^People are often confused by the "One Minute Manager" of
   dealing with bad news. It known to work on employees, adults,
   customers, kids too. It's simple, but bewildering if you see it
   and don't realize it's happening. This is how it works: When you
   have bad news to present to someone, you start off with a
   Compliment ("Great job on such-and-so!") then the Complaint
   ("But you really shouldn't hav...e done this because..."), Then
   end with a Compliment ("But it really was a great job on
   such-and-so"). I use it ALL the time since the early 90's and it
   always works on the person I'm dealing with. It's a way of
   talking that makes you appear to be Mr./Mrs. Positive -
   everybody ends up with a smile - yet the bad news comes through
   just fine with just the quickest frown which goes right back to
   a smile. Example: Kid breaks a window. "Wow, that was one heck
   of a fastball!" "But you know you have to apologize to Mr. Smith
   and we'll take the cost out of your allowance" (wait for
   agreement) "But man, we'll have to get you in training camp this
   summer to work on it - just stay away from those windows - haha"
   pat on the back. Money comes out of allowance, kid apologises as
   required and no hard feelings from anyone. It comes so
   automatically to me now that I don't even realize I'm doing when
   I'm doing it :-) But I highly recommend it - it feels strange at
   first (it did to me back in the early 90's) but then it comes
   naturally.^