Episode 38: Do These 8 Things And You Will Be A More Authentic Leader

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 dropped and he started calling other experts over to his table. These five “glass cups” were actually carved from rhinoceros horns and they were worth over $1.5 million dollars! 

Lark Mason deemed these cups to be authentic which gave them value. 

Your people don’t want to follow a robot. They want to follow a real person. One that is genuine and self-aware and humble. A leader that apologizes when they make mistakes. An authentic leader.

On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, I am going to share with you the 8 things that will make you a more authentic leader.

Thank you for taking me along with you when you are walking the dog, driving to school or running errands. I appreciate you and what you are doing for the lucky kids and teachers at your school. 

Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference!

Mark Minkus

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. Go to theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week!

You can get the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode38

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 head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1.

Please write a review of this podcast and help push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at [email protected] Thanks!!


I’ve created a 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 grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!