Category Archives: Performance Management Skills

Young children need practice engaging in conversation with the important adults in their lives. A shared conversation – a two-way dialogue – a back-and-forth. By our talking with them, they build their speaking and listening skills. They build important language skills, necessary for later reading and comprehension. The question for us is, “How do we do this effectively?” Continue reading →

The longer I live, the less I understand the “rushing,” the “hurriedness,” the “sense of urgency” that accompanies everything we do today. Why the fast lane? Where are we going? What are we racing to? Can’t we slow things down – for our children? Can’t we celebrate the ordinary moments – that, as we know, are anything but ordinary! Can’t we follow the children’s lead in this? And, can we let them be little? Continue reading →

One of the most delightful and inspirational writers about life is Robert Fulghum. He writes with wit and wisdom – you will smile and nod as you read . Enjoy this excerpt from one of his most popular books, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, published in 1989. It begins – “Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in Kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there, in the sandbox at preschool.” Enjoy!
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“How do you know when you’ve arrived, if you don’t know where you’re going?”
A good question, particularly for the one-in-charge – the director, the manager, the leader of the organization. But, unfortunately, a question not often asked. Sadly, many of us squander our precious time, energy, and resources spinning our wheels – just going through the motions of dealing with those things that demand our immediate attention. This will get us through the moment and perhaps the day, but there is no real feeling of satisfaction or accomplishment. We feel pushed and pulled in many directions, and no longer in control. Reactive! Playing defense!
There is another way. Continue reading →

At the beginning of each school year, required reading for my teams of early childhood teachers and supervisors was an article by M. Parker Anderson entitled, “Professionalism: The Missing Ingredient for Excellence in the Workplace.” It was required because, after years of living, working on this planet, and interacting with thousands, I agreed with Ms. Anderson’s assessment that, “professionalism is missing and unaccounted for” in so many places of work. Read on … Continue reading →

What a gift! To start fresh – to take what I learned from the previous year and add it to my practice. To remember those things that went especially well, and keep them in this year’s repertoire. And, yes, to reflect upon those things that didn’t go as well as I had planned. As I saw it, that was my job as the leader of the program, school, organization – to set the course. And, the best part of beginning is that I could reset the course annually. What I learned is that how I began each school year, each training session, each presentation, each meeting, set the tone for what was to come, and the expectations that we were all to meet or exceed. The beginning was that important!
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