Many people choose to work in the education sector because they are caring and supportive and want to help learners, support them on their journey and see them be successful. This brings us very tangible rewards.
But there is often a mistaken belief by those working in education that it is enough to be friendly and caring, that everything can be solved with a smile. It can’t. Don’t get me wrong, smiles are really important. Smiles can make someone’s day. Smiles can help build relationships and can ease tensions. But smiles don’t get things done. Smiles don’t get outcomes. Smiles don’t solve complex problems. And smiles don’t fix broken or ineffective processes and systems.
Yes, smiles are important. Start with a smile, but don’t stop there. Think of it as “Smile AND …”. The “AND” includes making sure you know how to do your job well. Making sure your processes and systems work. Taking ownership of problems from start to finish and making sure you arrive at a solution for the student, parent or stakeholder in a reasonable timeframe.
“Smile AND” means being caring, kind and friendly, but also having good processes, being competent, getting outcomes, solving problems, taking ownership and delivering high quality service to our learners. To do this we have to continually improve our processes. We have to keep our workplace skills current through lifelong learning. We have to use our technologies and systems well. We have to collect data and measure our results. AND we have to keep smiling :-).
#processimprovement #education #highereducation