How do I create a Centre Philosophy?
Are you stuck on creating your statement philosophy? Is your statement philosophy in need of a revamp? Quality Area Seven of the NQF confusing? Here are three things that great leaders make the conscious effort to communicate at an excellent level:
1. Purpose
Why do we exist? What is the purpose of our childcare centre being in existence? What is the reason we do what we do? Is it to provide a completely unique early education experience for our young minds? Is it help shape young minds for the fast paced technological world?
Reflect on this and become clear on why it is you do what you do. Your purpose is your why and this is critical.
2. Mission
Where are we going? What are we wanting to achieve in the next ten years? How many young minds do we want to setup to enter the public and private education system? How many parents do we want to engage with our policy on instant parent engagement for their most precious loved one(s)? How many new site locations do we want to open?
Your missions needs to be definitive outcomes. These are goals you can tick off. As a leader, you need to be able to define and end point.
3. Values
Your values are born from the behavior of your “early” staff. The owners, the directors, the educators who have been there since the beginning. These are the behaviors that when exhibited, everyone is happier, everyone is getting along and morale is boosted. Think what behaviours you truly value from your staff, your parents and your children (think treat others how you wish to be treated).
What do you communicate to new staff and new children on what acceptable behaviour is?
When you combine these three things together, this gives you your vision of the world, which is different than how it is today.
4. Your vision
Imagine being able to communicate these three concepts on such a level that your team are so inspired that their performance lifts because they want to work with you and your brand.
Follow these steps when creating your service philosophy and it should be a breeze. This is also a great stepping stone to QA7 of our NQF but more on that in another article.
