Episode 116: Answer These 3 Questions To Have A Great Start To 2025
The Private School Leader Podcast
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Show Notes
During the first week of the year, you will often see commercials for gym memberships, smoking cessation products and storage bins of all shapes and sizes. We all know why we see so many of these commercials, right?
“New year, new you!”
Many of us think that, “This will be the year that I finally get in shape, stop smoking and organize the garage!” Well, whether or not you are a fan of making new year’s resolutions, I want to give you a framework for starting the year strong and setting yourself up for a great second half to your school year.
On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to Answer These 3 Questions To Have A Great Start To 2025
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
What is your biggest problem right now? I want to hear more about your biggest problem and I want to help you solve it.
Whether your problem is feeling guilty that your family gets what’s left of you at the end of the day, relentless parents, difficult teachers, a lack of boundaries between work and school, feeling overwhelmed, Imposter Syndrome, enrollment or teacher morale, I can help.
I would love to hear more about your biggest problem and I would love to be your coach. 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 am excited to share with you a new resource and I want to give this to you as a FREE GIFT to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. It is called The 7 Secrets To Improving Teacher Morale. As private school leaders, we are always looking for ways to improve teacher morale at our schools, but it is hard to know where to start. Well, now you have a step by step plan and you can grab it at theprivateschoolleader.com/morale
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 want to say thank you for listening to the podcast by giving you a FREE GIFT. It is called The 7 Steps To Having A Successful Meeting With An Upset Parent. 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/episode116
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!
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
TRANSCRIPT:
• Welcome to the Private School Leader podcast, where private school leaders learn how to thrive and not just survive as they serve and leave 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 Minkus. • • So if you're listening to this in real time, it's early January, • • and you have just experienced one of the weirdest years. • Excuse me, weirdest weeks of the year. • • And that week • • • is the week between Christmas Day and New Year's Day. It's a pretty weird week. • And, uh, schedules kind of go out the window. And you eat when you're hungry and you sleep when you're tired. And you know, we're, we're very schedule oriented people. Our • lives are pretty well managed and controlled by the school calendar and by the bell schedule. But that all goes out the window in that week between Christmas Day and New Year's Day. • And then also, if you're watching anything on tv, you'll see lots of commercials for gym memberships, • for things that help you quit smoking, • • and big sales at stores on, you know, bins, and things that will help you get organized. And of course, that's all about the new Year. New you, • • um, you know, New Year's resolutions, • • • um, trying to improve yourself and as that calendar flips to January 1st, • that we want to look forward and we want to get it all together and have a great year. • • • • • But I've never really been a big fan of New Year's resolutions. • • Um, I was looking at a recent survey, and it said that about 80% of people • • who make New Year's resolutions are very confident that they will keep them. • • But only about 9% of New Year's resolutions • • • • actually last through the year. • • So with a 91% failure rate, • • new Year's resolutions are pretty hard to keep. • • And so the reason that I'm talking about New Year's resolutions • • • is because • there is still time • for the second half of the school year to be the best, • • to make this the best school year that you've ever had. • And like I said, if you're listening in real time, it's early January • and there is still time. • • • • Even if you're listening to this later than that, there's still time to make this the best year ever, to make 2025, • • uh, a really great year. And certainly to have a great year, you have to get off to a great start. And so, on today's episode of the Private School Leader podcast, • • we are going to answer three questions • • • that will help us have a great start to 2025. • • •
The six things that every private school teacher wants from their leader
But before we get to that, I want to give you a free gift to say thank you for listening to the podcast. • • And this is called the six Things that Every Private School Teacher Wants from Their Leader. And this guide is a six page PDF that I think can be a real game changer for you. And I guarantee you that if you do these six things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. • • And you can pick up your free guide by going to thepr privatescchoolade leader.com guide to get the six things that every Private School Teacher Wants from their leader. And you may have heard me talk ab