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I was thrilled recently to spend time with an ex-colleague who retired 10 years ago.  It was lovely to welcome her back to celebrate her contribution to our business and to reconnect with ex-colleagues.  What struck me, however, was the words and reactions from those other colleagues.  I first started to notice this when three or four times I overheard the phrase “I would be bored if I retired”.  That got me thinking.

Now, I love to work.  I really do.  But given the choice I might not work at all, I would work less, or at least differently – perhaps on other projects.  I look forward to when my work is done at the end of every day and each week.  Because when work ends, play begins; my professional self becomes the personal me.  I can garden, cook, socialise, read, write, travel, volunteer or study.  Who would not want more time to do that?

What a strange state-of-affairs to think one would be bored without work when there is so much more to do in life.  And I know my retired ex-colleague has a very full, vital and active life without work.  I admire her for that.  I started to wonder if people think they would be bored without work, are they bored now?

Now there have been times in my life when work has got in the way of life, I have had work-life imbalance and it has suffered.  I haven’t had time to pursue all other interests.  But those days are long gone – thankfully.  If people are thinking retirement isn’t for them is there imbalance in their work and life now?  Or is work their play?  Are they fearful there will be an imbalance in retirement?  Either way there are boundary issues for me.  I think it is vital we have boundaried work and life identities.  I have not met anyone in their later years who told me they wished they had worked more.  Indeed, the opposite is the case.

Like many others, I am not a fan of the term ‘retirement’.  It literally means to withdraw from life.  When my time comes, I will not be doing that.  It could be the time I take up an alternative or new work or volunteering role.  It could be another degree or writing a novel.  I know that doesn’t sound like a traditional retirement – to stop work and then start again.  But this is the new reality of ‘retirement’, one where people have so much more they want to achieve for themselves or contribute to their communities.  This is a massive shift from how things were when I was a child; have one career, stop work at 60/65, and do seemingly very little afterwards.  Now it is more about phased careers, 2-3 for each of our work lifetimes, and use one’s retirement and make your own choices and achieve one’s dreams.

I think I will simply call mine ‘next’, and I will not be bored.  I will have worked too hard to settle for that.

Okay, be honest, have you ever thought you could do a much better job than your boss?  I know I have (mentioning no names!).

A recent poll of 1,500 workers by giffgaff caught my attention. It found two-thirds of workers thought they would do a much better job than their boss.  With as many as one in five describing their boss as ‘hopeless’.

Let’s face it, being a boss – the person in charge – is never easy.  Many of us have found ourselves in this position, either by accident (or because no one else would do it).  In early years, this often is the case as staff, motivated by working with children, progress up the ranks and gather experience in terms of years and practice roles.  They then find themselves to be the senior worker, when others leave or retire.  It is not always an easy fit, and can be a frustrating role, as the tasks and challenges of being a boss can feel much less rewarding, and full of pitfalls.  And then you find you are surrounded by a team of people, two-thirds of which think they could do better than you.  It can feel very isolating.

But what can we learn from this finding and from our knowledge of the early years sector?

Well, I think it is important that settings have the right boss.  One that understands the importance of quality practice, and can manage the decisions around its delivery, whilst keeping on top of the day-to-day tasks any business manager has to deal with: income; expenditure; finance; planning; marketing; and people.  Trust me, these rare and special people do exist.  But this all takes planning; sometimes we need to grow our own bosses, and this is helped by open management approaches, and ongoing leadership, mentoring and coaching.  The more that is delegated earlier, the more team members can grow and develop their skills.  And if team members think they could do a better job, bosses should ask them how, and take on their views to drive decision-making and change.  This is really important, as in the same survey, more than half (54%) felt they had no prospect of career progression.  Approaches like this certainly help.  I’ve definitely been to many settings (and other businesses for that matter) where there feels like there’s a block at the top.  The boss that has been there for years, perhaps has lost some of their appetite for change, and staff have no option but to leave for the sake of their career progression in the sector, and often out of it.  If that is you, there are some hard choices to make, and some real change opportunities to grasp.  And if you are one of those thinking you could do a better job, then now is the time to act positively, support your boss, and be a better boss yourself.  Without such amazing entrepreneurial spirit, confidence and commitment, early years simply wouldn’t exist.  It’s what we are best at.

A version of this blog was first published in Teach Early Years Magazine.

The high street isn’t dead. But the past decade’s financial greed resulting in every high street looking and feeling the same needs to end, and it should be used as the inspiration and stimulation for a new plan. Says James Hempsall OBE, co-director of www.harrimanandco.com

Shame on those financiers, who not content with fuelling the financial crash, have been hell-bent on foisting upon us a diluted offer best described as ‘retail average’. Their cynical experiment has failed. And shame on the landlords who have made things worse by appearing content to stick with a status quo of extortionate rents and the unsustainable and often temporary occupation they facilitate. 

Both have resulted in the same shop being present in almost every high street, offering our towns and cities little or no point of difference. Instead, an indistinguishable personality and predictable offers. All delivered with the chatter of scripted discourse prioritising mystery customer scores. All over and above our proper mission of deriving real pleasure, real relationships and real loyalty from actual customers. 

The outcome is empty units, a proliferation of charity shops. The same shops and brands all closed in great swathes. Ghosts of their former selves, the empty stores are decaying where once trusted brands stood. Constant and concrete reminders of childhood Saturdays, memories of buying a first suit, and the long-forgotten excitement of furnishing a new home. These stores will continue to fade away, grabbing the headlines in their death-throes. 

Unsurprisingly customers have roundly rejected much of it, or at best continued to down-grade their expectations and endure lack-lustre experiences. They feel uninspired, unsafe, and unvalued whilst the high street crumbles around them. 

This sorry state of affairs must make way for a new offer, and big business still has a role to play in making that change happen. They hold the blame and they have the responsibility to create the necessary change. It’s not only their fault, the doomsayers who just don’t understand the high street and what people want from us, and truly believe it is about to flatline need to alter their attitudes as well.    

It’s time for a new high street plan, but we will all have to be patient. And the biggest opportunities are all about scale.  Most of the high street is not big business, and the sums just don’t add up. The first opportunity is we need to revise expectations around income, expenditure, rates and rent. They are so out of kilter it is no wonder so many new start-ups struggle to make ends meet and are suspended in a hand-to-mouth state, and why the biggest retailers find themselves in huge financial holes, in which they have been digging deeper and deeper in recent years. 

Who is it in head office who thinks their bright ideas for huge flagship stores actually match the reality of customer demand? Our second opportunity is to change the physicality of the high street. The infrastructure is too big, it just does not reflect the current level of demand or space required for retail and food and beverage offers alone. This results in occupied premises being spread marmite-thin across a town-centre. Town planners need to use their levers, business rates relief, rent control, transport policies, and other powers creatively to radically transform the bricks and mortar of the high street. And if they haven’t got such powers, then government should legislate to bring them in. In Leicester the council has actually been buying empty units, and knocking them down to better offer routes for the customer and linking retail areas by reflecting how they really move around. Brilliant!  

The third is the supply chain is neglectful of small retailers. Wholesale suppliers need to be much more supportive of the smaller independent trader, and not skewed to advantage the bigger players. They need to promote smaller ordering, affordable shipping costs, realistic credit control, and identify new ways of satisfying what customers want from their high street, online and order fulfilment services. Customers still want to see and experience products, to sit on them, try them on, smell them, and taste them. But they want to be able to take them home now, or receive their no-hassle delivery efficiently and promptly. 

The high street is not dead, nor is it dying, look carefully and it is being reborn before your eyes, and more can be done to transform it for generations to come, if we think big and be brave enough to be small. 

You may have noticed a flurry of press stories, Government announcements and strategies, and a new raft of buzz words and jargon appearing in the early years and childcare landscape.  If, like me, this has sparked an interest, great!  Because, social mobility is at the core of the difference we all aim to make for the children and families we work with.

The founding principle of social mobility is the unfairness that exists in a lack of equality of opportunity for all.  And that where you start out in life remains the single biggest predictor of where you finish.  Social mobility aims to stir up our passion and organising and focusing our attention and actions to give everyone an equal chance so their hard work and talent can be realised into opportunity and to break cycles of disadvantage, exclusion, and discrimination.

That is why I love the job I do.  To offer such chances to bust barriers to participation, to improve confidence and self-esteem, and to open up the doors of learning, education and employment to those so often left outside.  Words are key.  They inspire, challenge, build self-esteem, and encourage.  Unfortunately the reverse is also true.  As a psychotherapist working with adults, I know first-hand they are one of (if not the greatest) tools of oppression and distress.

In December 2017, the Department for Education (DfE) launched Unlocking Talent, Fulfilling Potential: a plan for improving social mobility through education.  In the plan are four ambitions:

Ambition 1 – is to close the word gap in the early years.

Ambition 2 – is to close the attainment gap in school while continuing to raise standards for all.

Ambition 3 – is high quality post-16 education choices for all young people.

Ambition 4 – Everyone achieving their full potential in rewarding careers.

Clearly, we have a role that links to all four ambitions, as early years practitioners, and as employers.  But it is closing the word gap I would like to focus on.  The term 30 million word gap (often shortened to word gap) has been traced to a 2003 article by Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley entitled “The Early Catastrophe: The 30 Million Word Gap by Age 3”.  Where we were told the astonishing finding that disadvantaged children can hear up to 30 million less words than their more advantaged peers.  The DfE’s plan says that “Good early years education is the cornerstone of social mobility”.  We welcome this recognition, and accept the vital support we offer to prepare children for the challenges ahead in school.  Our job through delivery of early years entitlements from two-years-old is a powerful and crucial one – ensuring gaps do not emerge or become larger before then.  It seems we all have a pivotal role in enhancing our settings to become even richer in their language use, and that language is wholly positive and reaffirming, and we do whatever we can for this approach to be taken into the child’s household so this language deficit is tackled head on.

A version of this blog was first published in Teach Early Years Magazine.

Last time I wrote about democratic leadership and decision-making, which is a really important skill in any leaders’ tool-box.  Some of you have pointed out the importance of leaders also being able to make a decision themselves and in isolation; on behalf of the team or organisation.  I agree, it is another essential task of the leader, and something we can help children to achieve as well.

The ability to decide is key.  On many occasions, not all, this boils down to a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’.  It occurs to me it is much easier to say yes than it is to say no.  Admit it, how many times have you said yes because it is easier than saying no?  Only to instantly regret you hadn’t the courage to go with your instinct and say no?  We can all find ourselves in these situations regularly, I’m thinking of the times when I’ve agreed to do a difficult task for someone (when I was already feeling stretched and overwhelmed), or I was covering a challenging meeting or conversation – rather than supporting others to do it themselves.

Some of us clearly need to learn how to say ‘no’, and discover the positive benefits it provides.  Instead of it being anxiety provoking and difficult; saying no can be empowering for us and our colleagues.  Saying ‘no’ can unlock the door to all our personal and professional health and well-being.  It is the ultimate in an open and honest communication.

It isn’t always easy though.  We can feel pressure to say yes, especially if asked by an expert negotiator or sales person.  And if our self-esteem is low, or we need to improve our assertiveness it’s especially difficult.  And in early years we are all very aware of the principle of doing no harm to others, so saying yes can feel like we are doing a good thing.  We worry if people will be upset or even dislike us for our refusal.  And all of this is affected by our feelings towards the people involved; it’s easier to say no to people we don’t like; we are more likely to say yes to those we do.

It’s such a personal process.  No one else knows us better than ourselves, so we need to be in control of our boundaries so we don’t become a victim to making the wrong decision.  We risk raising our stress levels and exhaustion; but in terms of our management skills – we are compromising our own time management and delegation skills.  What are your colleagues learning about you, themselves and about work itself if you don’t say no?  I’ve worked in too many situations when I have seen an improper emphasis on a ‘yes-culture’, and this damages people – it teaches them that to survive or to have value you should say yes all of the time.  That is unsustainable.

By saying no, we are providing good role modelling, and a vital demonstration of personal and professional capability for our colleagues and children alike – who will all benefit from learning this vital skill from you – the expert in open and honest decision-making!

A version of this blog is based on an article first published in Teach Early Years Magazine.