Leading From Alignment

The amount of white space in our calendar (or a lack thereof) is a pretty accurate predictor of the amount of emotional fuel we have in our tank. If our schedule contains long stretches with no white space, it’s likely we’re running on emotional fumes, regardless of what our adrenaline and cortisol hormones may be telling us. If we want to lead better, lead longer, and enjoy it more, we need margin.

Today’s pod will help you understand what margin is and how to get more of it in your week.

Today’s pod explores another building block that helps us build emotional resilience: Refueling Emotionally. If you observe Jesus’ life, you discover He was never stressed out (except for Gethsemane). One reason why? He had this refueling thing figured out.

Difficult people go to church. Difficult people who go to church can cause a great deal of harm to a leader.

Today’s pod, Protect Yourself from Abuse, will give you three safeguards you can use to protect yourself from abusive people who attend the church you serve and lead.

We live in an angry world. Anger is a human emotion common to us all.

In previous pods, we’ve established that pastors experience a significant rate of depression . . . and I wonder if one reason is because we’re afraid to be honest about our anger. We mistakenly believe pastors “shouldn’t” get angry, and for them to express anger is immature.

One thing many leaders don’t know don’t know about anger is it doesn’t magically dissipate on its own. If we don’t tell anger where to go, it will take us to places we don’t want go.

In today’s pod, we’ll explore four fundamentals that help us better understand this most human of emotions, and then two places where to tell anger to go

It’s possible to be serving in the center of your God-given calling and still crash into a wall of anxiety and/or major depression.

Being a pastor or ministry leader or missionary has its great points, Being used by God to influence others is fun! But being a ministry leader has it’s not so great points too. And if we fail to take a thoughtful approach to what God’s called us to do… we can get into emotional trouble.

In today’s podcast, Love Yourself, we’ll explore four ways to love ourselves without becoming self-centered narcissists. And we’ll learn why loving ourselves is foundational to mental and emotional health . . . and to leadership longevity.

Many leaders struggle with the demon of insecurity. (I’m using the word “demon” metaphorically, not literally.)

King Saul was the crown prince of this particular character flaw. Chosen by God to be Israel’s first king, Saul had good looks, leadership skills, flashes of spirituality . . . but he was painfully insecure. And his insecure tendencies led to a string of bad decisions.

Fast forward to the 21st century. Insecure leaders are found everywhere: in the business world, in politics, in education—and unfortunately—in the Church. Today’s episode will uncover five behaviors that reveal a strong sense of security in a leader, and why it matters.

If you’re a leader in any capacity, I’m guessing you have more opportunities than you have time or energy. If you’re in a caregiver role, I suspect you have more invitations to care for people than you have calendar space to do so.

It’s so easy to get lost in the day-to-day execution of our work we fail to periodically take a step back and consider this challenging question: Am I only doing what only I can do?

Today’s pod will stretch you, challenge you . . . maybe even frustrate you a bit. But I believe how we grapple with the question, am I only doing what only I can do, is a great predictor of whether or not we’ll finish our God-given race well.

Nothing good ever comes from a ministry devoted to pleasing people ~ Chuck Swindol

When I think about my first fifteen years of pastoral ministry, so much of it was tinged with a subconscious desire for people to like me. I craved approval without realizing it.

Today’s podcast will look at some sure-fire signs indicating you’re stuck in people-pleasing mode, and offer a few ideas about how to get unstuck.

A Barna 2017 Study of 14,000 Protestant Lead Pastors in U.S. revealed that 37% of lead pastors are at medium to high risk of burnout.

Here’s the thing about burnout – getting healed up from it is not like flipping a switch. It takes longer to recover than you imagine.

So . . . how can you know if burnout is near? How can you prevent it? Today’s pod explores five key contributors to burnout, and three powerful behaviors that keep burnout at bay.

In pod 19, we considered what lead pastors need from their staff. Today in Episode 20 of Leading From Alignment, we’re flipping the script and exploring what associate staff members need from their lead pastor.

Essentially, the staff needs their lead to answer five questions for them: Why, where, what, when, and how. Clear answers to these five questions will help a lead pastor get more out their team without killing them in the process.

Answering these five questions isn’t easy. But it’s 100% necessary for your staff to reach its full potential.