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Leaning into Leadership

Leaning into Leadership

Darrin Peppard
Business, Education

We all want to see successes in both our personal and professional lives. Often, that requires strong leadership. In a time when leadership can be more challenging than ever, this podcast is dedicated to cultivating leaders by elevating the voices of leaders and promoting positivity. Join Dr. Darrin Peppard, lifelong educator and best-selling author, for this mixed platform podcast (some solo, some guest interview) for inspiration and insight, and some great leadership stories from those are living it, excelling at it, and celebrating it. Together, let's lean into leadership.

298 - Episode 297: Stop Accepting “That’s Just the Way It Is”
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  • 298 - Episode 297: Stop Accepting “That’s Just the Way It Is”

    What happens when growth doesn’t solve your problems—but actually makes them bigger?

    In Episode 297 of Leaning Into Leadership, Dr. Darrin Peppard sits down with entrepreneur, Marine veteran, and business leader Ron Nussbaum for a conversation about entrepreneurship, problem solving, challenging the status quo, and what it really takes to build something that matters.

    Ron shares the story behind BuilderComs and the realization that changed the way he thought about growth: if you scale your organization without solving the problems already inside it, you’re simply scaling those problems too.

    That lesson reaches far beyond entrepreneurship.

    Darrin and Ron explore why leaders sometimes become comfortable tolerating things that are merely “okay,” why challenging the status quo doesn’t mean changing everything, and why one of the most important questions a leader can ask is, “What problem are we actually trying to solve?”

    Ron also shares the thinking behind Ask a Shop Owner, a platform designed to give small business owners actionable guidance and accountability when they encounter real-world business challenges.

    The conversation closes with an important reality about entrepreneurship and leadership: every meaningful pursuit involves trade-offs. The goal isn’t to avoid them. It’s to intentionally choose the trade-offs that move you toward the life, organization, and outcomes you actually want.

    In this episode:

    Why leaders need to stop scaling problemsChallenging “that’s just the way we’ve always done it”Finding the real problem before searching for solutionsWhy growth can magnify existing organizational weaknessesTurning experience and knowledge into actionable plansThe role accountability plays in creating resultsWhy entrepreneurship requires uncomfortable trade-offsChoosing freedom, stability, and the outcomes that matter mostExpanding the reach of your leadership

    Ron’s challenge is simple but powerful: don’t accept a problem simply because everyone else has learned to live with it. Challenge it. Solve it. Then scale the solution.

    This Episode Is Sponsored by HeyTutor

    HeyTutor partners with schools and districts to provide high-impact, in-person tutoring in literacy and math, giving students targeted support alongside the work of classroom teachers.

    Learn more about how HeyTutor can support student learning in your school or district at HeyTutor.com

    Sun, 06 Sep 2026 - 33min
  • 297 - Episode 296: Beyond Compliance - Building Classrooms Where Students Want to Engage

    What if the goal of great teaching isn’t getting students to comply, but creating the conditions where they genuinely want to engage?

    In this episode of Leaning Into Leadership, Dr. Darrin Peppard sits down with educator, school leader, author, and founder of Terry Leadership Group, Kendall Terry, for a conversation about what happens when schools stop focusing primarily on what teachers are doing and start paying closer attention to what students are actually learning.

    Kendall shares his experience helping build Clayton-Bradley Academy from its early years and the unique opportunity that came with designing educational systems from the ground up. Rather than inheriting decades of “this is how we’ve always done it,” Kendall and his colleagues were able to ask a different question: What does research tell us about how the brain learns, and how should that change what happens in our classrooms?

    That question eventually helped shape the Learning-Centered School Model, where the learner—not the teacher, the curriculum, or the test—is at the center of instructional decisions. Kendall and Darrin explore what that actually looks like in practice, from something as simple as welcoming every student into the classroom to making learning relevant, interactive, safe, and meaningful.

    The conversation then moves into Kendall’s BRACE Framework, five conditions that can dramatically influence engagement:

    B — Belonging: Students and teachers need to know they are valued and that their voices matter.

    R — Relevance: Learners need to understand what they are learning and why it matters.

    A — Agency: Students and teachers need autonomy, ownership, and opportunities to create, try, fail, and try again.

    C — Challenge: Learning should stretch people appropriately while providing the support necessary for success.

    E — Engaged Response: Learning isn’t a one-and-done transaction. Students need opportunities to respond, receive feedback, revisit their thinking, and continue until they reach mastery.

    For school leaders, BRACE also provides another powerful opportunity: shifting classroom walkthroughs and instructional feedback away from simply looking for compliance and toward identifying the conditions that produce authentic student engagement. As Kendall points out, students can comply because they don’t want to get in trouble—or they can engage because the learning experience is meaningful enough that they actually want to participate. Those are very different outcomes.

    Darrin and Kendall also dig into SMART habits and an important leadership truth: goals give us a destination, but habits determine whether we ever get there.

    The challenge isn’t deciding that we want greater belonging, stronger engagement, or improved student achievement. The challenge is determining what we will actually do on a Tuesday afternoon when the fire drill just ended, students are bouncing off the walls, and the big strategic goal is the furthest thing from our minds.

    Kendall suggests starting incredibly small. Want to increase belonging? Build the habit of greeting every student by name. Then connect the behavior to a predictable trigger: If class is beginning, then I will greet every student who enters my classroom by name.

    Small. Repeatable. Intentional.

    And over time, potentially transformational.

    Finally, Kendall answers the question every guest on Leaning Into Leadership receives: How are you leaning into leadership right now?

    His answer is one every leader should consider: listening.

    Not listening while preparing the next response. Not listening long enough to tell someone why they're wrong. But listening with the genuine intention of understanding another person's perspective, experience, and situation.

    Because belonging begins when people believe their voice actually matters.

    In This Episode

    Why student learning—not teacher performance—should be at the center of instructional decisionsHow brain research can influence everyday classroom practiceWhy greeting students and creating predictability matter more than we sometimes realizeThe difference between student compliance and genuine engagementKendall's BRACE Framework for increasing engagementHow belonging, relevance, agency, challenge, and engaged response work togetherWhy leaders can use BRACE to strengthen classroom walkthroughs and feedbackThe limitations of setting goals without intentionally developing habitsHow small, repeatable habits can create significant changeWhy leaders need to listen to understand instead of listening to respond

    Connect with Kendall Terry:

    Terry Leadership Group and the BRACE resources are available through Kendall's website, and he also shares his work on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

    This Episode Is Sponsored by HeyTutor

    HeyTutor partners with schools and districts to provide high-impact, in-person tutoring in literacy and math, giving students targeted support alongside the work of classroom teachers.

    Learn more about how HeyTutor can support student learning in your school or district at HeyTutor.com.

    Sun, 30 Aug 2026 - 35min
  • 296 - Episode 295: Who Takes Care of the Leader? with Melissa Doman

    Leadership comes with expectations. Be steady. Be available. Support your people. Make the difficult decisions. Carry the pressure.

    But what happens when the person everyone looks to for support needs support too?

    In this episode of Leaning Into Leadership, Darrin sits down with organizational psychologist, former therapist, and author Melissa Doman for an honest and practical conversation about leadership mental health, communication, emotional intelligence, and what sustainable leadership actually looks like.

    Melissa challenges the idea that leaders should simply absorb the pressure that comes with the role. Instead, she argues that organizations need to humanize leaders and give them permission to communicate their needs, acknowledge their capacity, and access the same resources they are expected to provide for everyone else.

    Darrin and Melissa explore the popular idea that “leaders eat last” and why servant leadership can become unhealthy when leaders interpret service as sacrificing themselves for everyone around them. Sustainable leadership requires leaders to care for others and manage their own emotional and cognitive capacity.

    The conversation gets incredibly practical as Melissa introduces the idea of communicating capacity — being able to tell your team honestly where you are and what you can realistically handle. If you're operating at 30 or 40 percent on a particular day, your team doesn't need you to pretend you're at 100. They need clarity about what they can expect from you.

    Darrin and Melissa also discuss:

    Why emotional intelligence, communication, and constructive conflict should be considered core professional developmentWhy policies and procedures aren't enough if people haven't learned how to communicate effectivelyThe danger of practicing servant leadership to your own detrimentHow leaders can give team members permission to speak up when something seems differentWhy curiosity is more productive than immediately judging a leader's behaviorHow to communicate your capacity without using it as an excuse for poor performanceThe difference between mission-critical priorities and manufactured emergenciesStephen Covey's circles of control, influence, and concernCreating personal mental well-being non-negotiables that actually work for youWhy leadership peer-support networks should exist inside organizationsThe importance of leaders modeling the use of the resources they encourage their employees to useWhy leadership can become incredibly lonely — and why leaders need other leaders who understand what it means to “sit in the chair”

    Melissa also shares insights from her book Cornered Office: Why We Need to Talk About Leadership Mental Health, along with the upcoming Wiley re-release of Yes, You Can Talk About Mental Health at Work: Here's Why (and How to Do It Really Well).

    And because this is Leaning Into Leadership, the conversation somehow also includes salsa dancing, inflatable Velociraptors, ABBA…and the first-ever Chewbacca impression in podcast history. Well, at least in this podcast's history.

    About Melissa Doman

    Melissa Doman is an organizational psychologist, former therapist, author, speaker, and consultant who teaches organizations, leaders, and employees the practical skills needed to talk about mental health, communication, and team dynamics at work. Her clients range from global organizations to professional sports teams, mid-sized companies, and small businesses around the world.

    Her latest book, Cornered Office: Why We Need to Talk About Leadership Mental Health, explores the often-overlooked emotional and cognitive realities of leadership and challenges organizations to include leaders in conversations and systems designed to support workplace mental health.

    Connect with Melissa

    Website: melissadoman.com

    LinkedIn: Melissa Doman

    Instagram: @thewanderingmel

    Mentioned in This Episode

    Cornered Office: Why We Need to Talk About Leadership Mental Health (link)

    Yes, You Can Talk About Mental Health at Work: Here's Why (and How to Do It Really Well) — re-releasing from Wiley on September 29, 2026.

    This Episode Is Sponsored by HeyTutor

    HeyTutor partners with schools and districts to provide high-impact, in-person tutoring in literacy and math, giving students targeted support alongside the work of classroom teachers.

    Learn more about how HeyTutor can support student learning in your school or district at HeyTutor.com.

    Sun, 23 Aug 2026 - 43min
  • 295 - Episode 294: 5 Leadership Traps to Avoid as the School Year Begins

    The beginning of a school year brings an energy that is hard to match. The building is ready, staff members are reconnecting, priorities have been established, and leaders walk into the year determined to lead with clarity and intentionality.

    Then the students arrive.

    Suddenly the emails pile up, meetings fill the calendar, parent concerns emerge, staffing challenges demand attention, and the urgent begins competing with what you said mattered most.

    In this special midweek episode of Leaning Into Leadership, Dr. Darrin Peppard challenges school leaders to recognize five common leadership traps that can quietly derail their best intentions during the opening weeks of school.

    Darrin explores why presence is different from simply being visible, how the Cycle of Chaos can allow urgency to rewrite your priorities, and why communicating something once doesn't mean people understand it. He also challenges leaders to stop solving every problem themselves and to recognize the important difference between giving someone grace and simply avoiding a necessary conversation.

    The five leadership traps:

      Retreating to your office once students arriveLetting urgency rewrite your prioritiesAssuming everyone understood the opening-day messageTrying to solve every problem personallyWaiting too long to address something you already know isn't right

    At the center of the episode is one question every school leader should consider as the year gets underway:

    Is the leader you're becoming in September the same leader you intended to be at the beginning of August?

    You probably won't lose your school year in the first few weeks. But you can establish habits during those weeks that you'll spend the rest of the year trying to undo.

    Be intentional now. Protect what matters. And go have a Road to Awesome year.

    In This Episode

    Why presence matters more than performative visibilityHow the urgent can quietly replace your real leadership prioritiesWhy your calendar tells the truth about what you valueThe difference between communicating a message and creating clarityHow solving every problem can actually weaken the people around youWhy servant leadership is about empowerment, not doing everything for othersThe difference between grace and avoidanceWhy addressing small issues early protects the culture you're trying to createHow to recognize leadership drift before it becomes your new normal

    Key Takeaways

    “You can't recognize what you never see.”

    “Your calendar is going to tell the truth about your priorities long before your mission statement ever will.”

    “Don't confuse delivering a message with creating clarity.”

    “Don't just solve problems. Build problem-solvers.”

    “What we tolerate teaches a lesson.”

    “Clarity early is almost always easier than making corrections later.”

    This Episode Is Sponsored by HeyTutor

    HeyTutor partners with schools and districts to provide high-impact, in-person tutoring in literacy and math, giving students targeted support alongside the work of classroom teachers.

    Learn more about how HeyTutor can support student learning in your school or district at HeyTutor.com.

    Wed, 19 Aug 2026 - 22min
  • 294 - Episode 293: The Human Side of Leadership with Stacy Nation

    Episode 293 of Leaning Into Leadership is a conversation about something every leader needs to understand: we lead humans, and humans bring their experiences, emotions, stress, and trauma with them to work.

    Darrin sits down with licensed clinical social worker, speaker, author, and military leader Stacy Nation to explore what trauma-informed—and ultimately trauma-restorative—leadership can look like in schools.

    Stacy challenges leaders to move beyond simply knowing that trauma exists and begin creating environments built around safety, connection, relationships, and restoration. As she explains, one of the most important resiliency factors is having a positive, caring relationship—which makes relationship-building far more than a “soft” leadership skill.

    The conversation also turns toward the adults in our schools. Are teachers able to meet their own basic needs during the day? What happens after a difficult interaction with a student? Do leaders create conditions that help adults regulate themselves before asking them to help students do the same? Stacy makes the case that supporting adults and maintaining high expectations are not competing ideas.

    Darrin and Stacy also dig into neuroscience and leadership, including the difference between the reasoning and emotional functions of the brain, why certain questions can immediately create defensiveness, and how leaders can communicate differently when emotions are running high.

    Stacy shares the story behind her book, What Really Happens in Therapy Behind Closed Doors: A Guided Journey to Healing, and how her experiences as a therapist, military member, parent, and someone navigating her own family story shaped the work.

    Finally, the conversation comes back to leadership: creating shared language around emotional regulation, moving from reactive to proactive approaches with students, and recognizing that meaningful change requires more than a one-day training.

    In this episode, you’ll hear about:

    The difference between trauma-informed and trauma-restorative practicesWhy relationships are a critical resiliency factorCreating environments where adults can regulate and perform at their bestWhy supporting people does not mean lowering expectationsWhat leaders should understand about the reasoning and emotional brainWhy Stacy encourages leaders to replace “Why?” with “Help me understand”Using shared language around regulation throughout a schoolMoving from reactive responses to proactive supportWhy leaders need to live—not simply model—the practices they expect from others

    Stacy sums up her approach to leadership beautifully near the end of the conversation: leadership changes when what we teach becomes integrated into how we actually live and lead.

    Connect with Stacy Nation:

    Website: gobeyou.org

    Instagram: Stacy G Nation

    Facebook: Stacy Nation / Stacy G Nation

    LinkedIn: Stacy Nation

    YouTube: Search Stacy Nation or Stacy York

    Book: What Really Happens in Therapy Behind Closed Doors: A Guided Journey to Healing

    Sponsor Spotlight

    This episode is proudly sponsored by HeyTutor.

    HeyTutor partners with school districts across the country to provide high-dosage tutoring in mathematics and English language arts. Their comprehensive approach—including recruiting, training, scheduling, and managing tutors—allows educators to focus on what they do best while accelerating student learning.

    Learn more by visiting: heytutor.com

    Connect with Darrin

    If this episode challenged your thinking, I'd love to hear from you.

    What's one piece of feedback that changed the way you lead?

    Connect with me on LinkedIn or visit https://darrinpeppard.com/ to continue the conversation.

    If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with another leader who could benefit from this message.

    Sun, 16 Aug 2026 - 33min
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