Episode Details

On January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 took off from LaGuardia Airport, bound for Charlotte. Just 94 seconds after takeoff, the plane struck a flock of geese.

Both engines failed, at just under 3,000 feet, over one of the most densely populated cities in the world.

Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger had just seconds to make a decision. Try to turn back to LaGuardia? Try to make it to Teterboro airport in New Jersey?

Or do something no one had ever successfully done before, land a commercial jet in the Hudson River? 

A little over four minutes after the bird strike and total engine failure, Captain Sully had successfully landed Flight 1549 on the Hudson River. All 155 people on board survived. A catastrophic disaster had been avoided and this incident quickly became known as “The Miracle on the Hudson.”

As private school leaders, we are not trying to land full jets on icy rivers. That said, we often have to make high pressure decisions, where the stakes are high and the margin for error feels really small.

On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to discuss 4 Leadership Lessons From Captain Sully And "The Miracle On The Hudson."

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

Do you ever have “Teacher Drama” at your school? Gossip. A teacher coming to you because they can’t get along with another teacher? Well, I am excited to share with you a resource called 5 Strategies To Reduce Teacher Drama At Your School. This is a 9 page pdf that will give you strategies that will help you to actually reduce teacher drama at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/drama to grab your free guide.

I am really excited to share a new resource with you that I created recently. It is called The 6 Keys To Improving Your Relationship With Your Board. The most important relationship in our private schools is the one between the Board and the Head of School and I think that there is always room for improvement. This FREE guide is a 7 page pdf where I give you specific strategies to strengthen your relationships with your board members. So go www.theprivateschoolleader.com/board to grab your free guide!

Being a private school leader is a VERY difficult job. You have to make