Leadership and management in early childhood education (ECE) environments can be a lot of hard work. The good news is that ECE training online can help your entire team be successful! Whether you're supervising a team of half a dozen early care and education professionals or heading a multi-tier organization or franchise, there are numerous daily tasks that go into being an effective leader.  

Sometimes amid all these responsibilities, it's easy to lose sight of one of your most important goals: to bring out the best in those you lead. To be the kind of leader who encourages excellence in your early child care educators, you need to do more than just give instructions.

Use these five ECE training online tips to help your team develop into exemplary employees who trust and respect your authority:  

1.   Subscribe to ECE training online courses

The ProSolutions Training ECE Annual Group Subscription is the most economical answer to professional development for teams. Staff training increases retention of high-quality employees. With the ECE training online package, your staff can choose from more than 100 courses, specifically developed for early childhood education professionals by our curriculum experts. As a director or administrator, you can easily add or remove staff as needed. You can even assign your team members the courses they need to be successful. Learn more about ECE training online group subscriptions.

2. Create a safe environment

If you want to help your team members become the best they can be, you need to create an environment in which everyone feels comfortable sharing their ideas as well as their concerns. Without the freedom to speak openly, your team's growth opportunities will be limited because they won't feel safe sharing when they need help or want to try something new. 

3. Set the tone

No one likes a negative workplace. But if you're dealing with a lot of grumbling and attitude from those you supervise, you need to keep in mind that the tone of any company starts at the top. If you want to see more positivity from your team, begin by checking your own attitude. 

"Lead in a way that makes it easy for others to want to follow," executive coach Victor Lipman wrote in an article for Forbes. "Setting the right example by your own business behavior - your own evenhandedness and ethics - makes it easy for your employees to respect you. Nobody wants to follow somebody they don't respect, yet they're eager to follow those they do."     

4. Communicate a clear vision

To obtain positive results from your team, you need to be sure that everyone understands the mission of your workplace. After all, it's unlikely that employees will thrive in a task if they don't understand the ultimate goal of the responsibility. As a leader,  you must communicate a clear vision, not only for each task in the workday but also for the entire business. 

Setting an easily understandable objective for your team will help each member maintain focus and push forward toward achieving those goals. 

5. Show a genuine interest

It can be hard to inspire loyalty in your staff if they think you don't care about them as individuals. And without inspiration and commitment, your team is unlikely to do its best work.

Be sure that you're looking at each member of the group as more than just a component of reaching the company's goals. This includes providing opportunities for skill-building and other areas of career development such as ECE online training mentioned above. If you show your staff members that you are truly invested in their professional aspirations, they will be more likely to commit themselves to the tasks at hand. 

Regular performance reviews can also help in this area. But make a point to emphasize strengths that you've seen, not just problems that need to be addressed. You can also implement supervisor and peer coaching, membership in professional organizations, and skill assessment programs to motivate your staff to continue developing their skills.

6. Foster organizational pride

Finally, remember that people are more likely to perform their best if they're proud of the place in which they work. Fostering this kind of pride in your staff can go a long way toward bringing out the best in each person. 

En route to this goal, you must illustrate the importance of the work that your company is dedicated to and encourage your team members to play a part in achieving group objectives. When they see the big-picture results, your staff will likely be more excited to come in each day, work diligently, and take pride in what they accomplish.   

To learn more about excelling as a leader in early childhood education, consider enrolling in online courses through ProSolutions Training. The most affordable and effective option for your entire team is the Group Annual Subscription.

Resource updated 6/9/22.