Directors of early childhood programs are an amazing lot! There's so much dedication, such hard work and creative problem solving. But then that inevitable undertow of deadlines, crises, and illness begins to suck directors down. With crisis management becoming a way of life, they don't even recognize their vital signs slipping away. The author…

Among quality measurement systems, there is no clear description of how administrators are expected to move through the process. This is not necessarily a fault of the systems; it is not their intention to script a program's process. Yes, there are many tasks that are logically the administrator's responsibility--important things that must get…

Administrators sometimes let themselves get locked into the "front end" of their buildings. There are phone calls to take, emails to answer, payments to post, and events to plan. It's easy to find the day coming to a close and they haven't even taken time to grab lunch or venture beyond the lobby of the building. In this article, the author…

When an owner or manager in the child care industry recognizes a worker who is very good at her job, she may consider promoting that worker into a management position. That can be a problem, while the superior worker may have had many years of practice at hands-on work, she probably has had very little--if any--training, in how to manage others.…

Helping staff get along with each other can sometimes be more challenging than helping young children get along. A director can feel like a referee instead of a leader of professionals when staff bicker with each other. Many directors find that efforts made to strengthen everyone's skills in giving and responding to feedback help a great deal.…