July 26, 2024 • 44 mins
Beth Cannon is the owner of 13 Stretch-N-Grow child enrichment franchises and is an expert in early childhood education working as a speaker, trainer and coach. One of her talents is teaching child care center leaders how to develop talent from within their current staff, which is especially important as owners and directors struggle to retain high quality staff.
In this podcast, Beth shares her tips for identifying staff who are ready for more responsibilities as well as the importance of job titles. On the other side of the coin, she shares what NOT to look for when developing your leadership bench (hint: education is not an automatic for career advancement!).
Beth goes further and tells us HOW to help employees grow into new roles and to accept that some employees are happy doing their current jobs ... and that's okay too.
To reach Beth to see what she can do for your child care business, visit bethcannonspeaks.com.
You also can find her on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to the Childcare Business Podcast,
brought to you by ProCareSolutions. This podcast is all
about giving childcare ,preschool, daycare, after
school , and other earlyeducation professionals. A fun
and upbeat way to learn aboutstrategies and inspiration you
can use to thrive. You'll hearfrom a variety of childcare
(00:29):
thought leaders, includingeducators, owners, and industry
experts on ways to innovate, tomeet the needs of the children
you serve. From practical tipsfor managing operations to
uplifting stories oftransformation and triumph,
this podcast will be chock fullof insights you can use to
fully realize the potential ofyour childcare business. Let's
(00:50):
jump in.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Good morning everyone, and welcome to the
Childcare Business Podcast. Myname is Leah Woodbury. I'm the
head of content here at ProCareSolutions, and I'm very happy
to have you all join us today.
Um, on this podcast, we'rethrilled to have Beth Cannon
with us. She owns 12 Stretchand Grow franchises. Um, that's
(01:14):
an international children'smotor development and
enrichment provider thatdirectly serves childcare
centers. She's a speaker, acoach, a consultant. She has a
lot of ECE experience in a lotof areas, and today we're gonna
pick her brain about how youcan develop leaders within your
childcare business . Welcome,Beth.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be back with
you all.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Great. Alright , so let's start where we always
like to start these podcasts,getting a little background on
our guests. Can you talk abouthow you got into ECE?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Yes. Well, you , you know, you mentioned that I,
we've got multiple stretch ofyour franchises. We now have
13. We've acquired, we justacquired another one. Um, but
that is, I was a school teacherand, and what they called it
back in the day, an aerobicsinstructor and , um, had spoken
at, you know, you know,conferences here and there just
on education things. Anyhow ,uh, started doing stretch and
(02:10):
grow quickly. We grew, I becamethe corporate trainer and just
really delved into this , um,joy of training business
owners. Mm-Hmm .and training leaders and, and
pouring into the people who arepouring into children. And so,
you know, spoken at conferencesprobably for, you know, over 20
years now and, and teaching andtraining. And then , um, you
(02:32):
know, when Covid hit, I beganto shift a little bit more into
the strategy piece ofleadership because it was so
evident that there was such agap in leadership training in
early education. And so, youknow, the , the business side
of it, you know, we just kindof scrambled and I thought,
gosh, I , I can help, I canhelp my people . And so just
(02:55):
began to develop some differentstrategy courses . And then of
course , you know , the , theworld blew up and, and so much
more exposure came aboutduring, during that time. And
so for the last four years,I've really been focused on
doing leadership retreats,speaking at conferences, team
building, and then doing, I'vegot a couple of, you know,
courses that I do, a learn tolead leadership certification,
(03:16):
and then stuck to strategy,which is an operations program
that we do online.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Wow , that's really great. It's always good to hear
when, when you see a need inECE and then you step up to
help other people in the field.
I feel like this field is sosupportive of each other, which
you don't really see in other,in other industries.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Yeah, it , it really is. And you know, I'm a , I'm a
true teacher at heart. Mm-Hmm .
. So if I know athing, I like to teach the
thing. And so I just, you know,I love our industry. I love
what we do, and , um, and it,it feels so good to be able to
help them and to see them gettraction in their businesses.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yes. So let's shift to what we're talking about
today , um, developing leaderswithin your childcare business.
Um, can we begin withidentifying the staff who might
be ready for advancement? What,what traits are you looking for
in a , in a teacher or anotherstaff member in your center to
see who might be ready for moreresponsibility and more growth
(04:12):
?
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Well, I think the first thing probably really is
to look at who is takinginitiative. I think initiative
is so, so important becauseyou, you, you look around and
when you, you , you payattention to the tension,
right? That's one of , that'sone of my favorite things to ,
to , for when you're looking todevelop leaders. That's one of
(04:35):
my favorite things is to tellleaders, you know, school
owners, school directors to do,is to look around and pay
attention to the attention andsee where people are taking
initiative. Because if they'retaking initiative and, you
know, something as simple as,you know, picking up trash
coming into the, coming intothe building. I mean, that's
something very, very simple, ofcourse. But when they are
(04:57):
taking initiative and they arelooking around and seeing like,
Hey, how can I be a part ofsomething great? How, you know,
how, how can I help here? Whatcan I do? What can I do to
help? So I think takinginitiative number one, super
important. And there , there'sthree eyes to this, right? So
if you're taking notes, ifyou're a note taker, it's
taking initiative. The other isintelligence. And I don't mean
(05:19):
just, you know, smartintelligence, I mean emotional
intelligence, you know, arethey emotionally intelligent
enough to be able to receivefeedback, not just receive
feedback, but implement thatfeedback , um, instead of
being, you know, triggered orupset with the feedback that
they got with , I mean, we canall grow and improve , right?
Mm-Hmm. . So ,um, you know, it's the
(05:40):
emotional intelligence, beingable to read a room, being kind
, um, you know, not beingeasily set off by the things
that can stress us out. And soI think the emotional
intelligence piece is reallyimportant. Um, and then as you,
you know, as you look a littlebit deeper into that, I think
it's influence, and that mightbe one of the most important
(06:02):
things, is do they, are theypositively influencing other
people in the building? Becauseyou're not a leader if no one's
following you,
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Right? Yeah, that's
Speaker 3 (06:14):
So true. So are they positively influencing the rest
of the team or even positivelyinfluencing, you know, their ,
their parents? But I thinkthose three eyes are some of
the key indicators of whenyou're looking for a leader,
what to look for. So it's, youknow, do they take initiative?
Do they have the emotionalintelligence, and do they
influence other people in apositive way?
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Okay. So you shared your expertise in , um, our
2024 childcare managementsoftware industry trends
report. And in that we surveyedthousands and thousands of
stakeholders. And our , theresponse we got was that 61%
said it's a challenge to hireand retain staff. And you were,
(07:01):
you were talking in the, in thereport. And thank you again
for, for taking part in that.
We love partner , we lovepartnering with you. Um , you
said to look for 18 playerswho, and give them stretch
assignments. Can you, can yougive an example of a stretch
assignment?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Sure. I, it is funny, I'm, I'm living the ,
I'm living the dream right now,Leah . So I've got a few newer
leaders on , on my team, and I,I love investing in younger
leaders. You know, everyone'slike, don't hire Gen Z. I will
tell you that three of my fiveleaders are Gen Z. And you
know, I, you know, there ,there , there are challenges
(07:37):
with every generation, ofcourse. Mm-Hmm .
. But I , you know, I lovepouring into younger leaders
and seeing what can beunleashed. And so , um, you
know, I've given them all somestretch assignments right now.
And so, you know, maybe one ofthem is on, like, one of 'em is
working on a marketingcampaign, right? Like, what,
what are some ideas that youcan share that will help build
(07:58):
enrollment? So, you know, we'reabout to, we're about to lose a
third of our students in ourenrichment programs, right?
Stretch and grows enrichmentprogram because they're going
to kindergarten, they're goingto big school. Mm-Hmm .
. So they aregonna leave the school. So now
we're like, how can we promoteand, and let the parents and
the schools know that we've gotthese programs coming up for
their, you know, their risingtwo and three year olds that
they can enroll in theseprograms. So one has a
(08:20):
marketing assignment, and I'mjust like throwing it out
there. This is, these are theobjectives, these are
deliverables, these are, thisis our critical number. We
wanna enroll this manychildren. What can you do to
promote that? So one's got amar marketing, so like within a
school, it may be, you know,let one of them take over a
tour. Maybe they're superpassionate about your school,
and you as the leader might besuper busy with some other
(08:42):
things going on. Show 'em howto do a tour, do a tour with
them, and then let them do thenext tour that comes through.
Maybe it's following up, like,you know, when when parents are
coming into their funnel,they're following up through
their CRM , um, maybe it'splanning a back to school
event, you know, maybe they're, it's someone that really, you
know, super loves to, to plan,and they, they are very excited
(09:04):
about it, and it mightoverwhelm the directors, and
they're like, you know what?
Great plan the back to schoolevent. Um , so other things are
simple though, Leah, as theywanna organize a supply closet,
you know, the supply closet's ahot mess. , I find that
preschools are more messy thannot, because they're led by
creative people. And a lot oftimes really creative people
are messy becausethey're outcome oriented and
(09:26):
they do not care about theprocess. So the process might
not be pretty, but theoutcome's gonna be good. So,
but there may be someone thatwants to organize a supply
closet or, you know, lead ateam meeting or share in an
activity. Um, you know, I knowa lot of owners are
visionaries, and so they've gota million ideas and they have
like, idea fatigue, right?
(09:48):
They're like, can some, cansomeone else come up with the
ideas around here? Like, I wantsomeone else to come up with
ideas, not just come up withthem, but implement them. So
maybe the visionary needssomeone to come along and
implement the ideas that theyhave. So I think there , you
know, there's lots of thingsthat they can do within the
school, but I think as peoplebegin to take that initiative
(10:09):
and you see like, Hey, thisperson might wanna step up.
You've gotta figure out whattheir natural gifts and talents
are and unleash them in thosegifts and talents. I am a , a
big believer in understandingwhat someone's personality is.
I use the Enneagram test andI've got a link to an Enneagram
quiz for leaders. We can dropthat in the show notes if you
want. And it's, the Enneagramis just a personality test to
(10:31):
tell you what your leadershipstyle is. So I've got one girl
that's, she's so detailoriented, and I am not, I am
the visionary, I'm the ideaperson. I'm the big picture
person. Uhhuh ,but she loves the details. So I
am letting her be in charge ofplanning a hurdle , our
recitals, and doing all thedetails of the recital. I just
wanna show up and make, and ,and , and watch the kids have a
(10:52):
great time and see the parentsenjoy it. Yeah. So that was her
assignment. So those are someexamples of some things that
might, you know, kind of, of ofunlock and unleash what is
already inside. Because I thinkthis, you can't put something
in someone that's not there.
Your job as a leader is tounleash those talents, those
(11:12):
gifts that are already insideof them because you can't put
in what's not there.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Yeah. Or make them interested in something they're
not interested in or excitedabout, something they're not
excited in Right . About, Ishould say. Yeah .
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Right.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Makes sense. So on the titles, and this kind of ,
this, this fits in with whatyou just talked about. Um, you,
you have strong feelings onthis one. Um, also in
that report that you were , um,featured in with us, you
explained that youngeremployees today, the Gen Zers ,
they don't like these, thesetitles or perhaps the ones that
we're giving them is a, is abetter way of saying that. Can
(11:50):
you, can you talk a little bitmore about that?
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Yeah, I mean, you know, research will say that
like you're , you know, that ,that Gen Z and millennials,
that titles are important. Ithink a lot of that is risen
through, you know, just throughsocial media, LinkedIn, you
know, they're titles matter.
You know, in my idea we're justpassing out a business card
that no , put it , you put itin your Rolodex, you didn't
even look at it until someoneneeded to reach out to you.
Right? So , mm-hmm.
, you know,titles, titles are important.
(12:14):
And so now we wanna be carefulin giving overinflated titles.
Like , we don't wanna call anentry-level employee, the VP of
operations, because they'll belooking on LinkedIn and say ,
you need to pay me 120 grand,like , and I'm only making 18
an hour. So, right. But Ithink, you know, when you're
looking to inspire leadership,that title gives people
(12:35):
ownership. And in myexperience, when I've given
someone title, like, Hey, Iwant you to be an area
coordinator. I want you to bean area director. You know, I
want you to be a team lead. Iwant you to be a lead coach.
Those inspire , um, just eexcitement around it. It's
like, you know , someone seessomething in me and , and they
kind of tap me on the shoulderand said, Hey, you, you've
(12:57):
moved to the next level. And Ithink that what it does for
their mindset when they get anew title, really inspires that
action. And I've seen that inmy own organization, and I've
seen that in a lot of others.
And another , but , and itdoesn't even have to be
necessarily leadership. Ithink, you know, the word
assistant , um, you know, thatcan, that can sometimes be
(13:20):
demotivating to people. Andsome pe some people argue and
say, well, they're an assistantthat that's what they are.
They're, they are assisting soand so . But like, when you
look at the director level,like you've got it , most
schools have a director and anassistant director. Oftentimes
what falls to the assistantdirector is whatever the
director didn't wanna do. Okay.
Not always, but sometimes itdoes. And so I've seen a lot of
(13:41):
schools change titles to say,this person is the program
director, this person is thedirector of education, this
person is the administrativedirector, or this person is the
business director. You know,they just found different
things because, you know, oneof the big frustrations I see
in schools, Leah , is that theroles and responsibilities
(14:03):
aren't clearly defined. And soif someone doesn't own a thing,
no one owns it, right? So it'slike, who's responsible for
marketing? Mm-Hmm.
, whoever answersthe phone. Well, that doesn't
necessarily always work, right?
So if you have someone who's incharge of something, they own
(14:23):
that thing. And if they knowthey own that thing, if they
need help with it, they can asksomeone for help. But like, as
owners, I would just encourageyou as owners, like when you're
looking at divvying up yourroles and responsibilities,
make sure you understand what ,what's the title that's going
to inspire action, ownership,and accountability. Do your
titles line up with that?
(14:44):
Because ultimately that's whatyou want. You want someone to
take accountability for theroles, for the routines, for
the projects involved in thatposition, own it, and run with
it and unleash that talent.
Now, as you do that, you'regoing to have to, and this is
really hard, increase yourtolerance for mistakes.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Oh , okay. The learning curve.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
The learning curve.
Mm-Hmm,
Speaker 2 (15:07):
.
Mm-Hmm, . Yeah .
And how do you , I mean, soare, does that mean you're kind
of back checking what thisperson is doing? Or how , how
do you do that?
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Well, you have to inspect what you expect.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Right. And so I use the project management tool. I
mean, there's a head of amountthere. I use Trello. There's
Asana, there's monday.com basecan , I mean, there's a lot of
project management tools, uhhuh, . Um, but, you
know, I like for, for them toput, you know, we, we've got
our routines and our projectsthat are listed in Trello with
checklists. So I can go on atany time and see where are we
working on this. And sometimesit's a project that's just not
(15:41):
as simple as simple as aspreadsheet, right? Like for
our marketing pieces right nowwe're scheduling schools for
the, for the school year. Sowe've got everything on a
spreadsheet. And I can see inprogression, like, you know,
did you send the contract? Didyou send the proposal? You
know, I can see where all,where we are here, but if all
of that is in, is in our heads,we can't keep track of it,
right? Mm-Hmm. .
(16:02):
So I think it's reallyimportant to have those, that,
those systems in place so thatyou can inspect what you
expect. If you keep everythingin your head or on post-it
notes, or you're , you'replanning on your own brain to
follow up , good luck on thatace , what they would say in
Vegas, right? ,
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Because
Speaker 3 (16:19):
It's just not gonna happen. Yeah . We have two . We
, I mean, this is crazy, Leah ,I , I saw a study that said we
are getting 35,000 messages aday,
Speaker 2 (16:29):
A day,
Speaker 3 (16:29):
35,000 messages a day. And, and most people are
on five social medias, fivedifferent social medias.
They're doing Facebook,Instagram, TikTok , snapchat,
LinkedIn at at at best, right?
And so they're , they're goingand they're looking at their
newsfeed, and then they havethe actual people that they're
communicating with, and thenthey have their email and maybe
a Slack channel. There's somany things. Um, so we're
(16:50):
getting all this messaging, sowe've gotta figure out is the
work getting done? So I, I'mnot a big believer in
micromanaging. If I have tomicromanage you and make sure
you're doing every piece ofyour job, then this is not the
job for you. And, andinterestingly enough, I just
parted ways. I kind of coachedout , um, a leader that I had
brought into my organization.
(17:11):
Um, you know, another statisticthat I learned is that when
you're looking at promoting andyou're looking at building that
leadership bench , you have a70% greater chance of getting
buy-in from the team and havingthis person be successful if
you hire from within
Speaker 2 (17:30):
70%,
Speaker 3 (17:31):
70%. And I thought that was really interesting. Um
, yeah, and I can , I can getyou this , I can get you this,
the source on that, but Ithought it was really
interesting. And I, and , andhere I go, right? I, I went
against my own advice and Ihired someone from
without, because I thought, youknow, she had a good resume,
talked a good talk, but gettingin this is when I realized is
that she didn't reallyunderstand our culture. She'd
(17:52):
worked for a company similar toours and didn't really
understand the culture, anddidn't really understand that I
would absolutely hold heraccountable for the work that
she had been assigned. Mm-Hmm.
. And because wehave to, right? We have, we
have to do it. And so , um, wehad, we used feedback, the
feedback loop system in mycompany, you know, what do ,
(18:13):
what do you do ? What'sworking, what's not working?
What needs to change? And so ,um, you know, repeatedly, she
wouldn't implement feedback.
And I'm like, you're a leader.
This is your responsibility.
I'm not delegating this to you.
I'm transferring thisresponsibility to you. Yeah .
And , and me understanding thatlanguage, the difference in
delegating and in transferringresponsibility to leaders was
(18:36):
very pivotal shift in mesaying, this is not on my plate
for me to go back and make sureyou're doing it. This is on
your plate. Here's, here's whatto do, here's how to do it.
Here's a video with how to doit. Here's instructions to do
it. Let me teach you how to doit, but let me watch you do it.
And now you are on your own todo it. So that's the kind of
(18:58):
flow that, that I teach to myleaders. So there's that
transfer of responsibility.
Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Responsibility
Speaker 3 (19:05):
And I have to trust.
And if they don't do it, it ,does it fall back to me? It
does. But I will tell you, itdoesn't fall back very, it
doesn't fall back many times.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Okay. So let's talk that
Speaker 3 (19:18):
It continues to fall back. That's not the right
person in the right seat.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Yeah. And that you were able and identifying that
and, and then , and it'sanother, another strong, strong
point or per or , um, pro Iwould get , I would say, in ,
um, in hiring from the people,you know. So let's talk about
that. Creating your leadershipbench , um, from within, how do
(19:42):
you, how do you decide who getsa spot on that bench?
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Well, there, there are lots of , um, I mean,
that's, that's not anecessarily straight question,
but I wanna I wanna give youjust a few, a few key points.
Number one, okay ? You go backto three key questions,
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (20:01):
You gotta figure out what is it that you want them
to do. You've gotta get thatreally strong job description.
And your job description needsto have a few , it needs to
have the role, it needs to havethe responsibilities, and it
needs to have the results.
Like, what, what are theresults that are gonna come
from this role? Right? Mm-Hmm .
. So then you ,you make sure you've got a very
(20:23):
clear job description, and thisis really important. So if
you're multitasking, come backto me for just a minute, okay?
In a small school, you have tobe sure that you say all
positions are, could bepossibly fluid. Like this is ju
this is not an all encompassingjob description. This is part
(20:45):
of the role container that I'mgonna have for you. But you may
be taking on other projectsthat will be in addition to
this role, because otherwiseyou toss someone at someone and
they're like, wait a minute,that wasn't on my job
description. That is numberone, low emotional
intelligence. And number two,you can't have that in a small
company. So I just wannapreface it by saying, you know,
make sure that you add, therecould be some other projects
(21:07):
that we may toss to you. Somm-Hmm .
disclaimer on that. But threequestions. Do they comprehend
it? Are they capable of it? Anddo they crave it? If you go
back to what EOS says, do theyget it? Do they want it? Can
they do it? Okay . So do they,do they get it? Do they
understand what the , what theresponsibility is? If it's
gonna require more hours, moreresponsibility, do they
(21:28):
understand that then? Are theycapable of it? Can they do it?
If you're gonna lead people,can you have hard conversations
with your coworkers ? And thendo you want it? And this is
where I see a lot of ECEleaders make mistakes, is that
they bring people intoleadership because they're
great employees, but they maynot be great leaders. Great.
(21:52):
Just because you're a greatclassroom teacher does not mean
that you're gonna be a greatdirector or a great lead
teacher. Um, so, you know, whenyou're looking at the, you
know, they, I mean, I had adirect , she's been with me now
for 21 years, but at about year10, I was like, Hey, I need
some leadership. I wanna moveyou up . She's like, okay,
let's do it. And then she said,I'll do it for a year. And
(22:14):
after six months, she came tome and said, Beth, I love what
I do. I love you. I love ourcompany. I believe in what
we're doing. I don't wanna leadwomen anymore. I love the kids.
And leading a team of grownupsis exhausting me. I just wanna
be back with the kids. Shesaid, so I'll, I'll fulfill my
(22:34):
commitment, but I , I don'twanna , I don't wanna do this
anymore. And that's okay. Andnot everyone does.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Yeah. And being good at your job is not necessarily
being good at another job.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Exactly. Mm-Hmm.
. Mm-Hmm .
, do they get it?
Do they want it? Can they doit? Those are the three main
questions to say, what does ittake? And then, you know, if
you a couple others, do theycatch your vision? You know, as
the leader? Have you been clearabout like, what is your vision
like? And when you're thinking,look , you're like, I don't
even know my vision. Well, yourvision is this. Imagine a world
where blank. You know, imaginea world where children can
(23:10):
learn and parents can feelconfident and safe while
they're, you know, growingtheir income and building their
dreams for their family.
Whatever it looks like, yourvision, then, do they live into
your values? You know, are youclear on your core values
because what you value is gonnadetermine what you do?
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Yeah,
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Hundred percent . So do they understand your values?
And then are they a culturevulture?
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Ooh , what is that
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Culture vultures culture , the culture that
detract from a positiveculture? And let's just name
'em, right? Angry Alex, who'smad all the time. Mm-Hmm .
bitter. Betsy,whose husband left her in 1979,
as she's as mad today as shewas the , today he left
,
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Right? Okay.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Distracted Dina , who's constantly on her phone
or on her watch, or whatev ,you know, just distracted all
the time. You know, just, justdistracted. Uh, gossipy Gail ,
who, nosy, Nancy, negativeNelly, you know , all of those
things lead into big timenegativity, and it steals the
positive culture. So you wantto have someone who's, who's
(24:10):
with you and who gets it, andwho live lives into those
values. And so sometimesthere's a spirit of
entitlement, right? Well, I'vebeen here for the longest, so I
should be the one moving up tothe director's office. Mm-Hmm .
. Well ,longevity, who, you know, who
you're related to doesn'tnecessarily mean that you are
(24:31):
the right person for this seatin on the leadership bench.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
So can you talk a little bit more about that?
Like what does, what does notguarantee an employee is spot
on this bench? And, and I thinkthe longevity is, is a big one.
People say, I've, I've put inmy time. All , all of all those
kind of culture, vulture, sayings, I guess , um,
way of thinking, way of way oftalking. Yeah . But are there,
(24:57):
are there, are there otherother things that maybe people
have come to assume that, oh,well, I'm gonna do this and
I'll, I'll move up that. No, Idon't think that's maybe the
best , maybe the bestmove
Speaker 3 (25:10):
For us . Yeah . I mean , you know, sometimes,
sometimes people will go outand they'll get, you know,
additional certification or adegree or, you know, they'll ,
they'll go get, they'll,they'll up their education
level meaning that, okay, I'mgonna up my education level and
I wanna grow within thecompany. Mm-Hmm.
, this is a hard reality. Noteverybody is your people,
right? And so just becausesomeone goes and gets a degree
(25:33):
and, and they want to make moremoney and they wanna do well,
like, that's great for them.
And I applaud any person whowants to better themselves
through education, that'sgreat. But they might not be
able to move up in your companybecause of their dynamics,
because of the way that theyinteract. Maybe some, you know
, some unhealth in their ownpersonality. Mm-Hmm .
(25:55):
. And they mightnot be the right person for
you, but they think, well,well, I got my degree and it's
because I have my degree. Now Iwanna move to this position. So
education level and then alsoexperience. I mean, we are not
doing open heart surgery ontoddlers, right? When we are
bringing , let's, let's justtalk about hiring on the
teacher level. And I know that,you know, a lot of states have,
(26:16):
you know, varying degrees ofyou need, you know, units or a
certain amount of education or,you know, that's gonna vary.
Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
,
Speaker 3 (26:23):
However, I, I believe with all of my heart
that your talent, which isloving children, being a person
of integrity, being a nurturingkind soul is a talent that we
cannot teach to people.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Mm-Hmm .
,
Speaker 3 (26:40):
We can give them skills, we can give them
knowledge. We cannot give themtalent. And so when someone
comes to me, I really do notcare what their experience is.
I care about their heartbecause I can teach 'em
everything they need to know. Ican get them the education that
I need to get them in order towork in my company in those
roles. So I think, you know,just because their experience
(27:01):
is funny in , uh, in stretchand grow, we had another one of
our , uh, affiliates, I thinkshe was in, she's in North
Carolina. She got a , uh, anemail from a potential employee
and it said , um, this is apart-time job, and you're
paying me just a few dollars anhour more than Target was. I
don't think I wanna make thiscommitment to babysit kids.
(27:21):
That was, I was like, warning,
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Warning. Well , A , you're
Speaker 3 (27:25):
For sure not the right person. Thanks for the
email, and I'm gonna flag yourname and make sure, should your
application ever come across mydesk again, I will be, it's a
hard no. But again, it's like,I've got all this experience
and you're, you're paying youjust a few dollars an hour more
than Target.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Ooh .
Speaker 3 (27:43):
That's, I don't care what your experience is ,
right? Yeah . And then, andthat leads to , that leads into
Leah the other e which isentitlement. So, you know ,
just believing that I should beentitled , um, you know, just
for , for people to be goodteam players, there has to be,
you know, a little bit of, ofhumbleness there, you know,
just , uh, just humblenessbecause of what we do. You
(28:04):
know, we're , this is not ashark world. This is , this is
an , this is an education worldand kindness and heart and love
and, and commitment matters somuch unlike other industries.
And so sometimes we overlook,you know, those things, and
someone comes across as just avery strong, confident person,
(28:25):
and I can do everything thatyou need me to do. And they
just seem like a great, greatperson. Mm-Hmm .
they may not have the heart todo what we do. And so, you
know, understanding, like, youknow, a question is, tell me
about a time you enjoyed agroup of children. I don't care
about your experience. I wannaknow, do you enjoy young
children? And if you enjoyyoung children, we're good. I
(28:46):
can help you.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Well, and that seems like such a, I don't wanna say
softball question, but I mean,shouldn't everyone in ECE have
a long list of times they hadfun at work, or the time this
little person said somethinghilarious, or, I mean, that
just seems like that would be agreat way to draw out any red
flags.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Well , uh, you know what? And it , I mean, hi . And
has literally been my bestinterview question over all
these years, because some ,sometimes they'll say, well, I
had , I have , um, eightsiblings, or I take care of my
cousins, or I'm like, well, doyou like them? That's
my question. I don't care howmany you have, but do you enjoy
them? Like, what can you tellme about enjoying them? Yeah .
And truly, Leah , some peoplecannot answer that question.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Ooh , wow. That is , I find that truly shocking. I
really, really do. I really
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Do . Well, so, so there's been some , you know,
of course, I think it wasGardner research. There's been
a lot of studies on, you know,just the , the state of
employees right now. And whatthey found is that 50% of
people who accept a job are notstarting that job. It's because
they get what they think is abetter offer. Oh . And when
people are applying for jobs,like it used to be someone who
(29:56):
loved children is gonna applyfor a job in early education,
right? That , that used to bethe thing . But now they might
apply for a job in childcare orTarget or Amazon or the US Post
Office. I mean, you know, therecould be a number of different
things that they're applyingfor because they're just
scanning Indeed and saying, Iwanna make, you know, 17 to $20
(30:16):
an hour or whatever. And sothat's their search is they're
just searching for a certaindollar an hour, uhhuh , and
then all those jobs are kind ofcoming up. So they, they're not
really sure what they wanna do.
Um, and then they're like,okay, who's gonna gimme the
best offer? Who do I like best?
Mm-Hmm,
Speaker 2 (30:32):
.
Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
50. So if you've been ghosted, you're not
special because it's happeninga lot.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
. All right ,
so let's move on. This is, this
is good stuff. I feel likeevery single one of these
questions, we could do anentire podcast on Beth, you
have like sure . So much tosay. Um, so staying on that
leadership bench , um, centerowners have to decide, are you
gonna keep it or are you gonnabreak it up? What, what does
that mean? And how do you doit?
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Okay. So if you're, if you are an , an owner or
leader, and you're in a placeto where you're like, I I need
more leadership, I need morehelp. Mm-Hmm . ,
I need to level my people up.
Uhhuh , , I wantyou to look at who you have on
your bench now,
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (31:14):
Do you have the right people in the right
places? Hmm . Are they able toexecute the work that you have
or are there issues? So numberone, if, if you're looking at
your bench and saying, I needto burn this mother up,
, . That is, that's alot of work. And you have to do
that very, very, you have to dothat very, very carefully.
(31:36):
Like, I had a leader on my comy company, and she was like,
my ride or die, she was with mefor 15 years. And for about 13
and a half of those years, shewas amazing. And in the last
year, she had a lot of personalthings that were happening that
really affected her work.
Mm-Hmm . And I just began tofeel like things are not
hitting on all cylinders. Youknow, things work's, not
getting done. Our turnover wasunusually high. You know , um,
(31:59):
um, things are happening towhere there was like a lack of
training and a lack ofcommunication. And so, you
know, eventually we ended up,you know, figuring like this,
she needed, she needed to moveon, you know , it was time to
move on. But I'll tell you thatsick feeling that I had in my
gut to know that like,something is not right, and
I've entrusted so much to thisperson who for a long time did
(32:20):
great.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Uhhuh
,
Speaker 3 (32:22):
And the season was up, right? Her season was up,
it was time for her to, to moveon. And so it happened quicker
than I thought that it wouldhappen. But if you have your
business systematized, and Iwould've done a better job
getting the business out of herhead onto paper, into SOPs, we
(32:43):
would've, it , it would've beena much easier experience. And I
knew it, and I had so many ofour other position
systematized, but notnecessarily her, she was
speaking of operations, right?
So she, she turned the gears,Uhhuh, . So when
she left, I had to figure outlike , out what gears were
being turned, what was the flowof them being turned. So before
you burn up your bench, don'tcreate a mess of your own
(33:06):
making, start systematizingyour positions. And that's what
I teach in Stick to StrategyAcademy. It's how to take what
we're doing and put it intosystems . So if the person
steps away, those systems arein place. So if you're an owner
or director, leader, schoolleader, could you be gone for
two weeks? And would thebusiness run without you? So my
(33:26):
question is, what doesn'thappen if you are not there?
And if they, if they're, oh mygosh, it's payroll, it says
it's all the things. Get thosesystems in place. So do you
need to burn it up or do youneed to build it? Right? And
so, if you've got the rightpeople in the right seats, you
know, you're set, you're ready, you're ready to rock on, make
(33:48):
sure that everybody in yourboat is rowing in the same
direction and you don't haveanyone poking holes in, in the
back. So, and if you need tobuild it, go back to what I
said in the beginning, look forpeople who are taking
initiative. Look for people whoare emotionally intelligent,
and look for people who haveinfluence.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Okay ? All right .
And now this is, this is whatseems to me anyway, as somebody
who's knows who's never run aECE business. Um, but what's
the hard part ofimplementation? Like making
this happen, actually doing thework? And you have, you have
six, six questions that centerowners need to ask, and I
(34:30):
wondered if we could go througheach of them.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
You bet. You bet.
Okay . So the first one, youknow, we talked about are the
right people in, in the rightplaces. That's when you , you
know, you're looking at yourbench. Do you have the right
people in the right seats?
Like, if you are a visionaryand you're the idea person,
Uhhuh , you needsomeone who's an operator or an
integrator, someone who cantake beauty of your mess. You
know, my husband and I havebeen business partners for 25
years now, and , and he truly,I mean, I'm an Enneagram three,
(34:55):
I I'm a , I'm a visionary. I'man achiever. I, I am looking at
the big picture. Always,always, always. Mm-Hmm,
. And he is aprocessor in Enneagram one, an
improver. A reformer. So he'staking all those details and
putting them in place. Soyou've gotta make sure you've
got the right people that canexecute the work. Mm-Hmm,
. Um, the nextis, do you have that untapped
(35:16):
potential that you'reoverlooking? Mm-Hmm .
. So , you know ,in your one-on-ones, you know,
asking questions like, is theresomething here that you see
that needs to be done that'snot getting done? Or is there a
position? Or are there anythings that you would like to
do that you're not doing now?
And find out what they think. Imean, if you really sit and
(35:36):
talk to your, your people,other than about the checklist
of the things they are or notdoing, you're gonna maybe find
some untapped potential. Andthen the next thing, does your
org chart reflect growthpotential? Right? Because
oftentimes our org chart inschools, it's like, you know,
maybe you've got a c-suite ifyou're a larger organization,
but oftentimes it's director,assistant director, maybe you
(35:56):
have lead teachers, assistantteachers, floaters, right ?
What , what we would callfloaters, cooks, you know,
admin, drivers, chefs,whatever, you know, whatever
those titles are. But take alook at that org chart. Does it
reflect potential growth? Youknow , when you break up your
operations in a school, youknow, you break it into several
different buckets. You've gotyour sales and marketing,
(36:18):
you've got your operations inhr, you've got your finance,
and then you've got yourdelivery, right? Your
fulfillment, which is what ishappening in the classroom,
which is where the, the actualdelivery of the service that
you're selling is delivered. Solook at your org chart. Does it
reflect growth potential? Couldsomeone who starts out in the
(36:38):
infant room end up moving intoa position like curriculum
coordinator, for example?
Mm-Hmm. . Um, theother, do your job titles and
descriptions inspireaccountability. Leah , this is
where a lot of us are missing.
And again, e everything I'mteaching, I've lived ,
I've lived it through the fire,right? So Uhhuh,
(36:58):
. Mm-Hmm . . Sowhen I brought in this new
round of leaders , I was verylucky that I've been doing my
business for so long that Icould really say, okay, what's
the role? What are theresponsibilities? And what are
the results? Meaning what are ,what are the deliverables?
Uhhuh ? Andagain, I wanna remind us, I
talked about the shift fromjust delegating to transferring
responsibility. Like tellingpeople, like, I am not going to
(37:19):
be following up to make surethat you, you know, followed up
from a tour, or that youreached out to every new
parent, or that you ordered thecurriculum supplies. Like, I'm
not gonna be reminding you ortelling you any of these
things. This is your job. Yep .
So don't wait for me to say,oh, it's time to start
marketing, or it's time tostart ordering supplies. Like,
(37:41):
this needs to be on your radar.
This is your job. So Uhhuh , it's hiring
accountability. Then the otherone, what is your capacity to
invest in and grow leaders?
big one . I mean,you're , and we have, you know,
as leaders, we've got a fewdifferent capacities. What's
your physical capacity? What'syour mental capacity? What's
(38:02):
your emotional capacity? Andwhat is your spiritual
capacity? And I think that weare all of those things
together. Um, you know, and Ihad been in a season to where I
really did not have a lot ofphysical capacity when I
brought on these new leaders.
It happened in the middle ofthe year. And, you know, I, if,
(38:23):
if you followed my, my socialmedia, you probably see I'm
gone once a week. Mm-Hmm .
on a trip to gospeak at a conference or do a
leadership retreat, or do teambuilding, or do strategic
planning. So I travel a lot.
Well, my team is here, right?
So I have two, really twofull-time jobs. Yeah. So I had
to increase my capacity tofocus on growing and building
(38:47):
my leaders. And you have toknow that when you're gonna do
this, they're gonna need you.
You can't just, you know, tossout, oh, here's your job
description. Go figure it out.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
, you
have to spend time with, you
have to nurture, you have toshow people what to do, do it
with them, and then watch themdo it. And that takes time.
That, for people who arevisionaries, maybe maybe a
little grownup, A DHD , guiltyhere.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
Mm-Hmm.
.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
But I've gotta make that a priority to pour into
those leaders, because I want ateam led company, right? I want
my team to be able to, to leadmy company. And I know that
they can do it, but they can'tdo it unless I am constantly
driving the vision for, Heyguys, this is where we're
going, this is where we'regoing, this is where we're
going. And be relentlesslypassionate about that, you
(39:37):
know? And then the last one is, you know, is really just, are
you building a leadershipbench? Mm-Hmm . ,
you know, or are you juststicking with the, everybody's
in their seats and we're not,you know, we're not growing.
And you may be at full capacityand things may be great, and if
you're listening to this andthings are great, enjoy it. But
(39:57):
things don't stay this wayforever, right? Life happens,
people move, people move on. Soif you're great right now, be
looking ahead. What if Ms .
Judy leaves, Ms . Judy's beenhere for 20 years. What if she
believes, is her jobsystematized? Do we have
someone ready to step into Ms .
Judy's position? Should anotherdoor an opportunity open for
her? So those are kind of thesix questions, ideas for
(40:19):
implementation as you'relooking at what do I need to
do? So the , so those kind ofsix questions, and hopefully
you , you know, you'll dropsome of these things in the
show notes for ideas to inspirethat implementation. So
everyone can take a look at andreally examine what needs to
happen in my organization forme to be able to unleash the
(40:40):
talent that I have been blessedwith in this season, or who do
I need to hire?
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Yeah. And it sounds like you're talking about,
you're talking about lookingahead and also not getting too
comfortable like that, likefinding that balance and how to
do it, which Yeah. Requires alot of thought, a lot of
looking inward, a lot ofthinking of your values. It's,
it's a lot. I think it's a lotmore than a lot of people maybe
(41:07):
wanna take on or understand howto take on.
Speaker 3 (41:10):
Well, but people who are growth-minded are thinking
about this anyway, Leah,they're thinking about it
anyway. And you know, when youthink, oh my gosh, I don't have
the money, I don't have themoney. A good employee
shouldn't cost you money. Agood employee should make you
money. Mm-Hmm. .
Whether they're, you know,whether they're, you know,
helping to drive the enrollmentand build the enrollment.
Whether they're looking forthings like bringing enrichment
(41:30):
programs that will, you know,bring profits back to their
pockets because that, you know,that's part of what an
enrichment program will do. Areyou , you know, are you, you
know, taking rebates from yourvendors, what does that look
like? Um, so good employeesshouldn't cost you money.
Mm-Hmm. , theyshould make money for the
business. And maybe it'sremoving the owner from
(41:51):
responsibilities to free themup from doing things that they
enjoy doing, like theleadership responsibilities.
'cause when you look ateverything that's on a
director's plate, you know,payroll, one-on-ones dealing
with challenging behaviors, allthe things that they have to
deal with, leadership is notreally in their job
description. Mm-Hmm.
, that's the mostimportant thing that they do .
So my best advice would be lookaround and then look ahead.
(42:17):
Look around at what you have,look ahead to where you wanna
go. We're in the summer. It's agreat time to kind of evaluate
what's gonna happen when schoolstarts. Um, and then just see ,
you know, do you have someonethat's like really like hungry
to grow? And , and when I seethat hunger and I see that
passion for what we do, Ithink, Ooh , ooh , that one
might, that one might be a goodleader. I wanna do something
(42:40):
with this person because I seegreatness. And what can I do to
unleash greatness? Like whatwords of life can I speak over
this person that would unleashwhat is already in them That
would really help us to, youknow, to reach our vision and
to help them reach their visionfor their own lives as well.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
Yes. Yeah. A two way street. Yeah. For sure. All
right , Beth, we are at the endof our time. Thank you so much
for coming. We always lovehearing everything you have to
say , um, on your webinars withus that you do these podcasts.
We are , we're always soappreciative. And could you ,
um, share with our listenershow they can find out more
about you, your website, anyother, any other ways to, to
(43:21):
contact you?
Speaker 3 (43:23):
Yep . You can find me at Beth Cannon Speaks. I am
on Instagram, Facebook, andLinkedIn. And then that's my,
that's my website as well atBeth Cannon speaks . And , um,
find me, send me a DM and if Ican help you in your, you know,
level up your leadership, ifyou need deeper support in that
, uh, reach out. I'd be happyto help you.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
All right . Thank so much and thank you to all of
our listeners. And thank youfor the vital work that you are
doing every single day tosupport working families, to
support young learners , um, tosupport the economy. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (43:53):
I love it so much.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Right. Have a good day, everyone. Bye.
Speaker 3 (43:56):
Thanks, Mia .
Speaker 4 (43:59):
Thank
Speaker 1 (43:59):
You for listening to this episode of the Childcare
Business Podcast . To get moreinsights on ways to succeed in
your childcare business, makesure to hit subscribe in your
podcast app so you never missan episode. And if you want
even more childcare , businesstips, tricks, and strategies,
head over to our resourcecenter@procaresoftware.com.
(44:19):
Until next time.
Welcome to the Childcare Business Podcast,
brought to you by ProCareSolutions. This podcast is all
about giving childcare ,preschool, daycare, after
school , and other earlyeducation professionals. A fun
and upbeat way to learn aboutstrategies and inspiration you
can use to thrive. You'll hearfrom a variety of childcare
(00:29):
thought leaders, includingeducators, owners, and industry
experts on ways to innovate, tomeet the needs of the children
you serve. From practical tipsfor managing operations to
uplifting stories oftransformation and triumph,
this podcast will be chock fullof insights you can use to
fully realize the potential ofyour childcare business. Let's
(00:50):
jump in.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Good morning everyone, and welcome to the
Childcare Business Podcast. Myname is Leah Woodbury. I'm the
head of content here at ProCareSolutions, and I'm very happy
to have you all join us today.
Um, on this podcast, we'rethrilled to have Beth Cannon
with us. She owns 12 Stretchand Grow franchises. Um, that's
(01:14):
an international children'smotor development and
enrichment provider thatdirectly serves childcare
centers. She's a speaker, acoach, a consultant. She has a
lot of ECE experience in a lotof areas, and today we're gonna
pick her brain about how youcan develop leaders within your
childcare business . Welcome,Beth.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be back with
you all.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Great. Alright , so let's start where we always
like to start these podcasts,getting a little background on
our guests. Can you talk abouthow you got into ECE?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Yes. Well, you , you know, you mentioned that I,
we've got multiple stretch ofyour franchises. We now have
13. We've acquired, we justacquired another one. Um, but
that is, I was a school teacherand, and what they called it
back in the day, an aerobicsinstructor and , um, had spoken
at, you know, you know,conferences here and there just
on education things. Anyhow ,uh, started doing stretch and
(02:10):
grow quickly. We grew, I becamethe corporate trainer and just
really delved into this , um,joy of training business
owners. Mm-Hmm .
pouring into the people who arepouring into children. And so,
you know, spoken at conferencesprobably for, you know, over 20
years now and, and teaching andtraining. And then , um, you
(02:32):
know, when Covid hit, I beganto shift a little bit more into
the strategy piece ofleadership because it was so
evident that there was such agap in leadership training in
early education. And so, youknow, the , the business side
of it, you know, we just kindof scrambled and I thought,
gosh, I , I can help, I canhelp my people . And so just
(02:55):
began to develop some differentstrategy courses . And then of
course , you know , the , theworld blew up and, and so much
more exposure came aboutduring, during that time. And
so for the last four years,I've really been focused on
doing leadership retreats,speaking at conferences, team
building, and then doing, I'vegot a couple of, you know,
courses that I do, a learn tolead leadership certification,
(03:16):
and then stuck to strategy,which is an operations program
that we do online.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Wow , that's really great. It's always good to hear
when, when you see a need inECE and then you step up to
help other people in the field.
I feel like this field is sosupportive of each other, which
you don't really see in other,in other industries.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Yeah, it , it really is. And you know, I'm a , I'm a
true teacher at heart. Mm-Hmm .
thing. And so I just, you know,I love our industry. I love
what we do, and , um, and it,it feels so good to be able to
help them and to see them gettraction in their businesses.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yes. So let's shift to what we're talking about
today , um, developing leaderswithin your childcare business.
Um, can we begin withidentifying the staff who might
be ready for advancement? What,what traits are you looking for
in a , in a teacher or anotherstaff member in your center to
see who might be ready for moreresponsibility and more growth
(04:12):
?
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Well, I think the first thing probably really is
to look at who is takinginitiative. I think initiative
is so, so important becauseyou, you, you look around and
when you, you , you payattention to the tension,
right? That's one of , that'sone of my favorite things to ,
to , for when you're looking todevelop leaders. That's one of
(04:35):
my favorite things is to tellleaders, you know, school
owners, school directors to do,is to look around and pay
attention to the attention andsee where people are taking
initiative. Because if they'retaking initiative and, you
know, something as simple as,you know, picking up trash
coming into the, coming intothe building. I mean, that's
something very, very simple, ofcourse. But when they are
(04:57):
taking initiative and they arelooking around and seeing like,
Hey, how can I be a part ofsomething great? How, you know,
how, how can I help here? Whatcan I do? What can I do to
help? So I think takinginitiative number one, super
important. And there , there'sthree eyes to this, right? So
if you're taking notes, ifyou're a note taker, it's
taking initiative. The other isintelligence. And I don't mean
(05:19):
just, you know, smartintelligence, I mean emotional
intelligence, you know, arethey emotionally intelligent
enough to be able to receivefeedback, not just receive
feedback, but implement thatfeedback , um, instead of
being, you know, triggered orupset with the feedback that
they got with , I mean, we canall grow and improve , right?
Mm-Hmm.
(05:40):
emotional intelligence, beingable to read a room, being kind
, um, you know, not beingeasily set off by the things
that can stress us out. And soI think the emotional
intelligence piece is reallyimportant. Um, and then as you,
you know, as you look a littlebit deeper into that, I think
it's influence, and that mightbe one of the most important
(06:02):
things, is do they, are theypositively influencing other
people in the building? Becauseyou're not a leader if no one's
following you,
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Right? Yeah, that's
Speaker 3 (06:14):
So true. So are they positively influencing the rest
of the team or even positivelyinfluencing, you know, their ,
their parents? But I thinkthose three eyes are some of
the key indicators of whenyou're looking for a leader,
what to look for. So it's, youknow, do they take initiative?
Do they have the emotionalintelligence, and do they
influence other people in apositive way?
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Okay. So you shared your expertise in , um, our
2024 childcare managementsoftware industry trends
report. And in that we surveyedthousands and thousands of
stakeholders. And our , theresponse we got was that 61%
said it's a challenge to hireand retain staff. And you were,
(07:01):
you were talking in the, in thereport. And thank you again
for, for taking part in that.
We love partner , we lovepartnering with you. Um , you
said to look for 18 playerswho, and give them stretch
assignments. Can you, can yougive an example of a stretch
assignment?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Sure. I, it is funny, I'm, I'm living the ,
I'm living the dream right now,Leah . So I've got a few newer
leaders on , on my team, and I,I love investing in younger
leaders. You know, everyone'slike, don't hire Gen Z. I will
tell you that three of my fiveleaders are Gen Z. And you
know, I, you know, there ,there , there are challenges
(07:37):
with every generation, ofcourse. Mm-Hmm .
. But I , you know, I lovepouring into younger leaders
and seeing what can beunleashed. And so , um, you
know, I've given them all somestretch assignments right now.
And so, you know, maybe one ofthem is on, like, one of 'em is
working on a marketingcampaign, right? Like, what,
what are some ideas that youcan share that will help build
(07:58):
enrollment? So, you know, we'reabout to, we're about to lose a
third of our students in ourenrichment programs, right?
Stretch and grows enrichmentprogram because they're going
to kindergarten, they're goingto big school. Mm-Hmm .
we're like, how can we promoteand, and let the parents and
the schools know that we've gotthese programs coming up for
their, you know, their risingtwo and three year olds that
they can enroll in theseprograms. So one has a
(08:20):
marketing assignment, and I'mjust like throwing it out
there. This is, these are theobjectives, these are
deliverables, these are, thisis our critical number. We
wanna enroll this manychildren. What can you do to
promote that? So one's got amar marketing, so like within a
school, it may be, you know,let one of them take over a
tour. Maybe they're superpassionate about your school,
and you as the leader might besuper busy with some other
(08:42):
things going on. Show 'em howto do a tour, do a tour with
them, and then let them do thenext tour that comes through.
Maybe it's following up, like,you know, when when parents are
coming into their funnel,they're following up through
their CRM , um, maybe it'splanning a back to school
event, you know, maybe they're, it's someone that really, you
know, super loves to, to plan,and they, they are very excited
(09:04):
about it, and it mightoverwhelm the directors, and
they're like, you know what?
Great plan the back to schoolevent. Um , so other things are
simple though, Leah, as theywanna organize a supply closet,
you know, the supply closet's ahot mess.
preschools are more messy thannot, because they're led by
creative people. And a lot oftimes really creative people
are messy
(09:26):
they do not care about theprocess. So the process might
not be pretty, but theoutcome's gonna be good. So,
but there may be someone thatwants to organize a supply
closet or, you know, lead ateam meeting or share in an
activity. Um, you know, I knowa lot of owners are
visionaries, and so they've gota million ideas and they have
like, idea fatigue, right?
(09:48):
They're like, can some, cansomeone else come up with the
ideas around here? Like, I wantsomeone else to come up with
ideas, not just come up withthem, but implement them. So
maybe the visionary needssomeone to come along and
implement the ideas that theyhave. So I think there , you
know, there's lots of thingsthat they can do within the
school, but I think as peoplebegin to take that initiative
(10:09):
and you see like, Hey, thisperson might wanna step up.
You've gotta figure out whattheir natural gifts and talents
are and unleash them in thosegifts and talents. I am a , a
big believer in understandingwhat someone's personality is.
I use the Enneagram test andI've got a link to an Enneagram
quiz for leaders. We can dropthat in the show notes if you
want. And it's, the Enneagramis just a personality test to
(10:31):
tell you what your leadershipstyle is. So I've got one girl
that's, she's so detailoriented, and I am not, I am
the visionary, I'm the ideaperson. I'm the big picture
person. Uhhuh
am letting her be in charge ofplanning a hurdle , our
recitals, and doing all thedetails of the recital. I just
wanna show up and make, and ,and , and watch the kids have a
(10:52):
great time and see the parentsenjoy it. Yeah. So that was her
assignment. So those are someexamples of some things that
might, you know, kind of, of ofunlock and unleash what is
already inside. Because I thinkthis, you can't put something
in someone that's not there.
Your job as a leader is tounleash those talents, those
(11:12):
gifts that are already insideof them because you can't put
in what's not there.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Yeah. Or make them interested in something they're
not interested in or excitedabout, something they're not
excited in Right . About, Ishould say. Yeah .
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Right.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Makes sense. So on the titles, and this kind of ,
this, this fits in with whatyou just talked about. Um, you,
you have strong feelings onthis one. Um,
that report that you were , um,featured in with us, you
explained that youngeremployees today, the Gen Zers ,
they don't like these, thesetitles or perhaps the ones that
we're giving them is a, is abetter way of saying that. Can
(11:50):
you, can you talk a little bitmore about that?
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Yeah, I mean, you know, research will say that
like you're , you know, that ,that Gen Z and millennials,
that titles are important. Ithink a lot of that is risen
through, you know, just throughsocial media, LinkedIn, you
know, they're titles matter.
You know, in my idea we're justpassing out a business card
that no , put it , you put itin your Rolodex, you didn't
even look at it until someoneneeded to reach out to you.
Right? So , mm-hmm.
(12:14):
And so now we wanna be carefulin giving overinflated titles.
Like , we don't wanna call anentry-level employee, the VP of
operations, because they'll belooking on LinkedIn and say ,
you need to pay me 120 grand,like , and I'm only making 18
an hour. So, right. But Ithink, you know, when you're
looking to inspire leadership,that title gives people
(12:35):
ownership. And in myexperience, when I've given
someone title, like, Hey, Iwant you to be an area
coordinator. I want you to bean area director. You know, I
want you to be a team lead. Iwant you to be a lead coach.
Those inspire , um, just eexcitement around it. It's
like, you know , someone seessomething in me and , and they
kind of tap me on the shoulderand said, Hey, you, you've
(12:57):
moved to the next level. And Ithink that what it does for
their mindset when they get anew title, really inspires that
action. And I've seen that inmy own organization, and I've
seen that in a lot of others.
And another , but , and itdoesn't even have to be
necessarily leadership. Ithink, you know, the word
assistant , um, you know, thatcan, that can sometimes be
(13:20):
demotivating to people. Andsome pe some people argue and
say, well, they're an assistantthat that's what they are.
They're, they are assisting soand so . But like, when you
look at the director level,like you've got it , most
schools have a director and anassistant director. Oftentimes
what falls to the assistantdirector is whatever the
director didn't wanna do. Okay.
Not always, but sometimes itdoes. And so I've seen a lot of
(13:41):
schools change titles to say,this person is the program
director, this person is thedirector of education, this
person is the administrativedirector, or this person is the
business director. You know,they just found different
things because, you know, oneof the big frustrations I see
in schools, Leah , is that theroles and responsibilities
(14:03):
aren't clearly defined. And soif someone doesn't own a thing,
no one owns it, right? So it'slike, who's responsible for
marketing? Mm-Hmm.
necessarily always work, right?
So if you have someone who's incharge of something, they own
(14:23):
that thing. And if they knowthey own that thing, if they
need help with it, they can asksomeone for help. But like, as
owners, I would just encourageyou as owners, like when you're
looking at divvying up yourroles and responsibilities,
make sure you understand what ,what's the title that's going
to inspire action, ownership,and accountability. Do your
titles line up with that?
(14:44):
Because ultimately that's whatyou want. You want someone to
take accountability for theroles, for the routines, for
the projects involved in thatposition, own it, and run with
it and unleash that talent.
Now, as you do that, you'regoing to have to, and this is
really hard, increase yourtolerance for mistakes.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Oh , okay. The learning curve.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
The learning curve.
Mm-Hmm,
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Mm-Hmm,
And how do you , I mean, soare, does that mean you're kind
of back checking what thisperson is doing? Or how , how
do you do that?
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Well, you have to inspect what you expect.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Right. And so I use the project management tool. I
mean, there's a head of amountthere. I use Trello. There's
Asana, there's monday.com basecan , I mean, there's a lot of
project management tools, uhhuh,
know, I like for, for them toput, you know, we, we've got
our routines and our projectsthat are listed in Trello with
checklists. So I can go on atany time and see where are we
working on this. And sometimesit's a project that's just not
(15:41):
as simple as simple as aspreadsheet, right? Like for
our marketing pieces right nowwe're scheduling schools for
the, for the school year. Sowe've got everything on a
spreadsheet. And I can see inprogression, like, you know,
did you send the contract? Didyou send the proposal? You
know, I can see where all,where we are here, but if all
of that is in, is in our heads,we can't keep track of it,
right? Mm-Hmm.
(16:02):
So I think it's reallyimportant to have those, that,
those systems in place so thatyou can inspect what you
expect. If you keep everythingin your head or on post-it
notes, or you're , you'replanning on your own brain to
follow up , good luck on thatace , what they would say in
Vegas, right?
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Because
Speaker 3 (16:19):
It's just not gonna happen. Yeah . We have two . We
, I mean, this is crazy, Leah ,I , I saw a study that said we
are getting 35,000 messages aday,
Speaker 2 (16:29):
A day,
Speaker 3 (16:29):
35,000 messages a day. And, and most people are
on five social medias, fivedifferent social medias.
They're doing Facebook,Instagram, TikTok , snapchat,
LinkedIn at at at best, right?
And so they're , they're goingand they're looking at their
newsfeed, and then they havethe actual people that they're
communicating with, and thenthey have their email and maybe
a Slack channel. There's somany things. Um, so we're
(16:50):
getting all this messaging, sowe've gotta figure out is the
work getting done? So I, I'mnot a big believer in
micromanaging. If I have tomicromanage you and make sure
you're doing every piece ofyour job, then this is not the
job for you. And, andinterestingly enough, I just
parted ways. I kind of coachedout , um, a leader that I had
brought into my organization.
(17:11):
Um, you know, another statisticthat I learned is that when
you're looking at promoting andyou're looking at building that
leadership bench , you have a70% greater chance of getting
buy-in from the team and havingthis person be successful if
you hire from within
Speaker 2 (17:30):
70%,
Speaker 3 (17:31):
70%. And I thought that was really interesting. Um
, yeah, and I can , I can getyou this , I can get you this,
the source on that, but Ithought it was really
interesting. And I, and , andhere I go, right? I, I went
against my own advice and Ihired someone
without, because I thought, youknow, she had a good resume,
talked a good talk, but gettingin this is when I realized is
that she didn't reallyunderstand our culture. She'd
(17:52):
worked for a company similar toours and didn't really
understand the culture, anddidn't really understand that I
would absolutely hold heraccountable for the work that
she had been assigned. Mm-Hmm.
have to do it. And so , um, wehad, we used feedback, the
feedback loop system in mycompany, you know, what do ,
(18:13):
what do you do ? What'sworking, what's not working?
What needs to change? And so ,um, you know, repeatedly, she
wouldn't implement feedback.
And I'm like, you're a leader.
This is your responsibility.
I'm not delegating this to you.
I'm transferring thisresponsibility to you. Yeah .
And , and me understanding thatlanguage, the difference in
delegating and in transferringresponsibility to leaders was
(18:36):
very pivotal shift in mesaying, this is not on my plate
for me to go back and make sureyou're doing it. This is on
your plate. Here's, here's whatto do, here's how to do it.
Here's a video with how to doit. Here's instructions to do
it. Let me teach you how to doit, but let me watch you do it.
And now you are on your own todo it. So that's the kind of
(18:58):
flow that, that I teach to myleaders. So there's that
transfer of responsibility.
Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Responsibility
Speaker 3 (19:05):
And I have to trust.
And if they don't do it, it ,does it fall back to me? It
does. But I will tell you, itdoesn't fall back very, it
doesn't fall back many times.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Okay. So let's talk that
Speaker 3 (19:18):
It continues to fall back. That's not the right
person in the right seat.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Yeah. And that you were able and identifying that
and, and then , and it'sanother, another strong, strong
point or per or , um, pro Iwould get , I would say, in ,
um, in hiring from the people,you know. So let's talk about
that. Creating your leadershipbench , um, from within, how do
(19:42):
you, how do you decide who getsa spot on that bench?
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Well, there, there are lots of , um, I mean,
that's, that's not anecessarily straight question,
but I wanna I wanna give youjust a few, a few key points.
Number one, okay ? You go backto three key questions,
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (20:01):
You gotta figure out what is it that you want them
to do. You've gotta get thatreally strong job description.
And your job description needsto have a few , it needs to
have the role, it needs to havethe responsibilities, and it
needs to have the results.
Like, what, what are theresults that are gonna come
from this role? Right? Mm-Hmm .
(20:23):
clear job description, and thisis really important. So if
you're multitasking, come backto me for just a minute, okay?
In a small school, you have tobe sure that you say all
positions are, could bepossibly fluid. Like this is ju
this is not an all encompassingjob description. This is part
(20:45):
of the role container that I'mgonna have for you. But you may
be taking on other projectsthat will be in addition to
this role, because otherwiseyou toss someone at someone and
they're like, wait a minute,that wasn't on my job
description. That is numberone, low emotional
intelligence. And number two,you can't have that in a small
company. So I just wannapreface it by saying, you know,
make sure that you add, therecould be some other projects
(21:07):
that we may toss to you. Somm-Hmm .
disclaimer on that. But threequestions. Do they comprehend
it? Are they capable of it? Anddo they crave it? If you go
back to what EOS says, do theyget it? Do they want it? Can
they do it? Okay . So do they,do they get it? Do they
understand what the , what theresponsibility is? If it's
gonna require more hours, moreresponsibility, do they
(21:28):
understand that then? Are theycapable of it? Can they do it?
If you're gonna lead people,can you have hard conversations
with your coworkers ? And thendo you want it? And this is
where I see a lot of ECEleaders make mistakes, is that
they bring people intoleadership because they're
great employees, but they maynot be great leaders. Great.
(21:52):
Just because you're a greatclassroom teacher does not mean
that you're gonna be a greatdirector or a great lead
teacher. Um, so, you know, whenyou're looking at the, you
know, they, I mean, I had adirect , she's been with me now
for 21 years, but at about year10, I was like, Hey, I need
some leadership. I wanna moveyou up . She's like, okay,
let's do it. And then she said,I'll do it for a year. And
(22:14):
after six months, she came tome and said, Beth, I love what
I do. I love you. I love ourcompany. I believe in what
we're doing. I don't wanna leadwomen anymore. I love the kids.
And leading a team of grownupsis exhausting me. I just wanna
be back with the kids. Shesaid, so I'll, I'll fulfill my
(22:34):
commitment, but I , I don'twanna , I don't wanna do this
anymore. And that's okay. Andnot everyone does.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Yeah. And being good at your job is not necessarily
being good at another job.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Exactly. Mm-Hmm.
Do they want it? Can they doit? Those are the three main
questions to say, what does ittake? And then, you know, if
you a couple others, do theycatch your vision? You know, as
the leader? Have you been clearabout like, what is your vision
like? And when you're thinking,look , you're like, I don't
even know my vision. Well, yourvision is this. Imagine a world
where blank. You know, imaginea world where children can
(23:10):
learn and parents can feelconfident and safe while
they're, you know, growingtheir income and building their
dreams for their family.
Whatever it looks like, yourvision, then, do they live into
your values? You know, are youclear on your core values
because what you value is gonnadetermine what you do?
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Yeah,
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Hundred percent . So do they understand your values?
And then are they a culturevulture?
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Ooh , what is that
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Culture vultures culture , the culture that
detract from a positiveculture? And let's just name
'em, right? Angry Alex, who'smad all the time. Mm-Hmm .
as she's as mad today as shewas the , today he left
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Right? Okay.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Distracted Dina , who's constantly on her phone
or on her watch, or whatev ,you know, just distracted all
the time. You know, just, justdistracted. Uh, gossipy Gail ,
who, nosy, Nancy, negativeNelly, you know , all of those
things lead into big timenegativity, and it steals the
positive culture. So you wantto have someone who's, who's
(24:10):
with you and who gets it, andwho live lives into those
values. And so sometimesthere's a spirit of
entitlement, right? Well, I'vebeen here for the longest, so I
should be the one moving up tothe director's office. Mm-Hmm .
you're related to doesn'tnecessarily mean that you are
(24:31):
the right person for this seatin on the leadership bench.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
So can you talk a little bit more about that?
Like what does, what does notguarantee an employee is spot
on this bench? And, and I thinkthe longevity is, is a big one.
People say, I've, I've put inmy time. All , all of all those
kind of culture, vulture,
way of thinking, way of way oftalking. Yeah . But are there,
(24:57):
are there, are there otherother things that maybe people
have come to assume that, oh,well, I'm gonna do this and
I'll, I'll move up that. No, Idon't think that's maybe the
best
Speaker 3 (25:10):
For us . Yeah . I mean , you know, sometimes,
sometimes people will go outand they'll get, you know,
additional certification or adegree or, you know, they'll ,
they'll go get, they'll,they'll up their education
level meaning that, okay, I'mgonna up my education level and
I wanna grow within thecompany. Mm-Hmm.
, this is a hard reality. Noteverybody is your people,
right? And so just becausesomeone goes and gets a degree
(25:33):
and, and they want to make moremoney and they wanna do well,
like, that's great for them.
And I applaud any person whowants to better themselves
through education, that'sgreat. But they might not be
able to move up in your companybecause of their dynamics,
because of the way that theyinteract. Maybe some, you know
, some unhealth in their ownpersonality. Mm-Hmm .
(25:55):
you, but they think, well,well, I got my degree and it's
because I have my degree. Now Iwanna move to this position. So
education level and then alsoexperience. I mean, we are not
doing open heart surgery ontoddlers, right? When we are
bringing , let's, let's justtalk about hiring on the
teacher level. And I know that,you know, a lot of states have,
(26:16):
you know, varying degrees ofyou need, you know, units or a
certain amount of education or,you know, that's gonna vary.
Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Speaker 3 (26:23):
However, I, I believe with all of my heart
that your talent, which isloving children, being a person
of integrity, being a nurturingkind soul is a talent that we
cannot teach to people.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Mm-Hmm .
Speaker 3 (26:40):
We can give them skills, we can give them
knowledge. We cannot give themtalent. And so when someone
comes to me, I really do notcare what their experience is.
I care about their heartbecause I can teach 'em
everything they need to know. Ican get them the education that
I need to get them in order towork in my company in those
roles. So I think, you know,just because their experience
(27:01):
is funny in , uh, in stretchand grow, we had another one of
our , uh, affiliates, I thinkshe was in, she's in North
Carolina. She got a , uh, anemail from a potential employee
and it said , um, this is apart-time job, and you're
paying me just a few dollars anhour more than Target was. I
don't think I wanna make thiscommitment to babysit kids.
(27:21):
That was, I was like, warning,
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Warning. Well , A , you're
Speaker 3 (27:25):
For sure not the right person. Thanks for the
email, and I'm gonna flag yourname and make sure, should your
application ever come across mydesk again, I will be, it's a
hard no. But again, it's like,I've got all this experience
and you're, you're paying youjust a few dollars an hour more
than Target.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Ooh .
Speaker 3 (27:43):
That's, I don't care what your experience is ,
right? Yeah . And then, andthat leads to , that leads into
Leah the other e which isentitlement. So, you know ,
just believing that I should beentitled , um, you know, just
for , for people to be goodteam players, there has to be,
you know, a little bit of, ofhumbleness there, you know,
just , uh, just humblenessbecause of what we do. You
(28:04):
know, we're , this is not ashark world. This is , this is
an , this is an education worldand kindness and heart and love
and, and commitment matters somuch unlike other industries.
And so sometimes we overlook,you know, those things, and
someone comes across as just avery strong, confident person,
(28:25):
and I can do everything thatyou need me to do. And they
just seem like a great, greatperson. Mm-Hmm .
they may not have the heart todo what we do. And so, you
know, understanding, like, youknow, a question is, tell me
about a time you enjoyed agroup of children. I don't care
about your experience. I wannaknow, do you enjoy young
children? And if you enjoyyoung children, we're good. I
(28:46):
can help you.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Well, and that seems like such a, I don't wanna say
softball question, but I mean,shouldn't everyone in ECE have
a long list of times they hadfun at work, or the time this
little person said somethinghilarious, or, I mean, that
just seems like that would be agreat way to draw out any red
flags.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Well , uh, you know what? And it , I mean, hi . And
has literally been my bestinterview question over all
these years, because some ,sometimes they'll say, well, I
had , I have , um, eightsiblings, or I take care of my
cousins, or I'm like, well, doyou like them
my question. I don't care howmany you have, but do you enjoy
them? Like, what can you tellme about enjoying them? Yeah .
And truly, Leah , some peoplecannot answer that question.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Ooh , wow. That is , I find that truly shocking. I
really, really do. I really
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Do . Well, so, so there's been some , you know,
of course, I think it wasGardner research. There's been
a lot of studies on, you know,just the , the state of
employees right now. And whatthey found is that 50% of
people who accept a job are notstarting that job. It's because
they get what they think is abetter offer. Oh . And when
people are applying for jobs,like it used to be someone who
(29:56):
loved children is gonna applyfor a job in early education,
right? That , that used to bethe thing . But now they might
apply for a job in childcare orTarget or Amazon or the US Post
Office. I mean, you know, therecould be a number of different
things that they're applyingfor because they're just
scanning Indeed and saying, Iwanna make, you know, 17 to $20
(30:16):
an hour or whatever. And sothat's their search is they're
just searching for a certaindollar an hour, uhhuh , and
then all those jobs are kind ofcoming up. So they, they're not
really sure what they wanna do.
Um, and then they're like,okay, who's gonna gimme the
best offer? Who do I like best?
Mm-Hmm,
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
50. So if you've been ghosted, you're not
special because it's happeninga lot.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
is good stuff. I feel likeevery single one of these
questions, we could do anentire podcast on Beth, you
have like sure . So much tosay. Um, so staying on that
leadership bench , um, centerowners have to decide, are you
gonna keep it or are you gonnabreak it up? What, what does
that mean? And how do you doit?
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Okay. So if you're, if you are an , an owner or
leader, and you're in a placeto where you're like, I I need
more leadership, I need morehelp. Mm-Hmm .
I need to level my people up.
Uhhuh ,
your bench now,
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (31:14):
Do you have the right people in the right
places? Hmm . Are they able toexecute the work that you have
or are there issues? So numberone, if, if you're looking at
your bench and saying, I needto burn this mother up,
,
that very, very, you have to dothat very, very carefully.
(31:36):
Like, I had a leader on my comy company, and she was like,
my ride or die, she was with mefor 15 years. And for about 13
and a half of those years, shewas amazing. And in the last
year, she had a lot of personalthings that were happening that
really affected her work.
Mm-Hmm . And I just began tofeel like things are not
hitting on all cylinders. Youknow, things work's, not
getting done. Our turnover wasunusually high. You know , um,
(31:59):
um, things are happening towhere there was like a lack of
training and a lack ofcommunication. And so, you
know, eventually we ended up,you know, figuring like this,
she needed, she needed to moveon, you know , it was time to
move on. But I'll tell you thatsick feeling that I had in my
gut to know that like,something is not right, and
I've entrusted so much to thisperson who for a long time did
(32:20):
great.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Uhhuh
Speaker 3 (32:22):
And the season was up, right? Her season was up,
it was time for her to, to moveon. And so it happened quicker
than I thought that it wouldhappen. But if you have your
business systematized, and Iwould've done a better job
getting the business out of herhead onto paper, into SOPs, we
(32:43):
would've, it , it would've beena much easier experience. And I
knew it, and I had so many ofour other position
systematized, but notnecessarily her, she was
speaking of operations, right?
So she, she turned the gears,Uhhuh,
she left, I had to figure outlike , out what gears were
being turned, what was the flowof them being turned. So before
you burn up your bench, don'tcreate a mess of your own
(33:06):
making, start systematizingyour positions. And that's what
I teach in Stick to StrategyAcademy. It's how to take what
we're doing and put it intosystems . So if the person
steps away, those systems arein place. So if you're an owner
or director, leader, schoolleader, could you be gone for
two weeks? And would thebusiness run without you? So my
(33:26):
question is, what doesn'thappen if you are not there?
And if they, if they're, oh mygosh, it's payroll, it says
it's all the things. Get thosesystems in place. So do you
need to burn it up or do youneed to build it? Right? And
so, if you've got the rightpeople in the right seats, you
know, you're set, you're ready, you're ready to rock on, make
(33:48):
sure that everybody in yourboat is rowing in the same
direction and you don't haveanyone poking holes in, in the
back. So, and if you need tobuild it, go back to what I
said in the beginning, look forpeople who are taking
initiative. Look for people whoare emotionally intelligent,
and look for people who haveinfluence.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Okay ? All right .
And now this is, this is whatseems to me anyway, as somebody
who's knows who's never run aECE business. Um, but what's
the hard part ofimplementation? Like making
this happen, actually doing thework? And you have, you have
six, six questions that centerowners need to ask, and I
(34:30):
wondered if we could go througheach of them.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
You bet. You bet.
Okay . So the first one, youknow, we talked about are the
right people in, in the rightplaces. That's when you , you
know, you're looking at yourbench. Do you have the right
people in the right seats?
Like, if you are a visionaryand you're the idea person,
Uhhuh
integrator, someone who cantake beauty of your mess. You
know, my husband and I havebeen business partners for 25
years now, and , and he truly,I mean, I'm an Enneagram three,
(34:55):
I I'm a , I'm a visionary. I'man achiever. I, I am looking at
the big picture. Always,always, always. Mm-Hmm,
improver. A reformer. So he'staking all those details and
putting them in place. Soyou've gotta make sure you've
got the right people that canexecute the work. Mm-Hmm,
(35:16):
potential that you'reoverlooking? Mm-Hmm .
asking questions like, is theresomething here that you see
that needs to be done that'snot getting done? Or is there a
position? Or are there anythings that you would like to
do that you're not doing now?
And find out what they think. Imean, if you really sit and
(35:36):
talk to your, your people,other than about the checklist
of the things they are or notdoing, you're gonna maybe find
some untapped potential. Andthen the next thing, does your
org chart reflect growthpotential? Right? Because
oftentimes our org chart inschools, it's like, you know,
maybe you've got a c-suite ifyou're a larger organization,
but oftentimes it's director,assistant director, maybe you
(35:56):
have lead teachers, assistantteachers, floaters, right ?
What , what we would callfloaters, cooks, you know,
admin, drivers, chefs,whatever, you know, whatever
those titles are. But take alook at that org chart. Does it
reflect potential growth? Youknow , when you break up your
operations in a school, youknow, you break it into several
different buckets. You've gotyour sales and marketing,
(36:18):
you've got your operations inhr, you've got your finance,
and then you've got yourdelivery, right? Your
fulfillment, which is what ishappening in the classroom,
which is where the, the actualdelivery of the service that
you're selling is delivered. Solook at your org chart. Does it
reflect growth potential? Couldsomeone who starts out in the
(36:38):
infant room end up moving intoa position like curriculum
coordinator, for example?
Mm-Hmm.
descriptions inspireaccountability. Leah , this is
where a lot of us are missing.
And again, e everything I'mteaching, I've lived
I've lived it through the fire,right? So Uhhuh,
(36:58):
. Mm-Hmm .
round of leaders , I was verylucky that I've been doing my
business for so long that Icould really say, okay, what's
the role? What are theresponsibilities? And what are
the results? Meaning what are ,what are the deliverables?
Uhhuh
talked about the shift fromjust delegating to transferring
responsibility. Like tellingpeople, like, I am not going to
(37:19):
be following up to make surethat you, you know, followed up
from a tour, or that youreached out to every new
parent, or that you ordered thecurriculum supplies. Like, I'm
not gonna be reminding you ortelling you any of these
things. This is your job. Yep .
So don't wait for me to say,oh, it's time to start
marketing, or it's time tostart ordering supplies. Like,
(37:41):
this needs to be on your radar.
This is your job. So Uhhuh
accountability. Then the otherone, what is your capacity to
invest in and grow leaders?
as leaders, we've got a fewdifferent capacities. What's
your physical capacity? What'syour mental capacity? What's
(38:02):
your emotional capacity? Andwhat is your spiritual
capacity? And I think that weare all of those things
together. Um, you know, and Ihad been in a season to where I
really did not have a lot ofphysical capacity when I
brought on these new leaders.
It happened in the middle ofthe year. And, you know, I, if,
(38:23):
if you followed my, my socialmedia, you probably see I'm
gone once a week. Mm-Hmm .
leadership retreat, or do teambuilding, or do strategic
planning. So I travel a lot.
Well, my team is here, right?
So I have two, really twofull-time jobs. Yeah. So I had
to increase my capacity tofocus on growing and building
(38:47):
my leaders. And you have toknow that when you're gonna do
this, they're gonna need you.
You can't just, you know, tossout, oh, here's your job
description. Go figure it out.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
have to nurture, you have toshow people what to do, do it
with them, and then watch themdo it. And that takes time.
That, for people who arevisionaries, maybe maybe a
little grownup, A DHD , guiltyhere.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
But I've gotta make that a priority to pour into
those leaders, because I want ateam led company, right? I want
my team to be able to, to leadmy company. And I know that
they can do it, but they can'tdo it unless I am constantly
driving the vision for, Heyguys, this is where we're
going, this is where we'regoing, this is where we're
going. And be relentlesslypassionate about that, you
(39:37):
know? And then the last one is, you know, is really just, are
you building a leadershipbench? Mm-Hmm .
you know, or are you juststicking with the, everybody's
in their seats and we're not,you know, we're not growing.
And you may be at full capacityand things may be great, and if
you're listening to this andthings are great, enjoy it. But
(39:57):
things don't stay this wayforever, right? Life happens,
people move, people move on. Soif you're great right now, be
looking ahead. What if Ms .
Judy leaves, Ms . Judy's beenhere for 20 years. What if she
believes, is her jobsystematized? Do we have
someone ready to step into Ms .
Judy's position? Should anotherdoor an opportunity open for
her? So those are kind of thesix questions, ideas for
(40:19):
implementation as you'relooking at what do I need to
do? So the , so those kind ofsix questions, and hopefully
you , you know, you'll dropsome of these things in the
show notes for ideas to inspirethat implementation. So
everyone can take a look at andreally examine what needs to
happen in my organization forme to be able to unleash the
(40:40):
talent that I have been blessedwith in this season, or who do
I need to hire?
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Yeah. And it sounds like you're talking about,
you're talking about lookingahead and also not getting too
comfortable like that, likefinding that balance and how to
do it, which Yeah. Requires alot of thought, a lot of
looking inward, a lot ofthinking of your values. It's,
it's a lot. I think it's a lotmore than a lot of people maybe
(41:07):
wanna take on or understand howto take on.
Speaker 3 (41:10):
Well, but people who are growth-minded are thinking
about this anyway, Leah,they're thinking about it
anyway. And you know, when youthink, oh my gosh, I don't have
the money, I don't have themoney. A good employee
shouldn't cost you money. Agood employee should make you
money. Mm-Hmm.
Whether they're, you know,whether they're, you know,
helping to drive the enrollmentand build the enrollment.
Whether they're looking forthings like bringing enrichment
(41:30):
programs that will, you know,bring profits back to their
pockets because that, you know,that's part of what an
enrichment program will do. Areyou , you know, are you, you
know, taking rebates from yourvendors, what does that look
like? Um, so good employeesshouldn't cost you money.
Mm-Hmm.
business. And maybe it'sremoving the owner from
(41:51):
responsibilities to free themup from doing things that they
enjoy doing, like theleadership responsibilities.
'cause when you look ateverything that's on a
director's plate, you know,payroll, one-on-ones dealing
with challenging behaviors, allthe things that they have to
deal with, leadership is notreally in their job
description. Mm-Hmm.
So my best advice would be lookaround and then look ahead.
(42:17):
Look around at what you have,look ahead to where you wanna
go. We're in the summer. It's agreat time to kind of evaluate
what's gonna happen when schoolstarts. Um, and then just see ,
you know, do you have someonethat's like really like hungry
to grow? And , and when I seethat hunger and I see that
passion for what we do, Ithink, Ooh , ooh , that one
might, that one might be a goodleader. I wanna do something
(42:40):
with this person because I seegreatness. And what can I do to
unleash greatness? Like whatwords of life can I speak over
this person that would unleashwhat is already in them That
would really help us to, youknow, to reach our vision and
to help them reach their visionfor their own lives as well.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
Yes. Yeah. A two way street. Yeah. For sure. All
right , Beth, we are at the endof our time. Thank you so much
for coming. We always lovehearing everything you have to
say , um, on your webinars withus that you do these podcasts.
We are , we're always soappreciative. And could you ,
um, share with our listenershow they can find out more
about you, your website, anyother, any other ways to, to
(43:21):
contact you?
Speaker 3 (43:23):
Yep . You can find me at Beth Cannon Speaks. I am
on Instagram, Facebook, andLinkedIn. And then that's my,
that's my website as well atBeth Cannon speaks . And , um,
find me, send me a DM and if Ican help you in your, you know,
level up your leadership, ifyou need deeper support in that
, uh, reach out. I'd be happyto help you.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
All right . Thank so much and thank you to all of
our listeners. And thank youfor the vital work that you are
doing every single day tosupport working families, to
support young learners , um, tosupport the economy. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (43:53):
I love it so much.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Right. Have a good day, everyone. Bye.
Speaker 3 (43:56):
Thanks, Mia .
Speaker 4 (43:59):
Thank
Speaker 1 (43:59):
You for listening to this episode of the Childcare
Business Podcast . To get moreinsights on ways to succeed in
your childcare business, makesure to hit subscribe in your
podcast app so you never missan episode. And if you want
even more childcare , businesstips, tricks, and strategies,
head over to our resourcecenter@procaresoftware.com.
(44:19):
Until next time.
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