Every day we face difficult decisions affecting both the children in our care and the staff who look after them. Making these decisions is, after all, what sets our role apart from that of the nursery practitioner. In fact, one of the qualities most used to describe the attributes of a good manager is the ability to make decisions and stand by them.
While our kind-hearted nature wants desperately to meet the needs of every individual, this is not always practical or indeed business-minded.
Take, for example, the parent who wants to bend your policies just that little bit further ... each one setting a precedent for the next to quote. We want to be as accommodating as we can, but the policies have been written for a reason. I have always been served by the guiding principle of 'firm but fair'. All kinds of sticky situations can be entered in to when you try to bend the rules for individuals; a late payment here, an early drop-off there. The phrase 'But you did it for ...' is one you only want to hear once!
Sometimes the decisions you have to make take you into areas unfamiliar to you, for example employment law or health and safety. For these, websites can be a fantastic point of reference; so can we play with egg boxes and toilet roll tubes ...? But what we must do is make that decision and stand by it, even if our decision is to go to someone else for help.
This week I had to make the very difficult decision of whether or not to end someone's employment in the setting. With all kinds of thorny employment law considerations, this was a decision I had to take to meet the needs of all involved - including the staff member in question, who was clearly struggling. To not make it, to hope the situation would sort itself out, would not have best served anyone.
Sometimes it can be lonely at the top, when everyone is looking to you to give the direction. But we do it because we love it. With this autonomy comes great responsibility and tremendous potential which is what makes the future so exciting!
