members should regularly meet to discuss activity plans, the classroom environment, and to problem-solve issues or concerns about individual children. Team building is an important aspect of managing adults; it takes time and intentional planning. Involving staff in decision-making about topics, such as planning time and needed resources, demonstrates that you value their opinions and take their perspectives into consideration.

The Child Care Lounge article provides ideas and tips:

• Every team member must have a complete understanding and acceptance of the goals of the team.
• Ensure that all members of the team have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities.
• Build trust with your team members by having open and honest one-on-one meetings with them.
• Provide time for your team members to socialize and build trust among them, allowing openness and improving interpersonal communication.
• Allow that the whole team take part in the decision-making process. Each member of the team should feel they have contributed towards the final decision, solution, or idea.
• The more a team member feels their contribution has led to the final solution, the more they will be committed to the line of action.
• Your ideas for team building should ensure that all team members are kept fully informed, and no lines of communication are blocked.
• Deal with any interpersonal issues before they get out of control.
• Whenever possible, give positive feedback and appreciation for an individual team member’s special efforts. This will empower them to do better.

Managers can make sure that staff members have the knowledge and skills to develop meaningful relationships with one another and with families. Collaboration skills include reframing problems, asking open-ended questions, understanding how to resolve conflicts, and treating all members of the child-care community with dignity and respect. There are self-assessments to help staff members focus on their teamwork and collaboration skills. You may choose to observe team planning meetings and provide feedback to staff members about their partnership. Having a predetermined agenda that keeps the meeting participants on task can be helpful in promoting good staff relationships. You may want to include examples of typical meeting agendas, procedures or steps for resolving conflicts, and lists of Web-based and printed resources that address promotive behaviors.

Recognize Emotions

To be most effective at your job, you must have the ability to label and talk about your own emotions or feelings and the emotions or feelings of others.

The way you respond to the daily stressors that arise within your program will influence how staff will respond to stressors. As a Program Manager, staff will look to you to model responses to difficult situations, such as miscommunication, bullying, inappropriate language, and gossip. You also have the responsibility to uphold confidentiality about children and families. Be aware of your own stress levels and take good care of your physical, mental, social, emotional, and spiritual needs. The following are just a few suggestions for reducing stress:

• Exercise daily through walking, yoga, tennis, or other sports you may enjoy.
• Eat healthy snacks and stay hydrated.
• Get enough rest and sleep (6-8 hours).
• Build a support network of friends and colleagues (outside the program).
• Listen to music that brings you a sense of peace.
• Meditate, pray, read books or poetry that help you feel connected or relaxed.

You interact with staff members, children, and families on a daily basis. You have an opportunity to model healthy relationships and ways to deal with stressors. The following are some suggestions:

• Ask questions. Seek to understand the people around you. Assume others are more interesting than you are. Build your empathy.
• Set personal goals to improve your communication. Practice active listening in every conversation. Talk to someone you don’t usually talk to once a week. Brainstorm a few interesting questions or conversation starters you can use with different people.
• Seek out your own professional development. Attend trainings or get coaching on your communication and conflict-resolution skills.
• Be aware of your own emotions. Talk about your emotions and make yourself vulnerable. It can feel silly or scary at first, but it becomes more comfortable over time. Practice incorporating emotions into things you say every day. Instead of saying, “I don’t have time,” you might say, “I’m feeling overwhelmed right now.” Instead of saying “Good for you,” you might say, “I’m relieved that worked out for you.”
• Manage your mood. Everyone experiences intense emotions from time to time. Anger, frustration, disappointment, and fear are important emotions to express, but you should model appropriate ways to express them. Practice stepping away and taking deep breaths when something frustrates you in front of staff. Go for a short walk when you are having a hard time solving a problem.

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Cultivating Staff Morale

Celebrating individual and group accomplishments also builds staff satisfaction and promotes well-being. Just as you celebrate the children’s accomplishments, you want to recognize the special gifts and talents that staff members bring to the program. Plan recognition of staff achievements, even small ones. Recognition and awards don’t have to cost anything at all; they should demonstrate that the person has made a significant contribution to the program or completed a milestone in professional development. Staff appreciation can go beyond physical tokens of appreciation, staff may appreciate specific positive feedback, help with a task or transition, or quality time with other staff or manager. Consistently demonstrating to staff members that you respect and support them as individuals will build their trust and confidence in themselves and in you as their supervisor.

The following are some suggestions for boosting staff morale:

A program culture and climate where staff morale is positive because they feel supported, nurtured and celebrated can also lead to a very effective and inexpensive recruitment tool, “word of mouth”. Listen as this director shares how staff morale can be a key strategy in recruiting for your program.

Just as a family has rules, traditions, and history, you and your staff will create a child care community with shared practices, values, traditions, and history. Encourage staff members to join you in creating a positive climate for your program community. A positive program climate serves as a cornerstone upon which program policies are defined (e.g., teaming structures, staffing practices, decision making structures, conflict resolution policies, etc.) and implemented. You serve as a model for your staff members about how to build meaningful relationships. Your behaviors in stressful situations, as well as your optimism and hopeful outlook, demonstrate to staff your commitment to a relationship-based climate. As a leader, your focus on positive interactions will increase staff morale and have a direct impact on the quality of care that is shown to the children, youth, and families your program serves.