The Secret to Successful Parent Conferences

parent with child

How to engage parents through crucial conversations Recently I presented a training on parent engagement and crucial conversations for the staff at a local school.  You might wonder why a school would be interested.  It was a school that already delivers a great academic program with lots of dedicated teachers.  The involvement of parents is…

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Feeling down this holiday season?

How to cope when the holidays aren’t what you expected… Maybe it’s because of my age or my family circumstances, but every year I coach a lot of women who are coping with disappointing holiday plans.  The conversation usually starts like this; I feel like all the holiday traditions that I worked so hard to establish…

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Employee behavior hacks that work

Why a Crucial Conversation is the Answer If you are a leader and have the responsibility of coordinating a team or a department or even a group of volunteers, I bet you have someone in the group who is a challenge… maybe they show up late and leave early-repeatedly maybe they are bossy and no…

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Crucial Conversations with Employees

What to Do When that Employee isn’t Working Out You have someone working for you and it’s not going well. He isn’t doing his job. She is making a lot of mistakes. Maybe they aren’t even showing up. It could be a full-time employee, a part time employee or someone who you contract with occasionally.  Maybe…

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giving kids corrective feedback

father talking to dgtr

4 Steps to Successful Feedback How many times do I have to tell you to do that the right way? What were you thinking? Aren’t you ever going to learn? Have you ever said any of the above statements? As adults, parents and educators we are frequently faced with giving children corrective feedback. How do…

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Ten Engaging Questions to Ask Your Child

mother with daughter hugging and talking

Asking Questions that Make Kids Think As a school counselor, I often talked with parents who were concerned about their inability to engage their children in meaningful conversations. They’d ask, “What did you do at school today?” and get the standard response:  “Nothing.”  They’d learn from other parents or the teacher about significant events or…

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