How to develop frontline leaders in an early childhood education business

To develop frontline leaders in an early childhood education business, you must stop assuming your best educators will naturally know how to manage adults.

Key takeaways

• Great pedagogy does not automatically translate to great people management.
• New room leaders often default to their natural work personality, which can cause friction if they do not know how to adapt to their team.
• Frontline leaders need specific training on when to use directive, democratic, and non-directive leadership styles in a centre environment.
• Resolving conflict between adult educators requires a completely different skill set than managing children's behaviour.

The promotion trap in early childhood education

You have a brilliant educator. They have an incredible bond with the children, parents request their room specifically, and their programming is flawless. So, when a room leader or educational leader position opens up, you promote them.

Six months later, that same brilliant educator is stressed, working through their lunch breaks, and dealing with constant interpersonal drama among their assistants. They are burnt out. You are frustrated.

This happens in centres across the country because we mistake technical competence for leadership capability. Being exceptional at early childhood pedagogy requires empathy, patience, and a deep understanding of child development. Managing a team of adult educators requires delegation, performance management, and the ability to hold peers accountable.

When you promote an educator without teaching them how to lead, they usually default to doing everything themselves. They step in to change nappies or set up activities because it feels easier than asking an unmotivated assistant to do it. This leads to resentment and exhaustion.

Map their natural work personality first

Before you can teach someone how to lead, they need to understand how they naturally prefer to work. At Compono, our research into organisational psychology shows that every person has a dominant work personality – a default way they approach tasks, communication, and problem-solving.

In an early childhood setting, these personalities become highly visible under stress. Consider the educator who naturally aligns with "The Helper" personality. Helpers are empathetic, supportive, and focused on team harmony. They are wonderful with children and highly approachable for parents. Put a Helper in a leadership role without training, and they will likely avoid having difficult conversations with staff who turn up late or fail to complete their documentation. They prioritise keeping the peace over enforcing standards.

Compare that to "The Coordinator". Coordinators are organised, results-driven, and love structure. A Coordinator room leader will have the routine running like clockwork. Their blind spot appears when things do not go to plan. They can become rigid and overly directive, alienating educators who need a bit more flexibility or creative freedom.

If you want to understand the default behaviours your new leaders will fall back on, Hey Compono maps these work personalities in about ten minutes. Giving your frontline leaders this self-awareness is the first step in helping them adapt.

Teach them to adapt their leadership style

New leaders often think there is only one "right" way to lead. They either try to be everyone's friend, or they become a dictator. Effective leadership in an early childhood centre requires moving fluidly between different styles depending on the situation.

We break this down into three core approaches: Directive, Democratic, and Non-Directive leadership.

Directive leadership involves providing clear instructions and expecting a structured approach. Many new leaders shy away from this because they do not want to seem bossy. In a childcare centre, directive leadership is non-negotiable for situations involving health, safety, and compliance. If a child has a severe allergy, the room leader cannot be democratic about how the EpiPen is stored. They must be clear, firm, and directive.

Democratic leadership focuses on collaboration and shared decision-making. This is the style most educators naturally prefer. It works beautifully for planning the weekly curriculum, designing room layouts, or deciding how to celebrate a cultural event. The leader gathers input, validates ideas, and makes a decision that incorporates the team's expertise.

Non-Directive leadership is a hands-off approach where the leader gives the team autonomy. A centre director might use this style with a highly experienced room leader who has run the preschool room successfully for five years. You provide the budget and the resources, then step back and let them execute.

The skill is knowing which tool to pull from the toolbox. A common mistake new room leaders make is using democratic leadership for compliance issues, or directive leadership for creative programming.

Navigating adult conflict in the centre

If you ask a group of early childhood leaders what keeps them up at night, it is rarely the children. It is the adults. Staff conflict is the number one drain on a centre director's time, and frontline leaders need the skills to handle it before it escalates to management.

Conflict usually stems from clashing work personalities. Imagine a room where the lead educator is "The Doer" – practical, fast-paced, and focused on getting tasks ticked off the list. Their assistant is "The Auditor" – methodical, detail-oriented, and slow to make changes. The Doer gets frustrated because the Auditor takes too long to set up an activity. The Auditor feels rushed and undervalued because the Doer keeps changing the routine without warning.

Developing your frontline leaders means teaching them how to translate these differences. Instead of labelling the assistant as "slow", the Doer needs to learn how to communicate the timeline clearly while respecting the Auditor's need for detail. Some centres use Hey Compono to give their teams a shared language for these conversations, taking the personal sting out of professional friction.

Shift the focus from doing to developing

The hardest transition for a newly promoted educator is letting go of the tasks that made them successful in the first place. When you are an educator, your value is tied to your direct interactions with children and families. When you become a leader, your value is tied to how well your team interacts with the children and families.

You have to teach your frontline leaders how to delegate effectively. Delegation feels uncomfortable at first. It often takes longer to teach an assistant how to write a learning observation than it does to just write it yourself. New leaders need permission to slow down and invest time in training their staff.

Set clear expectations about what their new role actually entails. If a room leader is spending 90 percent of their time doing floor work and 10 percent of their time managing their team, the room will eventually fall apart. They need dedicated time off the floor to observe their staff, provide feedback, and plan for the team's development.

Hold regular leadership meetings that focus on people management, not just compliance and occupancy rates. Ask your room leaders what conversations they are avoiding. Role-play difficult feedback scenarios with them. If an educator is consistently arriving late, practice the exact words the room leader will use to address it.

Key insights

• Promoting great educators without leadership training sets them up for burnout and team dysfunction.
• Understanding a leader's natural work personality reveals their blind spots, especially under the high stress of a childcare environment.
• Effective centre leadership requires shifting between directive, democratic, and non-directive styles based on the specific situation.
• Teaching leaders to delegate and manage adult conflict is the most impactful investment you can make in your centre's culture.

FAQs

Why do good educators struggle when promoted to room leaders?

They struggle because the skills required to educate children are entirely different from the skills required to manage adults. Without specific training in delegation, conflict resolution, and performance management, they default to doing all the work themselves, leading to rapid burnout.

How do I teach a room leader to have difficult conversations?

Start by identifying their natural communication style. If they are naturally empathetic and avoid conflict, give them a structured framework for delivering feedback. Practice role-playing the conversation away from the floor so they feel confident before speaking with their team member.

What is the best leadership style for an early childhood setting?

There is no single best style. Leaders must adapt to the situation. Directive leadership is required for safety and compliance, democratic leadership works best for programming and team culture, and non-directive leadership is ideal for managing highly experienced, autonomous educators.

How can I stop my room leaders from doing everything themselves?

You need to redefine what success looks like for them. Make it clear that their job is no longer to complete every task, but to ensure the team completes the tasks. Give them dedicated off-the-floor time to train their assistants and review delegation strategies.

How do work personalities affect team dynamics in a centre?

Different personalities approach tasks differently. A highly structured educator might clash with a spontaneous, creative educator. When leaders understand these natural work personalities, they can assign tasks that play to each person's strengths and mediate conflicts before they affect the children.