Lead With Your Strengths

If you’ve ever played the card game Bridge (does anyone play Bridge anymore?), you know a common “tip” is to “Lead with the fourth-best card from your longest and strongest suit.”

It also provides a very interesting perspective on how to classify the remarkable qualities of your school. Let’s say you have identified four aspects that differentiate your school from every other. Can you cite 13 examples which support those differentiators?

If that’s a little extensive, let’s just identify your school’s top ten differentiators. Then, of those, what are the strongest five?

Perhaps you’ve determined your number one differentiator, and are very proud that you’ve been able to do that!

Remember, the title of this article is “Lead with Your Strengths,” not “Lead with Your Top Differentiator.” Businesses need to differentiate themselves from the competition, but they don’t go against a competitor with their “best card” right off the bat.

If the customer is not impressed, and says, “Okay…and what else?” the business then has to provide support of their claims with differentiators that may not be as strong. So, as in Bridge, lead with the fourth-best (even though you have five), and work your way up as you encounter potential objections.

Let’s say one of those strengths is a demonstrable academic advantage over your local public school district – but your school’s academic achievement levels are an expectation of those parents seeking to enroll their children in your PK or Kindergarten. However, parents of students currently enrolled in the local public school may not be aware of the difference. You could use this advantage to market your school and eventually increase its enrollment in its higher grades if there is room for them!

If your school is located in close proximity to a public school, and your teachers are willing to stay after school or put in additional online time (and perhaps make a little extra $$ doing it), then consider offering tutoring sessions (for a fee, of course) to local public school students

Perhaps your school offers after-school care, and could extend this benefit to parents of the local public school that does not offer it. Signage at your school and around your neighborhood could promote the service, and announcements in the bulletins of your school’s supporting parishes and churches could reinforce the message. Offering this type of targeted (and remarkable) service will give public school parents and students the opportunity to experience your school, which could lead to enrollment conversations.

And yes, there are schools already doing these things. Most recently, one public school district’s high school in Western Pennsylvania turned a classroom into a “free marketplace,” where students could get non-perishable food as well as clothing and toiletries. 70% of the families in that school district live below the poverty level, and the initiative is to encourage students to be able to attend school without the stigma of hunger, poor hygiene or inappropriate dress.

Now THAT’s remarkable! Sounds like something a faith-based school should consider doing as a community outreach.

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