Building Trust as a School Leader: A Conversation with Dr. Jen Schwanke

June 12, 2026 · 31 min

About this episode

Matt Renwick speaks with Dr. Jen Schwanke about building trust as a school leader and its impact on student outcomes.

👋Hi, it’s Matt. This week, I spoke with Jen Schwanke, former principal, current deputy superintendent, and author of Trusted . (Full subscribers can watch the video of our conversation below.) Enjoy! Also, my feedback survey closes soon. If you have a few minutes to spare, I’d love to know more about your experience here. Take care, -Matt Jen Schwanke has spent her career inside schools as a teacher, a building leader, and now a deputy superintendent in Ohio. She is the author of five ASCD books, including her most recent, Trusted: Trust Pillars, Trust Killers, and the Secret to Successful Schools. She also writes the newsletter “Principal Problems with Dr. Jen” and co-hosts the Principal Matters Podcast, which has surpassed 1.5 million downloads. In this conversation, Jen and Matt discuss what it takes to lead with trust: riding the inevitable ups and downs of the principalship, delegating without losing accountability, building the self-awareness to recognize when you are undermining relational trust, and staying connected to students when compliance and logistics pull you in every other direction. What We Discussed * The connection between trust to student outcomes * The…

People in this episode

Host: Matt Renwick

Guest: Dr. Jen Schwanke

Topics covered

trust in leadership
school administration
teacher feedback
student outcomes
self-awareness in leadership

Keywords

trust
school leadership
principalship
teacher feedback
self-awareness
student connection

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: ASCD, Principal Matters Podcast

Books & works: Trusted