The Private School Leader Podcast

As we lead our schools, we face hundreds of unique challenges every day. To properly handle those challenges, we have to use our skills. We all have “hard skills” and “soft skills”. Hard Skills : Budget creation, Creating a Master Schedule, Project Management, Fundraising, Payroll, Curriculum Development, Creating Professional Development for Teachers, Evaluation of Faculty, Facilities Oversight a...

Earlier this year, Taylor Swift came to my city. Somehow, my 25 year old daughter was able to get tickets to the show. That’s when I started to understand a little bit more about Taylor Swift fans or “Swifties”. Three days before the first show, six 18 wheelers rolled into town. These are the merchandise trucks and the “Swifties” were camping out the night before to be the first in line to buy a T...

I want you to use your imagination. You are driving home from school and you are stopped at a red light. You are the car closest to the red light and you are watching the cars zip through the intersection in front of you. Suddenly, a camel slowly makes its way through the intersection and the camel is being ridden by a clown. You can’t believe your eyes, but it's real! You watch the camel and the...

In the spring of 2006, terrorists ruled the streets of Ramadi, Iraq. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, US Army soldiers, US Marines, Navy SEALs and friendly Iraqi soldiers moved quietly through the streets of Ramadi, going house to house, searching for the enemy. Suddenly, a fierce firefight broke out. When the bullets stopped flying and the dust settled, one friendly Iraqi soldier was dead, two mor...

The same thing happens every summer. As sure as there will be fireworks on the 4th of July, you can count on this happening about two weeks before the first day of school. A parent calls your school and really wants to enroll their child in their school. They also want to do it right now .   Immediately, my “antennae goes up” and I start asking myself some questions like: “Why did they wait u...

Goldilocks was hungry. She smelled the porridge that the three bears had left behind. She lifted the latch. She walked over to the table, looked at the three bowls of porridge and then carefully sat down. We all know what happened next. One bowl was too hot, one was too cold and one was just right!  The Goldilocks Effect is the premise that people are inclined to seek 'just the right amount'...

I want you to use your imagination. The QB of your favorite NFL team leaves the game, goes to the blue medical tent, he stands on the sideline for the rest of the game, but he doesn’t return. After the game, the QB and the head coach are asked about why he didn’t return to the game. The QB and the coach just say, “No comment, no comment, no comment.”  Monday is a day off for the team, but you...

In July 2011, a man walked into the Tulsa, Oklahoma Convention Center carrying five glass cups. PBS was there filming an episode of Antiques Roadshow . This man had bought these cups back in the 1970’s. He knew that the cups were from China, but he had no idea what they were worth. Lark Mason, a Chinese antiquities expert, sat down across from the man and picked up one of the glasses. His jaw drop...

If you have ever watched an infomercial, you have probably heard a very specific phrase used again and again. As the energetic host tells you why you can’t live without a knife that can cut through a penny, they say…. But wait, there’s more! So, I want to take a page out of the infomercial playbook and tell you about something that probably sounds too good to be true. On today’s episode of the Pri...

I love sports movies! My favorite is Rocky 4, but I also love Miracle, Remember The Titans, Hoosiers, Field of Dreams, Tin Cup, Caddyshack and so many more. There is a sports movie that came out in 2009 that I think is really underrated. What movie is that? Invictus. Invictus is the story of the 1995 Rugby World Cup, held in South Africa. Nelson Mandela (played by Morgan Freeman) had just dismantl...

OK, I know what you’re thinking: “What is the deal with all of these Top 10 lists?” That’s a fair question considering that: Two weeks ago (Episode 33) was titled The Top 10 Leadership Books For Private School Leaders. Last week (Episode 34) was called The Top 10 Time Management Books For Busy Private School Leaders And this week’s episode is titled The Top 10 TED Talks That Every Private School L...

I’ve got a riddle for you. I am free, yet priceless. You can’t own me, but you can use me. You can’t save me, you can only spend me. What am I? Before I give you the answer, I have to tell you two things. First, I have never been very good at riddles. Second, the answer is the subject of today’s podcast episode. What am I? Time . As Private School Leaders, we all wish that we had more time. More t...

Summer means different things to different people. For my family it means 4th of July fireworks, cooking burgers on the grill, fireflies, playing a little golf (badly), reading a book in the backyard hammock and one glorious week on the beach and the boardwalk in Ocean City, NJ. Summer also means the same thing for me as it does for you. Summer means wrapping up this school year and then immediate...

The windshield on your car is MUCH, MUCH bigger than your rear view mirror. That makes sense, right? When you are driving down the road, your focus is on what’s ahead. Over the last several years, I have become a much more defensive driver. Unfortunately, there are way too many people on their phones. So, I am always watching for someone swerving into my lane. I am always looking ahead and it is V...

Has this ever happened to you? You are sitting at your desk at school, working on something and you just “feel off”? You aren’t sure what’s wrong. Maybe you feel agitated or grumpy. Maybe you feel a little bit queasy or dizzy. Maybe you feel out of sorts. Maybe you feel really fatigued. You can’t really describe it. That’s why we just say, “I’m feeling off today” or “Not sure what’s going on with...

Have you ever heard this quote? “No good deed goes unpunished.” What about this one? “If you want something done well, ask a busy person.” One more quote: “Once you do the impossible it becomes part of your job description.” What do these three quotes have in common? They are all describing “Performance Punishment” . Performance punishment is the negative consequences that high performing individu...

Every so often, one of my students asks, “Mr. Minkus, how old are you?” I always come back with the same answer, “Well, I was born before man walked on the moon!” That answer usually gets the desired reaction: mouth open, eyes wide, etc. I then tell them that I was only two years old in July of 1969, but that does little to reduce their utter disbelief. When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface...

One of my least favorite subjects to discuss is student discipline . One of my most favorite subjects to discuss is classroom management . Most school leaders know that there is a BIG difference between student discipline and classroom management. You may be super happy with the level of school-wide classroom management at your private school. Maybe it has some room for improvement. Maybe you want...

When I was a kid, I loved to Trick or Treat on Halloween. I loved dressing up like Darth Vader, walking around my neighborhood and filling up my pillowcase with free candy. The only thing that I didn’t like was the mask. I don’t know what masks are like today, but in the late 70’s and early 80’s they were not great. Two tiny holes to breathe. Two tiny holes to see. A tiny elastic band that was rea...

5% is a pretty small number. If you lived in a place where it was cloudy only 5% of the year that sounds pretty good, right? What if I told you that your favorite team would only lose 5% of their games? You’d sign up for that, right? 5% is a pretty small number. That’s true most of the time, but it sure doesn’t FEEL that way when you think about the 5% of your parents that are trying to destroy yo...

A 2015 Gallup poll revealed that 50% of all employees are unclear about the expectations for their jobs. That’s 50% of Americans showing up to work every day and crossing their fingers, hoping that they are doing the right thing. I want to ask you an important question. In which 50% of that poll do your teachers fall? Now, before you quickly answer that question, I want you to think about this quo...

I have a rule for myself when I engage with social media. Never read the comments! I usually follow this rule, but every once in a while I get sucked down that rabbit hole of negativity. It seems like everyone on social media is angry about something. The local and national news seems to focus only on bad news and the worst of humanity and it is easy to view life through a very negative lens. As a...

I believe that not all mistakes are created equal. There is the “I got home from the store and forgot to buy milk” kind of mistake and then there is the “Ronald Wayne” kind of mistake. Who is Ronald Wayne? I’m glad you asked! Most people know that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple back in 1976. What most people don’t know is that Apple actually had a third founder named Ronald Wayne. 12 d...

I got the phone call that every school leader dreads. One of my students had died. It was a Wednesday night in September, 1998. I got a call that one of my 9th Grade students, a 14 year old boy, had died. We will call him Caleb. Caleb and his 13 year old friend were playing at a park near his home. Tragically, they were also playing with a gun. Caleb’s friend was not a student at my school. Caleb’...

You know how this works. You earn money, it gets deposited in your bank account and then you use that money to buy groceries, pay bills or eat out at a restaurant. You make deposits. You make withdrawals. You also know that if you don’t have enough money, the little screen at the grocery store will say “insufficient funds” or “card declined”. If you are of a certain age, you also know what it mean...