I want you to use your imagination. Imagine that you are a stick figure. Now imagine that this stick figure has a sponge for a heart. You go through your day and your sponge keeps absorbing other people’s emotions. The grumpy board member on the phone. The teacher who is upset that his curriculum hasn’t arrived yet. The parent that is in your office tears. The new student who is sitting alone at lunch. By 3:00PM, your sponge is getting pretty full. Unfortunately, you have a 3:00PM meeting with “that parent” and you are feeling overwhelmed before the meeting even starts. The meeting goes as expected, with raised voices, red faces and pointed fingers. Your sponge is now completely saturated and you walk to the parking lot, get in your car and drive home to your family. One of the most downloaded episodes in the history of this podcast is Episode 26 : How To Handle The 5% Of Parents That Are Trying To Destroy Your School. Consider this episode a SEQUEL to Episode 26. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, I am going to teach you how to Handle Problem Parents By Being More "Teflon Skillet" And Less "Saturated Sponge." 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 am really excited to share a brand new resource with you that I just created. It is called The 6 Keys To Improving Your Relationship With Your Board . The most important relationship in our private schools is the one between the Board and the Head of School and I think that there is always room for improvement. This FREE guide is a 7 page pdf where I give you specific strategies to strengthen your relationships with your board members. So go www.theprivateschoolleader.com/board to grab your free guide! 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 Are any of these statements true about you? The "tyranny of the urgent" controls my day, and I start working on my important tasks when the school gets quiet. I feel discouraged, lonely, exhausted and stressed out. I'm not sure that my job is sustainable. My school invades every part of my professional and personal life. I want to have a long and happy and fulfilling career as a private school leader. I feel called to do this work, but I am not sure how long I can keep doing it if nothing changes. I have felt that way many times during my career. That’s why I created the PSL Pro Membership PSL Pro is a membership community that helps Private School Leaders go from feeling stressed out, discouraged and lonely to feeling energized, fulfilled and supported. You will have access to a thriving community of school leaders who actually "get it" and "get you"! We go LIVE every week for a Masterclass, a Success Path Group Coaching Session, two "We Get It" Roundtable Sessions and a live Q&A about anything and everything related to Private School Leadership. The PSL Pro Success Path is a Step by Step Plan to get you from where you are to where you want to be as a leader. Different Levels: The Overwhelmed Drifter, The Intentional Architect, all the way to The Fulfilled Mentor. After you choose your level, you will be guided, step-by-step, through the content in THRIVE Academy. This content, along with my guidance and the support of other leaders, will take you from where you are all the way to being The Fulfilled Mentor! Learn more about how you can join the PSL Pro community by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/membership Is it just me or are the parents at our schools getting more demanding and more intense, more often? Dealing with parents is part of the job as we lead our private schools, but it can quickly lead to stress, anxiety and feeling overwhelmed. That’s why I created Parent Academy ! Now you have a step by step framework that will help you g
