As we head into a new school year, this is exactly the kind of episode I want school leaders to hear early. I sat in on Jason Craige Harris’s session at the LeadTeam Summit, where he broke down what it actually takes to build a strategy for culture that works, and I left that room energized in a way that stuck with me.

So when he joined us on the podcast, I wanted to go even deeper. Jason is a strategist, mediator, and mindfulness teacher who spends his time helping leaders navigate conflict and uncertainty without losing themselves in the process. We talk about what resilience actually requires, the difference between reacting to a moment and being ready for one, and how the small, consistent practices we build in private show up in how we lead in public.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• Why “powering through” isn’t real resilience, and what actually builds it
• The balcony metaphor Jason uses to get perspective in the middle of conflict
• How naming an emotion can measurably calm your nervous system
• The two types of practices, routines and in-the-moment resets, that keep leaders grounded
• Why schools tend to swing between all transaction and all relational, and what the middle looks like
• The pre-action and post-action reviews Jason recommends before big decisions
• What separates teams that bounce back from teams that just survive