Developing the Leader Within with Christopher Grode

School leaders can spend an entire day solving problems and still have little time for the leadership work they want to do. Mike Caldwell talks with Christopher Grode, Ph.D., about creating routines that make room for that work and finding people who can offer an honest outside perspective.

Drawing on 19 years as an Illinois superintendent and his research with executive coaches, Chris describes how his view of leadership development changed. He shares his monthly "90 for 90" review, a five-minute morning journal, and the habit of revisiting earlier entries to see what mattered over time. They also discuss his "leadership gateway" of attitudes, behaviors, practices, identity, and purpose, along with the challenge of separating your identity from your job during retirement.

Practical ideas from the conversation

• Track how much of your day goes to reacting and managing, then consider where you want to make more room for leading.
• Try "90 for 90": spend 90 minutes each month reviewing the next 90 days, including family time and personal commitments.
• Use a weekly review to see what got in the way and choose priorities for the week ahead.
• Keep a short morning journal: name three priorities, then return the next day to record what happened.
• Review past journal entries to put today's pressures in perspective and notice changes in your leadership.
• Find a coach, mentor, or trusted peer who can ask honest questions and help you examine your assumptions.

About the guest

Christopher Grode, Ph.D., is a retired Illinois superintendent who served in the role for 19 years. He also worked as a teacher, principal, and assistant superintendent for finance. His doctorate is in industrial-organizational psychology, and his dissertation examined executive coaching strategies for superintendents. He is the author of The Leader Within.

Resources

• Christopher Grode on LinkedIn
• The Leader Within at Bloomsbury

We’re proud to be sponsored by IXL.

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Summary

Elizabeth Cushing, CEO of Playworks, joins Jethro Jones to talk about how play builds belonging, emotional resilience, leadership, and attendance at school. They discuss what changes when recess becomes a predictable, inclusive place where every student can join a game, how adults model connection by playing alongside students, and how junior coaches turn older students into peer leaders.

They also talk about the practical side of bringing Playworks into a school: choosing games that keep students moving, reducing conflicts that follow students back to class, using Title I and other funding sources, and helping school communities make recess a meaningful part of the school day.

Chapters

• 0:00 — Welcome to Transformative Principal
• 0:59 — What Playworks changes on the playground
• 2:45 — Games that keep every student included
• 5:30 — Bringing play into classrooms
• 7:01 — Why play builds emotional resilience
• 10:16 — Adults, attendance, and belonging
• 13:30 — Junior coaches and student leadership
• 17:25 — How schools pay for Playworks
• 19:37 — Why every age needs meaningful play
• 20:40 — Transforming a playground community
• 23:10 — Recess, school pride, and belonging
• 25:40 — A practical invitation to go play
• 26:00 — Dynamic ad break placeholder

Show Notes

• Guest: Elizabeth Cushing, CEO of Playworks
• Playworks: playworks.org
• Playworks podcast and 30-Day Attendance Reset: playworks.org/podcast
• Topics: inclusive recess, emotional resilience, attendance, school climate, peer leadership, junior coaches, and funding school-based play

Dynamic Ad Break

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We’re proud to be sponsored by IXL.

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Recorded live at a conference session, Suzanne "Suzie" Myers, Jocelyn Washburn, and Bonnie Palysak from the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning introduce I-STAR — a new adaptive, web-based platform built on the research-backed Strategic Instruction Model (SIM) writing strategies. The team walks through why they built it (teachers lack time to explicitly teach and grade writing), how it works (teacher-led instruction paired with auto-scoring, adaptive practice, and progress tracking), and shares a moving case study of a student's growth from disjointed to sophisticated writing. They also pull back the curtain on the challenges of translating decades-old paper-based strategies into technology with a non-education-focused development team, including AI-generated practice sentences. The session closes with interactive audience brainstorming for future dashboard features and a call for schools to join their pilot study.

We’re proud to be sponsored by IXL.

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.