Management 101

Brush up your people skills to bring out the best in each after school teacher and run more successful afterschool programs. Successful afterschool programs depend on your ability to manage people—your staff, parents and community contacts—just as well as you manage your children. Improve your people skills with our top three tips to happier, more productive professional relationships

1. Hire then empower.

Get your recruitment right and a lot of people management takes care of itself. When your staff are positive and proactive individuals they will take initiative, solve problems, and largely self-manage...as long as you empower them to do so. Create clear expectations and accountability for each after school teacher, then ensure they have the freedom and control to act and influence the outcomes they are responsible for.!

This sounds easy in theory but in practise requires a lot of trust in your staff to do things their own way and still deliver to your standard. However, if you strike the balance you'll have an empowered and engaged team that can run a tight ship even when you're not around.

2. Make room for mistakes.

Newsflash, people are not perfect. We all know this, but when things get stressful we can forget that mistakes are necessary for growth by focusing too heavily on the negative aspects instead. Creating a safe workplace culture where it is easy to own up to mistakes will support your staff to openly discuss, understand and learn from their mistakes to both lessen the impact and create even more successful afterschool programs. 

Giving yourself permission to make, learn from and work through mistakes will improve your ability as a programme leader with parents and your community too. Nobody expects you to be perfect except you! Openness and accountability build trust and respect, even when you're not delivering the best news. 

3. Be thankful.

Gratitude will get you everywhere, with almost everyone! Regularly and individually thank each after school teacher and support staff member for their contributions to your team, make sure parents know that you couldn't run your OSCAR programme without their continued support, and remind your community contacts how important they are to your success. Grand gestures are not necessary, personal and heartfelt words are all it takes to recognise those around you for the part they play in creating your successful after school programs—and motivate them to keep it up! 

Would you love to spend more time developing your soft skills?