For me, one of the most persistent challenges of managing a nursery is finding fresh motivation to deal with the 'people' issues that occur day in, day out! That's not defeatist, that's honest. A day nursery is all about people: the staff, the children, the parents, each of whom has their own agenda, and whereas we can hope that through mutual respect and tolerance we can accommodate individual traits, the reality is that there will be clashes.
More often than not, it falls to me as manager to diffuse these clashes, or at least to suggest a possible strategy for resolution. I think that as early years practitioners we accept that the children we work with will need to learn ways to deal with difficult relationships, but we expect that the adults will just have the necessary skills.
This isn't always the case. Young staff may tend to see conflicts with others as my problem, and they expect me to virtually umpire the dispute in a 'she said ... but she said ...' manner. Even if this could resolve the conflict, it would not equip either party with skills to diffuse other situations - and if they don't learn that, they will be knocking on the office door again very soon.
Parents' issues can be even more challenging. Some parents have the opinion that since they pay fees, they have a right to expect you to follow their agenda, regardless of any impact it may have on the nursery as a whole. These issues can be very draining, and may lead to a sense of weariness and a desire to say 'If you don't like the way we do it, there are other nurseries around the corner!' - not very professional and certainly not a good example of conflict resolution!
Given these ever present demands, I do believe it is important to have strategies for dealing with issues and also, caring for myself. Otherwise, I will reach the point of 'burn out' and then I won't be able to help anyone achieve resolution.
Sometimes with the staff, I facilitate it so the people involved actually talk to each other; and sometimes I feel I just need to give people the opportunity to be heard. Professionalism has to prevail, as does the ability to leave work issues at work and not take them home!