Dan Owolabi is a CEO, a sought-after speaker and an author. He founded Branches Worldwide based on the belief that faith-fueled entrepreneurs can transform communities. Branches Worldwide works diligently to raise up entrepreneurs around the world and to connect them with resources, mentors and community. At the 2024 Global Leadership Summit, Dan sat down with Jason Jaggard, CEO of Novus Global and Global Leadership Podcast team member, to talk about why entrepreneurship is so critical to local communities, and the importance of being an authentic leader.

At the 2025 Global Leadership Summit GLN President and CEO, David Ashcraft interviewed Joni Eareckson Tada—an internationally recognized speaker, author, and advocate who has spent decades leading with grace, resilience, and faith. After a diving accident left her quadriplegic at 17, Joni turned her pain into purpose, founding Joni and Friends, a global ministry serving people with disabilities. Her journey is a powerful testament to the kind of leadership that transcends circumstances—one marked by courage, service, and unwavering hope.

In this episode, we’ll dive into Joni’s journey to become the leader she is today, how leaders can better steward suffering, and other priceless pieces of wisdom from her life. Whether you're leading in business, ministry, or everyday life, Joni’s wisdom will challenge and encourage you.

This month, our focus at the GLN is on leaving a leadership legacy and today podcast host (and GLN VP of Marketing), Whitney Putnam interviews GLN President and CEO David Ashcraft on his experience with organizational transitions and successions. David shares gems from his 30 years of local church leadership, including how to get started planning a legacy, and the one thing that can absolutely derail a positive transition. Every leader should be thinking about what (or who) will follow them, and this episode is a great starting point for your plans. 

A healthy and effective team culture is essential to organizational success, but building a culture of excellence is not automatic. Today’s episode is a live recording of a workshop led by GLN President and CEO David Ashcraft. In the workshop, David shares how to establish team culture in a practical and effective way and explains how values and behaviors help drive successful outcomes for a team. In addition, David also runs through some of the specific values and behaviors that currently define the culture at the GLN.

In this special live recording of the podcast, Craig Groeschel interviews former Duke University men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski (“Coach K”): a Naismith Hall of Fame coach, five-time national champion at Duke, and six-time gold medalist as head Coach of the US Men’s National Team. Coach K shares essential ingredients that helped produce his extraordinary career, including how to keep leadership current and how to respond to unexpected challenges. Regardless of where you are in your leadership journey, this episode is a can’t-miss opportunity to learn from a master of longevity and excellence.

Today’s episode draws on the wealth of experience of GLN President and CEO, David Ashcraft, as he and GLN VP of Marketing Whitney Putnam cover a variety of topics related to working with teams. This conversation ranges from values, to empowerment, to conflict, and is absolutely full of practical leadership gems.  

“Love” and “work” are not words that are usually thought of in the same context. For today’s guest, however, “love” has a measurable and positive impact on the metrics of work. Marcus Buckingham is known for starting the “Strengths Revolution.” He is also a global researcher and New York Times bestselling author, and he recently joined the GLN’s David Ashcraft for a conversation about the role that love plays—or should play—in our work. Whether you are a leader who wants to know how to bring the absolute best out of those you lead, or you are curious how to discover the things you truly love (and why they matter at work), we invite you to listen to this episode.  

Paula Faris joins the podcast today to talk about the different ways leaders can “lead with heart.” Paula is an award-winning journalist, bestselling author, podcast host and the founder of CARRY Media, and she sat down for this conversation with Global Leadership Network President and CEO David Ashcraft. Together they explore the roles that intuition and passion have had in Paula’s life, how leaders can protect themselves while practicing openness and authenticity and how leading with heart informs and shapes Paula’s leadership today.

This month’s theme at the Global Leadership Network is “leading with heart,” and in this episode of the Global Leadership Podcast, Whitney Putnam sits down with GLN president and CEO David Ashcraft. Together, they explore what it means to lead with heart and examine practical ways that leaders can begin to lead with openness and authenticity. David and Whitney also discuss how to avoid some potential pitfalls that can occur as leaders begin to open up to those around them.

As leaders, we understand that purpose and calling play critical roles in achieving our goals. This week’s guest highlights the potential pitfall of focusing solely on achievement. In this episode, former top sports agent Molly Fletcher shares how long-term joy and happiness come not from achievement but from daily improvement and fulfillment. At the 2024 Global Leadership Summit, she discussed key concepts from her book, Dynamic Drive: The Purpose-Fueled Formula for Sustainable Success, in a live interview with Jason Jaggard.