Leadership in Early Education Care Servicesâ€Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: How to the Leadership in Early Education Care Services? Answer: Introducation The need for leadership in early education and care services has always been the matter of high priority. Successful leaders in early care services achieve organizational goals by bringing the people together (The essay thus critically analyses the capabilities required of managers in providing leadership in the area of staffing to ensure quality service delivery. The essay discusses how leaders supervise the staff team, manage conflicts and grievances and support the staffs professional learning and development. In the child care setting the leaders struggle with the dual role that is as "a manager and a leader" (Hunt et al., 2013). According to R?ducan, (2016) the managers attend the details of how to run a program efficiently whereas the leader addresses the broader issues and future development. In short, a manager deals with administrative activities and his leadership involves having an interpersonal influence to ensure the accomplishment of the organizational goals. Thus both leaders and managers have same functions such as creating a vision, building a climate of trust and empowering environment for the staff. The early education and the care centers mostly have flat management structures. Therefore, in these organizations, the leadership and the management activities are intertwined. Therefore, it is difficult for the directors to separate the management and the leadership roles (Heikka et al., 2013). The term leader in the child care services is often the director, coordinator, service owner. However, a childcare professional may undertake the range of responsibilities that require leadership skills (Stamopoulos, 2012). Early child educators are also required to have some leadership skills in addition to setting the outdoor environment to manage the overall services by collaborating with others to be organized for decision-making, call upon their professional knowledge and sheer commitment to deliver the job well (Khoshhal Guraya, 2016). Irrespective of the task all the early educator or child care professionals are benefitted from effective leadership skills. The leadership and management skills required in the staffing areas include recruitment of appropriate staff, ensuring perfect records of children, medications, monitoring of children development, organising staff meetings, and conducting safety audits to assure that the staff is delivering the services appropriately and is complying with the legal and the ethical standards (Khoshhal Guraya, 2016). Recruitment of staff is the most important role. Leaders must abide by the regulations and policies related to the qualification of staff. In the area of staffing, it is the responsibility of the director to objectively assess the abilities of the potential staff members. A successful team shall contain mix of individuals with each having different roles (Ang, 2012). As a leader he must ensure that the staff is supervised, their performance is regularly evaluated, maintain the constructive relationship with the staff and provide opportunities for professional development (Garvey, 2017). T he leader must be efficient in retaining positively contributing staff and replace the staff not performing well. It depends on the ability of the director to keep the staff motivated and ensure that they perform to their highest standards (Heikka et al., 2013). Accounting to Khoshhal Guraya, (2016) effective leadership is essential to provide quality programs for child care. R?ducan, (2016) argued that the leadership style of the person is directly related to the "quality of relationships" at the service. An effective leader fosters "team work and joint decision making." They act as role model for the staff and to their colleagues to build trust. Mevawalla Hadley, (2012) discussed that involving the educators and other child care staff in decision making increases their motivation and dedication towards work. They will thus work harder for achieving the organizational goals and objectives. This is known as transformational leadership theory. According to Avolio Yammarino, (2013) transformational leadership is highly effective in providing quality service provision. Avolio Yammarino, (2013) studied effective leadership strategies for maintaining efficient staff in the organization and ensure their professional learning. Communication skills are vital for the leader irrespective of a task. A leader must clarify roles and responsibilities of each member of the staff. A transformational leader supports and encourages the staff by actively listening to their views and opinions. Communication skills are necessary for motivating employees. Developing people in the organization is more important than establishing or maintaining structures and systems (Heikka et al., 2013). The latter should be the second priority and not the first. It includes valuing the work of each member of the staff by recognitions and rewards for valuable contribution. A transformational leader takes the genuine interest in each member of the staff rather being biased to promote workplace equality (Munir et al., 2012). Therefore, it is the duty of the leader to address the issue s of staff in this process such as the difficulty of the staff in implementing the daily and weekly plans, inability to deliver age-appropriate activities by child observations. In this leadership style, the manager or the leader encourages professional growth and development so that the staff delivers child education using recommended techniques (Hoyle Megarry, 2012). A part of the leaders role is also to ensure that the staff is accountable for their actions. In this area of staffing, the director is successful if the staff is carefully selected, the newcomers are well oriented and offer continual support and training (Melhuish et al., 2016). If the staff performance is deteriorating or is not meeting the standards, it is important to take initiatives for their professional development to ensure quality of service delivery (Garvey, 2017). The five forms of professional development are credentialing, formal education, specialized on-the-job service training, collegial study group, and consultative interactions. It will effectively help the staff to build the appropriate skills through conferences, workshops, manual, and behavior rehearsals such that the staff delivers appropriate child interventions (Jones, 2014). Thus, implementing the practice of professional development improves the fidelity of the interventions provided to children. There is an increase in competition in the child care industry. Therefore, the staff need additional skills in early life sector else the organisation may be subjected to legal or ethical issues such as handover of the child to third person other than parents, breaching the norms of privacy and confidentiality by disseminating childs information to third party. It is the duty of the manager to ensure that the staff follows National Quality Standards under the National Quality Framework. A leader plays multifarious roles in addition to building teams, copious record keeping of the children, administration of government policies, meeting accreditation requirements. The main activity of the leader is to implement parent partnerships. Therefore, the leader must ensure that the staffs have adequate interpersonal skills to address the concerns of the parents. It is only possible if the staff is trained with ongoing learning in a job ( It is challenging for the leader to both maintain equal peer relationships as well as to guide them towards organizational directions (Heikka et al., 2013). For example, it is difficult for the leader to simultaneously encourage the educators to modify their teaching approach, program them and then work with them as colleagues. It is difficult as some of the staff members are resistant to change. On the other hand, when leaders provide genuine opportunities to the staff members for involving in the decision of teaching curriculum or any other child-related services, it increases their ease of working as unity and take leadership roles to take change initiatives (Huber, 2013). An efficient delegation of responsibilities is another important strategy of the manager which could be used to provide leadership in this area. It helps in breaking the barriers between the staff and the manager (Garvey, 2017). It is an effective tool with which leader can allocate the tasks equitably as well a s values the staff's skills and knowledge. Consequently, it allows the staff members to take responsibility for the specific practice areas and cultivate their experience as leaders. Through the process of delegation, the leaders can also streamline their management responsibilities (Green et al., 2013). For the service coordinator, it is more time efficient to assign the responsibility of developing policies for "occupational health and safety" or OHS to a small team rather than doing themselves. On the other hand, the team of OHS may also effective ensure that there is a consistent implementation of "safe and hygienic practices" across the services which are the main area of focus for the director. It is obvious to have workplace disputes among staff. Therefore, it is necessary for the leaders to resolve the issues faced by the staff. To overcome the staff grievances in the child care setting an effective leader applies friendly methods to promote team friendship (Jones, 2014). It can be done by involving staff members in decision-making and by facilitating the team input rather taking control. The collaborative relationship between staff ensures cooperation and implementation of child education practices and policies consistently while reducing the conflicts (Grarock Morrissey, 2013). The manager can avoid the workplace conflicts by giving regular feedback to the individual staff member after evaluating their work performance. Regular disputes among workplace would destroy and damage the team building process. It will break the tendency of child care professionals to value their group goals and directions. They will eventually tend to value personal and individual interests m ore than that of the organization which in turn increases the incidents of conflicts and turnover rate (Garvey, 2017). According to Heikka et al., (2013) a leader is known to be a "relationship builder." High staff turnover reduces the quality of care provided to children. Losing efficient early educators and recruiting new staff increases the organizational cost (Grarock Morrissey, 2013). When the leaders connect well with the care providers it has enormous consequences on the contributions made by them increasing their likelihood to stay in the organization (Jovanovic, 2013). Many times it is encountered that the child care professionals having minimum professional experience are placed into the leadership positions. It is challenging for them to deal with the staff when some of the members are more experienced than the new leader (Grarock Morrissey, 2013). Thus the leader during the initial period must engage with the employees an actively listen to their concerns and suggestions without being judgemental or else it increase the workplace conflicts. Lacking sensitivity towards the issues of the staff is counterproductive when they are involved in decision making process (Huber, 2013). Therefore, the leader must have the quality to be a "people's person" to relate well to the problems of the staff members and openly communicate the solutions. Interpersonal openness is a key skill required by an everyday leader (Stamopoulos, 2012). When team members are guided and inspired the feel more respected and participate in the collaborative approach thereby suppo rting the leaders. Since the child care professionals undertake a variety of leadership roles, they are motivated when they are acknowledged and valued by the staff which will eventually lead to the implementation of quality practice (Ang, 2012). It can be concluded from the above discussion that an efficient leader in early education services requires good team management, development and communication skills so as to involve all the members of the staff in achieving shared goals and objectives. They help all the early educators to develop the leadership skills in them by the efficient delegation of responsibilities. The field of early childhood education is growing rapidly. Therefore, it is required for the practitioners to remain abreast of new knowledge and utilize evidence-based practice. Effective collaboration between the leaders and the team members minimizes the barriers between them. The transformational leadership approach is effective in increasing the commitment of the child care professionals to provide high quality care services and give their best to the children and their families. Therefore, the future leaders need to be proactive rather than reactive to convert the problems into opportunities. 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Summarize important principles, issues, ideas and / or strategies to be considered in relation to the topic. These points are explained in detail in the essay. Strategies that the manager could use to provide leadership in that area to ensure quality service delivery. Strategies that he manager could use to provide leadership in that area to ensure quality service delivery. Strategies that the manager could use to provide leadership in that area to ensure quality service delivery. Strategies that the manager could use to provide leadership in that area to ensure quality service delivery.