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Okay, so you asked the question, are you ready for the answer?  Feedback is a way of learning more about our effect on others, and our behaviour and performance as a leader and a team member.  It should be embraced, valued and always listened to.

Done well, it is constructive.  It supports our self-awareness, offers new ways of thinking, and encourages or shows us the way to continuous self-improvement.  So often, we focus on our skills in giving feedback.  But we need to pay equal attention to how we are receiving it as well.  Negative feedback isn’t useful, instead constructive feedback should be – but it needs to be both well-given and well-received.

Giving:  Starting and ending with the positive is a pretty well-known principle of feedback; the praise sandwich. Everyone needs encouragement, on a fairly constant basis.  Starting in this way opens the receiver’s receptiveness to listen.  Being specific is the next challenge.  Avoiding general comments helps focus precisely on the skills that need to be considered.  Saying ‘you were wonderful’ is nice but it doesn’t have the same punch as ‘you solved that complaint quickly, positively, and in a helpful way’.  Now focus on what could change and offer alternatives ‘it would help the customer if you gave eye contact and spoke more slowly’.  Use careful language choices, express your feelings and speak for yourself, for example ‘your tone of voice made me feel upset’, is much better than ‘you were rude’.  The receiver is wanting your carefully considered opinion and view point.  After which, they have a choice to use the information they have received, or not.

Taking:  What is absolutely vital is you are ready to listen, without interrupting and jumping to your own defence.  Allow people to finish, to complete sentences, hold the silences. It can be so easy to quickly butt-in, reject it, qualify it, and argue your case instead.  The person feeding back is giving their views and opinions, think about where they are coming from.  They are entitled to their view, they are committed to it.  And you are entitled to your view and to disagree, but only if you listen and consider it first.  Be clear about the message received.  Use paraphrasing techniques or repeat what has been said, to check you have understood correctly.  Get a balanced view by asking others what they think about your feedback, what is their feedback?  It’s no surprise that everyone doesn’t agree or have the same views.  And is there some feedback you aren’t getting?  If so, ask for it!  And finally, decide what you will do as a result of the feedback.  Otherwise, it is a wasted opportunity.  Use it to continuously grow and develop, to lead and to be a great team member.

Being able to change in business and in life often requires swift action.  Sometimes you need the nimble manoeuvrability of a speedboat rather than the hulking awkwardness of an oil tanker.  One can turn 360 degrees in an instant, the other has a turning circle as wide as the ocean.

Through business recovery in the next few months and years, there will be winners and losers.  There will be businesses that thrive and prosper, there will be others who remain the same, the rest will struggle, become smaller or disappear altogether.

Key to a sustainable future is the ability to manage the ‘here and now’. One must ensure that what you are offering right now is what people need and want and will actually use and pay for.  Now not later. Businesses really do need to scale themselves according to current demand.  That may be bigger than before, or staying the same or becoming smaller. Whatever, it should be affordable and should avoid sinking the business or household into further debt or stacking up other liabilities.  This requires some tough and emotional decision-making.  It must be done.  Avoid it at your peril.  We simply do not know what is going to happen next, so base your decisions on what you know and risk assess and scenario plan, think about the what ifs.  Build up your analysis through clear thinking and by talking to others to gather their thoughts. Be prepared to change your mind the next day, week or month.

By becoming smaller now, yet sustainable and as light as you can be with all your liabilities, you will be in a much better place to respond to future opportunities and steadily grow again – if that’s what you want.  Please be sure of what you want. Don’t unthinkingly aim to return to what was.  Key questions: Is that/this needed anymore?  How has the world moved on?  How have you changed?  What do you want out of your future work and life?  Listening to the lessons these answers give is hugely important.

We must all change and understand our attitudes and capacity to change. Are you change-phobic (metathesiophobic to be precise)?  How prepared are you to change?  Are your batteries running low or are they charged up and ready for the challenge?  How fast and able are you to effect change?  Ask yourself all these questions and use the answers to create your action plan and assemble the support you need. If you need to find a change enthusiast to buoy you up, get one and get one now.

It is a good thing to have the energy of a speedboat but think things through before acting too impulsively.  Things could get messy.  But avoid the risk of retreating to a slow and lumbering movement, like an oil tanker, if you are doing this to escape or avoid the inevitable. Time is money after all.

Almost every aspect of work is delivered by a team, whether it be small or large.  And we all need to be asking how our teams are structured, performing and changing every day.  And if you are the leader of the team, everyone relies on you to immediately know the answers to these key questions and behave in ways the team needs.  It’s made even more difficult because teams change all of the time.  You can have a wonderful cooperative team on Monday, and when you come into work on Tuesday, the whole world has changed.  This is because teams are living things, they constantly change as people come together in different ways, or they leave, or they join as new members.  Any change to a team’s membership will cause the team to change in very small or significantly large ways.

When I am delivering leadership and management training, I ask you about your experience, your strategies, and training in the leadership of teams.  Nine times out of 10, you tell me that being a team leader is not something you ever imagined you would do, and you’ve not been on any formal training.  So, if that’s you, you certainly are not alone!

So what are the tell-tale signs for a good team?  First you should know who is in the team and what their roles are.  If someone does not know what their role is, how can they interact with others on any level?  Good teams have definable memberships, everyone should be clear about who is in the team or not.  And in doing so, this creates a real sense of group identity.  There should be a feeling of interdependence and interaction that builds into the team’s ability to act together as one. Do you experience your team members discussing their objectives, assessing ideas, making decisions, and working together towards targets – if they are, you’re in a good place!  If not, ask more questions.  Think about your team, how well does it communicate?  Does everyone know each other’s roles?  Is everyone striving for excellence under common goals and vision?  Does everyone follow the leader?  Do you know your strengths and weaknesses?  Is there a culture where everyone appreciates individual input and team effort?  Do your answers match those of the team as a whole, or those of each individual member?  Do you need a second or third opinion?  As the leader, are you being told the truth, or are you seeing the reality? What does the team need from you as its leader?

What is clear, is good quality leadership and management of teams links directly to the quality of a product or service.  Knowing your teams and being able to adjust your leadership behaviours is the secret to this success.

What to know more?  Two of my favourite team management models I would recommend are: Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership and Bruce Tuckman’s Group Development developed in the 1960s and 1970s.  The first shows us when as leaders we should use different leadership styles: telling, selling, participating and delegating.  The latter shows us how teams change through forming, storming, norming, performing, and an often forgotten about later addition of adjourning.

So many managers I meet can be anxious about working with volunteers.  Sometimes there is a great sense of fear and uncertainty about how to find and support volunteers.  Often there is a little embarrassment about asking someone, who is not paid to work, to undertake tasks.  When I deliver training on working with volunteers, these are the first barriers and issues we have to deal with before we can move on to real practical considerations.

Like in staff recruitment, safeguarding is of paramount importance when selecting a volunteer.  The process should be exactly the same as employing members of staff. Importantly, volunteer recruitment gives you the opportunity to not select a candidate who does not meet your person specification.  It may seem obvious to say, but it’s amazing how many practitioners I have met who were afraid to say ‘no’ to a willing volunteer that was unsuitable. Sometimes our overzealous health and safety culture also prevents us from taking volunteers.  But there are ways forward that safeguard the welfare and health and safety of all involved.

This is a great opportunity to include the community, and extra capacity and skills into your business.  It can widen the impact and benefits you give to your community. Crucially, it can help you raise your quality, or bring new ideas.   Let’s be clear, this is a two-way relationship.  There are benefits for you and for the volunteers.  Think: what can your staff team learn from a new and skilled volunteer?

Who volunteers? Lots of people volunteer from all walks of life, and from all ages and stages of their careers and lives.  Some volunteer for brief periods.  Others for most of their lives.  What is volunteering?  Volunteering England defines volunteering “as any activity that involves spending time, unpaid, doing something that aims to benefit the environment or someone… other than, or in addition to close relatives…  Volunteering must be a choice freely made by each individual”.   Using that definition, I guess many of you reading this article will think you do lots of volunteering, at least unpaid tasks – now and in your own early career development.  But it is a serious concern, there does need to be practical support and supervision in place, this is a professional practice and quality issue.  Policies and procedures protect you, the volunteer and your children and families.  They also make things clear and professional right from the start.  I firmly believe that the more you put in, the more your volunteers will succeed and contribute to your setting, and ultimately achieve their goals.

Why do people volunteer?  It is a way to develop a route into employment by providing the peace of mind their children are being cared for.  And through volunteering we can help parents, and others for that matter, with routes to employment for their first time. We can also help with returning to employment after a break.  And for some returners to work, like women returning from a maternity leave, a positive confidence boosting experience as well.  We are told the days of having the same career for life are over, and many of us could have 2-3 different careers, and we are working longer into retirement, so volunteering helps people to make those changes in direction in their employment.

Some people simply want to try something new, give something back, or add interest and flavour to their CVs.  Or they focus on the softer outcomes of meeting new people, making new friends, being social, or getting to know the local community.  The emotional benefits can be transformational.  Feeling part of a team, feeling valued, building self confidence and self-esteem are all vital for an individual’s well being and self-actualisation.  They are also the skills and qualities employers look for in job candidates, and in well-functioning ‘performing’ teams.  There’s going to be plenty of people needing this step into employment in coming months.  Let’s do our bit to help them.

The board brush recommendations in the children’s commissioner’s report (Best Beginnings July 2020) are difficult to argue with. They include the common calls for more.  More funding, more provision for families, more joined up services and more outcomes. The case is well-rehearsed and contains familiar evidence.  These arguments are won each time. It’s what happens next that is key and how sustainable these actions prove.

At least we have formal and recognised evidence of need and impact now.  It wasn’t the case 20 years ago.  We just knew it.  There is a necessary focus within the report on supporting children from birth and in their first two years, particularly:

• Relationships with parents and carers
• A safe home
• Language and cognitive development
• Behaviour and self-regulation
• Physical and mental health

As someone who has worked at the front of national implementation of early years entitlements, I would also like to see a growth in provision. For all outcomes, not just attached to a single or artificially differentiated aim like working families or children’s learning outcomes.  Learning should be a goal, but it should sit alongside with equal emphasis on health, child development and tackling inequality and disadvantage.

The familiar tale is told in the report, that children can fall behind before they start school.  That is correct and it is a strong and cogent argument to invest in early years.  But is it just me that wonders why schools are seemingly struggle to close any gap afterwards throughout primary and secondary?  After all, they are working with children for 12-14 years after their pre-school years.  Sounds like it may be time to do more with the school sector.

The Social Mobility Commission (June 2020) noted there is no national over-arching strategy for early years and child development.  Does there need to be?  Is it just an easy call to suggest we do?  That one is up for debate.  I don’t think we need much more top-down directives.  I’d prefer for us to have the resources and freedoms to do what we know best locally.  Could or should this be driven by local government, such as the Greater Manchester example cited on page 20?

I’d like to see a better deal for the early years sector.  Of course I would.  But to achieve that we need better data. Particularly about the diverse early years delivery chain in the public, voluntary and private sectors (see my blog on dinghies and cruise liners). Research surveys published by sector groups are well-intentioned but in my view they are unreliable and clearly aren’t convincing decision-makers effectively enough.  They are letting the side down.

The ideas of hubs in Best Beginnings are a rehash of the Sure Start children’s centre argument we won almost 25 years ago. Instead, is it more important we effect the systemic and practice changes that we know will change lives?  Surely this will be more sustainable than bricks and mortar.  And it could help us avoid wasting too much time and effort building up an infrastructure, only to see it eroded over the next generation.  Too many former children’s centre buildings lay testament to that.

We are still in an over-complicated environment.  There’s plenty of services.  A lot anyway.  Too many unjoined up services and all sorts of things for new parents to learn about and navigate.  Something magnified multiple times when a child has SEND.  A complex parental journey made even more challenging when families feel their child doesn’t fit the one-size-fits-all model.

Laming (2003) told us to break through the artificial barriers between professions involved in children’s services (education, social care and health).  I’m paraphrasing of course, but the principle that drove reform back then was about sharing the drive and ambition for shared outcomes for children.  We should not and must not lose that.  There are plenty of services, midwifery, health visiting, speech and language therapy, troubled families, and if you are lucky children’s centres (or their local equivalent or remodelled version).

The report recognises that not everything it calls for requires new investment, instead it is more about reorganisation.  But I know enough about the public sector to know that restructuring is not always welcome or effective.  Instead services need the flexibility, the power and the resource to concentrate on delivery and to be given half the chance to innovate and create organically.  Without the diversions of ‘flavours of the month’ or knee-jerk reactions to today’s issues.  Restructures all too often stymie innovation and demotivate the workforce.  Not always, but often.  We should all resolve to keep a firm grip on the rudder of the early years ship.

The early years and childcare entitlements are a messy patchwork of criteria led and single-outcome focused initiatives, and the gaps are glaringly obvious when funding stops and other types of support, like Tax Free Childcare, are expected to fill them.  They are awkwardly described and enveloped in jargon.  Sometimes, indeed often, parents give up as the investment to gain seems disproportionate and overwhelming when there’s plenty of other things to manage.  We must do more to make the parent journey through this easier, faster and more rewarding.

Too many times ministers have sought to leave their short-term early years mark. What’s most important here is we ourselves, as a sector, overhaul early years, with full ministerial support for generations to come.

I don’t think parents should have a guarantee of support or a national infrastructure of hubs, that for me is too input focused.  Instead we should be more focused on rights and outcomes.  Then parents will take their empowerment and we will all achieve what we share as outcomes.  And I think the ambition of consistent checks is unachievable, just as consistent Ofsted inspections are a challenge.  There’s too many variables in play for that.

But I do agree, that we should have:

• A coherent strategy with a cabinet level minister to help drive and resource it.
• Clear pathways for accessing services for parents.
• Better data that informs decisions in the sector.
• Shared outcomes and intra-sector respect.
• Checks, early identification and coordinated interventions where needed.
• An extended childcare offer, 30 hours universal for two-, three- and four-year-olds for those families that need and want it. Free to the families that use it.
• And more should be done to create a gold-standard early years workforce, and a career strategy integrated with schools, that attracts the professional respect and parity it requires.