ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues

In What You Need to Lead an Early Childhood Program, Holly Elissa Bruno talks about what can happen if a director asks employees to evaluate her performance:

"The first time a supervisor asks staff to evaluate him or the program, he is likely to experience the phenomenon known as the 'garbage can dynamic.'  Staff often 'dump their garbage' all over a program evaluation form the first time they are asked to complete it.  Any stored up issues, unspoken hurts, snippets of anger or resentment get dumped.

"Supervisors need to step to the side emotionally, remind themselves not to take the results personally, and examine information objectively.  By the second or third evaluation, employees will have dumped their stored-up issues and are likely to express more timely and constructive views."

What You Need to Lead an Early Childhood Program

What You Need to Lead an Early Childhood Program: Emotional Intelligence in Practice is the first and only early childhood leadership book anchored in what matters most: the art and science of building relationships. Emotional intelligence is the ability to read people as well as you read books and to know how to use that information wisely. Each chapter begins with a case study that features richly complex, everyday challenges facing early childhood program directors. Alongside case studies are theory and principles, pointers and problem-solving steps to help you practice and hone your leadership skills.

• Part I — Forming: Setting Up the Program and Yourself for Success
• Part II — Storming: Identifying, Preventing, and Addressing Resistance to Change
• Part III — Norming: Establishing Management Systems
• Part IV — Performing: Putting Principles into Practice
• Part V — Re-Forming: Renewing, Refreshing, Dreaming of What Might Be

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