"We Need to Talk"

A friend and I were talking about that dreaded phrase this morning. She's a principal and hears it from both teachers and parents. In my world it comes from volunteers, team members, family or coworkers. It never means anything good, does it?

I told her that I wondered if it's possible to change the trend. What if every time WE said, "We need to talk", that our talk contained nothing but praise, encouragement and appreciation. After awhile those who worked with us might actually look forward to the phrase instead of dreading it.

My friend even took the effectiveness one step further. She said if she took the time to call a parent to simply rave about their child, the number of "We need to talk"s may actually decrease! The power of the positive is so effective yet we tend to under-utilize it.

I'm hoping I can prevent "We need to talk"s this coming year.