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Have You Hugged Your Director Today?

by Robert Siegel
May/June 2014
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Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/have-you-hugged-your-director-today/5021793/

VIGNETTE:

On particularly challenging days as a director, my friend and colleague from Florida, Sonia M., would walk around chanting “How did I end up here?” or “I never asked to be a director.” As in many of the helping professions, the people who are the best service providers end up as managers and initially feel unprepared. One of the best attributes of people working in early care and education is that we’re great nurturers. Therefore, the first myth to debunk is that a person with a nurturing personality cannot be a good manager. We’re much too nice. I believe that in many ways, being a good nurturer is a great attribute in developing into a great manager. Think about what we do: we spend much of our time bringing people along, building relationships, and helping others grow. Being nice is a good thing. Our problem is that we, and others, take nice behavior to mean that one is weak . . . a pushover. These are two very different things. We do need to learn how to be firm and mean what we say when dealing with others; but, doesn’t that also best describe a wonderful preschool teacher?

END OF VIGNETTE

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