Early Childhood Development

Leadership and Team Dynamics

Qualities of a Good Leader

1. Leaders are trustworthy 2. Leaders are self aware and insightful 3. Leaders love to learn, grow and expand 4. Leaders have high self-worth and high self-esteem 5. Leaders are excited about life 6. Leaders fix problems and find solutions 7. Leaders are innovative 8. Leaders refuse to gossip 9. Leaders are committed to the task at hand 10. Leaders exercise self control

To exercise good leadership means: i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii. viii. ix. x. To accept and clarify feelings of another without threat To aid the groups insight into its feelings and attitudes To recognize and interpret forces operating in a group To sense the development of tension To state all sides of a controversy fairly and objectively To recognize and articulate themes noticed in discussion To summarize group discussions To coordinate the questions and steps of a group needs to consider in order to reach a decision To encourage others to gain experience in and learn skills of leadership To allow group members to have input in setting objectives

Basic Principles of Leadership

Early Childhood Development

Leadership and Team Dynamics

When people decide to respect you as a leader, they observe what you do so they can know who you really are. People then use this observation to tell if you are an honourable and trusted leader, or a self-serving person who misuses authority. A good leader has an honourable character that selflessly serves his/her organization. In your employees eyes, your leadership is everything. Your activities affect the organizations objectives and their well -being.

A respected leader concentrates on three key areas: 1. Be - what he/she is, i.e. beliefs and values 2. Know - what he/she knows, i.e. job, tasks, human nature 3. Do - what he/she does, i.e. implement, motivate, and provide direction What makes a person want to follow a leader? People want to be guided by people they respect and who have a clear sense of direction. To gain respect, they must be ethical. A sense of direction is achieved by conveying a strong vision of the future.

The Three Most Important Keys of Leadership: Studies have shown that trust and confidence in top leadership is the single most reliable predictor of employee satisfaction in an organization.

Effective communication by leadership in three critical areas is the key to winning organizational trust and confidence, and involves:

Early Childhood Development

Leadership and Team Dynamics

1. Helping employees understand the companys overall business strategy. 2. Helping employees understand how they contribute to achieving key business objectives. 3. Sharing information with employees on both how the company is doing and how an employees own division or department is doing relative to strategic business objectives. Basically, you must be trustworthy and you have to be able to communicate a vision of where you are going.

The 10 Principles of Leadership 1. Know yourself and seek self-improvement. In order to know yourself, you have to understand your be, know, and do attributes. This is possible by continually strengthening your attributes by reading and self-study. 2. Be technically proficient. As a leader, you must know your job and have a solid familiarity with your employees jobs. 3. Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions. Search for ways to guide your organization to new heights. And when things go wrong, do not blame others. 4. Make sound and timely decisions. Use good problem solving, decisionmaking, and planning tools. 5. Set the example. Be a good role model for you employees. They will believe what they see not what they hear. 6. Know your people and look out for their well-being. Know human nature and the importance of sincerely caring for your workers. 7. Keep your people informed. Know how to communicate with your people, seniors, and other key people within the organization. 8. Develop a sense of accountability, ownership and responsibility in your people. These traits will help them carry out their professional responsibilities.

Early Childhood Development

Leadership and Team Dynamics

9. Ensure that tasks are understood, supervised, and accomplished. Communication is the key to this responsibility. 10. Train your people as a team. By developing team spirit, you will be able to employ your organization, department, section, etc. to its fullest capabilities.

The Process of Great Leadership 1. Inspire a shared vision Next, share you vision in words that can be understood by your followers. 2. Challenge the process First, find a process that you believe needs to be improved the most. 3. Enable others to act - Give them the tools, authority and methods to solve problems themselves. 4. Model the way When the process gets tough, get your hands dirty. A boss tells others what to do; a leader shows it can be done. Encourage the heart Share the glory with your followers heart, keep the pains in your heart.

The Challenges You May Face as a New Leader within an Early Childhood Facility

Early Childhood Development

Leadership and Team Dynamics

1. People do not naturally want to be led by you. It may come as a shock, but no one is particularly interested in working for YOU. A promotion and a title might bestow grudging tolerance and even a little bit of deference, but never credibility or true respect. First, prove your credibility and then earn their respect. 2. Everyone has an agendathey just dont always share it. New leaders like to believe that everyone looks at business challenges, department objectives and initiatives from the same perspective theirs. Learn to truly pay attention to your associates, in order to understand their unique agendas, motivations, interests, and ambitions. 3. The personal problems of your associates will become your problems if you let them (and sometimes you cant help it). New Managers, and even experienced ones, attract their teams personal problems like flowers attract bees. You will find yourself on the receiving end of peoples challenges in their personal lives, with their health, their finances, their romances, their children, and just about every other dilemma that humans encounter. Learn to keep the focus on business but remember to be a human being. 4. Your instinct says Do it because Im the boss. Your instinct is wrong. Because I said so is best left for your parenting chores and checked at the door when you enter the office. Success comes when you realize that you are not the subject. 5. It takes time to learn and internalize the parable of The Scorpion and the Frog. Recognize that people do not change their nature. 6. We all have weaknesses; dont make them your focal point. Its not your responsibility to fix the flaws of your associates. Learn to leverage peoples strengths and develop teams where the members have complementary skills, and you will succeed beyond your wildest dreams.

Early Childhood Development

Leadership and Team Dynamics

7. The key to leading people is obvious. Too bad no one will tell you what it is. Well, Art will the answer is Respect. Its all about treating people with respect. 8. The most important part of your job is probably not in your job description. Creating an effective work environment is your real job. 9. Beware of over-investing your time and energy with the wrong people. Every manager will at some point get to deal with a brilliant problem child employee with outstanding technical skills but fatal flaws when it comes to people skills. These employees lack the emotional intelligence to recognize their aberrant behaviors, and therefore rarely if ever change. When dealing these employees, be fair and be decisive.

10. You are responsible for your teams results. Its your name on the door and you are accountable. Its not pleasant to feel the cold hand of reality slapping you across the face, but then again, its real life.