The Better Leaders Better Schools Podcast · 2026-05-27 · 45 min
She helps principals stop surviving their schools and start leading them. Michelle Sloan is an educator, author, and leadership coach who spent seven years building a school from the ground up - which gave her something rare: " firsthand proof that mission-driven leadership isn't a feel-good concept, it's a survival strategy." Her book The Purpose Driven Principal is the framework she wishes she'd had in year one. School leadership burnout is not a willpower problem. It's a systems problem. A principal walks in energized, writes down what matters, and by 6pm hasn't touched a single item on the list. This episode is about diagnosing that drift - and building the structure to stop it from swallowing another year. What You'll Learn Why your open door policy is actively damaging your relationships (not protecting them). How the four pillars of a purpose-driven school - people, pedagogy, processes, and personal growth - create a filter for every decision. The Assess, Design, Align cycle and how to use it to get back to mission-driven work. Why what's predictable is preventable, and what that actually looks like in practice.
Why Your Neurodivergent Students Are Disappearing with Vanessa Castañeda Gill62 / 100Why Every Student at This College Must Launch a Business- With Jeff MeadeWhy Your Edtech Is Failing Students (And What to Do Instead) with Kris RockwellHow to Turn Around a Failing School: Real-Time Coaching That Works10 Lessons from 10 Years of School Leadership Podcasting with Danny Bauer