Avoid Getting Branded and Stranded

Like leaders in many professions, it easy to get caught up and consumed by the daily grind. We spend hours behind a computer working in isolation on multiple job-related tasks, and in doing so, we often fail to attend to the people who need us most. Then, when we must exercise our authority, we sometimes get labeled as being difficult. Unless we are able to change, find ways to re-engage, and focus on the needs of others, people will turn their backs on us. When that happens, we get left behind. The development of our leadership capacity and our programs becomes stagnant.

To become effective leaders, we must commit to a continuous self improvement plan. We must also dedicate ourselves to serve and develop other leaders. When we allow ourselves to selfishly focus only on what's on our plate, demand obedience, compliance, and respect because of a positional title, and fail to engage with others, we get branded as loners. If we don't assertively commit to learn and improve our work, we become isolated, mediocre, and left behind. No one wants to work with an afterschool leader who doesn't get it, or worse, doesn't care to.

People matter most in an afterschool program. Obviously, that means kids, parents, and staff. But the people within the profession in positions of leadership matter, too. They are important for advancing the profession – and reliant upon each other. It is essential that we commit to learn together, grow, build relationships, and allow ourselves to be pushed and continuously move forward. Complacency and adherence to the status quo are brands associated with leaders who only want to focus on administrative and technical tasks, not the needs of people. Acknowledging others needs and acquiring the influence necessary to lead is the essence of leadership.

We can't gain influence without pressing the flesh. We can't lead without influence, which can only be acknowledged by others. Effective afterschool leaders know that they must regularly be amidst their staff, students, parents, and active within their community. They know they to gain influence, they must earn the respect of the people who are their stakeholders. And among those stakeholders are countless other afterschool leaders that do the same kind of work they do.

As you reflect, if you can't confidently be assured that other afterschool professionals in your city or region know you, recognize the quality of your work, and respect you for how you support the work of others, you may be branded as a loner and stranded in your program. You'll go nowhere. Neither will your program.

But you can commit to change. You can resolve to learn, work more closely with others in your profession, and move ahead in your development as a leader.

There is no better place to begin your branding transformation than at the 24^th Annual NAA Convention. Get involved with us. Form relationships. Let’s commit to learn together and from each other.

See you in Dallas on April.

Paul G. Young, Ph.D.

President & CEO

National AfterSchool Association

Free or Fee

If you contemplate both words, you’ll notice that free is similar to fee except with a letter R inserted. As an afterschool leader worried about long-term sustainability, I often agonize over what we offer in programs for free and what should be offered with a fee. Even within a membership association, I think there are long-term ramifications for providing too much for free too much of the time.

There are problems with free.

If you’ve ever attended a state or national conference, I’ll bet that, like me, you’ve picked up dozens of free items in your welcome bag or from the exhibit areas. Even though you were appreciative and pleased to receive those items at the time, now you probably can’t remember what any of those items were. And when it was time to pack for your return home and you couldn’t get your suitcase closed, you probably thought nothing of leaving those free items behind.  Because you had nothing personally invested in them – and because they were free - they got tossed! The problem with freebies is that over time they maintain little value. People don't value what they get for free. Free is disposable.

Consider this: You see a free training offered nearby. They offer free coffee, snacks, meals, and a pretty decent presenter. Would you miss it? For those who indicate that they wouldn’t, there are many more that would. People turn up sporadically for free offerings or not at all. Yet when trainings have a prepaid cost, attendance is high.

Now think about this: When nonprofit afterschool programs are structured so that all participants and parents are invited without any charge, we are setting up a system that devalues almost everything we’ve worked extremely hard to do. People might flock to the program at first, but they'll eventually value it like everything else that they receive that is free - food, clothing, coffee, training, and much more. Free is disposable.

Certainly, the offer of ‘free’ generates feelings of appreciation. But will your parents really feel a loss if the free afterschool program their kids attend is suddenly taken away? Is anyone entitled to anything being free?

We value most that what we’ve actually paid for. You think twice about casting aside something that you've earned with your own sweat equity or money, and you find a way to shove it in your suitcase or keep it close to you. We create sustainability problems for our afternoon programs (as well as our professional associations) when we give them away for free.

Without doubt, some parents would rally for the cause if their program went away, but far too many wouldn’t. We have to find ways to add to the value of afterschool. Even if what you offer must be provided free, we need to change that perception. People are accustomed to free things and experiences being flaky and unreliable. People want to connect with something they can count on. The R in free must stand for responsibility and relationship.

It might be controversial to suggest this, but afterschool programs need some barriers to entry and a sense of exclusivity that increases the perception of value. Exclusivity is quickly eroded by free. Yet, free is very hard to sustain. No one can overcome innumerable difficulties for long periods of time and pour energy into unsustainable endeavors that have very little if any financial return.

What do you think? Does the “free-ness” of afterschool outweigh the challenges of structures based on fees or other costs for enrollment?  Can “free-ness” ever achieve long-term sustainability? Looking to the future, do you think we should be cautious and thoughtful about giving our program offerings away for nothing in return and with no investment from those who benefit most?

Value is increased in afterschool programs when people connect with you and your staff!  Relationships matter. Shared knowledge and experiences create exclusivity. But to assure that we can attract and keep the very best people so those relationships continue to increase in value, we must pay them well to keep them so that we achieve the outcomes we expect to get.

That can’t be sustained when programs are free.

Paul G. Young, Ph.D.

President & CEO

National AfterSchool Association

Hanging Out Together

Register now at
http://www.naaweb.org/

There is a human tendency to band together. If you reflect back to your high school days, you’ll remember the cliques of kids with commons traits and interests, such as jocks, band geeks, tech nerds, and shy, quiet, and smart kids. They hung out together, socialized, and shared common experiences that would shape their lives. We need each other. We need to make the effort to hang out with each other.

Over the years, I feel I’ve increased my leadership skills because I’ve built a network of innovative, creative, and caring professionals that shared a singular purpose with me. I’ve learned different ways to manage my work and solve problems by listening to them. Often times, hanging out with other leaders helped me by just knowing that they faced the same challenges and frustrations as I did. But I’ve also watched colleagues that wanted to live and work in a cocoon – they suffered and succumbed to their problems. Those of us with professional networks who met and talked on a regular basis were emotionally strengthened by those connections.

NAA exists to be your professional network. When you get three or four afterschool program leaders in the same room and talking about what they do and how they do it, you are certain to profit. The benefits that come from putting like minds together are powerful. When we multiply those potential benefits by the numbers of professionals you can connect with at a state conference or a national convention, the results are priceless.

One of the greatest ways to keep your focus is to reward yourself for small accomplishments. As a band geek, my friends and I would celebrate good performances together. As an afterschool professional, celebrating a good “performance” might be a less tangible concept unless you consider your collective accomplishments envisioning, managing, and growing a program. That is definitely worth celebrating! Join us at the NAA National Convention where we will do just that!

Of course, not everyone from the field can make it to Dallas. But we can still “hang out” together when we connect through websites, list-serves, E-News, conference calls, and local gatherings. We connect when we read similar materials, dream big, and share ideas. Engaging in these professional activities while doing the work we do provides us the emotional strength and reassurance we need to meet the goals we are shooting for.

There are certainly those occasions when we can’t control what happens and we fall upon rough times. But how we handle what happens to us during tough times is within our control.  Hanging out together builds emotional capital. Our capacity to handle our professional challenges has everything to do with our emotional balance. Banded together, we can conquer the chaos and get through anything. Alone, you will be consumed.

Come hang out with us at the NAA National Convention in Dallas, Texas, April 2-4, 2012.

Paul G. Young, Ph.D.
President & CEO
National AfterSchool Association

Giving Feedback

Paul G. Young, Ph. D.
President & CEO
National AfterSchool Association

Mention the words “performance review”, and they often conjure up anxious memories of uncomfortable conversations with our bosses.  For many of us, those painful experiences ranked close to going to the dentist for a root canal. We’d do anything to avoid them. The documentation and feedback processes that were used often had little meaning.  Little good ever came from the experience.

The reality is, unfortunately, that many of us don’t conduct performance reviews with our staffs any better than our bosses. Most of us have never been trained in how to give supportive feedback. It's not a performance task in our long list of work responsibilities that typically gets perfected. We stress and worry about how to deliver unpleasant messages and respond to recipients’ reactions. So we tend to ignore or procrastinate until, quite often, pressure points build. When that happens, change often becomes unattainable.

In contrast, we all respond favorably to positive feedback. It has many benefits. It helps us all focus our attention and behavior. Giving it shows that we care and notice what others do. Since one of our primary responsibilities is to increase and enhance the skills of our professional staffs, providing feedback (positive or negative) is one of the most powerful tools we have as leaders. We need to learn to do it well.

We can learn a lot about giving feedback by observing what the great athletic coaches do. They train and mentor their players to improve, overcome mistakes, become a cohesive team, and achieve success.  Great coaches let their players know they care whether their feedback is positive or critical. They share strong interpersonal relationships. Expectations are clear. Feedback and ideas are communicated and exchanged in highly personalized ways. All players are given proper attention and training with opportunities to grow.

Our coaching work with afterschool professionals, hopefully under a lot less stress of most high profile coaches, is just as important. We can learn by observing them in order to improve our processes for giving feedback to our staffs. No matter our level of experience, we all have room for improvement.

We must focus more on observable work behaviors, less on attitude or personality traits. We must provide feedback in the moment, everyday, not days after the fact. It should be delivered in a short, informal, and mostly positive manner. We must encourage our staff members to provide peer feedback to each other, and just as in sports, to teach peer support processes to their students.

Furthermore, I encourage you to give feedback to your afterschool staff in this way. “Motivate on Monday” and give “Feedback on Friday”.  When your staff reports on Mondays, spend a few minutes outlining major goals and expectations for the week.  Allow time for questions. Provide encouragement. Highlight successes. Individualize as needed for each person. Be motivational. Set the tone for the week. Then, before everyone leaves on Friday, provide summary feedback that you haven’t otherwise shared throughout the week. Show people you care and how you will support them going forward.

Relationships are the key. Communication must be effective. Giving feedback, as challenging as it sometimes may be, is essential to grow and develop our staffs. Get involved with NAA where you will have many opportunities to listen and learn and further develop your leadership skills as an afterschool professional.

The Great Penny Debate

Recently, on a flight to Florida to attend the FASA Fall Conference, while reading Southwest Airlines’ travel journal, Spirit Magazine, I saw a picture of a piggybank with the heading "it costs 1.8 cents to make a penny.” Since that made no sense to me, I was compelled to read further. Did you know, according to the U. S. Mint's 2010 Annual Report[1], that rising costs of zinc and copper have made it impossible for the government to make a penny for less than one cent? And it costs 9.2 cents to make a nickel! The government lost $27.4 million last year just making pennies. Even more making nickels! And this has been happening for nearly 5 years!

I don't know about you, but this bothers me. Can't anyone in our national government (or private citizen groups) rise up and stop this example of economic waste and bleeding? Why does the great penny debate need to continue?

Still bothered, I began contemplating how the great penny debate impacts afterschool. What could we as a profession (especially our nonprofits) do with what's being lost making these outdated coins? You can only imagine. But you can also likely agree that, like the government, our professional would benefit if we could eradicate outdated practices.  But change is hard (and obviously long overdue for the pennies and nickels that constitute change in our pockets).

So I began (and I want you to join me here) thinking about how many wasteful and outdated practices we have forced upon us and tolerate burdening our profession. For starters, the hidden costs of required trainings, licensing, compliance costs, outdated paperwork (much of which could be automated) come to mind. But like the government, and perhaps because of it, we throw money down the drain without questioning, changing, and eliminating practices that are no longer practical or cost effective.  In many cases, afterschool programs are caught in a bind, forced to continue charging similar rates and provide services that are more expensive than the actual costs of supplies and resources.

Like me, maybe you didn't know that in today's world it cost more to make a penny than it is actually worth. Seems like an insignificant issue until it adds up. I know I’ve never complained about it until now, and I doubt you haven't either. But if we all joined forces and persistently voiced our outrage at this great penny debacle, I bet we could affect change (and not just in pennies and nickels).

We could certainly make change (in dollars) by speaking out more on the cost prohibitive practices impacting afterschool. What are we worth? How much more does it cost to do what we do than what we receive in return? How are we relevant?  How are needed in a bigger scope of business and education?

Join me in raising a multitude of great money debate questions related to school and afterschool. It's unlikely that we’ll get lots more money, but not improbable. If we do nothing, change is unlikely. And while we raise questions and re-evaluate, we can focus on ways to save, do our work more efficiently, and discard practices that no longer have value.

Together, we can make change.

Paul G. Young, Ph.D.

President & CEO

National AfterSchool Association

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[1] http://www.usmint.gov/downloads/about/annual_report/2010AnnualReport.pdf

Seeing the Forest and the Trees

Can you see beyond the trees?

At a recent professional conference, I listened to a former Chicago principal and a parent advocate tell their mutual story about transforming their failing school into one that became highly performing and sought after by other Chicago parents. Needless to say, their shared vision and work was impressive. Yet, when they asked for questions, I observed how difficult it was for others from a rural setting to relate and envision similar transformation processes for themselves and their schools. One participant openly bemoaned a lack of resources in her rural area, stating that “there were more sheep than people in her school attendance area.” She cited that increasing numbers of poor people were moving in with other family members to pool resources because of the severe lack of jobs.

Many might have witnessed a similar scenario. Is what happens in the big city really applicable to a small, rural area? How replicable are urban school and afterschool transformations in other settings? It didn’t take long for me to realize that the bigger problem was that the rural attendee couldn’t see the forest for the trees – and I don’t think she really wanted to try.

Her questions centered around comparing the resources available in Chicago to the lack of those in her rural community. Because the presenters enjoyed proximity and ready access to volunteers and donated resources, the rural participant couldn’t envision how she could begin to realize any similar kinds of transformation for her school. All she could see were the sheep. She struggled to look beyond. Even when the presenters suggested partnering with 4-H, agribusiness, gardening groups, or faith-based organizations, she continued to bemoan the challenges of her rural predicament.

She never saw a bigger picture.

This scenario plays itself out too often. This session quickly turned into a comparison of apples and oranges, plentiful urban resources v. rural poverty. The participant completely missed the importance of visioning to a transformation process and the passions, desire, and commitment of the parent and principal. And because of their personal humility, they didn’t talk a lot about their feelings or how they each envisioned, internalized, and outwardly experienced the change process. 

Without doubt, many factors contributed to the successful transformation. Obviously, the presence of highly educated, talented, reform-minded parents was significant. Ready access to merchants, sponsors, and competent volunteers helped. But they also faced many obstacles. The facility was over 100 years old. There were naysayers and obstructionists among the school staff and community. These are common and present in all settings. There were also self-doubts and mistakes.

It was enjoyable listening to visionary leaders. They weren’t sharing a make-it, take-it process. They were telling their story. But that, in essence, became the problem. We’ve become so conditioned to sitting, getting, and following a prescriptive plan that we’ve forgotten how to listen and learn from the message and the moral behind every story. When presenters don’t provide how-to specifics, many participants leave in disappointment. By sharing their story, the presenters hoped others’ thinking would be changed to envision improvements and change in their unique settings. Sadly, I observed outstanding leaders sharing success of their visionary work and a room full of participants missing the big picture. To lead, you have to see both the forest and the trees and envision how to maneuver among each. A major challenge for presenters is to teach others how to think and act like a leader through the art of storytelling.

One of the benefits of attending professional conferences is the ready opportunity to open yourself to new ideas. You learn by making connections. I saw that happening in this workshop. But it’s highly doubtful that the rural participants followed up by reading the presenters’ book, networking, or working to build a relationship with the Chicago presenters. To learn new ideas, we must listen, ask questions, follow-up, and independently search for meaning and applicability to our lives and work. Most of all, we must be able to dream and envision ourselves replicating what we hear and learn within our individual settings no matter where it is or how challenging it might appear to be.

Why do so few succeed at leading change and transforming afterschool programs? Because it is exceedingly hard work, dangerous, and requires a long-term commitment to a vision that many struggle to see and develop. Leading change requires a personal engagement outside our comfort zones. Too many people become mired in a mindset or act like “horses wearing blinders.” We learn too quickly to squash ideas that appear to have any risk or limitations.

All of us will benefit by opening our schools and afterschool programs and actively inviting partners in. But before they arrive, we need a clear vision of shared responsibilities and desired outcomes for partnerships. If people suddenly began appearing from behind the trees and from deep within the forest, would we be prepared and know what to do with them?  

Tough times don't last, but tough people do. Get out and steal ideas. Apply them to your unique setting.

Kids learn best when they are motivated to do so and when their learning is real. So do we.