February 2022 Parenta Magazine

What does leadership
look like when … staff
With COVID at record levels across early
years (EY) settings, rates of staff absence
are through the roof. For leaders, this
represents a significant challenge that
can consume the day to day business of
leading the setting. Many leaders will share
the experience of Sarah Hinkin, manager
of the nursery at Oxford Brookes University
when she says:
“Staff absence is the single most stressful
aspect of my job. I have no control over
being able to guarantee staff attendance
and it has a huge impact on the quality
of our provision. When absences are
high for prolonged periods, it takes over
everything as it becomes my main priority
and challenge. Other important but not
essential work has to take a back seat”.
EY leaders need a clear approach for
dealing with the challenge of staff absence
at the moment.
Learning from across the EY sector, I outline
here three principles of leadership in the
context of high staff absence:
• Know, as a setting, what is nonnegotiable
• Role model a positive approach
• Flip the script and look for development
opportunities
absence is high?
Know, as a setting, what is
non-negotiable
When staff absence is high, everyone
is forced to prioritise. But doing this
well depends on a clear and common
understanding of what the priorities are.
Leaders have an essential role to play
in supporting teams to understand and
commit to the non-negotiable elements
of early years practice. As Polly Crowther,
head of EY provision at Cobham Primary
School and Evidence Leader at the East
London Research School, explains:
“Educators want to do everything even
when it really isn’t possible. If everyone
understands what is non-negotiable
in a setting, it helps to prioritise. Do we
need safeguarding, nurture and play?
Absolutely. Can we say the same of our
Tapestry observations? Probably not, but
every context is different. It is very hard for
educators and carers to say ‘this is good
enough’, but sometimes it has to be and it
is easier if people talk openly about that.”
David Wright, owner of Paint Pots Nursery,
also reflects on this when he says: “We
must always consider the needs of children
first –
their safety, safeguarding and wellbeing.
We have to prioritise maintaining consistent
safe spaces for children, so that they are
shielded from the world of anxiety and
uncertainty”.
What is non-negotiable in a setting will
depend on EY national frameworks
but it will also be about the particular
pedagogical values and approach of the
team.
Through leaders, these priorities come to
life both in relatively peaceful times and
times of crisis. Leaders at the moment will
want to find opportunities, working with
their teams, to identify the core priorities in
what is happening. 10 minutes at the start
of a team meeting might focus on ‘what is
non-negotiable for us right now?’ and use
this as the basis for current prioritisation.
Role model a positive
approach
There are no two ways about it: dealing
with staff absence is extremely difficult.
Even in the face of this difficulty though,
leaders have to make sure they are role
modelling the positive and dynamic
approach that they would like their staff to
take. As Sarah Hinkin explains:
“I need to be careful to not portray my own
worries or stress levels. I have to role model
the attitude that although this might be
a challenging period, we will get through
this together. It can be tough to maintain
this approach when sometimes your own
resilience might be dwindling, but it is key.”
Leaders’ role modelling is at the core of
any organisational culture. In his seminal
work, “Organisational Culture and
Leadership”, Edgar Schein explains that role
modelling is the main way that leaders can
communicate the values of an organisation
to staff and particularly to newcomers. At
a time when staff absence is high, there
will be many new or cover staff who are
encountering the organisation for the first
time. They will be looking at and learning
from the behaviour of the leaders they see
and this will be far more important to their
learning than any explicit verbal messages
they receive. Hearing ‘we’re in this together’
is nowhere near as powerful as seeing
a leader covering on the floor when it is
required, or bolstering staff morale through
positive and empathetic conversations
during the day.
Flip the script and look for
development opportunities
No matter how difficult the context,
leaders celebrate the good things that are
happening in an organisation. Jacqueline
Lamb, CEO of Indigo Childcare in Glasgow,
explains the importance of celebrating
quality no matter what:
“As a leadership team, we’ve emphasised
praising and celebrating the people that
are in. we have to acknowledge that they
are stepping up and acknowledge that
things are tough at the moment. We’ve
arranged for team lunches to be delivered
or, when we can, let people get away a bit
early.
We’ve focused on publicly sharing
achievements of the team because often
they are so busy getting on with the job,
there isn’t the chance to realise their
achievements and progress. It’s up to us as
leaders to make sure that we carry this on,
even in difficult times.”
Lamb goes onto explain that because
staff are having to step up and step in as
a result of staff absence, there might even
be new opportunities for professional and
leadership development. For example,
someone might provide cover as a room
leader that demonstrates their potential
for this and other leadership roles in the
future. In her guide “Leading for Change
in Early Care and Education”, US Professor
Anne Douglass explains the need for a
leadership development ecosystem in EY.
This means that we need to pay more
attention to cultivating leadership among
EY teams and seeing the opportunities
for leadership development even in less
than perfect times. At the moment, leaders
need to turn towards the opportunities for
coaching and mentoring staff within the
organisation so that they can confidently
assume new responsibilities and open up
new leadership pathways.
References
Douglass, A. L. (2017) Leading for Change
in Early Care and Education: Cultivating
Leadership from Within. New York, NY:
Teachers College Press.
Schein, E. H. (2017) Organizational Culture
and Leadership. 5th Edition. Hoboken, NJ:
Wiley.
Mona Sakr
Dr Mona Sakr is a Senior Lecturer in
Education and Early Childhood. As a
researcher in Early Years (EY) provision,
she has published extensively on
creative, digital and playful pedagogies
including the books “Digital Play in
Early Childhood: What’s the Problem?”
(Sage) and “Creativity and Making in
Early Childhood: Challenging Practitioner
Perspectives” (Bloomsbury).
Mona’s current research is an
exploration of pedagogical,
organisational and community
leadership in EY and how leadership can
be more effectively developed across
EY. Current funded research includes a
Nuffield Foundation project looking at
online leadership development across
the EY sector, a BELMAS project looking
at leadership in the baby room of
nurseries and a BERA project examining
ethnicity in the early years workforce.
Forthcoming books (include an
introduction to social leadership in early
childhood education and care (written
with June O’Sullivan, CEO of London Early
Years Foundation), and an edited volume
on EY pedagogical leadership around
the globe.
Email: m.sakr@mdx.ac.uk
Twitter: @DrMonaSakr
32 February 2022 | parenta.com
parenta.com | February 2022 33