The Private School Leader Podcast

The Private School Leader Podcast

Hosted by: Mark Minkus

The Private School Leader Podcast exists to help you go from SURVIVING to THRIVING as you lead your school. Do you ever feel lonely and isolated in your role as a private school leader? Do you wish that you could get...

All Episodes

Episodes

Episode 142: 5 Ways To Improve Your Teacher In-Service Days

At my local Walmart, the same thing happens every year, during the week after the 4th of July. They start putting out all of the “Back To School” items in their seasonal section.  Just a week before, this section was...
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Episode 141: Use "The Focus Funnel” To Increase Your Productivity

I want you to use your imagination. Pretend you are at school. For the entire morning, you are wearing glasses that make everything very blurry.  Around noon, someone hands you glasses with a perfect prescription and...
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Episode 140: Leadership Lessons From Your Windshield And Your Rearview Mirror

When I was a little kid, I was obsessed with the Indy 500.  Why? Well, my Grandma lived one hour south of Indianapolis and my great Uncle Harry actually helped build the engine for one of the race cars back in the...
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Episode 139 Prioritizing Problems: Elephants, Wolves and Termites

My daughter is a birdkeeper at the Jacksonville Zoo. She gets to work with some pretty amazing birds and do some really cool things. One day, a few months ago, I got a text from her along with three pictures of her...
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Episode 138: Bosses Make You Feel Anxious, Leaders Make You Feel Safe

I want you to think back to your first job. Was it McDonald’s or another fast food place? Maybe it was as a cashier at a grocery store or babysitting or camp counselor or washing cars at a car dealership. Now, I want...
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Episode 137: The Secret Struggle: Mental Health And Private School Leadership

In July of 2021, the summer Olympics were taking place in Tokyo, one year after being cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic. You may remember that Simone Biles withdrew from the gymnastics competition citing mental...
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Episode 136: 4 More Powerful Leadership Lessons From Atomic Habits

Back in October of 2023, I recorded Episode 53 of this podcast: “5 Powerful Leadership Lessons From Atomic Habits”. Since then, that episode has become one of the most downloaded episodes in the history of the...
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Episode 135: Do 1 Of These 4 Things This Summer To Have A Better 25/26 School Year

One of the most famous opening lines in classic literature is, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Do you remember the book?  If you guessed A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, then you were...
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Episode 134: "‘My Child Is Not the Problem’: How To Handle Defensive Parenting

“My son doesn’t lie.” “My daughter would never do that.” “My child has gotten straight A’s since Kindergarten, so if he got a C it is clearly a problem with the teacher.” “He’s only acting this way because he is...
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Episode 133: Do These 4 Things Before Your Body "Pulls The Emergency Brake"

Whenever the word “emergency” is in the title of something, you probably hope that you don’t ever need to use it. Emergency Room. Emergency Exit. Emergency Fund. Emergency Brake. I hope that you have never had to pull...
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Episode 132: 5 Strategies to Avoid Getting Sucked Into The "Tyranny of the Teacher Drama"

Has this ever happened to you? You are sitting at your desk and a teacher appears at your door. The teacher asks, “Do you have a minute?” The teacher is very upset and they start ranting about another teacher at your...
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Episode 131: Leading Your School While Caring For Aging Parents

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the average age of a Head of School in America is 52 years old. That means a lot of private school leaders have parents in their 70’s and 80’s. My mom was 86...
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