It’s a scary thing leaving your vulnerable loved one in the hands of others. We have all seen those stories in the news. It sure leaves a terrible fear in my stomach when I think about it. But being there every day, day after day to make sure things are done right isn’t sustainable is it. So what can you do? My son now lives independently from me. In order to do that I needed Read more…
Participative v Authoritarian Do you believe your staff love their work and take pride in doing the best possible job? Or do you think that they see it as a burden, and just do it for the money? These assumptions can influence how you deal with people. Douglas McGregor in this 1960 management classic The Human Side of Enterprise described two types of managers – Authoritarian and Participative which still holds today in management theory. Read more…
As a leader part of your role is to help your team to be very clear on their purpose and where they are heading. Writing a manifesto can help you clarify what you believe and what type of contribution you want your team to make to your family member’s life and the wider community. A manifesto is …. A written statement to publicly declare your intentions, motives, or beliefs. From the Latin manifestus — to Read more…
Trust is Key When your family member’s support workers feel you trust them, they will be more willing to voice concerns and offer suggestions to improve on the way things are done. If there is trust among team members they can focus on delivering the best outcomes without the worry of making a mistake in front of their colleagues. They will be more willing to give things a go and work together. Working with a Read more…
Good life building takes work doesn’t it. It’s more stuff on our plate. Our to do lists get long and overwhelming and we can get so overwhelmed we stop cause we don’t know where to start. Often when we are not getting anything done, we can start blaming factors that are out of our control. Things like I’ve got too much to do and I have no time. Because they seem out of our control, Read more…
If the only interaction you have with circle members is at the meetings themselves, you run the risk of the circle members not forming strong relationships with each other or your family member and losing the momentum of being part of something great. So here are some tips for keeping the momentum going…. Tip # 1: Meet up with individual circle members for social activities in between meetings. Now this doesn’t have to end up Read more…
Asking people to join a circle of support is often the thing that people find the hardest. What if they say no? Here are some tips for asking in a way that is likely to get a yes and what to do if they say no. Tip #1 The first step doesn’t have to be asking people to a meeting Your first step can be focusing on getting to know people over a shared interest. Read more…
The purpose of a circle of support is to help your family member with a disability to build the good life they want. It’s going to be important that your family member is supported to get involved. This isn’t easy if your family member experiences anxiety at meetings, doesn’t read or speak. In the beginning my son Isaac would hide in his room as he was anxious about having lots of people talking about him. Read more…
Are you coordinating all the daily tasks you support team members do? Then you are being the team manager and that’s not sustainable. The first step to stepping back and becoming a leader and not a manager is to delegate responsibility for coordinating these daily tasks. But that’s not easy is it. What if they stuff it up? Isn’t it more trouble getting someone else to do it right than it is for you Read more…
If you’ve developed a big fat training folder for your support staff to help them to better support your family member then that’s awesome. Some training sure is better than no training! So well done you! But there are a few inherent problems with big fat training folders and here are some of them that you might recognise: 1. They are big and fat This means they are not easy to carry around with you. Read more…