Have you ever made a decision that you looked back on and asked yourself, “What was I thinking?” I don’t know about you, but that has definitely happened to me and it is definitely not a good feeling. In the moment, we thought that we were making an informed, logical decision that was just dripping with common sense.  But there is a reason that they say “hindsight is 20/20” and some of our decisions make us look foolish, fill us with regret and make us vow to do better the next time. As private school leaders, we make hundreds of decisions a day. Those decisions are often second-guessed by parents, teachers, students or board members. Sometimes all of the above! How can we possibly get it right all the time? Especially when we are stressed out, emotional, feeling like we need to act quickly and we are pretty sure that we don’t have all of the facts?  Well, the answer is that we CAN’T get it right all the time. But, we can implement some strategies that will help us get it right more often. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to discuss 6 Ways To Make Better Decisions In High Stress Situations. Thank you for listening to the podcast every week. You are making a difference in the lives of the students, teachers and parents at your school. I know that what you do is difficult, exhausting and lonely. Your hard work inspires me to keep making weekly content to try to encourage and inspire you as you serve your school. Thanks for all you do, Mark Minkus I want to say thank you for listening to the podcast by giving you a FREE GIFT. It is called The 7 Steps To Having Successful Meetings With Upset Parents. This guide is an 11 page pdf that gives you a step by step plan to have better meetings with the parents at your school. Every good coach has a game plan. Every good teacher has a lesson plan. Too many private school leaders don’t have a plan when they sit down to meet with an upset parent. Well, now you have a PLAN! You can grab this FREE GUIDE at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/meeting I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode68 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help the algorithm push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

Why do people do what they do?  What drives behavior?  Why do some people train for a marathon for a year and then run it? Why do some people go to jobs that they hate, year after year for 50 years? Why do some people, in the same organization, work really hard, while others do as little as possible? Why do people do what they do?  One word: motivation. During the industrial age, people were motivated by the model of the carrot (reward the behavior that you want) and the stick (punish the behavior you don’t want). We now live in the information age. Our teachers have very complex jobs that require emotional intelligence, juggling multiple priorities and creative problem solving. Carrots and sticks no longer cut it. You want your teachers to be highly motivated. You want your teachers to look forward to coming to school and then work hard every day. You want your teachers to love their jobs and find fulfillment and meaning so that they will keep coming back to your school year after year. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to discuss: The Surprising Truth About What Really Motivates Your Teachers I know that you are super busy, so be sure to listen while you are doing something else. I hope that you will get value from this episode as you serve and lead your school community. Thank you for taking some time out of your day to listen to the podcast! Thanks for making a difference, Mark Minkus I want to say thank you for listening to the podcast by giving you a FREE GIFT. It is called The 7 Steps To Having Successful Meetings With Upset Parents. This guide is an 11 page pdf that gives you a step by step plan to have better meetings with the parents at your school. Every good coach has a game plan. Every good teacher has a lesson plan. Too many private school leaders don’t have a plan when they sit down to meet with an upset parent. Well, now you have a PLAN! You can grab this FREE GUIDE at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/meeting I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode67 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help the algorithm push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

As private school leaders we do a great job remembering certain things. We can remember the names of all of the kids in our school. We can remember a complicated bell schedule. We can even remember when the 3rd Grade teacher’s mom is having surgery. Unfortunately, we also have a really hard time remembering other things. We forget to take care of ourselves. We forget that we don’t have to get it right every single time. We forget that we don’t have to let the school take over our evenings and weekends. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, I want to remind you of 7 Important Things To Remember As You Lead Your School: Remember that this is emotional work Remember that you are where you are for a reason Remember that you actually do know what you are doing Remember that it is OK to make mistakes Remember that you are a human being Remember that you are enough Remember that you are not alone Thank you for taking me along with you when you are walking the dog, driving to school or running errands. I appreciate you and what you are doing for the lucky kids and teachers at your school.  Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I want to say thank you for listening to the podcast by giving you a FREE GIFT. It is called The 7 Steps To Having Successful Meetings With Upset Parents. This guide is an 11 page pdf that gives you a step by step plan to have better meetings with the parents at your school. Every good coach has a game plan. Every good teacher has a lesson plan. Too many private school leaders don’t have a plan when they sit down to meet with an upset parent. Well, now you have a PLAN! You can grab this FREE GUIDE at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/meeting I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode66 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help the algorithm push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

I want to tell you something that not too many people know about me. When I first went to college, I earned an Associate’s Degree in Business administration. Freshman year was when I got my lowest grade in all of my years of college: a D in Accounting 101. Not great. My weakest areas as a school leader are probably Finance and Budget Creation. Don’t get me wrong, I can get by. I made it work for 21 years as a Head of School. We always made payroll, the lights stayed on, we raised money, we had an annual campaign. That said, sometimes I faked it and most of the time I leaned on my board president and our school accountant. I think that this scenario is actually VERY COMMON among private school leaders. Most of us went to school to become educators, not accountants. In my experience there are a healthy percentage of non-financial Heads of School. So, on today’s episode of the Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to simplify things. In fact, the title of today’s episode is: Business Made Simple For Non-financial School Leaders. Thank you for listening to the podcast every week. You are making a difference in the lives of the students, teachers and parents at your school. I know that what you do is difficult, exhausting and lonely. Your hard work inspires me to keep making weekly content to try to encourage and inspire you as you serve your school. Thanks for all you do, Mark Minkus I want to say thank you for listening to the podcast by giving you a FREE GIFT. It is called The 7 Steps To Having Successful Meetings With Upset Parents. This guide is an 11 page pdf that gives you a step by step plan to have better meetings with the parents at your school. Every good coach has a game plan. Every good teacher has a lesson plan. Too many private school leaders don’t have a plan when they sit down to meet with an upset parent. Well, now you have a PLAN! You can grab this FREE GUIDE at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/meeting I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode65 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help the algorithm push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

I want to preview today’s episode by sharing a quote and a definition. The quote: George Bernard Shaw once said: “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” The definition: Il·lu·sion (/iˈlo͞oZH(ə)n/) noun a thing that is or is likely to be wrongly perceived or interpreted by the senses. We’ve all been there. We wrap up a meeting with a parent or a teacher and we think to ourselves: “That went really well!” “We were definitely on the same page.” “I think that they really felt heard.” “Nailed It!” The problem is that it was all an illusion. We thought that excellent communication and a shared understanding had taken place.  But, we were wrong.  That parent or teacher left that meeting thinking something completely different than what we thought we had so clearly communicated. Effective communication is hard. That said, effective communication is EXTREMELY important in our roles as school leaders. We are going to work together to get rid of the illusion and make sure that we are communicating effectively. On today's episode of the Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to discuss The 12 Communication Mistakes That The Best Leaders Avoid. I hope that you will listen to the podcast for your weekly dose of motivation, inspiration and PD. Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I want to say thank you for listening to the podcast by giving you a FREE GIFT. It is called The 7 Steps To Having Successful Meetings With Upset Parents. This guide is an 11 page pdf that gives you a step by step plan to have better meetings with the parents at your school. Every good coach has a game plan. Every good teacher has a lesson plan. Too many private school leaders don’t have a plan when they sit down to meet with an upset parent. Well, now you have a PLAN! You can grab this FREE GUIDE at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/meeting I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode64 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help the algorithm push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

I love year end top 10 lists! This doesn’t happen as much anymore, but magazines like People and Newsweek used to come out with a special edition in mid-December.  This special issue would feature the Top 10 in everything! Top 10 TV shows, movies, songs, athletes, movie stars, cars, teams, trends, words, etc. of that year. For many years, I would get one or two of these in my stocking on Christmas morning. With some extra time on my hands between Christmas and New Year’s, I would often read them cover to cover. As I look back on 2023 and the last 52 podcasts, with over 25 hours of content, I decided to make a Top 10 list of my own.  I would like to share with you what I think are this podcast’s 10 best leadership nuggets of the past year! I would also like to take this opportunity to say thank you for listening throughout the year and I want to wish you and your loved ones a healthy and happy new year! I know that you are super busy, so be sure to listen while you are doing something else. I hope that you will get value from this episode as you serve and lead your school community. Thank you for taking some time out of your day to listen to the podcast! Thanks for making a difference, Mark Minkus I want to say thank you for listening to the podcast by giving you a FREE GIFT. It is called The 7 Steps To Having Successful Meetings With Upset Parents. This guide is an 11 page pdf that gives you a step by step plan to have better meetings with the parents at your school. Every good coach has a game plan. Every good teacher has a lesson plan. Too many private school leaders don’t have a plan when they sit down to meet with an upset parent. Well, now you have a PLAN! You can grab this FREE GUIDE at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/meeting I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode63 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help the algorithm push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

Do you believe that the Earth is flat? I can hear what you are saying: “Mark, I'm a college graduate. I am an educator. I have common sense. NO, I don't believe the Earth is flat!” Just to be clear,  I don’t believe the Earth is flat either. We’ve all heard of “flat-earthers” or The Flat Earth Society. I have always thought that this was probably a few thousand misinformed people in the world.  Imagine my surprise when I saw the following statistics: As of July 2021, there were 122 YouTube Channels dedicated to Flat Earth theories and conversations, with over 4 million subscribers and 744 million views. As many as 11% of Americans believe the Earth is flat. Wait, what?? How can there be that many people that believe that the Earth is flat when there is so much evidence to the contrary? Well, there has actually been a lot of research on that topic.  One of the major contributing factors to this belief is that “flat-earthers” are in an echo chamber with each other.   “An echo chamber is the intellectual environment that people create to pad themselves from disagreement and to believe that their opinions are shared and correct.” (EDUCAUSE Review Blog Post)   OK, that's just weird. But, a lot of Private school leaders are in their own echo chambers and that can be REALLY BAD for their schools. On today’s episode of the PSLP, we are going to discuss The 11 ways you can get out of your echo chamber. Thank you for taking me along with you when you are walking the dog, driving to school or running errands. I appreciate you and what you are doing for the lucky kids and teachers at your school.  Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I want to say thank you for listening to the podcast by giving you a FREE GIFT. It is called The 7 Steps To Having Successful Meetings With Upset Parents. This guide is an 11 page pdf that gives you a step by step plan to have better meetings with the parents at your school. Every good coach has a game plan. Every good teacher has a lesson plan. Too many private school leaders don’t have a plan when they sit down to meet with an upset parent. Well, now you have a PLAN! You can grab this FREE GUIDE at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/meeting I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode62 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help the algorithm push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

I’ve never really been a fan of crossword puzzles or Sudoku or riddles. Maybe that’s because I solve problems all day long and I would rather not do it recreationally. That said, I have a riddle for you: I can't be saved, Though people try. When fun is had, They say I fly. They say I'm money: I can be spent, I can be wasted, But never lent. So, what’s the answer? Time. We all wish that we had more of it, but we all get the same 24 hours. What if I told you that there is a way to actually multiply your time? Just imagine what you would do with MORE TIME. Procrastinate on Purpose: 5 Permissions To Multiply Your Time is an excellent book written by Rory Vaden. In it, he introduces the idea of the “Focus Funnel” and the concept of thinking about time in three dimensions: urgency, importance and significance. On today’s episode of the Private School Leader Podcast we are going to discuss 5 Ways To Multiply Your Time. Thank you for listening to the podcast every week. You are making a difference in the lives of the students, teachers and parents at your school. I know that what you do is difficult, exhausting and lonely. Your hard work inspires me to keep making weekly content to try to encourage and inspire you as you serve your school. Thanks for all you do, Mark Minkus I want to say thank you for listening to the podcast by giving you a FREE GIFT. It is called The 7 Steps To Having Successful Meetings With Upset Parents. This guide is an 11 page pdf that gives you a step by step plan to have better meetings with the parents at your school. Every good coach has a game plan. Every good teacher has a lesson plan. Too many private school leaders don’t have a plan when they sit down to meet with an upset parent. Well, now you have a PLAN! You can grab this FREE GUIDE at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/meeting I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode61 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help the algorithm push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

I want to tell you a secret about the parents at your school. Over the last 32 years, I have had thousands of meetings with parents. Many were in my office or on the phone, but some were on the bleachers in the Gym, in the staff parking lot or in the lobby of the school’s auditorium. My sample size of parent meetings is large. During those thousands of meetings, I have come to realize that, about 25% of the time, the first problem is not the real problem. In other words, the thing that the parent is complaining about is not actually the thing that they are upset about. I know what you’re thinking. “Meeting with parents is hard enough! Now you are telling me that 25% of the time I have to figure out what they ACTUALLY want?” It’s OK, I’ve got you covered. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, I am going to: Give 3 Actual Examples Of When This Happened To Me Discuss 3 Obstacles That Are Between You And The Real Problem Reveal 3 Indicators That The Real Problem May Be Hiding Behind The First Problem Give You 8 Strategies To Help You Get To The Real Problem Share Additional Resources That Will Help You I know that you are super busy, so be sure to listen while you are doing something else. I hope that you will get value from this episode as you serve and lead your school community. Thank you for taking some time out of your day to listen to the podcast! Thanks for making a difference, Mark Minkus I want to say thank you for listening to the podcast by giving you a FREE GIFT. It is called The 7 Steps To Having Successful Meetings With Upset Parents. This guide is an 11 page pdf that gives you a step by step plan to have better meetings with the parents at your school. Every good coach has a game plan. Every good teacher has a lesson plan. Too many private school leaders don’t have a plan when they sit down to meet with an upset parent. Well, now you have a PLAN! You can grab this FREE GUIDE at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/meeting I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode60 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help the algorithm push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

“Cigarette smoking is no more ‘addictive’ than coffee, tea or Twinkies.” —James W. Johnston, CEO of R.J. Reynolds Nabisco, April 14, 1994 before Congress “I can say categorically that… no one in the White House staff, no one in this administration, presently employed, was involved in this very bizarre incident.” —President Richard Nixon, discussing the Watergate burglary, August 29, 1972 These two quotes are famous for the same reason. They are two of the biggest lies ever told.  Johnston’s lie led to one of the biggest reckonings in US History and Tobacco companies were forced to pay billions of dollars in fines and restitution. Nixon’s lie ultimately led to his resignation, seven people went to prison and Watergate has become one of the biggest scandals in American history. Most of us are pretty savvy when it comes to the truth. We don’t fall for scams and sales gimmicks. We don’t believe most of what we hear on the news or on social media. That said, I believe that private school leaders do have some “blind spots” when it comes to the truth. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to discuss The 4 Biggest Lies That Most Private School Leaders Believe. Thank you for taking me along with you when you are walking the dog, driving to school or running errands. I appreciate you and what you are doing for the lucky kids and teachers at your school.  Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I want to say thank you for listening to the podcast by giving you a FREE GIFT. It is called The 7 Steps To Having Successful Meetings With Upset Parents. This guide is an 11 page pdf that gives you a step by step plan to have better meetings with the parents at your school. Every good coach has a game plan. Every good teacher has a lesson plan. Too many private school leaders don’t have a plan when they sit down to meet with an upset parent. Well, now you have a PLAN! You can grab this FREE GUIDE at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/meeting I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode59 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help the algorithm push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

I was never really a big fan of Superman. I was more of a Spiderman fan when I was a kid. Of course, Spiderman was actually Peter Parker. A nerdy kid from Queens that was always studying for a test, was usually broke and had a girlfriend. He was relatable and flawed. I like my superheroes to have flaws. On the other hand, Superman was an alien from another planet. He always did the right thing and was virtually indestructible. That’s why they called him the “Man of Steel”. Indestructible, except for…..       Kryptonite. Superman's enemies discovered that kryptonite was the only thing that could be used to either hurt or kill him. Somehow, this green, glowing rock from his home planet was his only weakness. In everyday contexts, the word 'kryptonite' is used to refer to someone's weakness or something that can be used to hurt someone who is strong. It has more or less the same meaning as 'Achilles heel'. As a school leader, you do so many things well. You have so many strengths. You also have some things that you need to avoid or they can end your career. On today’s episode of the Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to discuss Your Leadership Kryptonite And How To Avoid It I know that you are super busy, so be sure to listen while you are doing something else. I hope that you will get value from this episode as you serve and lead your school community. Thank you for taking some time out of your day to listen to the podcast! Thanks for making a difference, Mark Minkus I want to say thank you for listening to the podcast by giving you a FREE GIFT. It is called The 7 Steps To Having Successful Meetings With Upset Parents. This guide is an 11 page pdf that gives you a step by step plan to have better meetings with the parents at your school. Every good coach has a game plan. Every good teacher has a lesson plan. Too many private school leaders don’t have a plan when they sit down to meet with an upset parent. Well, now you have a PLAN! You can grab this FREE GUIDE at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/meeting I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode58 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help the algorithm push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

When I was a kid, I used to LOVE it when it snowed. Snow days, sledding, building a snowman. So much fun! But, when I turned 16, my love affair with snow ended. That’s because I had to start driving in the white stuff. When you have a good set of snow tires and front wheel (or all wheel) drive, you can go pretty much anywhere. But, if you have a set of tires with no tread, you are going to have a bad day. It’s all about friction. As you know, friction is “the resistance that one surface or object encounters when moving over another.” Creating "friction" in your life can be an effective strategy for breaking bad habits and starting good ones. The idea is to make it more difficult to engage in your bad habits while making it easier to adopt more positive behaviors. Your email inbox is a chronological list of everyone else’s priorities. As private school leaders, we spend way too much time dipping in and out of email all day long. We feel like we are being productive, but this is actually the least productive way that we can engage with our emails. On today’s episode of the Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to discuss: Why do I need to create friction between myself and my email inbox? How can friction help me overcome the “False Productivity Trap”? What are three ways that I can create more friction between myself and my email inbox? I hope that you will listen to the podcast for your weekly dose of motivation, inspiration and PD. Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I want to say thank you for listening to the podcast by giving you a FREE GIFT. It is called The 7 Steps To Having Successful Meetings With Upset Parents. This guide is an 11 page pdf that gives you a step by step plan to have better meetings with the parents at your school. Every good coach has a game plan. Every good teacher has a lesson plan. Too many private school leaders don’t have a plan when they sit down to meet with an upset parent. Well, now you have a PLAN! You can grab this FREE GUIDE at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/meeting I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode57 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help the algorithm push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

It was a Wednesday morning and I couldn’t get out of bed. I don’t mean that I was tired and didn’t FEEL like getting out of bed. I mean that I couldn’t get out of bed. I was overwhelmed and discouraged and felt a little hopeless. I felt like giving up. I didn’t go to work that day. BUT…. I did go to work the next day and the day after that. We’ve all been there. We have all felt like giving up. Overwhelmed, stuck, discouraged, heavy, disinterested, hopeless, sad, frustrated.The big question is WHAT DO WE DO WHEN WE FEEL THAT WAY? On today’s episode of the PSLP, we are going to discuss 8 Things To Do When You Feel Like Giving Up. Thank you for taking me along with you when you are walking the dog, driving to school or running errands. I appreciate you and what you are doing for the lucky kids and teachers at your school.  Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I want to say thank you for listening to the podcast by giving you a FREE GIFT. It is called The 7 Steps To Having Successful Meetings With Upset Parents. This guide is an 11 page pdf that gives you a step by step plan to have better meetings with the parents at your school. Every good coach has a game plan. Every good teacher has a lesson plan. Too many private school leaders don’t have a plan when they sit down to meet with an upset parent. Well, now you have a PLAN! You can grab this FREE GUIDE at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/meeting I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode56 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help the algorithm push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

OK, I’ll admit it. This is one of the strangest episode titles that I have had on the podcast so far. I know that a lot of us roll our eyes when we hear the term “social media influencer”, because we think that term describes a lazy person who makes a lot of money for doing nothing. That might be true for some influencers, but I want to make sure that you don’t miss the point. Leadership is about influence. According to the Miriam-Webster dictionary: “The noun typically refers to the power to change or affect someone or something—especially the power to cause changes without directly forcing those changes to happen. Influence can also refer to a person or thing that affects someone or something in an important way.” We are trying to get our teachers and students to change and grow in important and powerful ways without using force or coercion. On today’s episode of the Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to discuss The 7 Most Important Leadership Lessons From Social Media Influencers. I know that you are super busy, so be sure to listen while you are doing something else. I hope that you will get value from this episode as you serve and lead your school community. Thank you for taking some time out of your day to listen to the podcast! Thanks for making a difference, Mark Minkus I want to say thank you for listening to the podcast by giving you a FREE GIFT. It is called The 7 Steps To Having Successful Meetings With Upset Parents. This guide is an 11 page pdf that gives you a step by step plan to have better meetings with the parents at your school. Every good coach has a game plan. Every good teacher has a lesson plan. Too many private school leaders don’t have a plan when they sit down to meet with an upset parent. Well, now you have a PLAN! You can grab this FREE GUIDE at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/meeting I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode55 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1.   Please write a review of this podcast and help the algorithm push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

Would you hang out with people that talk to you the way that you talk to yourself? Stop and think about your self-talk. How do you talk to yourself when you mess up at work? How do you talk to yourself when you let work take priority over your family? My self-talk used to be bad. I have said all of these things to myself: You are a loser.” “You really have no idea what you're doing.” “You are a terrible leader.” “You are a terrible father.” “The school is more important to you than your family.” Ask you again. Think about the people that you CHOOSE to hang out with. Would you hang out with people that talk to you the way that you talk to yourself? Many of you are WAY too hard on yourselves.  You would NEVER talk to someone else the way you talk to yourself  On today’s episode of the PSLP, we are going to discuss The 8 Steps To Overcoming Your Negative Self Talk. I hope that you will listen to the podcast for your weekly dose of motivation, inspiration and PD. Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I want to say thank you for listening to the podcast by giving you a FREE GIFT. It is called The 7 Steps To Having Successful Meetings With Upset Parents. This guide is an 11 page pdf that gives you a step by step plan to have better meetings with the parents at your school. Every good coach has a game plan. Every good teacher has a lesson plan. Too many private school leaders don’t have a plan when they sit down to meet with an upset parent. Well, now you have a PLAN! You can grab this FREE GUIDE at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/meeting I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode54 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help the algorithm push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

Over the last 32 years, I’ve read a lot of great leadership books. In fact, I made a Top 10 list of leadership books and you can check those out at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/top10 #4 on that list is Atomic Habits by James Clear. This is a very special book and a very important book for private school leaders. James Clear’s book emphasizes the importance of small, consistent, incremental progress and provides actionable advice to achieve lasting behavior change. On today’s episode of the PSLP we are going to look at the 5 Most Powerful Leadership Lessons From Atomic Habits: You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. Every action you take is a vote for the kind of person you wish to become. You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than your current result. It is so easy to overestimate the importance of one defining moment & underestimate the value of making small improvements on a daily basis. You don’t have to be the victim of your environment, you can also be the architect of it. We will discuss how these powerful lessons can make you a more effective leader at your school. Thank you for taking me along with you when you are walking the dog, driving to school or running errands. I appreciate you and what you are doing for the lucky kids and teachers at your school.  Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I want to say thank you for listening to the podcast by giving you a FREE GIFT. It is called The 7 Steps To Having Successful Meetings With Upset Parents. This guide is an 11 page pdf that gives you a step by step plan to have better meetings with the parents at your school. Every good coach has a game plan. Every good teacher has a lesson plan. Too many private school leaders don’t have a plan when they sit down to meet with an upset parent. Well, now you have a PLAN! You can grab this FREE GUIDE at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/meeting I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode53 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help the algorithm push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

There are two kinds of people in your life.  If you just ate lunch and you are on your way to lead an important meeting, there are the kind of people that will tell you that you have broccoli in your teeth. And then there are the people that see the broccoli in your teeth and don’t say a word. I am a person that is going to tell you that you have broccoli in your teeth.  Sometimes that means that I need to tell you some things that you don’t really want to hear.  I want to tell you some things about the parents at your school. Some of these things may be hard to hear, but I am confident that this episode can help you build better relationships with the parents at your school. On today’s episode of the Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to discuss The 5 Things That Are Probably True About The Parents At Your School. I know that you are super busy, so be sure to listen while you are doing something else. I hope that you will get value from this episode as you serve and lead your school community. Thank you for taking some time out of your day to listen to the podcast! Thanks for making a difference, Mark Minkus I want to say thank you for listening to the podcast by giving you a FREE GIFT. It is called The 7 Steps To Having Successful Meetings With Upset Parents. This guide is an 11 page pdf that gives you a step by step plan to have better meetings with the parents at your school. Every good coach has a game plan. Every good teacher has a lesson plan. Too many private school leaders don’t have a plan when they sit down to meet with an upset parent. Well, now you have a PLAN! You can grab this FREE GUIDE at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/meeting I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode52 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

Think back to when you were a kid. What was something that you looked forward to with great anticipation? For me it was Christmas morning and my 16th birthday. I remember when I was 6 years old, I knew that I was getting a new bike for Christmas and I literally could not wait.  I also remember how badly I wanted to get my driver’s license when I turned 16. The year between my 15th and 16th birthdays actually felt more like five years. What about you? Was it a family vacation or a day at an amusement park? Was it the last day of school or a big family picnic on the 4th of July? What was it that you looked forward to with great excitement and anticipation? Anticipation is a VERY POWERFUL thing in the lives of children. Anticipation is a VERY POWERFUL thing in the lives of the students at your school. You can intentionally use the power of anticipation to get kids and families to stay at your school until they graduate. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to discuss How To Significantly Increase Student Retention By Creating A "Culture Of Anticipation". It is important for school leaders to remember that it costs 7 times more resources (time, money, energy, advertising, recruiting) to enroll a new student than to keep a current student. If you want to increase the student retention rate at your school, be sure to listen to today’s episode. Thank you for taking me along with you when you are walking the dog, driving to school or running errands. I appreciate you and what you are doing for the lucky kids and teachers at your school. Thanks for making a difference, Mark Minkus I want to say thank you for listening to the podcast by giving you a FREE GIFT. It is called The 7 Steps To Having Successful Meetings With Upset Parents. This guide is an 11 page pdf that gives you a step by step plan to have better meetings with the parents at your school. Every good coach has a game plan. Every good teacher has a lesson plan. Too many private school leaders don’t have a plan when they sit down to meet with an upset parent. Well, now you have a PLAN! You can grab this FREE GUIDE at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/meeting I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode51 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

I am old enough to remember using a road map to get where I was going. Yes, I am talking about the impossible to fold map that lived in the glove compartment! In the 90’s I graduated to MapQuest and clearly remember driving to Ocean City, New Jersey with my wife reading pages and pages of directions to help us get to the beach. Now we have GPS and I love it so much! I can even choose a voice with a British accent that sounds super smart while guiding me through an unfamiliar city. GPS is an amazing invention! Just take a moment to think about satellites orbiting the Earth that know exactly where I am, how fast I am traveling and can tell me that I need to turn right in 500 feet! GPS is amazing. GPS is an incredible technological achievement. But, GPS is useless without one very critical piece of information that you must provide. Your destination. As private school leaders, I worry that we don’t spend enough time thinking about where we are going. We are VERY busy putting out fires, solving problems and making decisions that keep our school moving forward. But, I wonder if we are clear on the destination. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, I want to help you get super clear on your “portrait of a graduate” (also sometimes called “profile of a graduate” or “ideal graduate outcomes”). We are also going to discuss how to “reverse engineer” your portrait of a graduate, so that everything you do at your school is intentionally moving you in the direction of your destination. I hope that you will listen to the podcast for your weekly dose of motivation, inspiration and PD. Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I want to say thank you for listening to the podcast by giving you a FREE GIFT. It is called The 7 Steps To Having Successful Meetings With Upset Parents. This guide is an 11 page pdf that gives you a step by step plan to have better meetings with the parents at your school. Every good coach has a game plan. Every good teacher has a lesson plan. Too many private school leaders don’t have a plan when they sit down to meet with an upset parent. Well, now you have a PLAN! You can grab this FREE GUIDE at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/meeting I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode50 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

I want you to take a moment and notice the title of this week’s episode. The title is NOT: “5 Strategies To Be More Extroverted As An Introverted Leader” The title is NOT: “4 Ways You Can Come Out Of Your Shell As An Introverted Leader” If you are an introvert, you do not need to “be fixed”. You do not need to “overcome” being an introvert. You don’t need to “come out of your shell” to successfully lead your school. I’ve worked with many introverted leaders over the years and most of them think that they need to CHANGE or GET BETTER in some way to be a better leader. I feel strongly that introverted leaders bring their own unique strengths to the table, and their success most often comes from playing to those strengths. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to discuss The 8 Biggest Strengths Of The Introverted Leader. I know that you are super busy, so be sure to listen while you are doing something else. I hope that you will get value from this episode as you serve and lead your school community. Thank you for taking some time out of your day to listen to the podcast! Thanks for making a difference, Mark Minkus I want to say thank you for listening to the podcast by giving you a FREE GIFT. It is called The 7 Steps To Having Successful Meetings With Upset Parents. This guide is an 11 page pdf that gives you a step by step plan to have better meetings with the parents at your school. Every good coach has a game plan. Every good teacher has a lesson plan. Too many private school leaders don’t have a plan when they sit down to meet with an upset parent. Well, now you have a PLAN! You can grab this FREE GUIDE at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/meeting I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode49 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

“Rise and grind.” “I’ve got a dream that is more important than sleep.” “I pledge allegiance to the grind.” What do these “motivational” quotes have in common? They glamorize a very dangerous thing called “hustle culture”. Don’t get me wrong, an incredible work ethic is necessary to be a successful private school leader. But, hustle culture crosses the line from hard work to shaming someone for getting some rest. Hustle culture takes a good thing and makes it toxic. Many entrepreneurs and social media influencers have popularized hustle culture through bestselling books, viral videos and sold out speaking engagements. I’m literally begging you. Don’t buy the lie. On today’s episode, we are going to define hustle culture, discuss why it is so toxic and learn how it can negatively impact your mental health. Then, I am going to give you 6 strategies to overcome hustle culture so that you can be more physically and mentally healthy as you lead your school.  If you have gotten value from this podcast, I would love to hear from you! Please just hit “reply” to this email or you can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com. Send me a couple of sentences about what you have found helpful and also let me know your biggest pain point right now. This valuable feedback will help me to better serve you in future episodes. I know that you are super busy, so be sure to listen while you are doing something else. I hope that you will get value from this episode as you serve and lead your school community. Thank you for taking some time out of your day to listen to the podcast! Thanks for making a difference, Mark Minkus I want to say thank you for listening to the podcast by giving you a FREE GIFT. It is called The 7 Steps To Having Successful Meetings With Upset Parents. This guide is an 11 page pdf that gives you a step by step plan to have better meetings with the parents at your school. Every good coach has a game plan. Every good teacher has a lesson plan. Too many private school leaders don’t have a plan when they sit down to meet with an upset parent. Well, now you have a PLAN! You can grab this FREE GUIDE at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/meeting I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode48 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

I am not an expert on grief. I am not a therapist. Everyone experiences grief and loss differently. I am NOT going to tell you how YOU should lead your school while dealing with loss. I am just going to share my experience. In May of 2017, my sister Cathy died from breast cancer. In late June of 2018, my twin sister Ruth died from breast cancer. One week later, my father-in-law passed away. In February of 2019, my sister Marcia had a heart attack and died. In September of 2021, my father passed away from COVID-19. I hope that sharing my story will help you if you experience loss and wonder how to wrestle with grief while still leading your school I hope that you will listen to the podcast for your weekly dose of motivation, inspiration and PD. Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I want to say thank you for listening to the podcast by giving you a FREE GIFT. It is called The 7 Steps To Having Successful Meetings With Upset Parents. This guide is an 11 page pdf that gives you a step by step plan to have better meetings with the parents at your school. Every good coach has a game plan. Every good teacher has a lesson plan. Too many private school leaders don’t have a plan when they sit down to meet with an upset parent. Well, now you have a PLAN! You can grab this FREE GUIDE at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/meeting I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode47 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

The date was December 29, 1972. It was shortly before midnight and it was a warm night in Miami. Family and friends waited inside the terminal for Eastern Airlines flight 401 out of JFK Airport in New York City. The 163 passengers were looking forward to celebrating New Year’s Eve in Miami with family and friends. What happened over the next few minutes would change aviation history forever. What happened over the next few minutes can teach us several EXTREMELY valuable lessons as we lead our schools. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to discuss The 5 Leadership Lessons From Eastern Airlines Flight 401: Beware of Cognitive Tunneling Embrace Crew Resource Management Encourage Open Communication Simulate High Stress Situations Learn From Your Mistakes I’d like to ask you for a favor. If you have gotten any value from this podcast, could you please go to Apple Podcasts (or wherever you listen) and write a review and rate the podcast? Those reviews help the algorithm push the content out to more leaders as a suggested podcast. Private school leaders in 50 countries are now listening to the podcast. Thanks for helping me get this content out to leaders around the world! I hope that you will listen to the podcast for your weekly dose of motivation, inspiration and PD. Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode45 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

As we lead our schools, we face hundreds of unique challenges every day. To properly handle those challenges, we have to use our skills. We all have “hard skills” and “soft skills”. Hard Skills: Budget creation, Creating a Master Schedule, Project Management, Fundraising, Payroll, Curriculum Development, Creating Professional Development for Teachers, Evaluation of Faculty, Facilities Oversight and the list goes on…… Soft Skills: Interpersonal Communication, Organization, Teamwork, Critical Thinking, Social Skills, Creativity, Adaptability, Friendliness, Integrity, Open-mindedness, Empathy, Emotional Intelligence, Problem-solving, Dependability and the list goes on…… What if I told you that there are four skills that can help ensure that you have a long career in private school leadership? On today’s episode of the Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to discuss the 4 “Soft Skills” That Can Ensure A Long Career As A Private School Leader. If you have gotten value from this podcast, I would love to hear from you! Please just hit “reply” to this email or you can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com. Send me a couple of sentences about what you have found helpful and also let me know your biggest pain point right now. This valuable feedback will help me to better serve you in future episodes. I know that you are super busy, so be sure to listen while you are doing something else. I hope that you will get value from this episode as you serve and lead your school community. Thank you for taking some time out of your day to listen to the podcast! Thanks for making a difference, Mark Minkus I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode45 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

Earlier this year, Taylor Swift came to my city. Somehow, my 25 year old daughter was able to get tickets to the show. That’s when I started to understand a little bit more about Taylor Swift fans or “Swifties”. Three days before the first show, six 18 wheelers rolled into town. These are the merchandise trucks and the “Swifties” were camping out the night before to be the first in line to buy a T-shirt. For Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour”, her fans dressed up in outfits that represented different eras in her career. “Swifties” make dozens of friendship bracelets and then they exchange them with other “Swifties”. That description barely scratches the surface of the level of obsession that Taylor Swift fans have for her.  I remember thinking that all of this was a little silly and “over the top”, but then I remembered something. I am exactly the same way. The only difference is that I act this way about my favorite college football team! I have waited in line for hours to take a shuttle bus to a stadium, where I could stand in the cold and wear the same colors as 110,000 other people as we all jumped up and down, while screaming at the tops of our lungs. Always remember that the word “fan” is short for “fanatic”. We all have parents at our schools. Many of us have happy parents. But, very few of us have “Raving Fans”. Ken Blanchard coined the term “raving fan” to describe “a customer who is so overwhelmed and floored by the customer service they've received that they can't stop telling everyone about it.” On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to discuss 6 Strategies To Turn Your Parents Into “Raving Fans”! I’d like to ask you for a favor. If you have gotten any value from this podcast, could you please go to Apple Podcasts (or wherever you listen) and write a review and rate the podcast? Those reviews help the algorithm push the content out to more leaders as a suggested podcast. Private school leaders in 50 countries are now listening to the podcast. Thanks for helping me get this content out to leaders around the world! I hope that you will listen to the podcast for your weekly dose of motivation, inspiration and PD. Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode44 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

I want you to use your imagination. You are driving home from school and you are stopped at a red light. You are the car closest to the red light and you are watching the cars zip through the intersection in front of you. Suddenly, a camel slowly makes its way through the intersection and the camel is being ridden by a clown. You can’t believe your eyes, but it's real! You watch the camel and the clown make their way through the intersection and then disappear down a side street. Now, I want to ask you a question. Years from now, when you are sitting at that intersection, are you going to remember the clown and the camel? Of course you are! That’s because what happened was extremely rare and rare things are remembered. When we receive a hand-written note, we usually remember it. Many times we will hang it someplace where we can see it. We treasure it. It just means more. In today’s world of texts, emails and Google chat, a hand-written sentiment is rare and rare things are remembered. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to talk about the psychological power of hand-written notes and how using them more often can change the way that you lead. Thank you for taking me along with you when you are walking the dog, driving to school or running errands. I appreciate you and what you are doing for the lucky kids and teachers at your school. Thanks for making a difference, Mark Minkus I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode43 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!  

In the spring of 2006, terrorists ruled the streets of Ramadi, Iraq. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, US Army soldiers, US Marines, Navy SEALs and friendly Iraqi soldiers moved quietly through the streets of Ramadi, going house to house, searching for the enemy. Suddenly, a fierce firefight broke out. When the bullets stopped flying and the dust settled, one friendly Iraqi soldier was dead, two more were wounded and one Navy SEAL was wounded as well. When the “fog of war” lifted, it was clear that this unit had committed the cardinal sin of warfare. Friendly fire. Fratricide. Lieutenant Commander Jocko Willink was the head of Task Force Bruiser and oversaw all military operations in Ramadi. When word of what had happened made its way up the chain of command, he was told to shut down all operations. Willink was also told that the commanding officer, the master chief and the investigating officer were inbound to his position and that they expected a full report. Someone had to pay. Someone had to get fired. Someone had to take the blame. What happened next in this story will teach us several valuable lessons about how we should be leading our schools. When things go wrong, sometimes we are quick to point out who was to blame and who was at fault. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast we are going to take some leadership lessons from a Navy SEAL and start practicing “Extreme Ownership”. I know that you are super busy, so be sure to listen while you are doing something else. I hope that you will get value from this episode as you serve and lead your school community. Thank you for taking some time out of your day to listen to the podcast! Thanks for making a difference, Mark Minkus I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode42 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

The same thing happens every summer. As sure as there will be fireworks on the 4th of July, you can count on this happening about two weeks before the first day of school. A parent calls your school and really wants to enroll their child in their school. They also want to do it right now.  Immediately, my “antennae goes up” and I start asking myself some questions like: “Why did they wait until now to call?” “Is there something else going on here?” “Why are they having such a hard time getting records from their previous school?” Most of our schools have very clear admissions policies and procedures. Most of us follow them very closely. That said, there is a very strong urge to rush through this process when your focus is on your teachers and students returning to campus. Of course, there are many valid reasons why a family would wait until mid-August to call about enrolling their children in your school. For example, they may have just moved here from another city or perhaps their financial situation may have just improved. However, I have gotten a lot of these phone calls over the last 30 years, and I have found that it is very, very important to proceed carefully and to closely follow our stated admissions policies when a family suddenly appears and then wants us to hurry up and enroll their child. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to discuss why it is important to Watch For These 5 Red Flags When Enrolling New Students In August. Thank you for taking me along with you when you are walking the dog, driving to school or running errands. I appreciate you and what you are doing for the lucky kids and teachers at your school.  Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode41 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

Goldilocks was hungry. She smelled the porridge that the three bears had left behind. She lifted the latch. She walked over to the table, looked at the three bowls of porridge and then carefully sat down. We all know what happened next. One bowl was too hot, one was too cold and one was just right!  The Goldilocks Effect is the premise that people are inclined to seek 'just the right amount' of something. “The Goldilocks Effect has a place in several fields and disciplines. It applies to elements of psychology, hard sciences, economics, marketing, and engineering — and each one has its own twist on how the principle is applied.” (HubSpot) I want you to think about the Goldilocks Effect as it applies to your current plan for New Teacher Orientation. Is it too much, is it not enough, is it just right? Do your new teachers feel like they are “drinking from a fire hose”? Does it check all of the boxes for your teachers? Do they feel overwhelmed and stressed out afterwards? Do they feel prepared, informed and confident afterwards? If we are honest, most of our schools have a New Teacher Orientation that has some room for improvement. On today’s episode of the Private School Leader Podcast, I am going to give you 4 strategies that will help you improve your new teacher orientation. I hope that you are taking some time to relax and reconnect with your loved ones this Summer. Thank you for listening to the podcast and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to theprivateschoolleader.com/guide. Thanks! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode40 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

I want you to use your imagination. The QB of your favorite NFL team leaves the game, goes to the blue medical tent, he stands on the sideline for the rest of the game, but he doesn’t return. After the game, the QB and the head coach are asked about why he didn’t return to the game. The QB and the coach just say, “No comment, no comment, no comment.”  Monday is a day off for the team, but your QB doesn’t practice on Tuesday or Wednesday. After practice, the QB and the coach just keep saying, “No comment, no comment.” Imagine the sports radio talk shows in that city! Cue wild speculation: “is he done for the year?”, “personal problems?”, “legal problems?”, “substance abuse?”, “is the coach mad at him?” It would get out of hand really quickly. When there is no information, when there is no narrative created by the team, the fans will create the narrative. It will almost always be incorrect. When a Narrative Void exists, it will ALWAYS be filled. Now I want you to think about your school. Let’s say that your parents haven’t been hearing from your teachers about what’s going on at school.    Their only information is based on what they hear at the dinner table or from the backseat. “What did you do at school today?” “Nothing”. “What did you learn at school today?” “Nothing”.   When there is no information, when there is no narrative created by your teachers, the parents will create the narrative and it will almost always be incorrect. When a Narrative Void exists, it will ALWAYS be filled. On today's episode, we will discuss several strategies that your teachers can use to intentionally fill the Narrative Void. I know that you are super busy, so be sure to listen while you are doing something else. I hope that you will get value from this episode as you serve and lead your school community. Thank you for taking some time out of your day to listen to the podcast! Thanks for making a difference, Mark Minkus I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! The show notes for today's episode can be found at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode39 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

In July 2011, a man walked into the Tulsa, Oklahoma Convention Center carrying five glass cups. PBS was there filming an episode of Antiques Roadshow. This man had bought these cups back in the 1970’s. He knew that the cups were from China, but he had no idea what they were worth. Lark Mason, a Chinese antiquities expert, sat down across from the man and picked up one of the glasses. His jaw dropped and he started calling other experts over to his table. These five “glass cups” were actually carved from rhinoceros horns and they were worth over $1.5 million dollars!  Lark Mason deemed these cups to be authentic which gave them value.  Your people don’t want to follow a robot. They want to follow a real person. One that is genuine and self-aware and humble. A leader that apologizes when they make mistakes. An authentic leader. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, I am going to share with you the 8 things that will make you a more authentic leader. Thank you for taking me along with you when you are walking the dog, driving to school or running errands. I appreciate you and what you are doing for the lucky kids and teachers at your school.  Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! You can get the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode38 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

If you have ever watched an infomercial, you have probably heard a very specific phrase used again and again. As the energetic host tells you why you can’t live without a knife that can cut through a penny, they say…. But wait, there’s more! So, I want to take a page out of the infomercial playbook and tell you about something that probably sounds too good to be true. On today’s episode of the Private School Leader Podcast, I am going to tell you about ONE THING that you can do that will make you a happier and better compensated leader. But wait, there’s more! This ONE THING can also help you overcome Imposter Syndrome and will make you feel better when you are discouraged. But wait, there’s more! This ONE THING will take you less than two minutes a day to create and it is totally free. I know that sounds too good to be true. But, this is something that I have been doing for 11 years and everything that I have listed above has been true for me. I am really excited to share this with you on today’s episode! I hope that you are taking some time to relax and reconnect with your loved ones this Summer. Thank you for listening to the podcast and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode37  Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

I love sports movies! My favorite is Rocky 4, but I also love Miracle, Remember The Titans, Hoosiers, Field of Dreams, Tin Cup, Caddyshack and so many more. There is a sports movie that came out in 2009 that I think is really underrated. What movie is that? Invictus. Invictus is the story of the 1995 Rugby World Cup, held in South Africa. Nelson Mandela (played by Morgan Freeman) had just dismantled apartheid and the country was deeply fractured. The national team, The Springboks, were expected to be crushed by the competition. In fact, the only reason that The Springboks were even playing in the World Cup was because the host nation earned an automatic entry. What happened next would change South Africa forever. I won’t spoil it for you, but this incredible true story is inspirational, motivational and heart warming. That’s everything that I look for in a sports movie! I believe that Nelson Mandela was one of the most influential leaders in history. He was inspirational, courageous and he was a servant leader. He united a country and then forever changed that country. His story is legendary. A tireless fighter for racial equality, imprisoned for 27 years, and once released, elected president of the country—and instead of focusing on settling scores and gaining retribution, he instead went about healing and uniting the country. In today's episode, I am going to share with you four exceptional leadership qualities that Nelson Mandela displayed as well as four quotes that will illuminate his leadership style and help us become better leaders. Thank you for taking me along with you when you are walking the dog, driving to school or running errands. I appreciate you and what you are doing for the lucky kids and teachers at your school. Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode36 If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

OK, I know what you’re thinking: “What is the deal with all of these Top 10 lists?” That’s a fair question considering that: Two weeks ago (Episode 33) was titled The Top 10 Leadership Books For Private School Leaders. Last week (Episode 34) was called The Top 10 Time Management Books For Busy Private School Leaders And this week’s episode is titled The Top 10 TED Talks That Every Private School Leader Should Watch So, a couple of things. First, no more countdowns for a while. I promise. Second, I figured that early summer is a good time to share some books that can help you grow as a leader.  Third, I really LOVE TED Talks! What's not to love? Really smart people, talking about thought provoking and interesting ideas, all in 18 minutes or less! Another reason that you may want to check out today’s episode is because five of the TED Talks are by authors of books that are on one of the top 10 book lists. Therefore, you can get a “sneak peek” of that person and their big ideas and then you might want to read something that they wrote! Mark Minkus I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

I’ve got a riddle for you. I am free, yet priceless. You can’t own me, but you can use me. You can’t save me, you can only spend me. What am I? Before I give you the answer, I have to tell you two things. First, I have never been very good at riddles. Second, the answer is the subject of today’s podcast episode. What am I? Time. As Private School Leaders, we all wish that we had more time. More time to spend with our loved ones. More time to spend on things at school that really matter. More time spent taking care of ourselves. More time spent on doing meaningful and fulfilling work that will make a difference for years to come. Every once in a while, we also wish that we had less time. Less time putting out fires. Less time working on other people’s priorities. Less time dealing with parents making unreasonable requests. Less time cleaning up messes created by someone else? So, how do we spend more time on the things that matter and less time on the things that don’t. Well, over the last 32 years, I have read dozens of books about productivity and time management. On today’s episode of the Private School Leader Podcast, I am going to share The Top 10 Time Management Books For Busy Private School Leaders. I know that you are VERY busy during the summer, but if you are going to read a leadership book (Episode 33) or a time management book, it is most likely to happen during the summer. I know how busy you are. That's why I created a weekly podcast that you can listen to while driving to school, working out or running errands. Think of this podcast as your weekly dose of inspiration, motivation and PD, all while doing something else! I hope that you will listen. More importantly, I hope that what you hear helps you thrive at your school. Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode34. If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

Summer means different things to different people. For my family it means 4th of July fireworks, cooking burgers on the grill, fireflies, playing a little golf (badly), reading a book in the backyard hammock and one glorious week on the beach and the boardwalk in Ocean City, NJ. Summer also means the same thing for me as it does for you. Summer means wrapping up this school year and then immediately preparing for next school year, trying to find teachers to interview, overseeing maintenance and cleaning of the building, buying books, meeting new families and the list goes on and on and on. But speaking of lists, there is another thing that many of us email to our families at this time of year. The Summer Reading List. On today’s episode of the Private School Leader Podcast, I am going to share a summer reading list for you: The Top 10 Leadership Books for Private School Leaders. I hear what you are saying, “Mark, I don’t have time to read a book.” I know. But, I also know two things: You have a LITTLE more time now than at any other time of the year. You care about growing yourself as a leader or you wouldn’t be listening to this podcast. Reading one of these leadership books this summer will help you grow as a leader. Thank you for taking me along with you when you are walking the dog, driving to school or running errands. I appreciate you and what you are doing for the lucky kids and teachers at your school. Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode33   If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

The windshield on your car is MUCH, MUCH bigger than your rear view mirror. That makes sense, right? When you are driving down the road, your focus is on what’s ahead. Over the last several years, I have become a much more defensive driver. Unfortunately, there are way too many people on their phones. So, I am always watching for someone swerving into my lane. I am always looking ahead and it is VERY RARE for me to check my rearview mirror while I’m driving. This is EXACTLY what we do as private school leaders, ESPECIALLY at this time of year. We are wrapping up a school year and it is all about what’s next? I say that out loud and to myself all the time. What’s next? What’s next? We are always looking forward, always pushing ahead, moving ahead. Here’s the big problem with that. We usually don’t take the time to stop and reflect on the school year that we just completed. Just like that HUGE windshield and that tiny rearview mirror, private school leaders often don’t take the time to STOP and reflect and then use that reflective practice to change our practice moving forward. On today’s episode of the Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to discuss the 6 questions you can ask yourself today to make sure that next school year is better. If you have gotten value from this podcast, I would love to hear from you! You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com. Send me a couple of sentences about what you have found helpful and also let me know your biggest pain point from this school year. This valuable feedback will help me to better serve you in future episodes. I know that you are super busy, so be sure to listen while you are doing something else. I hope that you will get value from this episode as you serve and lead your school community. Thank you for taking some time out of your day to listen to the podcast! Thanks for making a difference, Mark Minkus I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode32 CLICK HERE to learn more about 1-on-1 Leadership Coaching with me. Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

Has this ever happened to you? You are sitting at your desk at school, working on something and you just “feel off”? You aren’t sure what’s wrong. Maybe you feel agitated or grumpy. Maybe you feel a little bit queasy or dizzy. Maybe you feel out of sorts. Maybe you feel really fatigued. You can’t really describe it. That’s why we just say, “I’m feeling off today” or “Not sure what’s going on with me today” So, I’ve had this happen to me dozens of times and it is not a great feeling. Well, over the years, I have figured out some strategies that have worked really well for me. These strategies help me go from feeling “off” to feeling much better. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast you are going to learn 7 strategies for when you are "feeling off" but don't know why. Thank you for taking me along with you when you are walking the dog, driving to school or running errands. I appreciate you and what you are doing for the lucky kids and teachers at your school. Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks! I also want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode31 Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!!

Have you ever heard this quote? “No good deed goes unpunished.” What about this one? “If you want something done well, ask a busy person.” One more quote: “Once you do the impossible it becomes part of your job description.” What do these three quotes have in common? They are all describing “Performance Punishment”. Performance punishment is the negative consequences that high performing individuals may face as a result of their exceptional productivity. This can include being given additional tasks or responsibilities, being expected to work longer hours, or being subjected to additional scrutiny or criticism. These are usually recurring tasks that someone else has failed to do well or do on time and are therefore falling into the laps of people who have demonstrated their ability to pull through at the last minute. This is something that I have done before and regretted it. On today’s episode, we are going to discuss: What is Performance Punishment? How it could be destroying the morale at your school The “Performance Punishment Cycle” Why is it a problem? What are some of the warning signs? 7 Ways to avoid Performance Punishment at your school I know how busy you are. That's why I created a weekly podcast that you can listen to while driving to school, working out or running errands. Think of this podcast as your weekly dose of inspiration, motivation and PD, all while doing something else! I hope that you will listen. More importantly, I hope that what you hear helps you thrive at your school. Thanks for listening! Mark Minkus I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode30 Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

Every so often, one of my students asks, “Mr. Minkus, how old are you?” I always come back with the same answer, “Well, I was born before man walked on the moon!” That answer usually gets the desired reaction: mouth open, eyes wide, etc. I then tell them that I was only two years old in July of 1969, but that does little to reduce their utter disbelief. When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the moon, he uttered one of the most famous phrases in recorded history. “That’s one small step for man, one giant step for mankind.” Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about “first words” and how important they are: Neil Armstrong’s first words on the moon. Baby’s first words. (I wanted my daughters to say “Daddy”, but one of them said “Hi!” and two of them said “No!” for their first words….. The first words that you say to your spouse or partner when you get home from school. For example, do you say “How was your day?” or do you say “What’s for dinner?” (The rest of your evening hangs in the balance!) On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to discuss The “3 Little Words” That Will Change The Way That You Lead. As private school leaders, we do a lot of listening. We listen to teachers, students and parents tell us about complex problems and complex feelings. We often will immediately go into our “problem solving mode”. Unfortunately, that is not always the best thing to do. We need to stop and think about the first words that we should say and then say “three little words”. I know that you are super busy, so be sure to listen while you are doing something else. I hope that you will get value from this episode as you serve and lead your school community. Thank you for taking some time out of your day to listen to the podcast! Thanks for making a difference, Mark Minkus I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode29 Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

One of my least favorite subjects to discuss is student discipline. One of my most favorite subjects to discuss is classroom management. Most school leaders know that there is a BIG difference between student discipline and classroom management. You may be super happy with the level of school-wide classroom management at your private school. Maybe it has some room for improvement. Maybe you want to scrap what you have and try something new. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, I am going to share with you a plan for school-wide classroom management that I have been using for over 20 years, in two different schools, with two very different student demographics, and this plan has been pretty successful. I hope that you will listen to this episode. More importantly, I hope that this content will help you as you serve and lead your school. I just want to take a moment and say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. In just over six months, the podcast has almost 20,000 downloads from school leaders in 39 countries. You are making a difference in your school and your passion and hard work inspires me to keep making new episodes every week. Thank you! If you have gotten value from this podcast, I would love to hear from you! You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com. Please send me a couple of sentences about what you have found helpful and also let me know your biggest pain point currently. This valuable feedback will help me to better serve you in future episodes. Thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode28 Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

When I was a kid, I loved to Trick or Treat on Halloween. I loved dressing up like Darth Vader, walking around my neighborhood and filling up my pillowcase with free candy. The only thing that I didn’t like was the mask. I don’t know what masks are like today, but in the late 70’s and early 80’s they were not great. Two tiny holes to breathe. Two tiny holes to see. A tiny elastic band that was ready to snap at any moment. I don’t like wearing masks, but I wore one to school every day for the first 10 years of my career as a private school leader. I was terrified that someone would find out that I didn’t know what I was doing. So, I put on a mask of competence and confidence and went through my day. All the while, my insides were churning because of my self doubt, my self talk and my belief that I was an imposter. Some recent studies reveal that over 75% of leaders in all industries have dealt with feelings of imposter syndrome at some point during their careers. This is especially true for private school leaders early in their careers or experienced school leaders that switch to a new school. On today’s episode of the Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to talk about The 6 Ways to Overcome Imposter Syndrome: Understand Maslow’s 4 Stages of Learning Shift your mindset Admit to your team that you don’t know it all Remind yourself that you know what you’re doing Grow your skills Clean up your self talk I hid behind a mask for 10 years. I don’t want that for you. There are tangible strategies that you can use to overcome imposter syndrome. I can’t wait for you to listen to this episode because I want you to realize that you are right where you belong, you have what it takes and you are worthy of the leadership role to which you have been called. Thank you for taking me along with you when you are walking the dog, driving to school or running errands. I appreciate you and what you are doing for the lucky kids and teachers at your school. Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode27 Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

5% is a pretty small number. If you lived in a place where it was cloudy only 5% of the year that sounds pretty good, right? What if I told you that your favorite team would only lose 5% of their games? You’d sign up for that, right? 5% is a pretty small number. That’s true most of the time, but it sure doesn’t FEEL that way when you think about the 5% of your parents that are trying to destroy your school community. Most research on private schools shows that 95% of our parents are usually workable, or pretty good or even fantastic. BUT, that 5% takes a disproportionate amount of your time and emotional energy. They take a disproportionate amount of your teacher’s time and emotional energy. These are the parents that everyone talks about, but everyone tries to avoid. These are the parents that just the mere mention of their name causes your heart to speed up and your blood pressure to rise. In their excellent book, Hopes and Fears: Working With Today’s Independent School Parents, Dr. Robert Evans and Dr. Michael Thompson refer to these parents as “The 5 Percenters” and they place them into three distinct groups: The Anxious and Incompetent The Unresponsive The Intimidators On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to discuss the “5 Percenters”, look at the reasons they may act the way that they do and consider some strategies to work with these parents more effectively. I know how busy you are. That's why I created a weekly podcast that you can listen to while driving to school, working out or running errands. Think of this podcast as your weekly dose of inspiration, motivation and PD, all while doing something else! I hope that you will listen. More importantly, I hope that what you hear helps you thrive at your school. Thanks for listening! Mark Minkus I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode26 Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

A 2015 Gallup poll revealed that 50% of all employees are unclear about the expectations for their jobs. That’s 50% of Americans showing up to work every day and crossing their fingers, hoping that they are doing the right thing. I want to ask you an important question. In which 50% of that poll do your teachers fall? Now, before you quickly answer that question, I want you to think about this quote from George Bernard Shaw: “The biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” Most of us are fairly certain that we have very clear expectations for our teachers and that we have effectively communicated those expectations to our teachers. Are you 100% sure that’s the case? On today’s episode of the Private School Leader Podcast, I am going to: Discuss why clear expectations are more important than you think Give concrete examples of how to effectively communicate those expectations Share a template called “6 Things You Can Expect From Me & 6 Things That I Expect From You” Effectively communicating clear expectations to your teachers can improve morale, increase productivity and create a more positive work environment at your school. I know that you are super busy, so be sure to listen while you are doing something else. I hope that you will get value from this episode as you serve and lead your school community. Thank you for taking some time out of your day to listen to the podcast! Thanks for making a difference, Mark Minkus I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode25 Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!!

I have a rule for myself when I engage with social media. Never read the comments! I usually follow this rule, but every once in a while I get sucked down that rabbit hole of negativity. It seems like everyone on social media is angry about something. The local and national news seems to focus only on bad news and the worst of humanity and it is easy to view life through a very negative lens. As a private school leader, somehow you must rise above the negativity and sprinkle your students and staff with hopeful optimism. While you are doing that, you also have to be SUPER careful to not let yourself drift into the danger zone of toxic positivity. How are you supposed to walk this tightrope of encouraging your staff without having them think that you are completely out of touch with reality? Well on today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast we are going to discuss The 8 Ways to Avoid Toxic Positivity By Displaying Hopeful Optimism: Accurately assess the current situation Acknowledge the current situation Paint the picture of a different future "We are going to get through this" Set the example Perform a "belief transplant" Validate your teacher’s feelings Get to work I am confident that these 8 strategies will help you be a more enthusiastic and optimistic leader, while maintaining credibility with your staff. I know how busy you are. That's why I created a podcast that you can listen to while driving to school, working out or running errands. Think of this podcast as your weekly dose of inspiration, motivation and PD, all while doing something else! I hope that you will listen. More importantly, I hope that what you hear helps you thrive at your school. Thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode24 Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!!

I believe that not all mistakes are created equal. There is the “I got home from the store and forgot to buy milk” kind of mistake and then there is the “Ronald Wayne” kind of mistake. Who is Ronald Wayne? I’m glad you asked! Most people know that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple back in 1976. What most people don’t know is that Apple actually had a third founder named Ronald Wayne. 12 days after founding Apple, Wayne sold his share of the company to Jobs and Wozniak for $800.00. Apple is now worth over one trillion dollars. Ouch! One of the reasons that I created the Private School Leader Podcast was so that you can learn from the mistakes that I've made in my career. On today’s episode, I am going to share with you My 5 Biggest Leadership Mistakes And How To Avoid Them: Not prioritizing my health Believing a story that wasn’t true Letting my integrity slip Being a positional leader Not setting boundaries I hope that you will listen. More importantly, I hope that you will avoid these mistakes and be a happier, more effective and more fulfilled leader! Thank you for taking me along with you when you are walking the dog, driving to school or running errands. I appreciate you and what you are doing for the lucky kids and teachers at your school. Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode23 Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!!

I got the phone call that every school leader dreads. One of my students had died. It was a Wednesday night in September, 1998. I got a call that one of my 9th Grade students, a 14 year old boy, had died. We will call him Caleb. Caleb and his 13 year old friend were playing at a park near his home. Tragically, they were also playing with a gun. Caleb’s friend was not a student at my school. Caleb’s friend was holding the gun. The gun went off and Caleb was killed instantly. Nothing could have prepared me for what happened over the next few hours, the next few days, the next few months after Caleb was killed. The next morning, all three local TV news stations had their vans sitting in our school’s parking lot. Reporters from both major newspapers were there too. Our HS students and our teachers looked like zombies as they walked through the front doors of the school. That awful phone call happened almost 25 years ago. As I look back, I can see that we did a really good job taking care of our students and staff. We handled things really well. But, that was not because we were ready. We did not have a crisis management team, we did not have a plan. What we had were a lot of really smart people that jumped into action and I believe that we got a lot of help from God. One of my teachers has a saying, “We were lucky, not good.” When Caleb died, we handled things very well. But, we were lucky, not good. I hope that you never have to deal with the death of a student or a staff member, but I want to help you to be super prepared. I want for you to have a plan and then pray that you NEVER, EVER need to use the plan. On today’s episode, I am going to teach you 10 Steps to responding to the death of a student: Establish a School Crisis Team Create a Plan in Advance Gather Facts Notify Staff, Students and Parents Deploy Mental Health Professionals Equip your Teachers Prepare For Media Coverage Funerals, Spontaneous Memorials and Memorials Special Circumstances (suicide, drug overdose) Conduct an After Action Review I pray that you will NEVER have to use this plan. That said, now you will be ready if you do. Thank you for listening to the podcast and thank you for making a difference in the lives of the kids at your school. Mark Minkus I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode22 Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!!

You know how this works. You earn money, it gets deposited in your bank account and then you use that money to buy groceries, pay bills or eat out at a restaurant. You make deposits. You make withdrawals. You also know that if you don’t have enough money, the little screen at the grocery store will say “insufficient funds” or “card declined”. If you are of a certain age, you also know what it means to bounce a check. There is an important truth that every private school leader should know: Your Teachers Have Emotional Bank Accounts And You Are The Banker. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, you are going to learn 10 ways to make deposits in your teachers’ emotional bank accounts: Smile Treat them like people Recognize their hard work Offer practical help Listen and validate their feelings Notice, Remember, Encourage Communicate clearly Protect their teaching time Say “thank you” Apologize This is going to be hard work, but it will be worth it. When your teachers feel heard, seen, valued and emotionally safe they will work harder, stay at your school longer and bring their best selves to school every day. Everyone wins when that happens! I know that you are super busy, so be sure to listen while you are doing something else. I hope that you will get value from this episode as you serve and lead your school community. Thank you for taking some time out of your day to listen to the podcast! Thanks for making a difference, Mark Minkus I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode21  Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!!

About once a week, I ask my wife the same question, “Hey do you wanna know what song is stuck in my head?” She always says, “not really” and then I tell her anyway. It is usually some 80’s pop song unless it is the morning after the Middle School Dance and then it might be The Cupid Shuffle or Love Story by Taylor Swift. Why do songs get stuck in our heads? It’s because our brains HATE open loops and our brains will do anything to close an open loop. Our brains will even finish an 80’s pop song. The elements of storytelling are incredibly powerful because a compelling story opens a loop and then holds your attention until it closes the loop. On today’s episode, you are going to learn how to open a “Story Loop” for current and prospective parents and the only way to close that story loop is for their child to graduate from your school. Donald Miller wrote an excellent book called Building a Storybrand, which was a Wall Street Journal Bestseller. Miller describes the 7 components of a great story. We are actually going to discuss just 5 of those: A Character Has a Problem And Meets A Guide Who Gives Them A Plan That Ends in Success So many great stories follow this framework, including: Star Wars, The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, The Odyssey, Interstellar, Beowulf, The Lord of The Rings, Moana, Marvel’s Spiderman, The Wizard of Oz and thousands more. You are going to learn how to use these elements of storytelling to increase enrollment and retention at your school! Thank you for taking me along with you when you are walking the dog, driving to school or running errands. I appreciate you and what you are doing for the lucky kids and teachers at your school. Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is an 8 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode20 Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!!

The longest year of my life was between my 15th birthday and my 16th birthday.   It was only 365 days, but it felt like 5 years. I couldn’t wait to get my driver’s license. My first car was a 1977 Dodge Volare Station Wagon with no hubcaps and a bright yellow paint job. My friends at school called it “The Cream Puff”, but I didn’t care. I had a car and I could drive!   Why am I taking you on this trip down Memory Lane? Well, it’s because I want to ask you a very important question. Do you treat your car better than you treat yourself?   You are probably saying “Of course not!”, but I want you to really think about it before you answer. Just think of the things that you do daily, weekly and annually to make sure that your car keeps running safely.   Obviously we are talking about self care and most private school leaders don’t do a very good job with that. On today’s episode, you are going to learn 4 Ways That You Can Treat Yourself Better Than You Treat Your Car:   Fill the Tank Check The Oil Pass The Annual Inspection Heed the Check Engine Light   What you do is emotional work. Unrelenting, emotional work. The only way that you can thrive and not just survive at your school is to prioritize your self care. I know that sounds like fiction right now, but please just listen to the episode, apply one or two of the strategies and see if it makes a difference.    I hope that you will listen to the podcast for your weekly dose of motivation, inspiration and PD. Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference!   Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode19   Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!!

Every school has them. The teachers discuss them, but do everything they can to avoid them. Administrators cringe when they walk through the front door or call them on the phone. Of course, I am talking about difficult parents at your school. I acknowledge that not every upset parent is a difficult parent. But, if nearly every parent gets upset about something at least once, that means that you are meeting with a lot of parents every year that are unhappy and emotional about something. When you meet with an upset parent, you are trying to “listen through the noise”, not get defensive, not get upset, prioritize their child, support your teacher AND calmly come up with elegant solutions to their problems.  I know that sounds impossible. It IS extremely difficult, but there ARE intentional strategies that you can use to make these meetings have MUCH better outcomes. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast you are going to learn How To Have A Successful Meeting With An Upset Parent. These strategies are broken down into the following stages: Setting up the meeting Preparing for the meeting Mindset Shift Beginning Middle End Post-Meeting I have been using these strategies for a long time. There is no such thing as an “easy” meeting with an upset parent, but these strategies DO make a BIG difference and I hope that they will help you as you serve and lead your school. Thank you for taking me along with you when you are walking the dog, driving to school or running errands. I appreciate you and what you are doing for the lucky kids and teachers at your school. Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode18 Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!!

I want you to use your imagination. It is the end of the day, you’re getting ready to leave school and you are sitting at your desk. You look back on your day. You feel good about everything that you accomplished. You feel like it was a productive day because you actually got some meaningful work done. Does that sound like something straight out of a fantasy novel? If that sounds impossible, it is probably because you have fallen into “The False Productivity Trap”. On today’s Episode of the Private School Leader Podcast we are going to discuss: What is the “False Productivity Trap”? The 4 reasons that we are actually addicted to False Productivity The 9 ways to avoid the “False Productivity Trap” There is an old saying, “It’s easy to be busy, it’s hard to be productive”. We have never been busier than we are today with our job, our family responsibilities, driving our kids to practices and games, church, errands, car repairs, home repairs, pet care, paying bills, trying to work out and the list goes on and on and on. We have never been busier, but we have never been less productive. Let’s make a new start today, get out of the productivity trap and start engaging in meaningful work more often! I hope that you will listen to the podcast for your weekly dose of motivation, inspiration and PD. Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode17 Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!!

One of the most embarrassing moments of my life happened on a Thursday afternoon in the fall of 1999. I was driving home from school and my cell phone rang. It was my Administrative Assistant and I will never forget what she said, “Mark, Danielle is here in the Main Office. Are you coming back for her?” I had forgotten my 6 year old daughter at school…. Fortunately, school was like a second home to her and she was happily playing with a toy next to my office. My family still brings this up to this day, more than 20 years later. One of the biggest regrets of my life was when I didn’t do more to help one of my daughters when she was in Elementary School. She had ADD and her teacher that year was not effective working with kids with ADD. I just kept telling myself it would get better and I didn’t get involved and my daughter suffered. One of the biggest joys in my life was having my daughters attend my school. All of the car rides and hallway hugs and home volleyball games and drawings on my office door and concerts and just hanging out with them after school are memories that I will cherish forever. Having my three daughters attend the school that I led was one of the most complex experiences of my career. I am SO glad that we did it, but it was VERY complicated and took a tremendous amount of work to make it a (mostly) positive experience for them, for me, for my wife and for my teachers. If you have school aged children or you might have children someday, then today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast is for you! We are going to discuss what it is like: Being a Principal/Parent Being the Principal’s Kid Being the Teacher of the Principal’s Kid You will also learn several strategies that will help you successfully navigate these complex relationships in a way that will allow you to be an awesome parent AND an awesome Principal! I know that you are super busy, so be sure to listen while you are doing something else. I hope that you will get value from this episode as you serve and lead your school community. Thank you for taking some time out of your day to listen to the podcast! Thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode16 

Recently, I was driving home from school and I heard an ad for a debt consolidation company on the radio. The announcer asked, “Are you drowning in debt?” Later that week, I was talking to one of my teachers who told me, “I can’t get caught up. I feel like I am drowning in the deep end of the pool.” The word overwhelmed actually means “to be completely submerged by your thoughts and emotions about all of life’s current problems, to the point where you lack productivity and feel frozen or paralyzed.” (talkspace.com blog post 02/10/22) In other words, when you feel overwhelmed, you feel like you are drowning. The good news is that it doesn’t have to stay that way. On this week’s episode of the Private School Leader Podcast, you are going to learn The 8 Ways To Feel Less Overwhelmed At School: Ride the wave of emotion Revisit your “compelling why?” More dopamine, less cortisol Do a brain dump Focus only on the next thing Build capacity then delegate Fill your tank daily Talk to someone What we do is emotional work that takes an emotional toll. The cumulative effect of expending that emotional energy can make us feel like we are drowning. The next time that you feel overwhelmed, I hope that you will try one or more of these strategies and I hope that they help! I know how busy you are and that’s why I created a podcast so that you can listen while doing something else. So, while you're driving to school or walking the dog, pop in your earbuds for your weekly dose of motivation, inspiration and PD! You can check out a bunch of free resources at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources and you can grab the show notes at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode15 Thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks! Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!!

Since I was a kid, I have always been fascinated with The Death Zone. No, that is not some zombie movie. I actually don’t like zombie movies or horror movies. Give me an action movie or an inspirational sports movie or a comedy or a superhero movie. Just not a zombie movie. Anyways, The Death Zone is a term used by mountain climbers. In mountaineering, the death zone refers to altitudes above 26,000 feet where the pressure of oxygen is insufficient to sustain human life for an extended time span. All 14 mountains that are 26,000 feet or higher are in the Himalayas. As soon as a mountain climber goes above 26,000 feet, their body starts to die. The summit of Mount Everest is 29,031 feet. Since I was a kid, I’ve been fascinated by people that would choose to do that to themselves. Why would someone climb into an area where you need bottled oxygen just to survive? Even today, 70 years after the first successful expedition, climbing Mount Everest is still considered one of the world’s greatest feats of physical endurance. On today’s episode of the Private School Leader podcast, I am going to share with you 5 Leadership Lessons from the top of Mount Everest: Your teachers need to see very clearly that they are part of something bigger than themselves. Get super clear on your goals so that you can make better decisions when you are stressed out. Your leadership skills will only take you so far. What will take you the rest of the way comes from your heart. Becoming a better leader is a process and it is OK to fail. Leaders should always see farther than everyone else. You won’t need an ice axe, a climbing harness or special boots, but I promise that you will learn some important leadership lessons from the highest point on planet Earth. I’d like to ask you for a quick favor. Can you please rate and review this podcast? This will help the algorithm push this podcast out to more leaders who might benefit from this content. Thanks! I hope that you will listen to this week’s episode. Maybe while you're driving to school or walking the dog, just pop in those earbuds for your weekly dose of motivation, inspiration and PD! You check out a ton of free resources at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources and you can grab the show notes at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode14 Thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus

In November of 2016, my family and I were going through a difficult time. Shortly before Thanksgiving, my wife and I were given a VERY unexpected gift of $600.00 in cash from some VERY kind friends. There were no strings attached and we were told to use the money in any way that we wanted. Within the next 6 days, we had two VERY unexpected car repairs. The total bill for those two repairs was $597.00. We were overcome with gratitude for the kindness and generosity of our friends and for the perfect timing of this practical gift. Over the next few months, we thought about this gift all the time. But as the months passed, the memory of that moment faded and we thought about it less and less often. We had good intentions to continue to express gratitude to our generous friends, but then life got busy and…….. Are you grateful for your loved ones? Are you grateful for your home? Are you grateful for your job? Are you grateful for your students and your teachers? Of course you are! We have so many good things in our lives and we have a very long list of things for which to be grateful. The problem is that a lot of the time we don’t FEEL grateful and most of the time we don’t EXPRESS gratitude for most of the things in our lives. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast we are going to talk about How Gratitude Can Make You A Happier And More Effective Leader. Episode Highlights: The 31 benefits of gratitude backed by over 40 research studies. A recent Glassdoor survey says that 81% of employees work harder for a grateful boss. Why “hedonic adaptation” makes it so difficult for us to be intentionally grateful. The 3 ways that gratitude can make you a happier leader. The 3 ways that gratitude can make you a more effective leader. The 3 strategies that will help you be more grateful at school and at home. I know that you are super busy, so when you are driving to school, working out or running errands, pop in those earbuds and listen. I hope that you will get value from this episode as you serve and lead your school community. Thank you for taking the time to listen to the podcast! Thanks for making a difference! Check out a bunch of free resources for you at www.theprivateschooleader.com/resources and grab the show notes at www.theprivateschooleader.com/episode13   

Have you ever had this conversation with your spouse or partner? “Where do you want to go for dinner?” “Oh, I don’t know, you decide.” “How about sushi?” “No, not sushi.” “OK, how about Thai?” “No, definitely not Thai food tonight.” “Well, then where do you want to go?” “Oh, I don’t know, I want you to decide.” Has this ever happened to you? You get home from a long day at school, you sit down for the first time and you say to yourself, “I am not making one more decision today”. Then one of your kids walks up to you and says, “What’s for dinner?” If either of those scenarios sounded familiar to you and/or made you cringe a little, I have a theory that I would like to share with you. I think that these situations have less to do with how you communicate with your partner. I think that you may have succumbed to decision fatigue. As an independent school leader, you make hundreds of complex decisions a day. Some of them are high stakes decisions. Many of these decisions will be second guessed by teachers, parents, students, board members or all of the above! Your ability to make decisions is FINITE. As the day goes on, the research shows that your ability to make good decisions falters. This phenomenon is called decision fatigue. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, you are going to learn The 7 Best Strategies For Overcoming Decision Fatigue: 1) Acknowledge that it is real 2) Plan your day 3) Have an index card on the corner of your desk 4) Proactively reduce the number of decisions that you make 5) Clarity is your friend 6) Give yourself fuel 7) Schools are not emergency rooms If you implement just one or two of these strategies, you will make better decisions at school and, hopefully, have a little left in your tank so you can decide what to eat for dinner! So, while you're driving to school or walking the dog, pop in your earbuds for your weekly dose of motivation, inspiration and PD! Check out a bunch of free resources for you at www.theprivateschooleader.com/resources and grab the show notes at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode12 

If you have had the time to watch any TV during the last week of the year you have probably noticed commercials for gym memberships, smoking cessation programs and storage bins that will help you get more organized. Tis’ the season for self improvement! We make New Year’s resolutions because we are always trying to better ourselves. The “clean slate” of a new year seems like the perfect time to lose weight, stop smoking or make ourselves better in some meaningful way. As leaders, we are always trying to make our schools better, our teachers better and ourselves better. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, you are going to learn The 4 New Year’s Resolutions That Every Private School Leader Should Make: !) I will follow the 15/30 rule of self care, 2) I will always know what to do next at work, 3) I will practice intentional encouragement once a day, 4) I will have an intentional plan for my leadership growth. I know that you are SUPER busy, so when you are driving to school, working out or running errands, pop in those earbuds and listen. I strongly believe that making even one of these New Year’s resolutions will significantly impact you and your school in 2023. I hope that you will listen. More importantly, I hope that what you hear will help you THRIVE as you serve your school community. Check out a bunch of free resources for you at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources and grab the show notes at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode11

I want to ask you to use your imagination about something that COULD be true one year from today. I want you to imagine what your school would be like if, over the next year, the quality of teacher parent communication improved SIGNIFICANTLY. I’m not talking about a small improvement, I’m talking about a massive improvement. What COULD your school look like one year from today? Happier kids? Happier parents? Happier teachers? Higher student retention rates? Higher parent satisfaction scores on your annual survey? All of this is possible and I’m going to tell you how to get there. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, I am going to teach you The 5 C’s of Effective Parent Communication: 1) Competence, 2) Confidence, 3) Care, 4) Consistency, 5) Collaboration I can hear what you are saying: “Mark, this is great, but the people that really need to be taught these strategies are my teachers.” Well, I’ve got you covered! I have created a free “Plug & Play PD” for you. This is a 45 minute webinar complete with guided notes. It contains everything from this episode as well as everything that I taught back in Episode 2 (The Top 5 Ways To Build Effective Relationships With Difficult Parents). You can use it at a staff meeting or to just coach up a teacher that needs to grow in the area of teacher communication. You can grab the free webinar and guided notes at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode10. I know how busy you are. That's why I created a weekly podcast that you can listen to while driving to school, working out or running errands. Think of this podcast as your weekly dose of inspiration, motivation and PD, all while doing something else! I hope that you will listen. More importantly, I hope that these strategies will help you as you serve your school. Thanks for making a difference! Please follow, rate and review this podcast. The rating helps this podcast to be heard by more leaders and your review gives me valuable feedback so that I can better serve you in future episodes. If you got value from this episode, please text the link to an aspiring leader at your school. Also, you can check out all of the free resources available to you at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources Thanks!

In the Summer of 2014, our school was in the midst of a retention crisis. We had families leaving for local public schools, local private schools and some families that were moving out of the city to have their children attend suburban public schools. But then we got to work. By the summer of 2015, we had decreased our attrition rate by 35%. By the spring of 2016, our parent survey results were off the charts with an overall level of parent satisfaction of 97.75%. By the summer of 2016, our retention rate school-wide was over 90% In fact, the turnaround was so profound, we were invited to speak at the National Jewish Day School Conference in February 2017. My HOS, Admissions Director, Marketing Director and I traveled to Chicago to talk about what we did to turn things around so quickly. How did we go from a CRISIS in the summer of 2014 to a 97% parent satisfaction rate in spring 2016 and a 90% retention rate in summer 2016? On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, I am going to tell you EXACTLY what we did and give you the 8 ways to increase student retention that ACTUALLY WORK. Those 8 strategies are: 1) Be Proactive, 2) Ask, ask then study the data, 3) Identify “Decision Years”, 4) Treat every family like a new family, 5) Create a “culture of anticipation” and “paint a climactic scene”, 6) Surprise and Delight, 7) Say Goodbye, 8) Retention is everyone’s responsibility Research shows that it costs 7 times more resources (money, time, advertising, etc.) to find and enroll a new student than to keep an existing student. If you use these 8 strategies, you will keep the students that you have worked so hard to get. I know that you are SUPER busy, so when you are driving to school, working out or running errands, pop in those earbuds and listen. I hope that you will be motivated and inspired as you serve your school! You can head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources to check out all of the free resources available to you. Show notes can be found at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode9 Please follow, rate and review this podcast. The rating helps this podcast to be heard by more leaders and your review gives me valuable feedback so that I can better serve you in future episodes. If you got value from this episode, please text the link to an aspiring leader at your school. Thanks!

In May of 2017, my oldest sister, Cathy, passed away from breast cancer. In July of 2018, my twin sister, Ruth, passed away from breast cancer. In February of 2019, my sister Marcia passed away from a heart attack. Three sisters in three years. Fortunately, my school has an excellent Employee Assistance Program and I was able to connect with an outstanding grief counselor named Virginia. We talked a lot and she helped me a lot. So, when my 92 year old father passed away in September of 2021, I reached out to Virginia again. I talked and she listened. After about 20 minutes, she said, “Mark, I don’t think that you are only dealing with grief. I think that you are experiencing severe burnout.” Over the next 11 months, I went on a journey of learning about burnout, what it is, what it isn’t and learning how to get better. It was a long process, but I am doing much, much better now. On today’s episode of the Private School Leader Podcast, you are going to learn “How to Overcome Burnout With Boundaries”. You are going to hear some shocking statistics about the state of independent school leaders. Many of you are “not OK”.  You will also learn the five ways that you can prevent or overcome burnout by creating some boundaries in your life. These 5 strategies are: 1) Establish your priorities, 2) Take a mini-sabbatical, 3) Use a designated workspace at home, 4) Beware the “Electronic Leash”, 5) Clearly and assertively communicate your boundaries. These strategies took me from depleted, burnt out and miserable to energized, happy and optimistic about the future.  I know how busy you are. That's why I created a weekly podcast that you can listen to while driving to school, working out or running errands. Think of this podcast as your weekly dose of inspiration, motivation and PD, all while doing something else! I hope that you will listen. More importantly, I hope that these strategies will help you prevent or overcome burnout in your life. Thanks for making a difference! You can get show notes at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode8 and you can check out a bunch of free resources for you at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources

Do you ever get to the end of the day and feel like you didn't get anything done even though you worked really hard? Does the "tyranny of the urgent" control your day? Do you wish that you felt productive during the day instead of feeling exhausted from putting out fires all day long? Do you ever sit down at your desk and not know what to do next, so you start checking email? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, I have two pieces of good news for you. First, you are not alone. Nearly every independent school leader feels this way almost every day. Second, it doesn’t have to stay this way. On this episode of the Private School Leader Podcast, you are going to learn The Top 4 Productivity Hacks For Busy Private School Leaders! There is a better way and this IS POSSIBLE! I promise you that if you apply these strategies to your day at school that you will feel more productive, less discouraged and more energized. I hope that you will listen, but more importantly, I hope that what you hear helps you to THRIVE as you lead your school. Thanks for making a difference!

In Episode 5, we talked about the five characteristics that every Servant Leader displays: Demonstrates humility Displays integrity Helps others grow Encourages safe participation by being approachable, visible and having a predictable mood. Inspires others through influence rather than position. I strongly believe that adopting the characteristics of a Servant Leader can dramatically change your school culture. In this week’s episode, we are going to get super practical and turn these characteristics into action. Episode 6 is called: “The Top 10 Things That Servant Leaders Do”. If you do even some of the things on this list, you will transform yourself and transform your school. I know that you are SUPER busy, so when you are driving to school, working out or running errands, pop in those earbuds and listen. I hope that you will be motivated and inspired as you serve your school! Thanks for making a difference!

Nelson Mandela was once asked, “What makes you a good leader?” Mandela said that he was the son of a tribal chief and, when he was a boy, his father would take him to the tribal council meetings. Mandela watched his father closely at these meetings and said that he learned two important things:  1) They always sat in a circle  2) His father was always the last to speak. Nelson Mandela's leadership style can transform you as a leader and it can also transform the culture of your school. In fact, when employees are surveyed about the preferred leadership style of their boss, there is one answer that is always at the top of the list.  Servant Leadership. Serve first and lead second. That may sound easy, but it's not. Teachers don’t want to work at a top down, command and control, “do it because I said so” organization. They want to feel emotionally safe at school. They don’t want to follow someone because of their position, they want to follow someone that they know cares about them as a human being. In today's episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, you will learn the 5 Characteristics of a Servant Leader. You will also learn that Servant Leadership is not a tip or trick or leadership hack. It is a way of life. So, when you are driving to school, working out or taking your dog for a walk, pop in those earbuds and listen. I hope that you will be motivated and inspired as you serve your school! You can head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com to check out all of the resources available to you. If you got value from this episode, please text the link to an aspiring leader at your school. You can grab the Show Notes at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode5 Thanks! Please follow, rate and review this podcast. The rating helps this podcast to be heard by more leaders and your review gives me valuable feedback so that I can better serve you in future episodes. Thanks!

Do some of your students give up easily when faced with a challenging problem or concept? Are your students sometimes too worried about “looking smart?” Do any of your students get extremely upset when they make a mistake on an assignment or get a question wrong on a test? Do any of your students attach their self worth to the grades on their report card? This is a very common problem in our independent schools. Some of the children at our schools have been told all of their lives: “You are so smart!” Many of our students cruise along with their natural intelligence until they come up against a concept that they’ve never seen before and WHAM, they shut down, they cry, they literally slide the piece of paper back across the desk to the teacher and say, “I can’t do this.” Do you want to know how to fix this problem at your school? I have watched this problem almost disappear at our school. We have sustained this change for six years. I have heard a 4th Grader say, “Wow, now I don’t have to keep acting smart.” If you are curious about how you can make this transformation take place for your school, today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast is for you as we learn how to Turn “Pedestal Kids” Into “Gritty Kids” By Implementing Growth Mindset. About 30 years ago, Stanford University psychologist Dr. Carol Dweck and her colleagues began researching attitudes about failure. Those findings led to more research that showed a student’s underlying beliefs (mindset) about learning and intelligence significantly impacted motivation and achievement. Dweck coined the terms “growth mindset” and “fixed mindset” to provide a frame for her research that could be more easily understood. Implementing Growth Mindset at our school was the most impactful decision that I have made in my career. I hope that you will listen to this episode and find it valuable. More importantly, I hope that you will see that this can have a positive impact on the kids at your school. After you listen to this episode, you might want to consider implementing Growth Mindset at your school. If so, I’ve got you covered. For Episode 4, I have created a free “Plug & Play PD” for you called Turn “Pedestal Kids” Into “Gritty Kids” By Implementing Growth Mindset. This is a 45 minute webinar complete with guided notes and 5 Mini-lessons with Google Slideshows and Student Handouts. You can use it with your teachers at a staff meeting and begin your Growth Mindset journey at your school. You can grab the free webinar and guided notes over at theprivateschoolleader.com/episode4 Thanks!

So, let me ask you a few questions. Have you ever gotten to the end of a day at school and felt discouraged and overwhelmed? Have you ever had a day when you worked really hard, but at the end of the day it felt like you hadn’t accomplished anything? After you walk in the front doors of your school, Does the tyranny of the urgent keep you from working on the parts of your job that are actually the most important? When your Head of School or board president starts to talk about “work-life” balance, do you think to yourself, “that sounds nice, but it also sounds impossible”? Well, if you answered “yes” to any of these questions I have good news and bad news for you. I’m going to give you the BAD NEWS first. If you keep doing this, you are going to put yourself in the hospital with physical problems or mental health problems or both. I know, because I've been there. I’ve been at the lowest of all low points. I’ve been in the hospital with ulcers. I’ve had lousy relationships with my family because they never saw me. I’ve worked really, really hard and felt discouraged and overwhelmed at the end of the day. That's the bad news. The GOOD NEWS is that it doesn’t have to stay this way and I am going to give you tangible, actionable, bite-sized steps that can transform your life at work and at home. By the end of this episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, you are going to be equipped with seven strategies, seven habits that can change all of this. Today you are going to learn the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Private School Leaders! These habits are based on Stephen Covey’s international best seller and I am convinced that if you develop even just one of these habits it will change your school year and it will change your life! For Episode 3, I have created a free “Plug & Play PD” for you called “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Private School Teachers”. This is a 45 minute webinar complete with guided notes and discussion questions. You can use it at a staff meeting or to just to coach up a teacher that needs to focus more on these habits. You can grab the free webinar and guided notes over at theprivateschoolleader.com/episode3 You can head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com to check out all of the resources available to you. If you got value from this episode, please text the link to an aspiring leader at your school. Thanks! Please follow, rate and review this podcast. The rating helps this podcast to be heard by more leaders and your review gives me valuable feedback so that I can better serve you in future episodes. Thanks!

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your teachers on the quality of their relationships with the parents at your school? On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your teachers on the quality and frequency of their communication with the parents at your school? Well, if you said anything other than 10 out of 10 for those questions, I’ve got great news for you. Today’s episode of the Private School Leader Podcast is entitled: “Teach your teachers: The Top 5 Ways to Build Effective Relationships With Difficult Parents". I promise you that if your teachers implement these 5 strategies, you will see measurable results at your school. Results like higher scores on your parent satisfaction survey, higher retention rates and lower teacher turnover. The 5 Strategies Are: See The Wall Of Mutual Distrust Remember The Child In The Chair Turn Listening Into Your Superpower Build Trust By Keeping Your Promises Surprise and Delight I know what you’re thinking: “That’s all well and good, but my teachers are the ones that need to hear this.” Well, I’ve got you covered! I have created a free “Plug & Play PD” for you. This is a 45 minute webinar complete with guided notes and discussion questions. You can use it at a staff meeting or to just coach up a teacher that needs to grow in the area of teacher communication. You can CLICK HERE to grab the free webinar and guided notes. I know how busy you are. That's why I created a weekly podcast that you can listen to while driving to school, working out or running errands. Think of this podcast as your weekly dose of inspiration, motivation and PD, all while doing something else! I hope that you will listen. More importantly, I hope that what you hear helps you thrive at your school! You can CLICK HERE to check out all of the resources available to you on my website. If you got value from this episode, please text the link to an aspiring leader at your school. Thanks! Please follow, rate and review this podcast. The rating helps this podcast to be heard by more leaders and your review gives me valuable feedback so that I can better serve you in future episodes. Thanks!

As a private school leader, do you ever feel overwhelmed and exhausted at the end of a long day at school?   Do you wish that your job energized you the way that it used to?   Do you ever feel isolated and lonely as a leader?   Do you ever feel like your job as a private school leader is impossible?   I know that I answered "yes" to all of those questions! The good news is that it doesn't have to stay that way!   On today's episode, I'm going to take my 30 years of experience as a private school leader and give you three strategies to help you get back to THRIVING at your school.   The three strategies are: Throw Some Starfish Live The Quote Lift Your Lid    Do you want to get back to  feeling energized and excited each morning and feeling fulfilled at the end of each day? Do you want to tame the "tyranny of the urgent" and get back to making a difference in the lives of the kids at your school? Well then today's episode is just for you!   The Private School Leader Podcast exists to help you THRIVE and not just SURVIVE at one of the most difficult jobs on Earth.   CLICK HERE for the show notes for Episode 1 and you can CLICK HERE for more resources.    Please subscribe to The Private School Leader Podcast. Please rate this podcast and leave a review. I would love to get your feedback so that I can better serve you!