Episode 52 Show Notes

CLICK HERE for Hope and Fears: Working with today's independent school parents

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CLICK HERE for Episode 26: How to handle the 5% of parents that are trying to destroy your school

CLICK HERE for Episode 29: These "three little words" will change the way that you lead

Big Takeaways:

The 5 Things That Are Probably True About The Parents At Your School

1) 95% are workable 

• It is really hard to remember when the 5% take up so much energy. 
• It is REALLY good thing to try to focus on your good parents.
• Negativity bias, confirmation bias

2) 5% can't be reasoned with (The 5%ers)

• The Anxious and Incompetent
• The Unresponsive
• The Intimidators
• Can’t be reasoned with. Logic vs. emotion/mental health
• Boundary breaking. Clear boundaries

3) They work hard to pay tuition

• Remember how hard they work and how much they pay
• The story about the mom coming home from work at 7:15AM as the dad is leaving for work

4) They have stuff going on that we don't know about

• Blind child, put dog down, 
• Not an excuse for you to be verbally abused
• Empathy Goggles

5) Want to be heard and have their feelings validated

• In my experience, about 90% of parents that are upset just want to be heard and to have their feelings validated.
• You are always going to say three words: “First of all….”
• Empathy AGAIN

Call to Action

• The next time that you meet with a parent, say “first of all” so that they can feel heard and have their feelings validated

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! CLICK HERE to get the guide!!

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. CLICK HERE to get the 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. CLICK HERE to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week!

I’ve created another 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 CLICK HERE to get “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. Thanks!

If you implement any of these strategies at your school, I would love to hear from you! Send me a quick note at [email protected] and tell me about it. I can answer your questions and I’m also good at giving pep talks when you get stuck!

If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then CLICK HERE to learn more about working with me 1-on-1.

CLICK HERE for a bunch of free resources, including Plug & Play PD's (video webinars with guided notes) for you to use with your teachers, Top Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books, TED Talks and much more!

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Music by Twisterium from Pixabay