The Private School Leader Podcast

I want you to imagine that you are going to a conference in another city.  You decide to go a day early and visit two private schools.

Both have outstanding teachers. Both offer a rigorous academic program. Both have caring administrators who genuinely love their students.

But there's one BIG difference.

I want you to imagine that it's February.

You're sitting in your office, looking at your enrollment numbers for next school year and you're getting a little nervous.

Your re-enrollment numbers aren't where you'd like them to be. A handful of families have indicated that they're considering other schools. Your admissions director tells you that inquiries are down compared to last year.

Unfortunately, you've got a Board meeting coming up where you KNOW somebody is going to ask the question you've been dreading: "So, how are our enrollment numbers looking for next year?"<...

Back in the fall of 1992, my wife and I purchased the last empty lot in a housing plan. Over the next six months, we worked with a general contractor and built the house that we still live in to this day.

We did a lot of the work ourselves, including: plumbing, siding, painting, insulation and landscaping, including all the grass. I watered the grass. A lot.

It would have been pretty silly of me to water the weeds, right?

Unfortunately, that’s what a lot of private school leaders do every single day. 

I have a nephew named Kevin. He used to be a professional firefighter in North Carolina.

One day, Kevin was inside of a burning building when the floor collapsed. As he was falling into the basement, Kevin grabbed a floor joist and was just hanging there. Kevin then pulled up his entire body weight with one arm and was able to escape the burning building. Unfortunately, he tore up his shoulder so badly that the injury eventually ended his career as a firefighter.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for professional and volunteer firefighters...

We will call her Julie. 

Julie walked into my office, closed the door and said, “Do you have a minute?” Julie sat down and told me about a serious personal crisis.

It involved a family member experiencing a significant health problem. Julie was trying to take care of this person, continue working and keep the rest of life from falling apart.

My heart went out to her. I remember thinking, “I don’t know how this person is getting out of bed every morning, let alone coming to school and teaching.”

So, I did w...

I know a few things about you:

Those are good qualities!

But sometimes our desire to “be nice” prevents us from doing what leadership requires:

Today, I wan...

Goldilocks. You remember the story. One bowl of porridge was too hot. Another was too cold. The third was just right. One bed was too hard. Another was too soft. The third was just right.

School leaders need that same Goldilocks mindset when it comes to legal risk.

On one extreme is fear. That leader imagines the worst possible outcome in every situation. Fear begins making decisions. Every conversation becomes formal and defensive. 

On the other extreme is indifference. That leader says, We have never had a serious problem before. Our families love u...

I don’t like surprises. 

I know some people love them. They love walking into a room and hearing everybody yell, "Surprise!" They love mystery trips where somebody else packs the car and refuses to tell them where they are going. Not me.

I think most private school leaders don’t like surprises either. 

We do not like walking into school on Monday morning and discovering that the heating system failed over the weekend. We do not enjoy learning at 7:42AM that the substitute never received the assignment. 

Parents don’t like surp...

Have you ever been in a meeting and heard one of these phrases?

That last one actually matters a lot. There is a good chance that you might be leaving some money on the table. Money that may already be available to help pay for professional development f...

I think that there’s a pretty good chance that this has happened to you:

Or maybe you leave school at 5:00 on a Tuesday…

In the corporate world, there are many recognizable acronyms that are thrown around pretty freely. CEO, ROI, MBA, CFO, EOD, R&D and PTO are known by most employees and leaders in the business world. 

A company’s COO is the Chief Operating Officer. Their job is to make sure the organization keeps running. But, for private school leaders, I believe that COO has a second meaning. You're also the Chief Optimism Officer and part of your job is to make sure that hope is alive and well at your school, regardless of the circumstances.

On...

You probably already know that I love a good list and I especially love a list that is a countdown. During my teen years, I would tune into Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 Countdown every Saturday night. Of course, I had my cassette player and a blank tape at the ready to record my favorite songs.

On last week’s episode, we celebrated the 200th episode of this podcast by counting down the Top 20 Leadership Lessons From The First 200 Episodes. In Episode 200, I gave you leadership lessons #20 through #11. Today, you get the Top 10!

On today’s epis...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, billions of people worldwide were stuck in their homes. Some learned how to make sourdough bread and some people got a pet for the first time. Indoor houseplants had a moment and lots of people finally learned how to keep a plant alive. 

During my time at home I decided that I wanted to start a podcast. 

I had spent a lot of time reflecting on my career and especially on my struggles. I knew what it felt like to have four ulcers and vertigo because my job was so stressful. I...

Has this ever happened to you?

If the above scenario has happened to you, you are in good company. About 90% of private school...

In 1928, Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming returned from vacation to find that one of his petri dishes had accidentally become contaminated with mold. Normally, that would have meant throwing the dish away and starting over.

But, Fleming noticed something unusual. The bacteria surrounding the mold had died, while bacteria farther away continued to grow. He became curious and asked, "Why?"

That mold, Penicillium notatum, contained a natural substance capable of killing many harmful bacteria. Fleming had accidentally discovered penicillin, the world's first widely used antibiotic.

Years later, scientists developed a way to mass-produce penicillin...

Has this ever happened to you? You looked at your to-do list in late July or early August and thought: "There is absolutely no way I'm going to get all of this done."

You walk into the school and there are boxes of new curriculum stacked in the hallway, waiting to be unpacked, an employee handbook that needs to be revised, welcome back emails that need to be sent, two more teachers that need to be hired, Teacher In-Service Days that need to be planned, class lists that need to be finalized and maintenance requests that need...

I love countdown clocks and I hate countdown clocks.

I love countdown clocks like the one in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. I hate countdown clocks like the scoreboard in the 4th Quarter when my favorite football team is losing.

I believe that every private school leader has an invisible countdown clock that nobody else can see.

The countdown starts somewhere around the Fourth of July. It speeds up after the first day of August. It hits zero on the morning of your first teacher in-service day.

You have go...

One of the things I hear from my coaching clients every July is this: 

You know what I’m talking about. You had big plans this summer. You were going to: exercise every morning, spend more time with your family, take a few days completely off, sleep in, organize your office and think strategically about the coming school year.

And then reality happened. So far, your summer has been filled with hiring, making the master schedule, getting the facility ready, sum...

On June 22, 1984, I was sitting in a movie theater.

I love 80’s movies and there were so many good ones. Top Gun, Footloose, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, Rocky IV and The Goonies were some of my favorites. I was lucky enough to see most of them the day they came out in the theater.

On June 22, 1984, I was sitting there watching Karate Kid. Daniel LaRusso moved from New Jersey to LA, got beat up by bullies, met Mr. Miyagi then entered a karate tournament where his opponent was the bigg...

I want to begin with a prediction.

I believe that over the next two years, one of the biggest conversations in independent and private schools will be answering the following question: “How much technology actually belongs in the classroom?

For almost twenty years, schools have raced toward more technology. We have become 1:1 and we have purchased iPads and online curriculums and apps and other types of educational technology.

Of course, this has led to more screen time, especially during COVID.

A growing movement has emerged that many people are calling the "Un...

As you read this, it is late June and July is just over the horizon. During my career as a private school leader, this was always my favorite time of the year. 

Most of the reasons are pretty obvious:

But if I am being honest, there is another reason that I love late June and early July:

It's mid-June, the students and teachers are gone and the building is pretty quiet.

Many private school leaders are sitting down with a bottle of water, last year's Employee Handbook, and a red pen. For better or for worse, this is handbook season.

This is the time of year when we review policies, update language, make revisions, and prepare for the upcoming school year.

Unfortunately, when handbook season rolled around, I made the same mistake year after year after year. Let me know if this sounds familiar.

During the year, a...

You probably have a garden hose at your house. If you take a look at the spray nozzle at the end of your hose, you are very likely to see five words.

Mist. Shower. Flat. Cone. Jet.

When your hose is on “Mist”, the water kind of goes everywhere, but it is a weak stream and pretty scattered and not very powerful. 

It is a whole different story when you rotate over to “Jet.” A very powerful stream of water can do some damage if you are not careful about where you are aiming yo...

Who said these four famous quotes?:

If you said JFK, Neil Armstrong, Maya Angelou and Franklin D. Roosevelt then give yourself a pat on the back!

I love famous quotes. They have become famous quotes for a r...

I have never run a marathon. My right knee gets sore when I drive 26.2 miles.

That said, I have a lot of respect for people who have finished a marathon. My wife’s side of the family lives in Northeast Ohio and many of them have finished multiple marathons. They have even driven to other states to run in marathons in other cities. Inexplicable to me. Fun for them.

Whether in person or on TV, you have seen marathon runners cross the finish line. Some of them have a big smile on their face, a pe...

Have you ever had one of those days where you leave school completely exhausted and yet somehow also wondering if you did enough?

You solved problems all day. You answered emails. You handled parent concerns. You dealt with student behavior. You encouraged a teacher. You sat in meetings. You made decisions. You put out fires.

And then you get in your car and your brain starts replaying everything you DIDN’T get done.

I think private school leaders sometimes need reminders. Reminders to pause, slow down and shift your thinking.

On to...

confidence

noun

us  /ˈkɑːn.fə.dəns/ uk  /ˈkɒn.fɪ.dəns/

the quality of being certain of your abilities or of having trust in people, plans, or the future

prerequisite

noun [ C ]   formal

us  /ˌpriːˈrek.wə.zɪt/ uk  /ˌpriːˈrek.wɪ.zɪt/

something that must exist or happen before something else can exist or happen

I think many private school leaders believe the following statement without realizing they believe it: “I’ll do that once I feel more confident.”

The...

Has this ever happened to you?

You tell one person something in confidence. And then somehow, by the end of the day:

Do you?

The problem with just giving up every time there is a leak is that “what you allow will continue.”

A lack of con...

Let me ask you a question.

Have you ever walked into a meeting with an upset parent and thought:

And then 10 minutes later…

There is a common mistake that many private school leaders make in this situation. It leads to parents getting more upset than they were when the meeting started. We need to identify th...

You have probably heard the quote that “a school year is a marathon, not a sprint.”

That being said, the weeks between now and the last day of school sure feel like a sprint. Not only that, when you get close to the finish line it feels like it just keeps moving farther and farther away.  

You are about to start “The 100 Days of May” (one of my coaching clients told me that they call it “Maycember” at her school) and the packed calendar that goes along with it. Over the next 6 weeks, you and your teachers...

You have so many people that you serve. 

Students, parents, teachers, staff, board members, coaches, volunteers, grandparents, donors  and alumni make up just a part of your entire school community.

All of these people have different needs, which lead to competing priorities. It is IMPOSSIBLE to keep everyone happy.

I know. I tried for years to keep everyone happy.

It doesn’t work. It is also exhausting.

On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, I want to remind you that You Can't Make Everyone Happy, So Stop T...

On August 15, 1973, Richard Nixon gave a televised address to the American people from the White House.

During that speech, Nixon said, “I had no knowledge of the Watergate break-in and I had no involvement in it.” His supporters believed him, but the investigation would eventually reveal that he had lied.

The Watergate tapes were released to the American public on August 5, 1974. Just 3 days later, Richard Nixon became the only President to resign and Watergate became known as the largest scandal in the history of American politics.

When we tell a lie, there are usua...

Has this ever happened to you? 

You wish that you could put the “toothpaste back in the tube”, but you can’t. You wish that you had a time machine, but you don’t.

This has happened to me far too many times during my career. Unfortunately, it usually made things worse, damaged trust that I had...

Back in the 90’s and early 2000’s, I was a basketball coach. I coached Boy’s Varsity for nine years and coached 5th/6th Grade Girls for seven years.

I wasn’t the same coach the entire game:

My team needed me to be a different kind of coach at different times during the season o...

Where I live, we are lucky enough to have all four seasons. Last week, I saw the first robin of the year and some of the daffodils are starting to pop up. 

Spring is a wonderful season because it means winter is over and everything will be lush and green in just a few weeks.

Unfortunately, this is not necessarily a wonderful season for private school leaders. Why? Two words. Enrollment Season.

I think that there are three reasons why so many private school leaders get so stressed out about their enrollment numbers a...

On October 17, 1995, Kyrie and Brielle Jackson were born at the Massachusetts Memorial Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts. The twins were 12 weeks premature and each baby weighed just two pounds. 

Kyrie was gaining weight in the days following their birth, but Brielle was having difficulty breathing, and her oxygen levels were dropping critically low.

Nurse Gayle Kasparian, who was on duty that night, tried everything she knew to calm the baby girl. But nothing worked. As the minutes passed by and Brielle’s crying became uncontrollable, her condition worsened, and she started to turn blue.

Wha...

On March 11, 2010 I was lying on the bathroom floor at my house. I had been lying there for an hour, because I couldn’t stand up. I couldn't keep anything down for two days and I was severely dehydrated and dizzy. 

I said to my wife, “I need you to take me to the emergency room.”

After a lot of tests, I was told that I had four ulcers in the lining of my stomach and esophagus. Then the ER doctor asked me, "Do you have a stressful job?"

My job as a Private...

90% can be an awesome number or a terrible number.

It can be an awesome number when:

It can be a terrible number when:

Over the last three years, I have had conversations with over 200 private school leaders and there are two big problems...

There are very few guarantees in life. However, there are probabilities.

Think about your car. If you drive the speed limit, obey the rules of the road, have good tires and good brakes, you are less likely to get into an accident. However, if you speed, run red lights, drive on bald tires and your brakes are shot, you are probably going to get into an accident.

Unfortunately, there are no guarantees in our private schools.

When I ask you to picture the island of Jamaica, what comes to mind? Probably white, sandy beaches, palm trees and crystal clear water.

What you probably don’t think about is snow, ice and needing to dress in multiple layers just to keep warm. 

But, in the late 1980s, the Jamaican Olympic Committee decided to send a team of athletes to compete at the Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta. The sport? Bobsledding.

Predictably, people laughed. Even people from their own country mocked them. Many media members treated the team like a novelty act...