The three most common management mistakes for educational and training principals! Be careful to avoid

I have summarized the three most common management mistakes made by educational and training principals, each of which is fatal. How many did you fall for?

Error 1: Using teaching thinking for management, exhausting oneself into a 'fire brigade leader'

Many principals come from excellent teaching backgrounds, which is both an advantage and a trap.

Artstep Academic Management System

I have seen too many principals like this: coming in the earliest and leaving the latest every day, unable to schedule their own classes, handling complaints from parents personally, and correcting teaching plans word for word... They may seem diligent, but in reality, they have fallen into a vicious cycle of 'employees idle, bosses working hard'.

Deadly problem: You see yourself as a 'super employee' rather than a manager.

The principal who transforms into a teacher is most likely to make this mistake - always thinking 'if others can't do it well, it's better for me to do it myself'. As a result, the team will never grow, you will become increasingly tired, and the size of the organization will always be stuck at a bottleneck.

Suggestion:

• 1. Learn to authorize: withdraw from classroom teaching, even if it means earning less tuition fees. Your time should be spent on more important things;
• 2. Establish a process: standardize teaching, streamline service processes, and enable newcomers to quickly get started;
• 3. Cultivate backbone: Identify potential teachers, provide them with growth space and opportunities to make mistakes;

Remember: you are the captain, not a sailor. The value of a captain is to grasp the direction, not to personally paddle.

Error 2: Excessive focus on teaching and neglect of "service experience"

Teaching is our root, I never deny it. But many principals have fallen into the misconception of "teaching only theory".

Parents nowadays pay not only for scores, but also for the experience. No matter how good your courses are, if communication is not timely, the environment is not tidy, and the service is not attentive, parents will still vote with their feet.

Real case: Last year, I came into contact with an institution whose teaching quality was among the best in the local area, but the renewal fee was only 50%. I found that the front desk receptionist is indifferent, the classroom is messy, and there is no one to answer parents' questions for half a day. The principal is still aggrieved: 'We teach well!'

Reminder: The essence of the education and training industry is "education + service industry". Two wings are indispensable.

Immediately check:

• How long does it take for parents to receive a response after consulting?
• Does the classroom environment make students feel comfortable?
• Is the feedback after class timely and warm?
• Is the handling of special needs (such as course adjustments and leave requests) flexible?

Maximizing the service process and making parents feel valued is the fundamental guarantee of renewal rate.

Error 3: Blindly following the trend and innovating, losing the foundation of school establishment

In recent years, new concepts in the education and training industry have emerged one after another: AI courses, dual teacher classrooms, study tours, short video enrollment... Many principals immediately follow the trend when they see others doing it.

Innovation is right, but innovating for the sake of innovation is a disaster.

The most heartbreaking case I have ever seen: an English institution that has been in business for eight years and has always had a good reputation. The principal immediately mobilized the core team and invested heavily in developing new products when he saw that others were doing "big Chinese" and became popular. As a result, the new project did not start, and the quality of the old business declined due to insufficient investment. In two years, the customer trust accumulated over eight years was exhausted.

Artstep Academic Management System

Frankly speaking:

• 1. Dig deep first, then expand: Make your area the best and consider diversification;
• 2. Small step trial and error, fast iteration: New projects should be piloted on a small scale first, not all in;
• 3. Maintain cash flow: Innovation investment cannot shake the foundation of the main business.

Remember: your core competencies have been validated. Innovation should strengthen the moat, not dig another river.

Management is not only an art, but also a science. As principals, we need to constantly step out of the role of "executors" and look at problems from the perspective of managers.

The three mistakes mentioned today:

• Using teaching thinking for management
• Neglecting service experience
• Blindly following the trend and innovating

If you haven't won any, congratulations, you have already surpassed 80% of your peers. If you win, don't panic, discovering the problem is the beginning of solving it.

Management is not perfect, only continuous optimization. Starting today, it is recommended to set aside one hour every day to think about strategies instead of dealing with trivial matters; Optimize one service detail per week; Evaluate once every quarter whether the innovation direction deviates from the main business.