You can feel it in every school building right now: the pace is relentless, the stakes are high, and even great people can slide into survival mode. We bring in Leslie Hazle Bussey and Jennie Welch from GLISI, the Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement, to talk about a different path, one built on leadership development that changes culture, not just calendars.

We dig into how GLISI partners with districts across Georgia, including strategic planning with the Georgia School Boards Association, and why their work is designed to be deeply place-based. We also get specific about professional learning: when an intact leadership team steps away from the daily fire drill for experiences like Base Camp and Leadership Summit, trust can form faster, thinking gets clearer, and leaders can start acting with intention. That off-site design is not fluff; it is a practical way to restore capacity and build shared language across a community ecosystem.

Then we get to impact. GLISI shares outcomes tied to school improvement and student success, including partner graduation rates that average higher than the state, stronger intent-to-stay signals connected to teacher retention, and meaningful boosts in educator satisfaction. We also explore “Portrait Of A Graduate” work that uses creative student input and empathy interviews to reshape what learning can look like, making it more engaging, relevant, and workforce-aligned.

If you care about education leadership, principal coaching, teacher retention, and sustainable school improvement, this one is for you. Subscribe, share with a colleague, and leave a review, then tell us: what is one leadership move that kept you in the work?