Jennifer Schwanke on Building Trust in a System That Breaks It

Quick take

The most dangerous myth in school leadership is that problems will eventually stop. Jennifer Schwanke reveals how embracing challenges and shifting from "trustworthy" to "trust willing" transforms toxic school cultures into thriving communities.

First time reading? Sign up here and join 5,219 Ruckus Makers Doing School Different 🎉

A MESSAGE FROM ODP BUSINESS SOLUTIONS®

Looking to create the kind of campus experience students never forget?

ODP Business Solutions transforms ordinary spaces into extraordinary learning environments.. 👇

🎧 LISTEN TO THE SHOW

• Apple

• Spotify

• BLBS Website

Are you subscribed?

🏴‍☠️ BREAKING DOWN THE OLD RULES

In this episode, Jennifer Schwanke challenges traditional education paradigms:

Key Insight #1: Problems Are Life, Not Obstacles

• What's broken: Leaders waiting for a stress-free summit where all problems disappear

• The shift: Embrace problems as opportunities to do meaningful work and stay sharp

• Impact: Leaders stop burning out waiting for calm seas and start building resilience through challenge

Key Insight #2: Trust Willing vs. Trustworthy Leadership

• What's broken: Focusing only on being trustworthy while micromanaging and speaking in deficit language about staff and students

• The shift: Become "trust willing" by believing in your people, letting them do their trained work, and focusing on your zone of influence

• Impact: Collective efficacy emerges as teams believe their daily work actually matters and makes a difference

Key Insight #3: Lead Around the 2%

• What's broken: Spending 98% of energy on the 2% of toxic people who will never change

• The shift: Set clear boundaries professionally, then invest energy in the majority who want to do good work

• Impact: The 98% gain respect and momentum while toxic behaviors lose their power to derail the mission

✌️ YOUR DO SCHOOL DIFFERENT CHALLENGE

Ready to implement these ideas? Start here:

1. Tomorrow: Identify one "emergency" you're treating that could benefit from a 24-48 hour pause

2. This Month: Practice "trust willing" leadership by letting one capable team member handle something you usually micromanage

3. This Semester: Conduct your own "proflection" — identify which trust pillars you're building vs. trust killers you need to eliminate

✅ CONNECT AND CONTINUE

🎯 Get the full episode transcript: here
🔗 Follow Jennifer Schwanke: LinkedIn | Instagram
📚 Jennifer's Books: You're the Principal! Now What? | The Principal Reboot | The Teacher's Principal | The Principal's Guide to Conflict Management
🎙️ Co-host of Principal Matters Podcast
💥 Join the Ruckus Maker Movement: https://ruckusmakers.club/join

🤝 TODAY’S RUCKUScast IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:

• IXL Meet your students where they are and take them where they need to go. Join over 1 million teachers who trust IXL to drive data-informed excellence in their classrooms. 🔍 Learn more: here

• The Ruckus Maker Club Community beats compliance every single time. The Ruckus Maker Club is your on demand network of bold school leaders designing the future of education. Join today for $100 a month and get coaching on demand courses, AI prompts and custom GPTs and all our automatic school frameworks and tools within our private digital community. 🔍 Learn more: here

• ODP Business Solutions "Our STEAM program is too complicated" = Code for "We're doing it wrong." Stop letting fear kill innovation. Some leaders are transforming STEAM with a three-part framework that's not what you think. 🔍 Get the playbook: here

Podcast created by Danny. Audio engineered by Dragan. Show notes written by Christina. Email sent by Soniya