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Pam Schiller's Exchange article, "A Director's Game Plan — Ten Strategies for Coaching a Winning Team" (which is one of the articles in the Exchange CEU module, Supervising Early Childhood Staff) offers this advice...

"Communication is key to the game. You need clear, direct, two-way communication between you and the team, you and the families in the center, the team and the families, and the team and the children. A competent coach will constantly think of ways to improve communication because clear communication means that everyone stays on track. It also is at the heart of team member and fan morale.

"Establish regular and frequent communication. Plan for general communication by means of bulletin boards, staff newsletters, and staff meetings. Plan for personal communication through individual mailboxes. Involve the team in communication when possible. A staff or parent newsletter can be more than an administrative memo from the director. It can include contributions from staff or parents.

"Remember that our actions speak louder than our words. Treat all team members equally. What applies to one applies to all.

"Provide your team members with appropriate support for communicating effectively with parents. Practice possible daily scenarios so that everyone knows automatically what to do when challenges appear. Give players a playbook. Set up responses to daily scenarios and parent comments and concerns that provide solutions and responses for staff to follow. For example, provide a response in the playbook for what to say to a parent who is concerned about a biter in their child's classroom or the length of naptime. Practice these responses."

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Exchange's online Continuing Education Unit modules, which can result in CEUs from the University of Wisconsin-Stout, are on sale today and tomorrow at a 20% discount.

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