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199: Fall Team Momentum: Keep Energy High Through the Holidays · Early Childhood Business Made Easy

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: The first month of school, well, it runs on adrenaline.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone is excited.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: New children are settling in, and the energy of a fresh start, well, it carries your team through most of September.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: Then October arrives, and that novelty, well, it begins to fade and the repetition, it sets in.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: And the same team that was so energized in September, well, you start seeing some quiet signs of fall fatigue, maybe slower morning arrivals, less proactive communication, and the beginning of small interpersonal tensions that tend to grow if nobody addresses them.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the CEOs who maintain strong team momentum throughout the holidays, all the way into the new year, they're not the ones whose teams never get tired.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: They're just the ones who anticipate fall fatigue and lead their teams through it with intention.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: So this episode today is going to show you just how to do that.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Kelly Peake.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: I've spent the past 26 years growing multiple million dollar early childhood businesses.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm here to help you navigate both the messy and magical seasons of your early childhood business with simple, actionable strategies.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: It is my goal to make your life a little easier working with our most prized possessions in life.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you're ready to control the chaos, ditch the exhausting overwhelm, and keep the joy, then be sure to join us at KellyPeak.com.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Well, hey there, CEOs, and welcome to the Early Childhood Business Made Easy Podcast.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Kelly Peak, your host.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: And as you know, I'd love to help you find more of that time and freedom and profit that you so deserve.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: Now I have a question for you.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: Have you started to see your team's energy peak this fall?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: Really big, really excited?
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: When did you first start noticing that start to dip?
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe, maybe not as excited.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: So if you've been in early childhood or some sort of early childhood business for more than a year, you already know the answer to both of those questions without having to think very hard.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: That energy usually peaks somewhere in the second or third week of school.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: The team is executing the systems you built.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: The children, the families, they're settling into routines.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: Birthday parties are heading off like they're supposed to be.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Morning drop-offs, if you're in an enrichment program or a preschool or a childcare, well, you've probably found some sort of rhythm.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: And that peak, well, it's real and it is worth celebrating, my friend.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: That dip, well, that comes later.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: It arrives quietly, usually around week six, seven, or maybe eight of the school year.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe a team member who used to arrive five minutes early, they start arriving on time or maybe a minute or two late.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: That morning huddle that you do every morning, or maybe once a week, or once a month, used to generate great ideas.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: It starts to feel like more of a checklist and moving on.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: A small scheduling disagreement that would have resolved itself in September.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it requires remediation in October because something underneath it has shifted.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: This, my friend, is what we call fall fatigue.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's the predictable psychological and emotional response to sustained, high performance work in a demanding environment.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: Let me repeat that.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: Now, early childhood educators and people who work with kiddos, you give an enormous amount of yourselves every single day.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: So the first few weeks of a new school year or a new season, well, it requires additional output above even that baseline.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: And the fatigue that follows, well, that's not weakness.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's just evidence that you and your team, you have been doing the work.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: So the question is not whether fall fatigue will arrive.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: It will.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: And for some, it may already have.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: The question is whether you have a leadership strategy for meeting it and keeping your team engaged through it, recognized, and genuinely motivated through the rest of the year.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: Especially when that holiday season, it adds its own layer of demands on top of the ordinary weight of early childhood work.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: So today I'm giving you three strategies just for that.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna cover number one, why fall fatigue happens and what is it's actually costing you.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: Number two, three proven approaches for building team momentum that's gonna carry you through the holidays.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: And number three, how to build the kind of team culture that sustains engagement, not just through December, but through every difficult stretch in the year ahead.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: Fall fatigue, my friend, it does not arrive because your team is the wrong team.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: It arrives because sustained excellence, well, that is demanding.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: And no amount of passion for the work eliminates the need for intentional leadership investment to maintain it.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: So the CEOs who keep a strong team, who have that energy that's kept up through the holidays, they're not lucky.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: They're just proactive.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so this episode is gonna give you that strategy for what they're doing.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: Now I want to remind you about your free resource for this week's episode.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's the creative reward catalog.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna find it at KellyPeak.com where you're gonna find information on episode 199.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: So go download that.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: This strategy is gonna be something we're gonna cover today.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be a companion tool for the recognition strategies that we're gonna work through together.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: And my friends, this is so exciting! We are almost approaching episode 200 of the Early Childhood Business Made Easy podcast.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: So don't forget about that free pre-recorded coaching week gift that we're gonna be giving out, available to every subscriber that's available that's there when we hit 200.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: So go subscribe now at KellyPeak.com where you find information about this podcast.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: We are on Spotify, we're on Apple, we're all the places where you will find your favorite podcasts.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: Now, let's talk about your team.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: This is how I want you to approach team management in the back half of this calendar year.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: Your team engagement, it's not a moral issue, it's a leadership investment issue.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: So when team energy dips in October and November, well, the instinct for many directors or managers is to address it as a personal problem, to wonder whether certain team members are the right fit, to have uncomfortable conversations about attitude or to tighten accountability in ways that increase pressure without increasing support.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes those war, those responses are definitely warranted.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: But other times the dip is happening because the investment in team engagement that was high during the hiring and onboarding phase.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: That was high during that back-to-school season, but it might have quietly tapered off as the operational demands are now absorbing the leader's attention.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: So early childhood team members, well, they don't disengage because they stop caring about children or the families.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: They disengage because they stop feeling seen by their leader who asked them to care in the first place.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: So when the specific recognition stops, when the growth conversations disappear, when every interaction with the director or manager is operational rather than relational, well, that emotional bank account that sustains that discretionary effort, it starts to get depleted.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: The CEO, the confident early childhood operator, well, she understands that team engagement is not something that happens to her team.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's something she builds and rebuilds intentionally all year long.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: And the season when that investment matters most is not the honeymoon of September, but the sustained reality of Q4, October, November, and December.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: The research on employee recognition is some of the most consistent in organizational psychology.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: A Gallup study of more than 4 million employees found that workers who receive regular recognition are significantly more productive, they're more engaged, and they're more likely to stay with their organization than those who do not.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: And the quality of the recognition, well, that matters as much as the frequency.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: Specifically, recognition that is specific, timely, and personal that is more effective at building a sustained engagement process than generic praise or symbols or just generic gestures.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: In the early childhood industry, specifically, a 2023 report from the Center for the Study of Childcare Employment found the most cited reason for leaving an early childhood position among experienced educators.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it was not compensation, it was not working conditions, and it was not parent interactions.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: It was feeling undervalued by program leadership.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: The retention solution most directors are looking for, well, it's not a higher salary.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: It is a more intentional investment in making their team members feel genuinely seen.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: Not once a year at Teacher Appreciation Week, but consistently through the ordinary days that make up most of the working year.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: Now, a childcare director that I worked with in the South, she had a team that was consistently excellent in September and consistently depleted by November.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Not burned out in a crisis way, just running at a reduced capacity with lower energy and higher interpersonal friction than the fall had started with.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: She had tried team meetings, end-of-year bonuses, one-on-one conversations, when things started to get visibly tense.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: And all of those helped temporarily, but none of them prevented the pattern from repeating.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: So the year she shifted from reactive team management to proactive weekly recognition rhythm, well, that's when something changed that she didn't expect.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: The weekly specific recognition that she started to send to each team member, just a couple sentences, specific something, something specific that she had observed during that week.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it didn't feel like a big investment on her end, but it took about 15 minutes on Thursday afternoon to write a few messages.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: But the cumulative effect on every team member, they were receiving that genuine specific acknowledgement each week.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that was different than anything else she had tried before.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: So by November, she noticed two things.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: First, she had not had a single drama conversation that month.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: And that is big, my friend, as you know.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: Second, two team members who had come to her in October to ask about their long-term future with the program.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: Well, they had both recommitted through the following year.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: She did not have to add any new team members.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: She did not have to increase pay.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: She changed the frequency and specificity of her recognition.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: And that investment, well, it was about 15 minutes a week.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: And the return was her most retention strong Q4 in seven years of operation.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: And that is what I want for you, my friend.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're going to go over three strategies to help you do just that.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to begin with strategy number one, understand fall fatigue before you try to fix it.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to spend a few minutes on the mechanics of fall fatigue before we get into the strategies.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: Because understanding what's actually happening for your team members in October and November, well, that's going to change the quality of the leadership response you can offer.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: Early childhood business, it's one of the most emotionally and cognitively demanding professions that exist.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: Whether you're a teacher, you're the bus driver, you run a cafe, birthday parties, you run a dance program, any of these, anytime you work with children and families, the demand on you emotionally is extremely high.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the research on emotional labor, the work of managing your emotional responses in the service of a professional role, well, that consistently identifies childcare workers, teachers, nurses, those are the occupations with the highest emotional labor demands.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: Now, your team members, they do not just teach, they do not just host birthday parties, they co-regulate with the kiddos whose nervous systems they are helping develop.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: They manage transitions, they manage conflict, stress, anxieties, all of that for every moment that a child is with your team member.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: They are genuinely and completely present for the children in their care, especially if you're a preschool, childcare, or an emergency program.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: That means they are drawing on emotional and cognitive resources that are genuinely finite.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: So September is sustainable because the novelty of a new year, a new season, maybe new children, a fresh start, that acts as a restorative force against that depletion.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: October, well, that removes the novelty.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: And what remains is the sustained daily output without the recovery that that new year energy provided.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: So this is not a problem with your team.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's the nature of high demand relational work.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: So what does fall fatigue actually look like in practice?
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it looks like the team member who has slightly less patience during transitions than maybe she did in September, the one who does not volunteer for the new project the way she might have in August, the one who comes to you with a concern she would have worked through on her own before.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: So none of these are disciplinary issues.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: They're all just signals of a team member who needs a leadership investment to refuel what the work has been drawing from her.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: When you recognize fall fatigue as a predictable pattern rather than a personnel problem, your leadership responses change.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: So instead of wondering whether something is wrong with your team, you ask, what can you do to restore the energy that the work is drawing down?
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: The strategies in the next two sections, they're going to answer some of those questions in a very specific, sustainable way.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: And it's going to show you some practices that actually work.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: But the most important thing I want you to take away from this first strategy is this fall fatigue is not a sign that you hired the wrong people.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's a sign that your team is doing some of the most demanding work and that you, as their leader, have the opportunity to make a significant difference in how they carry that weight throughout the holidays.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: So your two action steps here.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, do a team energy audit this week.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: Look at each team member, ask yourself, how does their energy, how does their communication and the engagement, how does all of that compare to what it was maybe a month or two ago?
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: Not as a performance evaluation, but as a leadership diagnostic.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: What team members are showing early signs of fatigue?
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: Which ones are currently thriving?
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: Where do you see depletion?
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: That's where your leadership investment is most needed.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: So write down the names and commit to one specific action for each of them this week.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: Action step number two, schedule a brief individual check-in if you need to before October arrives.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: Now you don't have to do this, but if you're feeling like something might be just a little off, it is worth the investment.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: 10 minutes, just two questions.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: What's going well for you right now, and what would make the rest of the year feel more sustainable?
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: That's it.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: Those two questions.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: Ask with genuine curiosity rather than some sort of agenda.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's going to tell you more about your team's current state than any amount of observation or forms that you can complete.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: The act of asking them, that just communicates something every team member needs to feel.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: It makes them feel noticed.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: You see them as people, not just as roles.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: That moves us on to strategy number two.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to give you three proven approaches to building team momentum.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: So these three approaches are not just motivational techniques, they are leadership practices, things you can do consistently that create conditions for sustained engagement rather than trying to manufacture it in moments of crisis.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: So the first approach is specific recognition delivered regularly.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not talking about just something like, great job today, which is well-intentioned, but it registers barely above silence when you talk about terms of its impact on engagement.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: Specific recognition names what you observed, why it mattered, and the person it says something true about.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like, for example, I noticed the way you handled the transition conflict between two kiddos this morning.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, you stayed calm and you gave both of them a way to be right.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: You did it without interrupting the whole group's momentum.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: That is exactly the kind of judgment and skill I depend on from you.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: That is no longer just a great job today.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's more specific.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: And specificity is what makes recognition genuinely felt rather than just merely acknowledged.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: Now, don't forget about the creative reward catalog.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's our free resource for this week at the KellyPeak.com website.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to find information on podcast episode 199.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's going to be a library of specific, meaningful recognition ideas that go beyond just verbal acknowledgement.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: Many of the most impactful recognition practices, well, they're going to cost you nothing.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: A handwritten note left on a team member's mailbox, a specific mention in a morning huddle, a designated your choice decision for a classroom activity or maybe something on the schedule.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: That catalog, it's a tool.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: Specificity and regularity, those are the practices they're going to make that tool work.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the second approach is a microinvestment in personal growth.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: So team members who feel like they're growing professionally, well, they are significantly more engaged than those who feel like they're doing the same thing in the same way.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: You do not need a professional development budget to make an investment meaningfully, a book related to child development or business management, something left in a team member's mailbox with a specific note about why you thought of her when you read it, a webinar registration for a maybe a topic that she mentioned being curious about, an invitation to lead a five-minute what I learned this week to share at a future meeting.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: The investment is small, but that signal it sends, something more like, I see you as someone who grows, not just someone who performs.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's significant and is exactly the signal that keeps good people invested in staying in your program.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the third approach is the team pulse check conversation.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: I've talked about this before in past podcast episodes, so feel free to search it.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: This is a structured but brief one-to-one format that I use at P Academy and Play Boutique to get real on how each team member is doing beneath the surface of their daily performance.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: It happens for us a few times throughout the year.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: Some people do it weekly, some people do it monthly, whatever works best for you.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: It just takes a short amount of time.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: And we follow three simple questions.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: What's working well for you right now?
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: What is making your work harder than it needs to be?
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: And what is one thing I could do that would make your time feel better?
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: Now that third question is the most important one because it invites the team member to give you actionable information rather than leaving you to guess at what the support they need should look like.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: So again, we do these quarterly a few times throughout the year.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: Some people might do it monthly and some people might do it weekly.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's really up to you and what you need.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: If you have a brand new team or maybe you're struggling through some issues, you want to do it more frequently.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: Once your team like ours has been there 10, 15, 20 years, then you don't need to do it as often.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: But you still need to do it because it's still very important.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: Now, together, these three approaches, well, they create the conditions for a team that sustains its engagement through the whole year.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: Not because they're not tired, because you know they're going to be, but because they feel genuinely seen, they feel invested in, and they feel supported by you, their leader, who's asking them to keep showing up at those high levels.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: So your two action steps here.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, download that Creative Ward catalog at KellyPeak.com, episode 199.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: Choose one recognition practice to implement with each team member in the next seven days.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: Not the same practice for everyone.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: Choose something specific for each person.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: The team member who values public acknowledgement gets a specific mention in a team huddle.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: The one who prefers private recognition, well, they may get a handwritten note.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: And the one who is driven by growth, they're going to get maybe a book recommendation with a personal note.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: Personalized recognition lands differently than just regular recognition.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: Action step number two, check out that team pulse check and implement that with your team.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: You can do it formally as a scheduled conversation or maybe informally, a brief check-in during a natural transition like nap time or lunch.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: The format matters less than the consistency.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: Once your team members knows what these questions are and that you're going to be asking them regularly, well, they start to think about the answers before that conversation, which means you are going to get more honest, more thoughtful, and more actionable responses than you would from an impromptu check-in.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: Now that moves us on to our final strategy number three, build a team culture that sustains through December.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: So the first two strategies are going to give you specific tools for the immediate moment.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: Strategy three is about the long game, that cumulative investment in team culture that determines whether your team arrives in December and January, inspired or depleted, and whether they come back in that new year committed to another year, or maybe they might be quietly looking for something else.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: Team culture in any early childhood business is not built through team meetings and pizza parties.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's built through the accumulation of small daily, weekly, monthly signals that communicate what kind of workplace this is, who the people in it are to each other, and whether the leader who sets the mission is actually living it.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: Now, a powerful culture building practice that I've used myself at Peak Academy and Play Boutique is what I call the beginning ritual.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: So you could do this every morning, maybe weekly, maybe monthly, but find a time before any children arrive, any families arrive.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe this is on a weekend if you're a playbook.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Cafe, or maybe if you're an enrichment program, but find a two-minute gathering of whoever's present.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're a preschool, you could do this by classroom.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: If you're a cafe, you could do it right before the first uh work shift.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: If you're an enrichment program, it can be your whole team.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: But you want to ask one question: what is the one thing you're bringing into today?
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: Now the answer: it's never judged, it's never graded, it's not evaluated, it's never used to inform anything operational.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: It is simply spoken and heard.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: And over weeks and months, this practice is going to build something that is genuinely difficult to name, but it's immediately felt by anyone who walks into your space.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: A team that is oriented toward the same beginning every morning, every beginning together.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the second culture building practice is what I think of as the leadership modeling moment.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: So this is your team members who take more cues from what they observe in you rather than from anything that you communicate about culture.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: When you arrive energized and you are specific in your greeting, they see what energy looks like in the workplace.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: When you handle a difficult parent interaction with calm and care, they watch and they learn.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: When you acknowledge your own mistakes without excessive self-criticism, you give your team permission to be imperfect too.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: Culture is not what you declare, it's what you demonstrate.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the third practice is the end of quarter or maybe the end of a season team celebration.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: So again, sometimes this is done by quarter because our seasons tend to land naturally around a calendar quarter system, but this is specific to you.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: This is not a generic appreciation lunch, though those are not without value, but a specific documented celebration of what your team has accomplished in that quarter or again at the end of a specific season.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: This might mean December, for example, at the end of quarter four, or at the end of a holiday season, or maybe June, which is also the end of a quarter, but also the end of the school year.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: This is where you're gathering where you are, and you name specifically and out loud what each team member contributed to that specific season.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: Not everyone did such a great job, not a generic thank you, but a specific accounting of what each person brought to the program that quarter or that season and why it mattered to your families, to the kiddos, to your customers, and to your entire team around them.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: That kind of celebration, it does take a little preparation.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: So if you've been paying attention all quarter to be able to name something specific, a specific contribution, that's another reason that team pulse check and that weekly recognition practice and strategy number two, well, those are not just retention tools.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: They are data collection practices that are gonna make a meaningful end-of-season celebration possible.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: And again, I say this over and over again.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: This small investment in time now that is gonna save you so much time at the end because you're not struggling and stressing to replace people because those people know you love them and care about them and see them.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: So they're gonna stay.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: And the team that experiences that celebration, maybe in December or in June, they feel genuinely and specifically seen by you, their leader.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: That's not a team that leaves in January or May.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's a team that comes back ready to build the next season.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, my friends, if you have not already, please subscribe to our podcast at KellyPeak.com.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: We are approaching episode 200.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: It is the next one, and I'm so excited about it.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: And because of that, we're giving you our free pre-recorded coaching week as a gift.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's a complete teaching resource focusing on team leadership, financial strategy, marketing operation, and it's going out to every subscriber when we hit 200.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I designed it in a way to say thank you for you helping us build this community that is going to make this work so meaningful.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: But before we do that, two action steps here.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, start your daily, weekly, monthly, whatever that is for you, your beginning ritual.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: Map that out.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: Take two minutes, answer a couple questions, but one for sure, whatever version fits your program's culture and schedule right now, put that on the start of your morning prep.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe again, it's a first team gathering of the day.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's a first gathering of the week or the month, maybe it's right before a big birthday party that's being scheduled or a dance class you're getting ready to start.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever it is, maybe it's a text you sent out to your group the night before.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: But ask them what is one thing you are bringing into today, or if you did it the night before, tomorrow.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: The specific practice, well, it matters less than the consistency of it.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: So a small ritual kept consistently is the most powerful culture-building tool and it's free that you have.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: So go for it and execute it.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: Action step number two, put that Q4 or the end of season team celebration on your calendar right now.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: Choose a date, maybe November, maybe December, maybe January, whatever you want to do, put that on your calendar way before the holiday programming even starts and protect it.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: 30, 60 minutes, prepare by reviewing that team pulse check.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: Review your notes, how you want to recognize your team.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: Identify one specific contribution for each team member to name out loud.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: And then at your gathering, say it.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_01: Now, again, there's a little bit of preparation, but you got this.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: And that celebration is going to be a reward for the whole team.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: All right, my friend, those three strategies, understanding fall fatigue as a predictable pattern rather than a personnel problem, building team momentum through specific recognition, microinvestment and growth, and the team pulse check.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: And finally cultivating a culture that sustains engagement throughout the rest of the year.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's your complete fall team leadership framework for your Q4.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: So here's your action plan for this week.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: Complete the team energy audit and schedule an individual check-in if you need to with each team member.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: Number two, download that creative reward catalog at KellyPeak.com where you find information on episode 199.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: Implement one personalized recognition for each team member.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: And number three, start your beginning ritual.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: Put your Q4 or end of season team celebration on your calendar.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: Now, for deeper support, building the team culture and leadership systems that make this Q4 feel like a season you genuinely are proud to lead, check out our Shine membership at KellyPeak.com.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: This is the ongoing coaching environment where we do this to get work together every month.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: And for a more intensive one-on-one support with me, that's the Clarity Collective, again at KellyPeak.com, where I work directly with CEOs, directors, and managers who are ready to transform how they lead their teams.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: And again, I know I've said it, but episode 200 is the next episode.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: So if you've been listening to this podcast for any length of time and you're not subscribed, please do so and you will get that free pre-recorded coaching gift.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: It is some of my best content on team leadership, financial strategy, marketing, and operations in one complete experience.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: We are getting that ready to send to every subscriber after episode 200.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's my thank you to this beautiful and wonderful community.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_01: Friend, your team members, they chose early childhood work because they genuinely care about children and families.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: That commitment, it doesn't go away in October.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: What it needs in October and November and December is a leader who notices it.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: She names it.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: She invests in it.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: That leader is you, my friend.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: Lead your team like the CEO, the confident early childhood operator you are.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I am so excited to see you at episode 200.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_01: Take care, my friend.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for tuning into our podcast.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: Are you ready to take your early childhood business to the next level?
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: Then head over to KellyPeak.com to join a community of other early childhood professionals who are ditching the chaos and the overwhelm and creating a business they love.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: I can't wait to see you there.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: Bye for now.