Episode 39: Make Sure That Your Teachers Fill The "Narrative Void" Before Your Parents Do

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 your QB doesn’t practice on Tuesday or Wednesday. After practice, the QB and the coach just keep saying, “No comment, no comment.”

Imagine the sports radio talk shows in that city! Cue wild speculation: “is he done for the year?”, “personal problems?”, “legal problems?”, “substance abuse?”, “is the coach mad at him?” It would get out of hand really quickly.

When there is no information, when there is no narrative created by the team, the fans will create the narrative. It will almost always be incorrect. When a Narrative Void exists, it will ALWAYS be filled.

Now I want you to think about your school. Let’s say that your parents haven’t been hearing from your teachers about what’s going on at school. 

 

Their only information is based on what they hear at the dinner table or from the backseat.

“What did you do at school today?” “Nothing”.

“What did you learn at school today?” “Nothing”.

 

When there is no information, when there is no narrative created by your teachers, the parents will create the narrative and it will almost always be incorrect. When a Narrative Void exists, it will ALWAYS be filled.

On today's episode, we will discuss several strategies that your teachers can use to intentionally fill the Narrative Void.

I know that you are super busy, so be sure to listen while you are doing something else. I hope that you will get value from this episode as you serve and lead your school community. Thank you for taking some time out of your day to listen to the podcast!

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!

The show notes for today's episode can be found at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode39

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 mark.o.minkus@gmail.com 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!