Episode 50: How To Reverse Engineer Your Portrait Of A Graduate

I am old enough to remember using a road map to get where I was going. Yes, I am talking about the impossible to fold map that lived in the glove compartment!

In the 90’s I graduated to MapQuest and clearly remember driving to Ocean City, New Jersey with my wife reading pages and pages of directions to help us get to the beach.

Now we have GPS and I love it so much! I can even choose a voice with a British accent that sounds super smart while guiding me through an unfamiliar city. GPS is an amazing invention! Just take a moment to think about satellites orbiting the Earth that know exactly where I am, how fast I am traveling and can tell me that I need to turn right in 500 feet!

GPS is amazing. GPS is an incredible technological achievement. But, GPS is useless without one very critical piece of information that you must provide.

Your destination.

As private school leaders, I worry that we don’t spend enough time thinking about where we are going. We are VERY busy putting out fires, solving problems and making decisions that keep our school moving forward. But, I wonder if we are clear on the destination.

On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, I want to help you get super clear on your “portrait of a graduate” (also sometimes called “profile of a graduate” or “ideal graduate outcomes”). We are also going to discuss how to “reverse engineer” your portrait of a graduate, so that everything you do at your school is intentionally moving you in the direction of your destination.

I hope that you will listen to the podcast for your weekly dose of motivation, inspiration and PD. Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference!

Mark Minkus

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! You can grab this FREE GUIDE at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/meeting

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. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/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. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week!

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/episode50

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!