a) Purpose of the Private Meeting

Before you plan the private conference that you are going to have with a staff member whose behavior has been consistently negative, disruptive, or inappropriate, have clearly in mind your purposes. Yes, you want to change this behavior, but you also want more than that. You want a positive working relationship going forward. So before you plan the meeting, let's think about your purposes:

1. To change the negative behaviors (This is the primary purpose.)
2. To understand why those behaviors were happening (Understanding comes before change.)
3. To have the staff member understand how his/her behaviors impact the work environment (Often the person has not thought about his/her impact on others.)
4. To provide the support needed to change the behaviors (This means that you are both still on the same side, working for the same thing, rather than opposing forces.)
5. To clarify your expectations for the future (Reinforce your primary purpose.)
6. To reach agreement and mutual understanding (Ensure that you both have the same understanding of what will happen going forward.)
7. To maintain positive relationships

In a school environment, teachers are committed to human growth and development. They want not only the children but also the adults to be held to high standards and to be treated fairly and with understanding. As the new principal, you are the principal teacher and you will model your expectations for how your staff will treat each other as well as how they will treat the children. There is no more powerful demonstration of your values in this regard than when you hold a disciplinary conference with a teacher.

There is a bottom line, of course. On some occasions, a staff member will not respond to anything less than an ultimatum, but this, you will find, is the staff member that is unsuited for your school. And that is another subject altogether.