Too many owners and directors in the early learning field are driven by being people-pleasers. Typically, they operate according to their hearts and constantly do anything that they can to fill other people’s cups, but because of this, at the end of the day, they are left feeling depleted, resentful, in constant overwhelm, and not able to lead their team to success. To diminish these feelings and develop leadership skills, it is vital to shift your mindset from operating as a people-pleaser to operating as a people-developer. Once you begin operating your school from the mindset of a people-developer, your leadership skills will begin to flourish, and you will be able to lead your team to success by transforming the culture in your school.
In this video, I dive into what the symptoms are of leading as a people-pleaser, why being a people-pleaser is holding you and your team back, and steps to becoming a people-developer that you can start implementing with your staff today.
Here Are the Key Takeaways From This Video:
- To uncover whether or not you lead as a people-pleaser, start by asking yourself a few questions. If you answer yes to any of them, then you are most likely ineffectively leading your team because you are making decisions based on emotions rather than what is best for the greater good of your school.
- Is your sense of self and self-worth dependent on others liking you?
- Does it ruin your day when someone doesn’t like you?
- Do you find that your decision making results in others getting what they want but leaving you left in overwhelm?
- Symptoms that constant people-pleasers experience are; a constant need to be liked, exhaustion, burnout, emotional vulnerability, needing constant validation, and frequent crying.
- Many early child care leaders are tearful leaders, meaning that their constant need for others to like them often results in them crying when faced with decision making that may upset others.
- Because leaders are constantly faced with making decisions, at some point they will experience decision fatigue and not be able to keep track of all of the verbal decisions and agreements that they make. This is why, as a leader, it is a crucial best practice for you to have systems and processes documented in your business that can be referenced.
- As a leader, you must be making decisions that are in the best interest of yourself, your employees, and the greater good of your organization. To do this you must transform from being a people-pleaser into a people-challenger/developer. In order to be an effective people challenger/developer, you must work with your team and…
- Invest in developing your people
- Consistently and systematically meet one on one with them
- Have a system in place to track their professional development
- Let them know that you see them through hugs, praise, critiques, professional development, and empathy.
- Holding onto toxic employees is the worst thing you can do as a leader to your staff – they will eventually spread their toxic attitude and mindset to the rest of your staff, and you will lose your A-players due to them.
- If you cultivate your team’s skills and strengths, challenge them and invest in them, they will remain loyal to you and your business.
