I know a lot of you are having difficult conversations with parents.
And there seem to be more of these conversations.
And they seem to be harder.
Do you have a parent who keeps coming in for a range of issues?
A tip many find useful is to arrange a regular meeting with them.
‘What?’ I hear you cry! ‘You want me to see them regularly?!?’
I get it.
You probably want to see them less rather than more.
I wouldn’t blame you if your heart sank a little when you saw them coming in.
But, setting up a regular meeting will put you in control of when you see them.
Here’s some things that will help set the meeting up well:
- Set it up so that any issues will be raised at that meeting, not in between.
- If something urgent comes up, that can be raised, but define what constitutes urgent.
- Have a fixed time for the meeting (and have something you have to go to afterwards to it can’t over run).
- Ask them to send a list of any issues, and the outcome they would like a set number of days before you meet.
In my experience, when people do this, the meetings and issues dissipate over a short period of time.
Can this tip help you, or a member of your team, with a tricky parent who wants the best for their child but perhaps isn’t going about it in the best way? Let me know.