Why is becoming a resilient early years leader important
Leadership can often be a difficult task and involves inspiring and motivating a team, dealing with unhappy practitioners, conflict, parent complaints and making changes. To do this and achieve your vision for how the early years setting or room should, be a level of resilience needs to be built.
Leaders need to be strong people who have the ability to deal with criticism and to look at these objectively. We are all only human and sometimes it can be easy to let emotions take over and to become upset or angry by confrontation; however as a leader it is important to be able to look at these from a purely professional point of view and manage these effectively.
Leading a new team
It can also be difficult when leading a completely new team, especially if there certain things you wish to achieve or change. This may create some unhappy practitioners especially if they see no need for change. This is a particularly important time to remain resilient and to remember the end goal that you have in sight. Try to share this vision with the practitioners and get them on board with any ideas you have. This will make the changes more positive for all involved; allowing the other practitioners to have a voice and input in the changes. It is important as a leader to be able to look at all ideas and sides before coming to a final decision.
Managing friendships
It can often be difficult in early year’s settings to have only a professional relationship with work colleagues due to the long hours and time spent together. This can sometimes make it difficult when having to deal with times when practitioners are not performing at their best, or there has been a parent complaint. These are times when leaders need to remember their jobs roles, be resilient and handle the situation in the correct way following all policies and procedures regardless of the friendships that have been formed.
Early years leaders need to be effective at their jobs to ensure the best practice is available for the children at all points of the day. Having a level of resilience is part of the job role and creates the most effective leaders. Managers are there to offer support in times of need and to deal with the serious situations, but sometimes a lot of it can be left to the room leaders. There is a large difference in leadership and management and this split between the roles can be much clearer in some settings than others.
Building resilience
It is useful for leaders to find effective ways to off load in times of stress or when a day has been particularly pressing. Finding a good sounding board that you can discuss problems with or find strength from are useful methods, this may be another leader who has similar experiences. Leaders also need to be confident in themselves and their knowledge of the EYFS and policies and procedures as this will help with resilience because you can be confident that you are supported by the early years environment.