Free templateStaff Management

Micro-Leadership Roles Resource

A two-page Lunch & Learn worksheet, subtitled ‘Building Ownership Within Your Team’, that walks a child care leader through four steps: finding work that could be shared, matching it to a staff member’s strengths, defining the role and planning the support and check-ins.

Format: Printable PDF · A4
Pages: 2
Best for: Directors · supervisors · room leads
Updated: Oct 2026

Download free template See what’s inside

No sign-up required. Print it and share it with your team — it’s free for any child care program to use.

Preview of the Micro-Leadership Roles Resource

What’s inside

Four steps for handing over one small leadership role

Step 1: Identify Opportunities in Your ProgramAsks ‘Where do you currently spend time that could be shared?’ and gives four examples — organizing materials, planning activities, monitoring safety and supporting routines — before prompting you to list 2–3 areas.
Step 2: Match Roles to Staff StrengthsA Name line for one staff member and two reflection questions: ‘What do they naturally enjoy or do well?’ and ‘Where could they take more ownership?’
Step 3: Define the Role ClearlyA Role Name line followed by three prompts: what they are responsible for, what “done well” looks like, and how often it should happen.
Step 4: Set Them Up for SuccessTwo closing questions for the leader: ‘What support will they need from you?’ and ‘When will you check in with them?’

How to use it

Four steps to put it to work this week

1
List the work you could shareStart with Step 1 and write two or three recurring tasks you currently do yourself. Recurring tasks make better roles than one-off jobs.
2
Pick one person and one roleThe worksheet has one Name line and one Role Name line, so complete a copy for each staff member rather than fitting several people on one sheet.
3
Describe “done well” in plain termsAnswer the Step 3 prompts with something the staff member could check for themselves, and say how often the task happens.
4
Agree the support and the check-inFill in Step 4 with the staff member, not for them, and put the check-in date in your calendar before the conversation ends.

Tips from operators

What centers that use this well do differently

Learned the hard way across 3,000 child care spaces — and from the directors and educators who join our Lunch & Learns and Learning Labs.

Bring extra paper

Most prompts sit close together with little room to write under them. Answer on a separate sheet or in the margins if your notes run long.

Start smaller than you think

A role such as keeping the art shelf stocked is easier to hand over and to praise than a broad one. Add scope once the first role is running without reminders.

Hand over the decisions too

If you keep correcting how the task is done, the workload has not really moved. Agree what “done well” means, then let the staff member choose the method.

Do it digitally in ChildFriendly Pro

Staff files, hours and reviews that keep themselves current

ChildFriendly Pro keeps every educator’s certifications, clearances, PD hours, timecards and review notes in one HR file — with expiry alerts, ratio-aware scheduling and wage top-up hours grouped by level.