Christian Woman Leadership Podcast with Esther Littlefield & Holly Cain

Do you start the year out with lofty goals, only to abandon them a month later? What if you could set goals that bring peace instead of added stress? And how can you include God into your planning?

Today, we are chatting with our friend Christa Hutchins about the idea of goals, planning, and dreaming. This is the time of year when we're all looking forward to the next year, and we often start dreaming about the future or setting our goals or the New Year's resolutions.

We invited Christa into this episode because she is so good at helping women take their big ideas and dreams and break them down so that they can follow through on them. Christa was previously on Episode 41 of the podcast, talking about the behind the scenes leadership, volunteering, and how women can move forward together. If you missed that episode, be sure to go back and hear more of her story.

For the full show notes, visit estherlittlefield.com/episode181.

For the free resources Christa has available, visit: https://doanewthing.com/cwlp

For our past Goal Setting Series episodes, go to: https://estherlittlefield.com/tag/goal-setting-series/

When a leader doesn't deal with emotions properly, it can have negative impacts on those they lead. Are you in touch with your emotions as a leader? Do you find healthy ways to manage and process your emotions?

One of the things that often comes up as we enter the holiday season are feelings and emotions. We can have unwanted emotions, family challenges, or too high of expectations. Perhaps there is more pressure at work and you're finding it hard to enjoy the season. The truth is that when we don't deal with or manage our emotions, it has a negative impact on us (both in the moment and the long term), and it actually impacts the people we lead as well.

In today's conversation, I'm chatting with Jessica Hottle about her leadership journey and why we as leaders need to manage our emotions. Jessica shares a 5 step process we can use to manage our emotions as leaders.

• About Jessica and her leadership [4:35]
• Jessica's leadership journey [6:35]
• How she came to Christ [8:30]
• Leadership lessons from Jessica's life [9:40]
• How she became interested in the issue of emotions [11:50]
• Why it's important for leaders to manage and process their emotions [13:50]
• Help on identifying emotions [17:50]
• Jessica's 5 step process of dealing with emotions [21:40]
  • Step 1: Acknowledge your emotion
  • Step 2: Identify your emotion
  • Step 3: Accept the emotion
  • Step 4: What is the emotion telling you?
  • Step 5: Have the conversation with God
• Advice for less emotional women [28:20]
• Practical ways to identify why something is upsetting you [34:05]
• Balancing emotions based on scripture [37:50]
• Helping someone deal with emotions in a healthy way [43:00]
• Resources that help her lead [45:30]
• Healthy habits [47:00]
• Leadership advice [48:20]

Confident Conversations is a mini-course designed to help you initiate and lead hard conversations as a Christian woman… even if you struggle with confrontation, aren't sure what to say, and want to avoid hurting people in the process. Find out more and grab this mini-course here: http://confidentconversations.co/

• Esther's Website
• Holly's Website
• Instagram
• Facebook Group
• Facebook Page

This episode was originally published on estherlittlefield.com/episode180.

When was the last time you took time to reflect on what you have to be grateful for in various areas of your life? Join us today as we share a few of the ways we are grateful this year.

In this conversation, Holly and I are sharing what we are grateful for this year in our leadership, our businesses, and our personal lives. We reflect on some of the ways God has worked and answered prayers.

We encourage you to take time to consider what you are grateful for as you listen along.

For the full show notes, visit estherlittlefield.com/episode179.

Is it possible to experience hope in the midst of grief? What does it look like for God to redeem the pain you go through in your life and leadership?

In this episode, you'll hear a conversation that Holly has with our guest Ashely Opliger. Ashley shares her story of infant loss with candor, grace, dignity and such love for those experiencing similar circumstances. You'll hear about the moment she knew God called her to use her grief to fulfill his call on her life, how she walks with other women in their grief, and how people close to those hurting can be a support.

Ashley also shares how her non-profit ministry grew, how they encourage and uplift their volunteers, and how they have been able to be so impactful on such a small budget.

While infant loss and miscarriage is a hard subject to talk about, God shows up in this conversation in such a comforting and real way. Ashley shares some powerful reminders for those of us who support others in grief. Her story of healing can bring hope for those walking this hard road.

For the full show notes, visit estherlittlefield.com/episode178.

Have you ever felt like no one else could possibly relate to your situation or circumstance? Have you ever been afraid to share some of your deepest pain or struggles as a leader for fear of what others might think or worse, losing your leadership role?

Many leaders feel alone, struggle with being vulnerable, and find it hard to make time for soul care even when they know how important it is for their well being.

In this episode, Holly and I chat with Bonnie Gray as she shares why it's vital to share the truth about your story, how panic attacks impacted her leadership, dealing with rejection, finding rest in chaos, and how she found belonging in a culture of loneliness.

For the full show notes, visit estherlittlefield.com/episode177.

Website

Sweet Like Jasmine

Bonnie Gray has been a leader in ministry & business since college (UCLA) and has been a published author since 2014. She has written about her unique Chinese American journey from loneliness to belonging. She invites women to drop striving and people-pleasing so they can discover their deep value and beloved-ness. Bonnie helps women find God in the grind of daily life.

After graduating UCLA with a computer science and engineering degree, Bonnie worked as a high-tech professional in Silicon Valley for 15 years – as well as a missionary to Asia and a ministry entrepreneur in the U.S. Today she is a Christian author, writer and speaker - calling women into connection, rest and wholeness. Her new book, Sweet Like Jasmine, recounts stories of her childhood in Chinatown (San Francisco), her ministry, her family secrets, and her journey to belonging.

• The Christian Woman Business Podcast
• Esther's Website
• Holly's Website
• Instagram
• Facebook Group
• Facebook Page

Have you seen friends and family experiencing division and even 'unfriending' one another over differences? Why is this happening, and what is the impact on our faith and leadership when we view disagreement as the enemy?

Disagreement does not have to be the enemy. Yet, for many in our culture and even in our Christian communities, disagreement is viewed as something to be avoided. And when we view disagreement this way, we react to it in unhealthy ways.

In this episode (part 1 of the conversation), I'm going to share 6 of the unhealthy responses to disagreement that I have seen take place in my own life as well as in the church and culture. I'm also discussing what happens as a result of these responses. In part 2 of this conversation, I'll be sharing about how we can gain a different perspective about disagreement--one that reflects the love and light of Christ more effectively.

For the full show notes, visit estherlittlefield.com/episode176.

• Episode 145: Learning to See Other Perspectives & Why It Matters as Leaders
• Episode 59: The Importance of Apologetics in Leadership & Dealing with Doubt with Hillary Morgan Ferrer
• Episode 164: How to Bring a Concern to Your Leader - A 4-Step Process
• Episode 168: How to Receive Feedback as a Leader (and Why it Matters)
• Episode 173: Two Challenges that Can Destroy Our Leadership and How We Can Respond to Them with Shannon Popkin

• The Christian Woman Business Podcast
• Esther's Website
• Holly's Website
• Instagram
• Facebook Group
• Facebook Page

Confident Conversations is a mini-course designed to help you initiate and lead hard conversations as a Christian woman… even if you struggle with confrontation, aren't sure what to say, and want to avoid hurting people in the process.

Find out more and grab this mini-course here: http://confidentconversations.co/

Do you feel like you need to work harder in your leadership roles? Are you constantly striving to reach a certain outcome? Or do you get overwhelmed with the responsibility of leadership and become passive in your approach?

In this episode, I am chatting with Erica Wiggenhorn about her leadership journey and how God formed her message through struggles in her relationship with him. She shares how she defines leadership and what two categories of leadership we often find ourselves in. Erica challenges our perspective on our leadership calling and inspires us to keep God at the forefront of everything that we do.

Erica shares with us about the power of surrender in our walk with God and in our leadership calling. She asks some powerful questions for each of us to consider as we take up our calling to lead others. Plus Erica gives us a practical tip on how to have life giving mentor relationships.

For the full show notes, visit estherlittlefield.com/episode175

Have you ever found yourself in a job, business, or ministry situation where you were not sure if you should stay or walk away? How do you discern what path you should take when God hasn't clearly spoken to you?

When you're a multi-passionate leader, there's almost inevitably going to be a time when you are going to start feeling restless in your life. It might be that you're not satisfied with your job situation. Or you started a business and now you feel like you want to burn it all down. You might be serving in a ministry at church but you aren't sure if you should continue in that role.

In this conversation, Holly and I are discussing this challenge and sharing some thoughts on how to work through this decision. This is not an episode where we are promising any clear cut answers, but we hope you'll find the questions and ideas we share helpful as you decide whether to stay or walk away from a particular leadership role.

Note: this conversation is not referring to situations that are unhealthy, toxic, or that God has clearly spoken to you and let you know you should leave. We are referring to the times when we are simply restless and unsure if we should move on or remain.

For the full show notes for this episode, go to estherlittlefield.com/episode174.

• Christian Woman Business Podcast
• Esther's Website
• Holly's Website
• Instagram
• Facebook Group
• Facebook Page

Have you ever found yourself in a leadership situation where you were leading a group to accomplish a task, but balls were being dropped, people were not completing their work in the way that you wanted, and it was driving you crazy? Maybe you started to feel like you needed to do it all yourself because this mission was too important for things to be messed up. Can you relate?

Maybe you've been in a situation where you look around at other leaders and they are hitting their goals and you start thinking, "why can't I seem to get where they are? "why didn't I get that promotion", or "how is her business growing faster than mine?"

It's likely you have felt either one of these things, and today's guest Shannon Popkin is going to reveal to us two major challenges that can destroy or negatively impact our leadership: comparison and control. She is going to share with us what we can do to reverse these issues and respond differently to these challenges.

For the full show notes for this episode, visit estherlittlefield.com/episode173.

Confident Conversations is a mini-course designed to help you initiate and lead hard conversations as a Christian woman… even if you struggle with confrontation, aren't sure what to say, and want to avoid hurting people in the process. Find out more and grab this mini-course here: http://confidentconversations.co/

How Christ-like is your communication? Are you able to patiently lead others to answers? Do you feel the need to speak up, or are you able to stay silent sometimes?

In this episode, I'm discussing communicating as Christian leaders. Through the year, we've had a few episodes related to communication but today I want to look at our best example of communication: Jesus.

When I look around at the way we as Christians are communicating lately, both within our own faith community and to those in the world around us, honestly, it breaks my heart. It seems we have really lost sight of what it means to follow Jesus in the way we use our words.

There are hundreds if not thousands of books about communication, conflict, and conversations. A quick google search can yield hundreds of articles full of advice and guidance for how to approach hard conversations and how to communicate effectively. But for us as Christians, there's one primary source we should look to as our guide. And more specifically, one person whose life and conversation style we seek to emulate: Jesus Christ.

Just like Jesus sets the example for us for leadership, specifically servant leadership as we discussed in episode 122, he also is the best example for us in the way we communicate. So today we're going to look at 5 ways Jesus approached communication and conversations with others.

For the full show notes, go to estherlittlefield.com/episode172.

Confident Conversations is a mini-course designed to help you initiate and lead hard conversations as a Christian woman ..even if you struggle with confrontation, aren't sure what to say, and want to avoid hurting people in the process.

Find out more and grab this mini-course here: http://confidentconversations.co/

• The Christian Woman Business Podcast
• Esther's Website
• Holly's Website
• Instagram
• Facebook Group
• Facebook Page

This episode was originally published on estherlittlefield.com/episode172.