Ryan Gottfredson, Ph.D. is a cutting-edge leadership development author, researcher, and consultant. He helps organizations vertically develop their leaders primarily through a focus on mindsets. Ryan is the Wall Street Journal and USA Today best-selling author of Success Mindsets: The Key to Unlocking Greater Success in Your Life, Work, & Leadership and The Elevated Leader: Leveling Up Your Leadership Through Vertical Development. He is also a leadership professor at the College of Business and Economics at California State University-Fullerton.

Newsletter message: “Moving” to Inactivity

2:00 Kurt introduces Ryan, his background, profession, and books.

4:40 A lot of people step away from the church and do it after a move. They don’t do it in front of people they know. The ward they were in had no idea they left the church.

11:40 How as leaders can we make sure there is life in our congregations? Is there a way to see when people are disengaging and will be leaving soon? Assume there is a problem in your ward even if you can’t see one.

13:40 How can we create a community where people can voice their doubts and concerns? Our church culture can get in the way of people asking questions and sharing their doubts. Our typical meetings don’t leave much room to have these types of discussions.

16:00 Bishops should just assume there are people in their ward that are struggling with their faith. Creating space apart from our regular meetings to have conversations about doubts and concerns.

19:00 It can be difficult to create a community at church that is open because there are different kinds of members with different perspectives. Some members might get up to give a talk and ruffle a few feathers. However, we have to create opportunities for everyone to be heard and feel like they belong.

21:30 Focusing on numbers isn’t bad but it’s misguided. The more that leaders focus on numbers and outcomes the more they resist changing things for the future. Instead of focusing on results they should focus on how much life there is in the system.

24:30 Is your ward/stake growing in life and optimism or is it slowly dying? Are your church meetings lacking? Are the activities and church meetings something people actually want to attend and are excited about?

28:30 While you might love your ward, you can’t project your experience on someone else. There are probably people in your ward that don’t like it or feel like they don’t belong.

30:45 Identifying the slow-dying testimony. What do we do when we see people stepping back? Normally those that are stepping away feel like they don’t have a voice and don’t belong.

37:15 We have ministering but we haven’t learned to turn the key on. Is the engine even on in your ward?

39:10 We have a lot of “managers” but not a lot of leaders. Managers make sure that things run smoothly but leaders step out of their comfort zones and create change and new culture.

43:45 Questions to ask in your own ward council:

45:30 Ryan’s final encouragement and counsel to ward councils

Past guests include Emily Belle Freeman, David Butler, Hank Smith, John Bytheway, Reyna and Elena Aburto, Liz Wiseman, Stephen M. R. Covey, Julie Beck, Brad Wilcox, Jody Moore, Tony Overbay, John H. Groberg, Elaine Dalton, Tad R. Callister, Lynn G. Robbins, J. Devn Cornish, Bonnie Oscarson, Dennis B. Neuenschwander, Anthony Sweat, John Hilton III, Barbara Morgan Gardner, Blair Hodges, Whitney Johnson, Ryan Gottfredson, Greg McKeown, Ganel-Lyn Condie, Michael Goodman, Wendy Ulrich, Richard Ostler, and many more in over 600 episodes.

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