Episode 18: How To Have A Successful Meeting With An Upset Parent

Feb 18, 2023

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Every school has them.

The teachers discuss them, but do everything they can to avoid them.

Administrators cringe when they walk through the front door or call them on the phone.

Of course, I am talking about difficult parents at your school.

I acknowledge that not every upset parent is a difficult parent. But, if nearly every parent gets upset about something at least once, that means that you are meeting with a lot of parents every year that are unhappy and emotional about something.

When you meet with an upset parent, you are trying to “listen through the noise”, not get defensive, not get upset, prioritize their child, support your teacher AND calmly come up with elegant solutions to their problems.

I know that sounds impossible. It IS extremely difficult, but there ARE intentional strategies that you can use to make these meetings have MUCH better outcomes. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast you are going to learn How To Have A Successful Meeting With An Upset Parent.

These strategies are broken down into the following stages:

Setting up the meeting
Preparing for the meeting
Mindset Shift
Beginning
Middle
End
Post-Meeting

I have been using these strategies for a long time. There is no such thing as an “easy” meeting with an upset parent, but these strategies DO make a BIG difference and I hope that they will help you as you serve and lead your school.

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’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!

Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode18

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 mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!!