Listen to thisMany child care workers who stay in the child care
field see themselves as “moving up” to become managers sooner or
later.* If they do they will face a number of personal,
organizational and professional changes with which they will have to
contend. In this column I will identify and describe one of these
changes (skill changes) with the hope that this information might be
helpful to those workers considering promotion. In future columns I will
discuss other changes that child care workers who are planning to become
managers will have to face and deal with.
Skills
Five skills are discussed which seem to be the most important a new
manager has to acquire or improve upon, to be effective in their new
role. They are Planning and Conducting staff meetings, Educating and
supporting subordinates, relating to others based on organizational
needs, integrating authority and therapeutic roles, and developing
skills in thinking, planning acting long range
Planning and conducting staff meetings
Meetings are often seen as an irritant by staff members and as a burden
by managers. But a well planned meeting by a new supervisor can be an
opportunity for both management and staff to improve the quality of work
with children in care and at the same time to improve staff morale. The
key of course is honest involvement of staff in the planning of meetings
so it meets their needs as well as managements. New supervisors need to
acquire skills in planning and conducting effective meetings.
Educating and supporting subordinates
Child care workers would certainly have many opportunities to observe
co-workers interacting with the children in their care and would no
doubt have judgements about how effective these workers were and might
have ideas about how to help them be better workers. But rarely would
pass on these judgements to them (or others.). But supervisors would not
only have to pass judgement on subordinate’s behavior in supervisory and
evaluation conferences but would also have to communicate those
judgements to top management “something that might be uncomfortable to
do .
Relating to others based on organizational needs
Developing skills in managing relationships with subordinates and upper
management not out of emotions but based on the work requirements with
subordinates and upper management! It is fair to say that one of the
real satisfactions in child care work is in the relationships workers
develop with their colleagues with whom they share many commonalities.
Many best friends are often formed in this work setting (lots of
marriages too!) but as a member management relationships are more
formal and controlled. For example supervisors may not like a
subordinate but have to work with him or her in a functional way, i.e.
helping them to do their job and ignoring (if that’s the word)
feelings about that person. A supervisor's relationship to that person
is based on the work required, not on the emotions that person elicits.
Integrating authority and therapeutic roles
Developing and maintaining skills to carry the authority as well as the
therapeutic role with young clients is quite complex and contains
contradictory elements. For example, sometimes supervisors who are
in an authority role responsible for the care, safety, and mental health
of a unit must make a decision that may not be feel helpful or
supportive to an individual youngster but it may have to be made for the
good of the unit. Some youngsters may find it difficult to trust a
supervisor who has to act as an authority some time.
Developing skills in thinking, acting and
planning long range
Supervisors will focus less and less on the immediate demands of dealing
with kids in care on a 24-7 basis and more and more on planning for
future events. Child care workers by necessity are focused on the “here
and now” because kids in care need adults now! New supervisors need to
turn their time orientation from dealing with things today to focusing
on some tomorrow to do their new job well. This takes a real shift in
how a person orients him or her self. It needs to be learned and can be
learned but it's not easy
These skills are needed to carry out the manager's job effectively.
Child care workers in the past have learned and implemented these skills
and so will future child care workers.
* Some leave the field for other more easy or lucrative professions. A few choose to stay as service deliverers.
