Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/growing-pains-and-growing-gains-change-can-be-difficult-both-personally-and-professionally/5008340/
I feel like I'm riding on a runaway train this week. Three years ago I was a new director of a medium-sized center. Today my board just approved a third child care site - all infant care in a downtown location! I've gone from calculating budgets with a pencil to a computer spreadsheet, from managing 18 people to managing 62, from spending some time in the center each week observing staff and children to spending all my time trying to stay ahead of the paperwork. No one has been more surprised at how my job has changed than I!Barb, a bright, competent, exhausted director spoke honesty of her experiences. Her commitment was evident in everything she said - and so was her frustration. But the growth of her program is part of a larger national trend - child care centers in the United States have been increasing in size and complexity over the past decade. Today, more than ever before, directors are faced with the challenge of learning how to prosper and to survive personally and professionally as their child care centers expand. Such challenges can be addressed by looking at how administrators ...