nursery business
nurserybusiness.com
00
S
o you’ve opened an early years
setting and have realised
belatedly that you’re lacking in
people management skills. You
know there are pitfalls ahead,
but that blindfold of inexperience is
making them nigh on impossible to spot.
If you’re not careful, your clumsy attempts
at leadership will have your staff team
mutinying before the year is out, with
parents following close behind. At that
point there won’t be a cosy corner
calming enough to restore you once the
shouting has died down.
But there’s still time to avert
catastrophe. Below you’ll find five habits
of terrible leaders. All you need do is
avoid them (unless, of course, you’re a
spy from the powerful stay-at-home
parent lobby out to sabotage the UK
childcare industry – in which case, do
your worst!)...
“KEEP YOURSELF
TO YOURSELF”
Practitioners like to feel that all staff
members – from the manager right
down to the cleaner – are in the same
boat, united in the goal of trying to run
the best setting possible. And so it’s
bound to annoy the grunt-level
practitioners when leaders confine
themselves to an office, issuing orders
from their proverbial ivory tower. Good
luck implementing new policies and
practices when you can’t keep an eye
on your staff, too!
“MAKE
UNREASONABLE
DEMANDS”
Early years practitioners are human
beings with troubles of their own,
and so they don’t appreciate having
unreasonable demands made of
them whilst working. Ordering a
big increase in paperwork or a
drastic change of policy without
assessing what’s realistic is bound
to cause resentment, a drop in
morale and less efficient work...
“PLAY THE BIG BOSS”
If you really want to get your staff’s backs
up, be sure to emphasise how much more
important than them you are. So they do the
ground work that allows the setting to run
from day to day? Brush that under the
carpet. Make sure you tell them that you’re
the one who does the real work around
here. You’ve got the degree in education and
the money to finance the setting. Your staff
are only the ones who change the nappies...
“KEEP STAFF BACK
AFTER HOURS”
Staff understand that after-work meetings
are sometimes necessary, but there’s a
limit to what’s acceptable. Organise your
catch-ups once a month, or even once a
fortnight to really rile them! If a staff
member comes to you and explains that
finding childcare is difficult, shake your
head and sigh – perhaps even throw in a
passive aggressive comment about “not
being part of the team”. If you really want
to go nuclear, send staff on regular
weekend-long training courses...
“MAKE PAY
A TABOO”
As much as your practitioners may be
passionate about childcare, there’s another
reason they put in 40 hard hours per week;
they need their wages! They’ve got bills
that need paying, after all.
Not sympathetic towards the more
‘financially impaired’? Make sure to roll up
to the after-hours staff meeting in an
expensive car and immediately veto
your minimum wage employees’
request for a pay rise. Don’t just refuse
the request, refuse to even discuss it.
Staff can understand that a struggling
company might find it difficult to up
wages, but they won’t like having no
prospect of even discussing a pay
rise however hard they work. If you
receive emails querying salaries,
simply ignore them! Make the
whole subject a taboo, never to be
discussed. The staff need to know:
minimum wage is for life.
How
NOT
to
lead a
nursery
Jonny Keen is a
nursery practitioner.
If you can avoid making
your staff feel insignificant,
impoverished and
generally worn out and
defeated, it’s best to do
that, says
Jonny Keen
...
90
earlyyears.teachwire.net
