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Discover the stubborn stumbling blocks that may be hindering your decisions. In this week's episode—part 2 of a replay series from 2024—John Maxwell helps leaders identify and overcome the common pitfalls that sabotage decisive action.

After his lesson, Mark Cole and Traci Morrow unpack the practical steps you can take to apply these principles in your own leadership.

Key takeaways:

• Procrastination, surrendering, and hiding behind information are decision roadblocks.

• Breaking overwhelming decisions into smaller, manageable parts empowers leaders to move forward instead of stalling out.

• True leadership requires the discipline to say no.

Our BONUS resource for this episode is the Avoiding Decision-Making Traps Worksheet, which equips you to move past decision roadblocks. You can download the worksheet by visiting MaxwellPodcast.com/Decisions and clicking "Download the Bonus Resource."

This episode is sponsored by BELAY:

While out walking the family dog, my nephew Andy was hit by a car. Someone saw the accident and stopped to give him CPR and call for an ambulance. A ventilator kept him alive for a week.

Al Lopus knew what a healthy succession should look like. Then he started giving away work he loved.

After one leadership meeting, the cofounder of Best Christian Workplaces sat in his office feeling empty and diminished. Keeping a few responsibilities was tempting. He also knew it could undermine the handoff.

Al joins us to discuss the gap between knowing how to lead well and accepting what that requires personally. 

They talk about boards that rarely evaluate their CEOs, leaders who share survey strengths while withholding weaknesses, and the trust at stake when someone leaves a team.

Al also describes seeking outside counsel during his succession and using feedback to understand how staff experienced both leaders. 

For boards and founders preparing a handoff, the conversation offers an honest look at the work a transition plan can’t do by itself.

Key Takeaways

• A Christian mission doesn’t guarantee a healthy workplace. Leaders need to hear how employees experience the organization.
• Meaningful CEO reviews help boards clarify expectations and address concerns before a crisis.
• Staff need leaders to acknowledge weaknesses and act on feedback, even when the findings are uncomfortable.
• A thoughtful departure process should show care for the person leaving and communicate responsibly with those staying.
• Releasing meaningful work can feel like loss. Outside counsel can help a founder process that loss without reclaiming responsibility.

Chapter Markers

00:00 – When giving away leadership feels like loss
05:59 – The staff a ministry can overlook
18:06 – What boards owe their leaders
26:31 – Handling a staff departure with care
29:40 – Al’s succession and learning to let go

Resources

Explore the work of Best Christian Workplaces and Al’s book, Road to Flourishing.

Preparing for a leadership change? Start a confidential conversation at ministrytransitions.com.

Music licensed through Soundstripe.

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Andy Stanley offers some piercing insights on the dangerous side of leadership: how leaders get off course, what happens when you develop a court or entourage that adores you but won't tell you the...

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Think about the Christian you want to be. What qualities do you want to have? More compassion? More conviction? More courage? What attitudes do you want to discontinue? Greed? Guilt? Endless negativity?

With God’s help you can close the gap between the person you are and the person you want to be. Indeed, the person God made you to be. You can live “from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18). To inherit your inheritance is God’s vision for your life. Imagine the thought! You as you were intended. It’s a life that is yours for the taking.

Expect to be challenged. The enemy will not go down without a fight. But God’s promises outweigh personal problems. Victory becomes, dare we imagine, a way of life. Isn’t it time for you to change your mailing address from the wilderness to the Promised Land? Are you ready to march?

Read more God Is with You Every Day

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

What does it take to lead an organization from a season of decline into renewed growth and impact?

In this episode of The Multiplication Factor, Michael Gunnin, Executive Vice President and Chief Growth Officer of Walk Through the Bible, shares how God uses Scripture, faithful preparation, perseverance, and accountability to multiply the fruit of Christian leadership.

Drawing from his leadership journey and Walk Through the Bible's remarkable organizational turnaround, Michael reflects on the importance of remaining faithful in difficult seasons, trusting God's preparation even when the purpose isn't clear, and building a culture where commitments lead to action.

His encouragement to Christian leaders is simple but powerful: Do the next right thing faithfully. God can use today's challenges and experiences to prepare leaders for opportunities and impact they cannot yet imagine.

In This Episode:

• How consistent engagement with God's Word prepares leaders to lead well.
• Why seasons of uncertainty and difficulty can become God's preparation for future fruitfulness.
• The role of strategic planning, perseverance, and accountability in organizational renewal.
• How Walk Through the Bible moved from years of decline into a renewed season of growth.
• Why faithful execution matters as much as vision and strategy.

About Our Guest

Michael Gunnin serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Growth Officer of Walk Through the Bible, a global ministry serving approximately 140 countries with a mission to ignite passion for Scripture and help people live out God's Word.

Learn more: Walk Through the Bible

About The Multiplication Factor

The Multiplication Factor is a special series of the Christian Leadership Alliance Leader-to-Leader Podcast, featuring experienced Christian leaders sharing personal stories of God's multiplication of fruit in their lives and leadership, along with encouragement for the next generation of Christian leaders.

Series Sponsor: FaithSearch Partners

We thank FaithSearch Partners for sponsoring the Leader-to-Leader Podcast. FaithSearch Partners provides faith-based executive search services, helping Christian nonprofits, ministries, higher education institutions, media organizations, and other faith-driven organizations identify leaders who embody passion, purpose, and biblical leadership.

Learn more: FaithSearch Partners

Lead faithfully. Trust God's preparation. Watch Him multiply the fruit.

When Monica’s son Augustine wanted to leave home for a city known for its immorality, she pleaded with God not to let him go. But he went anyway, which greatly grieved his mother, yet it was there that God transformed his life. In his Confessions, Augustine later prayed, “Yet in your deep counsel you heard the central point of her longing . . . [so] that you would make me what she continually prayed for.”

What does it take to lead an organization from a season of decline into renewed growth and impact?

In this episode of The Multiplication Factor, Michael Gunnin, Executive Vice President and Chief Growth Officer of Walk Through the Bible, shares how God uses Scripture, faithful preparation, perseverance, and accountability to multiply the fruit of Christian leadership.

Drawing from his leadership journey and Walk Through the Bible's remarkable organizational turnaround, Michael reflects on the importance of remaining faithful in difficult seasons, trusting God's preparation even when the purpose isn't clear, and building a culture where commitments lead to action.

His encouragement to Christian leaders is simple but powerful: Do the next right thing faithfully. God can use today's challenges and experiences to prepare leaders for opportunities and impact they cannot yet imagine.

In This Episode:

• How consistent engagement with God's Word prepares leaders to lead well.
• Why seasons of uncertainty and difficulty can become God's preparation for future fruitfulness.
• The role of strategic planning, perseverance, and accountability in organizational renewal.
• How Walk Through the Bible moved from years of decline into a renewed season of growth.
• Why faithful execution matters as much as vision and strategy.

About Our Guest

Michael Gunnin serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Growth Officer of Walk Through the Bible, a global ministry serving approximately 140 countries with a mission to ignite passion for Scripture and help people live out God's Word.

Learn more: Walk Through the Bible

About The Multiplication Factor

The Multiplication Factor is a special series of the Christian Leadership Alliance Leader-to-Leader Podcast, featuring experienced Christian leaders sharing personal stories of God's multiplication of fruit in their lives and leadership, along with encouragement for the next generation of Christian leaders.

Series Sponsor: FaithSearch Partners

We thank FaithSearch Partners for sponsoring the Leader-to-Leader Podcast. FaithSearch Partners provides faith-based executive search services, helping Christian nonprofits, ministries, higher education institutions, media organizations, and other faith-driven organizations identify leaders who embody passion, purpose, and biblical leadership.

Learn more: faithsearchpartners.com

Lead faithfully. Trust God's preparation. Watch Him multiply the fruit.

A church can have a strong reputation and a long history while the people serving on its staff quietly wear down. When departures come as surprises, the harder question is whether leaders can see what their staff is experiencing.

In this conversation, Tim McConnell, Lead Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Colorado Springs, describes stepping into a 154-year-old church and finding deeper staff culture concerns the longer he looked. He explains why he asked his elders to prioritize staff health, what an outside, anonymous Best Christian Workplaces Employee Engagement Survey showed, and the steps that followed, including conflict training and a short weekly gathering for the whole staff. According to the church's survey reports, disengagement fell from 28.9% in 2023 to 2% in 2026. For pastors and ministry leaders, it is a candid look at how to measure and improve church staff health.

You'll Gain Insight On:

• Why asking "are the right people staying or going?" can tell you more than overall turnover
• How an outside, anonymous survey can show what leaders can't see from their own chair
• Why healthy conflict and cross-team communication take deliberate practice
• What a lead pastor says it takes to begin: humility, patience, and outside help

Subscribe to Called to Flourish and share this conversation with a fellow leader. Access full show notes, resources, and transcript at: https://workplaces.org/podcast/unhealthy-church-staff-culture-how-to-spot-and-measure-it