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Head Start Director Core Competencies
 

The role of a Head Start or Early Head Start director is demanding and complex and requires both leadership and management skills. Program directors can refer to this resource as a guide for drafting their professional development goals in three major core competencies. A professional development plan is key to ensuring that program directors continue to grow and cultivate their professional and leadership skills.

Head Start Director Core Competencies
 

Interpersonal Competencies have a strong social interdependence base. Social interdependence is at the heart of all human interactions, and cooperation is at the heart of organization and group efforts. Inherent in your responsibilities as a director is an ability to inspire others to establish relationships based on positive attitudes towards each other, mutual concern, friendliness, attentiveness, feelings of commitment and a desire to earn each other's respect. Examples of interpersonal competencies include:

  • developing leadership
  • self-management and supervisory potential
  • shaping personal and professional development
  • effective oral and written communication skills and supporting the resolution of conflicts

Management Competencies are skills you need to be an effective leader, manager and consultant. These skills include having the ability to create organizational knowledge within and outside of the Head Start program. Such skills include:

  • developing one's knowledge of administrative and fiscal management systems
  • good business practices
  • planning, organizational development
  • advocacy
  • coalition-building
  • effective communications

Management competencies increase levels of team performance and accountability. Management competencies enable you to anticipate and respond to organizational change. A director demonstrates management competencies by personally modeling and supporting continuous improvement and learning.

Technical Competencies call upon you to have problem-solving skills and a range of competencies that require an ability to collect, measure, synthesize and analyze data, use computer technology to manage and coordinate, call upon research and best practices to solve problems.

Technical competencies include general knowledge of the Head Start Program Performance Standards content areas, such as child health and developmental services, education and early childhood development, child nutrition, mental health, program governance, and family/community partnerships.

Technical competencies encourage high performance and mutual purpose in teams; it requires a director to keep track of progress and generate mutual responsibility and accountability.

Source: 1998 New Head Start Directors' Institute/Professional Development Planner

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Head Start Director Core Competencies. 1998 Head Start & Early Head Start Directors’ Professional Development Planner. DHHS/ACF/OHS. 1998. English.