Episode 101: The 5 Steps To Managing Unrelenting Stress
The Private School Leader Podcast
Audio is streamed directly from the publisher (app.kajabi.com) as published in their RSS feed. Play Podcasts does not host this file. Rights-holders can request removal through the copyright & takedown page.
Show Notes
Unrelenting.
It means, “not letting up or weakening in vigor or pace” and it’s synonyms are: unforgiving, unsparing, ruthless, cruel, unyielding, merciless
Stress.
Stress is anything that requires our internal systems to burn energy to maintain some kind of internal balance.
Unrelenting stress? For private school leaders it includes: upset parents, needy teachers, struggling students, facilities, finance, fundraising, athletics, curriculum, the board, transportation, retention, budget, admissions, marketing, payroll, discipline issues…. And the list goes on and on.
On today’s episode of the PSLP, we are going to discuss The 5 Steps To Managing Unrelenting Stress
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
If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1.
I help my clients overcome imposter syndrome, set boundaries between work and home and how to actually get important things done instead of having your day ruled by the tyranny of the urgent. Sounds impossible right? It’s not. I can teach you how to make it possible.
I would love to be your coach and I have a few spots open. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1.
Being a private school leader is a VERY difficult job. You have to make hundreds of decisions every day, and you have to keep everyone safe, increase enrollment, keep the parents happy, keep the board happy, motivate the teachers, deal with student discipline, beat last year’s test scores and come in under budget.
That can lead to you feeling tired, discouraged and stressed out. I’ve been there. That’s why I created THRIVE Academy just for you. THRIVE Academy is a digital course that will help you get out of survival mode and get back to feeling energized at school. To learn more, go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/thrive
I want to give you a FREE gift called 7 Strategies To Effectively Deal With Difficult Teachers. Sometimes we need some courage and confidence to deal with difficult teachers. What you need is a plan! This guide is a step by step plan that you can use to help one of your difficult teachers improve their performance and improve their attitude. Go to theprivateschoolleader.com/difficult to grab this free guide!
I am excited to share a brand new resource with you. It is a 9 page pdf called: “How To Use Verbal Judo To Have Better Conversations With The Parents At Your School” What is “Verbal Judo”? "Verbal Judo" is a communication strategy that focuses on using words effectively to de-escalate conflict, resolve disputes, and achieve positive outcomes in various interpersonal interactions, particularly in high-pressure situations.
George Thompson and Jerry Jenkins wrote a book called Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art Of Persuasion. So, I have taken several important strategies from the book and applied them to your life as a private school leader. Grab your free copy of “How To Use Verbal Judo To Have Better Conversations With The Parents At Your School” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/judo
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/episode101
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 [email protected] 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!
TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome to the private school Leader podcast, where private school leaders learn how to thrive and not just survive as they serve and lead their schools. I strongly believe that it is possible to have a long and happy and fulfilling career as a private school leader. And my passion is to help you figure out exactly how to do just that right here on the private school leader podcast. And I'm your host, Mark Menkes. • • So I want to • start today's episode by • • • defining the word • • • • unrelenting, • • • • because the title of today's episode is the five steps to managing unrelenting stress. • • And I feel strongly that private school leaders • • • are in a very unique position where you not only have stress in your life, • • • • but you have unrelenting stress in your life, at school and outside of school. • • And so unrelenting means • • not letting up. The definition is not letting up or weakening in vigor or pace. • • • Some synonyms for unrelenting are unforgiving, unsparing, ruthless, cruel, unyielding, and merciless. • • • Does that describe the nature of the stress in your life? • • That it's constant, that it doesn't stop? • That it just keeps pounding away and pounding away and keeps coming from different sources, • • and then your head's on a swivel to see where that next source of stress is coming from. • • • • And I'll be honest. When I think of the word unrelenting, I think of two things. I think of rain during a hurricane, • • and it just pounds and pounds and pounds against the windows, • • and it just never stops and it never lets up. • • And I also think of some people who have migraines and how they describe the pain • • that it's just unrelenting. • • • • And so when it comes to stress, • • • • you know, stress, • • • I saw a definition that I've never seen before, and I'm going to read it to you. It says, stress is anything that requires our internal systems to burn energy to maintain some kind of internal balance. • • • • • Stress is anything that requires our internal systems to burn energy to maintain some kind of internal balance. I just described • • why you are so tired at the end of the day • • and why you feel like you have very little or nothing left in the tank for your family or for • • yourself. • • • • • And it's because of the unrelenting stress that we deal with as private school leaders • • • • upset parents, needy teachers, student problems, facilities, • • finance, fundraising, athletics, curriculum, the board, transportation, retention budget, admissions, marketing, payroll, student discipline issues. And the list goes on and on and on. • • • • And so, if the stress in your life • • as a private school leader is unrelenting, • • we are going to talk about how to manage • • unrelenting stress on today's episode of the private school Leader podcast. • •
How to use verbal judo to have better conversations with parents at school
And before we jump into that, I'm excited to share with you a, uh, free resource just as a way to say thank you for listening to the podcast. And this is called how to use verbal judo to have better conversations • • with parents at your school. • • And so what is verbal judo? It's a, uh, communication strategy that focuses on using words • effectively to de escalate conflict and resolve disputes. • And • • • the, um, author of the book • • • • Verbal Judo, the Gentle Art of Persuasion, George Thompson. He's trained over 200,000 law enforcement officers in North America in the