"I am a born and bred Capetonian, from South Africa, but currently living in Cambodia. A father of one - I would say a little one, but he's more of a teen right now! That's what it feels like at least. The reason I am in Cambodia is mainly because of my son. I wanted a fresh start after life in the corporate world, where I could prioritize my family life."

"I started my career in customer services many, many moons ago as a customer services advisor. I was very career-hungry and driven, and worked my way up the corporate ladder, from team leader, to coach, all the way to senior operations manager.

It was a wonderful ride being in the corporate industry, but some challenges came from a family perspective. I reached a point in my career where I wanted to slow down a bit and spend more time with my family. 

So I gave up my life in corporate moved over to Cambodia, where my family life has improved a lot! Where I am right now in my career with The Really Great Teacher Company, I'm exactly where I need to be. 

I also think I'm better equipped now to give it even more, than what I could have while in the corporate industry."

"Coming from customer service, I was very green when I entered this industry. When I moved over to Cambodia, I took the plunge and started teaching at one of the international schools. I still remember my first day standing in front of a class with 35 students and having to teach that class! Nervous was an understatement.

I taught here for quite some time, while volunteering at an underprivileged school on the weekends as well. Then COVID hit, and I transitioned to online teaching, adjusting to the mindset of working remotely from home. 

And then I came across The Really Great Teacher Company. I started out as a Service Supervisor, where I was responsible for a team of teachers, as well as teaching some classes sometimes when necessary. This helped me really get into the crux of things, and gave me the knowledge to be able to excel on this account."

"My team is a bit of an interesting one, by the fact that there are so many different personalities and cultures from so many different countries.

When I say they are from all corners of the globe, I'm really not kidding! I have teachers in the US, in South America, Asia, the UAE, Africa, all over. It is a diverse mix of people, and we naturally have to work with all of them in their different time zones, as well as navigating different cultures.

But I think between myself and the support that I have from the company as well, we've been able to navigate this smoothly and find our own little secret sauce!"

"If I look at our client and our client's needs, there are two key things that's important. The first one is quality - the class being dynamic and student-centric. At the end of the day, we want that student leaving wanting to continue their learning journey.

The second one is schedule delivery. We take pride in ensuring that we deliver on the company's promise to our clients as well - that we have a teacher in every class, irrespective of time zone, wide awake, alert, ready to service the students and making sure that they deliver a dynamic class.

There are of course other little things, nuances in between, but those are the key fundamentals. And I can proudly say that my team has been delivering on these objectives!"

"There are a couple of things that comes into play with performance management and support. 

• We have set up multiple processes to ensure that our teachers always feel that there's someone there. It doesn't matter how small their query is, or whatever it is that they need - it could be help with a tech issue or a challenge with a student. We have a team leader available 24/7, just as a support mechanism for our teachers. 
• We also check in with each teaching group before the start of their shift, to make sure that everything is running smoothly. We check that their tech is okay, that everything is on par, and the teacher is in the right frame of mind. This allows us to pick up if a teacher is not feeling great, that we can make another plan in time if necessary. 
• Every week, one of the team leaders will check in with their teachers to see how they are doing on an individual level. 
• We utilise company resources like the Inspire Academy, constantly recommending courses to our teachers to ensure that not only are they delivering dynamic classes, but that there's also a key focus on their development.
• Then, because we get to know our team, we are able to match any personal development initiatives through the Evolve sessions with individuals, connecting them to topics, groups and peers that would be beneficial to them.

Ultimately, this all comes back to performance management. We ensure that teachers are happy, which helps eliminate many issues around performance."

"When it comes with motivation, a lot of it comes from oneself. Following on the above, what we aim to do is get to know our people, we get to understand them. What makes them tick? Why are they teaching? Why are they passionate about teaching? 

Because our teachers know they can come and chat to us as their management team about literally anything, it helps us to understand them, and we can use this knowledge to our advantage to better support them. When they are demotivated, we can remind them why they get up in the morning.

We are also fortunate enough to sometimes get compliments from the students, and those are key things that we can use to remind teachers of how they did well. And, because our classes are recorded, we can also use that as another mechanism to motivate a teacher, taking them back to a time when they did really well."

"Not at all... No, I'm just kidding!

Back in the day, sitting and having a call online was a foreign concept to a lot of people. If I think back 15 years ago, when I used to manage a team in a brick-and-mortar building, I couldn't have dreamed that I would performance manage people sitting on another continent.

But with the advancements in technology, I am able to connect and have a similar session, no different to having sat face-to-face across from someone. And the discussion can be just as effective when you're managing performance overall. I don't feel that there's any difference."

"Sometimes I can be a little bit much and look at things every day! But I like to keep myself up to date with overall performance. 

With my team leaders, we have a daily check-in where we go over what the plan is for the day. We recap on what the strategy is for that week, and how we are tracking against the strategy for the week.

From a performance management perspective, team leaders will meet with their individual teachers on a weekly basis to go over their results and if there's any room for improvement. If one of the teachers need a little bit of extra support, we will change things up and check in with them more frequently. 

With our veteran teachers that's been with us for quite some time and consistently performing well, we check in and review their performance overall for the month. And at the end of the quarter, we do an overall review."

"The fact that I get to work from home, firstly, is a huge perk for me. But to be honest, the reason why I get up in the morning is that I get to make a difference in other people's lives.

Since I've been at the Really Great Teacher Company, I've had a hand in seeing teachers grow and become assistant team leaders, become team leaders, and the service supervisors. In fact, one of them is currently on the same level as me! Seeing that growth in others and being a part of it is what makes me love this job so much.

Indirectly, also, working with our clients when it comes to content changes and updates, having an indirect influence in people that I've never even met - the students. When I review those compliments from students and I get to look at those classes, it tugs at the heartstrings knowing that I've had a direct impact on why that person enjoyed their class.

Ask me if I'd ever go back to corporate... Never!"