To think systems, we have to give up cause-and-effect thinking. Everyone in a particular system is influencing and being influenced all the time.

The process of researching, studying, and writing the book The Leader’s Journey changed the trajectory of our lives. In this series, we are joined by our co-author Dr. Robert Creech and together we’ll be going over some key ideas from the book and the impact those ideas have had and are having on our lives.

Conversation Overview: 

• What is a living system?
• How does systems thinking differ from other ways of seeing the world?
• What is the effect of systems thinking on leadership?
• How can a leader learn to manage self in those predictable triangles?
• What are some ways we can practice emotional maturity while we’re under pressure?

Links:

• The Leader’s Journey
• Dr. Robert Creech on Amazon
• Family Systems and Congregational Life

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!

"An effective leader, one who can galvanize individuals and groups and who has the potential to help transform society is a person who has the capacity to know and do the right thing." – The Leader's Journey

The process of researching, studying, and writing the book The Leader's Journey changed the trajectory of our lives. In this series, we are joined by our co-author Dr. Robert Creech and together we'll be going over some key ideas from the book and the impact those ideas have had and are having on our lives.

Conversation Overview

• What does it mean to be a leader who has the capacity to know and do the right thing?
• What are living systems? How does looking at living systems change our thinking about leadership?
• What do we believe about how change takes place in a person's life?
• What have we learned about this in our own lives?
• How does Jesus serve as a mentor for us as we grow our capacity to "know and do the right things?" What can we see in Jesus' life about how to show up in the systems we are part of?
• How can listeners/readers use this book?

Links:

• The Leader's Journey
• Dr. Robert Creech on Amazon
• Family Systems and Congregational Life

How can leaders use the power they have on behalf of others and share their power with others in order to create a more just and more equitable community?

We are joined by Dr. D. Z. Cofield and Deborah Pulis for this conversation.

In this series, we are exploring the inherent connection between leadership and power. We hope to help leaders better understand the dynamics of power in their organizations and in themselves and develop some principles and practices that help them use their own power wisely. 

Conversation overview

• Dr. D.Z. Cofield, Pastor of Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church 
• Deborah Pulis, Executive Director of Body Oak Cliff 
• Sometimes, our intentions may not be as good as we think they are
• Learning to recognize your power
• “True power is given to you, it’s not taken from them.” – Dr. D.Z. Cofield
• “Live boldly and clean up your messes as you go along.” – Deborah Pulis
• Being stingy with power
• “I wonder what would happen if everyone in this country that had a spare bedroom used it to house someone” – Deborah Pulis
• Learning to be sensitive to how I apply power in different contexts
• The story of  The Well  
• Using power FOR vs. WITH others
• Stories about sharing power
• Entrusting others with power prematurely 
• The role of mentoring in sharing power
• “Trust that something bigger can come out of divergent voices.” – Deborah Pulis

About our guests: 

Dr. D.Z. Cofield is Senior Pastor of Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church  in Houston’s Third Ward. He has a Master’s Degree in Theology at the Dallas Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Ministry Degree at Faith Evangelical Seminary in Tacoma, Washington. You can read his full bio here . 

Deborah Pulis is the Executive Director of Body Oak Cliff  where they work to see the Body of Christ united and working together. She and her husband Joel live in community with a very diverse group of people and have been key leaders at The Well in Dallas, a community for adults who struggle with severe and chronic mental illness.

Links: 

• Faithwalking 
• The Well  
• Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church 
• Body Oak Cliff 

In this episode, we explore how trustworthy and transformative leaders carefully balance authority and vulnerability to create space for flourishing.

Conversation overview

• What comes to mind when you think about authority?
• What comes to mind when you think about vulnerability?
• The vulnerability to tell the truth
• Having conviction and humility
• The importance of loving the people that we serve
• What might it look like to be out of balance?
• Listener question: what do forgiveness and reconciliation look like when we're thinking about using power wisely?
• The skill of holding tension
• When is the right place and who are the right people to be vulnerable with?
• How can we learn to balance authority and vulnerability, to hold the tension?

Links:

• When Narcissism Comes to Church: Healing Your Community From Emotional and Spiritual Abuse by Chuck DeGroat
• Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High
• Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. by Brene Brown
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
• Strong and Weak: Embracing a Life of Love, Risk and True Flourishing by Andy Crouch
• Dr. James Furr
• Psalm 8

A conversation about leadership is inherently a conversation about power, and a conversation about power is inherently a conversation about conflict. In this episode, we explore how trustworthy and transformative leaders understand how power dynamics are always present in conflict and how they can be navigated wisely, creating the results we want. Thanks for listening! 

Summary:

• Assumptions about power
• Having power exposes our values
• Power determines the terms of a conflict
• Power as dominance
• Hidden expressions of power
• When powerful people feel powerless
• Passive Aggressive power
• How conflict helps us reach our goals

Links:

• 5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
• Explore the various forms of power in this download from Brene Brown
• Giving & Receiving Feedback
• Effective and Empowering Accountability
• How did Jesus deal with Conflict?
• Dare to Lead by Brene Brown
• Defined and Connected
• Applying Systems Thinking
• Bowen Family Systems Theory Series
• Spiritual Practices That Lead To Breakthrough
• The Importance of Emotional Intelligence
• Quit Getting In Your Own Way

Trustworthy and transformative leaders understand the dynamics of power in their organizations and in themselves and they have developed principles and practices that help them use their own power wisely. 

• “Power is the ability to achieve purpose, power is the ability to effect change, and we need power.” – Martin Luther King Jr. 
• Leaders will too often use their power in ways that produce outcomes counter to their stated vision or goals 
• Misusing and not exercising power
• Power is neutral 
• Power dynamics exist regardless of whether we intend to use them or not
• Dare to lead by Brene Brown
• Power over or positions of power
• Power with or the power to collaborate
• Power to or the power to accomplish and take action
• Power dynamics are both subjective and objective

It’s the new year and some of us have been planning our new year’s resolutions for months, some of us haven’t and feel guilty about it, and some of us very strictly don’t do resolutions. Our culture is very keen on goal-setting and yet, we wonder how effective that is. 

In this episode, we got our whole team together to have a conversation about goals, when they work for us, and when they dont. 

- Tying goals to guiding principles and core principles - 12-week or quarterly goals - Setting goals out of a false self - Can goals be too specific? - “If goals are tied to my worth, then I'm going to be in trouble.” - Setting goals around roles and goals. - Begin with the end in mind and plan backward - Daily to-dos focused on making progress toward long-term goals - Tying goals to my dreams for my life - Framing goals for learning and not achievement - Recognizing underlying systemic obstacles - Being goals and doing goals - Extrinsic and intrinsic - Goals as a practice

References

• Click here to check out our team
• 12-week year
• Atomic habits 
• Your Theme by CGP Grey
• Doing the Math of mission
• 7 Habits by Stephen Covey
• Goals: It’s Complicated - The Leader’s Journey
• Setting Goals that Disrupt Habits and Utilize Systems - The Leader’s Journey

We wanted the last episode of this year to be a little different. There will not be a leadership principle, and there's not going to be a question that we're trying to answer. But in this episode, I think we want to talk to each other and talk to our community as the year winds down. To give us the opportunity to reflect a little bit on this last year.

Conversation overview:

• We're not designed to live disconnected over the long haul
• What is normal?
• Societal upheaval
• Considering family systems
• Resilience and reframing what success might look like
• Doing hard things well
• The power and importance of authentic relationships
• Parting thoughts for our community as we wrap up this year

References:

• Churches learning change
• Faithwalking
• AA
• Family systems theory
• Your Labor Is Not in Vain (Live) (feat. Paul Zach)

Today Jim is joined by our colleague and fellow coach, Dr. Michael De Ruyter. Mike and Jim are facilitating a learning community for 10 pastors this fall and today's podcast is a conversation between us that we prepared for one of the gatherings of this group of pastors, the topic is systems thinking and how we utilize this way of thinking and highly complex and emotionally charged leadership situations.

We invite you to listen.

Conversation overview: - The mental model of systems thinking - Cause and effect thinking - What is a system? - Why systems thinking - How systems change - How anxiety shows up in a system - Recognizing anxiety in ourselves

How do we implement accountability strategies that are actually empowering and effective?

In our efforts to lead a group of people toward a shared mission or vision, we must find ways to overcome our negative experiences with accountability and learn to hold ourselves, each other and our organizations accountable in collaborative, grace-filled and practical ways. 

Summary:

• Reactions to the idea of accountability from our experiences and our first formation
• Accountability and performance appraisals and feedback
• Using meetings to hold ourselves accountable
• Accountability for ourselves and to each other--accountability structures in The Leader’s Journey
• 200% accountability -- Accountability in a collaborative context 
• Distinguishing accountability from blame
• Practices for accountability in complexity--being accountable for being accountable

Resources:

 

• 2FW Workbook
• Renovare
• Resources for effective feedback: Radical Candor & Crucial Accountability 
• Our past podcast on feedback: Giving & Receiving Feedback
• Resources for the structure to support accountability: Traction & 4 Disciplines of Execution
• The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill
• The One Thing by Keller and Papasan, especially Fig. 24 and Fig. 32