In this episode of The Leader's Journey Podcast, Trisha Taylor, along with Nate Pyle, Matt McCarthy, and Katie Ignatowski, dive into part three of the politics series exploring the challenges of division and leadership in polarized times. While the focus isn't on the U.S. election specifically, the discussion addresses the broader implications of division in churches, workplaces, and communities. With returning guests Nate Pyle and Matt McCarthy, and new voice Katie Ignatowski, this episode provides insights into how leaders can foster dialogue, perspective-taking, and emotional maturity in their communities.

Nate Pyle: A pastor and member of The Leader's Journey team, Nate brings a wealth of experience in guiding congregations through challenging conversations and promoting emotional maturity in leadership.

Matt McCarthy: Another seasoned leader and pastor, Matt focuses on creating opportunities for embodying the politics of Jesus at the local level, emphasizing community engagement and kingdom work.

Katie Ignatowski: An executive director with a legal background, Katie has held significant roles in politics and compliance in Wisconsin. She brings a fresh perspective to the team, blending her expertise in law and leadership with a commitment to grace-filled and truth-centered dialogue.

• Polarization and Leadership: The team explores the challenges leaders face in divided environments, highlighting the need to balance empathy and challenge.

• Holding Tension: Insights on navigating complexity, resisting oversimplification, and fostering productive conversations.

• Media Literacy: Discussing the importance of critical thinking and diversifying sources to navigate "two different realities" shaped by media consumption.

• Emotional Maturity: How leaders can grow their own emotional maturity and guide their communities towards it as a critical discipleship practice.

• Engaging Locally: The value of focusing on local action and influence as a means to foster meaningful change and embody the politics of Jesus.

• Guiding Principles: The role of guiding principles in making decisions, holding convictions, and navigating polarized contexts.

• The Leader's Journey Coaching Team

• Miroslav Volf: "Exclusion and Embrace"

• Playing Politics, Leading in an Election Year Part 1
• Playing Politics, Leading in an Election Year, Part 2

The following episode originally aired in July of 2022. You can find the rest of that coaching series here: 

The Leader as a Coach: Developing People

The Leader as a Coach: Being Coachable 

The five skills that leaders can start to work on today to become more effective leaders through coaching are deep listening, inquiry, giving clear feedback, guiding focus, and doing your own work. 

Leaders who learn to lead through coaching and who develop a culture of coaching in their organization will effectively raise up people who can consistently be the healthiest, most effective version of themselves and do their best work.

Conversation Overview

• Coaching is "deliberately providing a safe and challenging environment where change is possible"
• Deep listening
• "Being profoundly heard by another person is a transformative experience." – Jim Herrington
• "The experience of being deeply listened to makes us different." – Trisha Taylor
• Inquiry
• One reason we get bored listening is because we're not actively asking questions. We're not really all that curious, we're busy, and we're distracted. 
• Giving clear feedback
• Guiding focus
• Part of the skill of guiding focus is helping people pay attention to the things they need to be paying attention to.
• Doing your own work

Links: 

• The Leader As Coach: Developing People
• Giving and receiving feedback
• Defined and Connected
• Learning is Imperative for Effective Leadership: Part 1
• Two Feet Walking Workbook
• Coaching description on our website
• Our Love Hate Relationship with Goals (podcast episode)
• Two Feet Walking Podcast Series

Thank you for listening. If you enjoy listening to The Leader’s Journey Podcast, the best way to support us is to take just a few seconds and leave a rating and/or comment over on iTunes or share it with your friends on Facebook … Thank you!

In this episode of The Leader's Journey Podcast, Trisha Taylor sits down with Mandy Smith, a gifted pastor, artist, and author of Confessions of an Amateur Saint. Together, they discuss the deep challenges Christian leaders face, the journey of faithfulness over success, and the importance of embracing weakness as a pathway to strength. Mandy shares her insights on how leaders, particularly in faith communities, often find themselves caught between the desire for competence and the necessity of surrendering to God’s guidance. Through personal stories and deep reflection, this episode invites leaders to embrace vulnerability and trust God with their limitations.

Mandy Smith is the pastor of St. Lucia Uniting Church in Australia and the author of Confessions of an Amateur Saint. With a unique blend of pastoral leadership, artistic expression, and deep theological insight, Mandy serves as a voice of compassion and clarity for leaders seeking to integrate faith with everyday life. She is also associated with the Eugene Peterson Center for Christian Imagination. Mandy’s creative and thoughtful approach to ministry continues to inspire leaders to lead with authenticity and dependence on God.

Key Points:

• The Role of Faithful Leadership: Mandy reflects on the tension between striving for professional competence and the call to lead with faith and reliance on God.
• Faith Over Competence: Leadership isn't about having all the answers; it's about modeling the need for God. Mandy talks about how, as leaders, we are called to admit our limitations and trust God’s power to work through us.
• The Confession of Leadership: The act of confession is integral to faithful leadership. It involves not only acknowledging our weaknesses but also reaffirming our trust in God despite those weaknesses.
• The Struggle with Human Limitation: Mandy shares her experience of being thrust into leadership roles that challenged her competencies, and how leaning into vulnerability rather than striving for control has been both humbling and healing.
• The Invitation to Lead Authentically: By embracing human limitations, leaders can create space for God’s strength to shine. Mandy challenges leaders to stop hiding their weaknesses and to model dependence on God for the benefit of those they lead.

Resources:

The Vulnerable Pastor: How Human Limitations Empower Our Ministry

Unfettered: Imagining a Childlike Faith Beyond the Baggage of Western Culture

Confessions of an Amateur Saint: The Christian Leader's Journey from Self-sufficiency to Relying on God

Mandy's website: The Way is the Way

The Eugene Peterson Center for Christian Imagination

In this episode, Jim and Rick Rarick dive into the essential role of values in organizational culture and the importance of leadership integrity. They discuss the concept of the Employee Value Proposition (EVP) and how it can shape a meaningful workplace experience. By acknowledging imperfections and fostering a supportive environment, leaders can build stronger connections with their teams and enhance employee loyalty.

Rick Rarick is an experienced organizational coach with a background in both for-profit and nonprofit sectors. He specializes in helping leaders understand and improve workplace culture, emphasizing the importance of authenticity, accountability, and meaningful engagement. With a passion for guiding organizations toward healthier dynamics, Rick brings a wealth of knowledge to discussions about employee experience and leadership development.

Key Points:

• The significance of living organizational values with integrity.
• Acknowledging and addressing integrity gaps as a means of fostering loyalty.
• The Employee Value Proposition (EVP) defined as a statement of what employees receive from their organization.
• Importance of meaningful work and connection between individual roles and company goals.
• The role of friendships and relationships in employee retention.
• Growth opportunities and the ability to learn from mistakes as key components of employee satisfaction.
• The shift from traditional work-life balance to a more flexible work-life rhythm.
• The impact of generational attitudes on work expectations and the importance of creating a human-centered workplace culture.

References:

• Harvard Business Review: Employee Value Proposition
• Rick Rarick - The Leaders Journey Coach

In this episode, the Jim and Trisha host guests Chris and Kurt from Brimstone coaching to engage in a deep conversation about leadership, self-awareness, and the mental models that shape our approach to work and relationships. They explore the importance of slowing down, reflecting, and questioning existing assumptions about what it means to be an effective leader. This episode wraps up with a powerful reminder: “You don’t have to be as tired as you are.”

Chris Godfredson and Kurt Bash have both come out of leadership and supervisory roles in a variety of business kind of contexts and then transitioned into church ministry where they have each led in a variety of contexts. They are the co-founders of Brimstone Coaching Group.

Kurt Bush began his working career in the manufacturing world. He spent time working for a large manufacturing company in various roles over 10 years, with the majority of that time being spent in Human Resources and Production Supervision. He was then called out of that into seminary, and subsequently, full-time vocational ministry. Over the last 6 years, he has served and led churches in and through both minor and major changes, along with helping leaders establish a clear sense of “who we are together.” It’s his work in his own life that fuels the passion that he feels in helping others do their own work.

Chris Godfredsen made the transition a number of years ago from printing the news to telling the Good News. He has a growing understanding of Family Systems theory and Internal Family Systems, and he uses tools and resources that help people stop doing things that have hampered their growth for so long so they can live whole lives. These tools have also been helpful in conflict resolution work with co-workers and leadership teams.

Conversation Overview

1. Seeing to Change
2. Mental Models of Leadership
3. The Courage to Let Go
4. Redefining Strong Leadership
5. Testing Assumptions
6. Invitation to Reflect

• Brimstone Coaching Group
• An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization by Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey (the idea of doing two jobs is in the introduction and first chapter)
• Wholeheartedness: Busyness, Exhaustion and Healing the Divided Self by Chuck DeGroat
• Western Theological Seminary
• Brimstone Coaching podcast

In this thought-provoking episode, we dive deep into the themes of connection, vulnerability, and healing with Chuck DeGroat. Drawing from his rich experience as a therapist and author, Chuck offers insights into how we can move away from shame-based narratives and toward a more empowering understanding of ourselves and our relationship with the divine. Join us as we explore the importance of community in healing, the reframing of addiction, and the transformative power of imagination in our spiritual journeys.  

Chuck DeGroat is a seasoned therapist, author, and professor known for his work in clinical mental health counseling and his insights into personal and spiritual growth. With a background in pastoral ministry and a deep understanding of human psychology, Chuck offers a unique perspective on healing, connection, and the inner journey. His latest book, Healing What's Within: Coming Home to Yourself and to God When You're Wounded, Weary, and Wandering, provides a roadmap for those seeking to reclaim their worth and reconnect with their true selves.

Key Points

The Importance of Connection: Exploring the impact of disconnection on our lives and the necessity of vulnerability in healing.

Reframing Suffering: Understanding suffering as a universal human experience rather than a personal failure.

Imagination in Healing: Utilizing creative visualization to foster a sense of safety and connection with God.

Redemptive Remembering: The practice of recalling moments of grace to counteract negative internal narratives.

Rethinking Addiction: Viewing addiction as a response to deeper needs rather than a behavior to condemn, and fostering curiosity about our motivations.

In a world where every conversation or statement can spark intense debates, how do you maintain your composure and stay true to your values? Join Trisha, Nate, and Mac as they dive into a conversation about managing both online and in person engagement with empathy, leading through political tensions, and making a meaningful impact on a local level.

Mac McCarthy has been in Christian ministry for over 15 years.  As a pastor, practitioner, and coach, he is passionate about equipping leaders by integrating missional theology, spiritual formation, family systems, and adaptive leadership to navigate congregational change. 

Nate Pyle is a pastor, author, and coach. He has over 25 years in Christian ministry, and during that time Nate began learning and practicing skills related to adaptive leadership, congregational revitalization, family systems, emotional maturity, and spiritual formation. 

Key Points

• Engaging on Social Media
• Dialogue over Provocation
• Outrage vs. Conviction
• Maintaining Perspective and Empathy
• Recognizing Limitations
• Managing Anxiety and Maintaining Emotional Maturity

References

The Colossian Forum

Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier

Note: This podcast is part one of a three-part series on trauma-informed leadership. You can find it in the podcast archives of our website on dates January 23, Feb 13 and Feb 27 of 2019.  

Trauma is real and leaders who understand the effects of trauma in their own lives and in the lives of others are less likely to be sabotaged by trauma and are more likely to lead in ways that turn out to be healthy and lifegiving.

Conversation overview:

Trauma and leadership

Trauma can hinder and stimulate growth

Unaddressed trauma in leaders is dangerous

How do we access trauma?

Experiencing other people's trauma

Leaders may be survivors of trauma; leaders are also leading survivors of trauma

The past is always present

Resources:

The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog

The Body Keeps the Score

Healing Developmental Trauma

If you enjoy listening to The Leader's Journey podcast, the best way to support us is to take a few seconds and leave a rating and/or a comment on iTunes or share it on Facebook. Thank you!

Change happens at the speed of conversation.

This episode is about learning to master transformation conversations from our six-part series on leadership practices that lead to breakthrough. If you’d like to learn more about this series or our organizational coaching and leadership development services you can contact us using our website, https://theleadersjourney.us/contact

• God created with God’s words.
• What do our words enroll people in?
• Enrolling people in hope
• The 3 parts of a transformation conversation
• How are you going to practice?

Thank you for listening. If you enjoy listening to The Leader’s Journey Podcast, the best way to support us is to take just a few seconds and leave a rating and/or comment over on iTunes or share it with your friends on Facebook … Thank you!

We know that our lives and our leadership flourish when we practice showing up in emotionally mature ways but we don’t always know what that looks like practically. After thinking together about emotional maturity for more than 20 years, we believe that it looks like practicing being both defined and connected as a way of life.

In this podcast, we talk about defining ourselves, letting others define themselves, staying appropriately connected . . . and then we look at the “and” that holds them all together. It’s a little bit like patting your head and rubbing your tummy–trying to do both things at once is a challenge! We think it’s worth it, though. We hope you’ll join us to look at how the concept of being defined and connected shows up in your life and how you can use it as a framework to think through some of your stickiest problems.

• Defining ourselves by clearly and courageously saying what is so for us
• Allowing (and even inviting) others to define themselves
• Staying appropriately connected and honoring our relationships with others even if they see things differently
• Connecting by listening rather than convincing
• Disagreeing without dehumanizing each other
• Looking at your patterns: Do you give up defining yourself in order to preserve the connection? Do you define yourself but let go of the connection?
• Examples of practice
• A visual representation

How did Jesus deal with Conflict?

Growing Yourself Up by Jenny Brown