From 5/2007
I'm a bit reflective of my work this week as part of the preschool program I work for is shutting down for the summer. My thoughts have mainly been on the following:
In my daily work, I play the role of mentor and trainer as I work with the preschool teachers, helping them to become better teachers. But a huge part of my job also includes my monitoring of their work in the classroom as well as their paperwork. From time to time, even though I'm not their regular supervisor that signs their timesheets and fills out their evaluations, I have to play the bad guy and get tough when performance isn't what it needs to be.
Over this past year, I've noticed that I've had to do that a lot! I'm not sure it's really all that productive to be so critical and judgemental (even though sometimes I'm so frustrated, that it comes very natural to me to just get blunt and tell them how it is). I'd much rather spend my time mentoring and building up the teaching staff than to constantly monitor them and point out what they are doing wrong. Yet, this is what is expected of me by MY supervisors. I've had comments made that most staff are scared of me. Often it's stated in a joking manner and I do usually chuckle and say "good!" And even though I feel a good healthy respect from them is needed, I really don't want it to evolve into them not wanting to come to me for advice or help when they need it.
I'd really like to overhaul the whole atmosphere and attitude in our management team's style of managing. We should be spending more of our efforts MENTORING and less time MONITORING. Right? How to do this, when I'm not the ultimate authority, is daunting and almost impossible. But I can certainly set as a goal for myself to work more on bringing out the 'mentor' in me.
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