Hey Leader Friends! Today, Dave Kountz is on the podcast! Dave is our good friend and mentor who teaches leaders, companies, nonprofits, etc. the power of identifying and utilizing their unique leadership voice. This is REALLY good stuff! Dave walks us through each of the 5 Voices including what they are, how to use it, and my personal favorite: the pitfalls your voice typically falls into. This is a fun conversation so jump in with us!

On the podcast, Dave mentions the link to a free assessment to identify your leadership Voice. Here’s the link: 

https://g1solutions.giantos.com/users/sign_up

I think it’s safe to say that if you are in Christ Jesus, you hear from God. Right? I also think it’s safe to say that women struggle to hear from God. And when they do, they frequently doubt they’ve heard God. So, what’s the deal? How do we know if it’s God? What are women getting tangled up in that makes them feel inadequate to hear from God? And what are some guardrails to hearing from God without going off the deep end? All this and more are what Katie Marstin and I are talking about today on the podcast!

For anyone who has ever led you know that change just goes with the territory. But HOW you do the change and WHY you make a change, well, that’s a different story. On this episode of the Leader Lab podcast, Melissa Dunn and I talk about the (stupid) changes we’ve made, where we went wrong, and a thing or two we’ve learned along the way. Take a listen; it’s gonna be fun!

This week’s podcast was super fun to make! I asked Melissa Dunn to join me for a conversation about being creative. Before you skip this episode thinking, “Well, I’m not a creative so….” hold on! 

Melissa and I talk about how we have BECOME creative - slowly, over time as we’ve stepped out in gifting. Then we talk about the struggle to communicate our creativity in a way others can understand and how vulnerable that communication is. There’s lots more practical stuff, too. 

Let's talk about sleepwalking. Because I think when we can wrap our heads around the actual, physical behavior of sleepwalking, it might shed some light on the spiritual behavior - spiritual sleepwalking. In this episode, Melissa and I have a conversation about something that can sound a little woo-woo: being spiritually asleep. So here's the question we wrestle with: What is spiritual sleepwalking and how does it impact us today? Take a listen to an honest conversation and see what you think.

Have you ever interacted with someone who was sleepwalking? I have, and it's really interesting. Sleepwalkers do typical activities, yet they aren't awake; they look engaged and present, yet they are ASLEEP. I think many, many women in the Church today are doing the same thing.... just sleepwalking through life and in their relationships with God. But here's the crazy part. They don't know it! So let's talk about 3 characteristics of women who are spiritually sleepwalking.

Ohhhhh, today’s podcast is going to get interesting! I found this recent data set comparing what men and women think about women in leadership. Let me just say, the results are surprising. In a nutshell, men are generally okay with women leaders. But here’s the kicker… women have some pretty tough (and inaccurate!) views about what others think of them. So let’s talk about what women think about how they’re perceived, what those perceptions might indicate, and what to do about it.

I don't know about you, but I've always been taught that if I really loved God, I would read the Word of God. Cool, I'm on board with that. But there was another message I received about said Bible time: it should be done alone. So that's what I did for decades; I read the Word of God by myself, in my room, alone. And I regularly wondered why I wasn't getting more out of it. Or if I was doing it right. Today on the podcast, my super good friend Melissa Dunn and I have a conversation about studying the Bible with other people. Yup, you read that right: STUDYING the Bible - going deep in God's Word - with others. Is this possible? How do you do this? Why on earth would we do this? All this and more on today's podcast episode! 

We know that faith develops gradually, over time. But what happens when people get “stuck” in their faith and they stop growing? What’s up with that? That’s exactly what we’re talking about today! And as leaders, understand where WE are and where those we love and lead are, well, it really matters. Because we don’t want to damage or hinder someone’s faith development. Take a listen to this podcast episode to understand more about faith development, what to watch out for, and how to move deeper into faith.