I’m excited to share the latest episode of An Imperfect Leader: The Superintendents and Leadership Podcast, featuring Mandy Traylor, Superintendent of Veribest ISD. Mandy offers a powerful look at what it means to lead with transparency, humility, and deep community trust.
A few takeaways that stayed with me 👇
🤝 Shared Vision, Real Buy-In: Through a Texas Strategic Leadership pilot, Mandy brought together the board, staff, and local businesses to define what a Veribest graduate should be. The result? A vision everyone owns because they created it together.
🎓 Preparing Students for Life: From Adulting 101 to Lady Falcon Self-Defense, Veribest ISD is equipping students with real-world skills that extend far beyond the classroom.
💛 Relational, Human-Centered Leadership: Mandy defines an imperfect leader as someone confident enough to lead—and humble enough to admit mistakes. Her guiding wisdom: “Work hard and be nice to people” and “Don’t move fences until you know why they were built.”
🌱 Building culture is like tending a garden—you honor what’s already growing while nurturing what comes next.
🎧 Tune in to hear Mandy’s Veribest approach to leadership.
#EducationLeadership #Superintendent #StudentSuccess #RelationalLeadership #TexasEducation #AnImperfectLeader
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Follow Host Peter Stiepleman on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-stiepleman-76004819a/ Website: https://imperfectleader.com/
YouTube (video of conversation):
https://www.youtube.com/@animperfectleaderleadershi5144/featured
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/animperfectleader/ Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@animperfectleader
Follow Co-host Jamie Almanzán on:
Connect with APC Leadership Collaborative for support in navigating complex leadership situations: https://www.apccollab.com
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An Imperfect Leader is sponsored by IXL. Boost learning with a platform proven to deliver results. IXL gives educators a complete K–12 curriculum and personalized learning plans that adapt to every student.
Trusted by over 1 million teachers and 96 of the top 100 school districts, IXL helps schools outperform on state tests, and helps teachers focus on what matters most.
IXL: Powerful data. Personalized learning. Real progress.
Discover what IXL can do for your school at IXL.com/imperfect
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An Imperfect Leader is sponsored by Yondr.
Schools around the world are seeing the damaging effects of phones on student engagement, social development, and mental health.
Yondr has developed a unique product and program to allow schools to become phone-free, from arrival to dismissal.
Learn why 1 Million Students use Yondr every day.
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Go to overyondr.com to learn more.
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The Mosaic Project, one of our favorite organizations, has over 25 years of experience empowering students to celebrate differences, communicate assertively, and resolve conflicts peacefully at their outdoor school. Their innovative SEL curriculum is now available to An Imperfect Leader listeners at a 10% discount through their new documentary film-based Mosaic Classroom Project!
The Project’s ready-to-use lesson plans include film, original music, “gametivities”, and real conversations. We’re proud to partner with The Mosaic Project in helping educators build inclusive, peaceful learning communities! Just mention An Imperfect Leader during the onboarding process to receive the 10% discount.
Learn more about The Mosaic Classroom Project.
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Think differently. Think in systems. Reach out to The Waters Center for Systems Thinking to learn more about how systems thinking capacity building can strengthen your team and organization.
Homepage: http://www.waterscenterst.org
Thinking Tools Studio: https://thinkingtoolsstudio.waterscenterst.org
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An Imperfect Leader: Leadership in (After) Action is supported by ILAA, LLC, a firm dedicated to supporting aspiring, new, and established leaders. For more information, please find them at imperfectleader.com.
Music for An Imperfect Leader was written and arranged by Ian Varley.
Sam Falbo created our artwork, a wood-print inspired daruma doll butterfly.