We are excited to dig into our archives and share with you a powerful episode that's as relevant today as when we first recorded it. We're revisiting Episode 147, titled "The Future Leader." In this episode, we tackle a crucial question: What makes a truly effective leader in our ever-changing world? We explore five essential virtues that we believe every future leader must posses and break down why each of these are critical and how they form the foundation for all other leadership skills. This episode challenges the traditional approach to leadership development, suggesting that we should focus more on cultivating character than on just acquiring skills. It's a fresh perspective that might just change the way you think about your own leadership journey or how you develop leaders in your organization. So whether you're a seasoned leader looking to refine your approach, or you're just starting out on your leadership path, this episode is for you. Let's dive in to "The Future Leader"!

Welcome to the Leading Hope Podcast! Today we're revisiting an important conversation on staying positive as a leader. As discussed in Episode 85, the number one job of a leader is to stay encouraged - because if you're not encouraged, everything you do will be diminished. In this podcast, we unpack the realities of discouragement that all leaders face - whether it's dealing with slow-moving organizations, missed goals, or simply the day-to-day grind. But we also share practical strategies for intentionally maintaining positivity, like making things fun, staying connected to purpose, and strategically focusing on the positives rather than dwelling on the negatives. This is a must-listen episode for any leader looking to cultivate an encouraged, positive mindset - because as we try to make clear, that mindset is absolutely essential to your long-term success and the impact of your leadership. Let's dive in!

The magic you’re looking for is in the work you’re avoiding. Reality The thing I want to do; got me here. The thing I don’t want to do; will get me there. Questions: What do you do first? What do you put off last? Flip Them! Who are you drawn to first, who do you ask their opinion last? Flip Them! What project keeps coming on your “I need to get to” list. Do you keep pushing it back due to lack of impact or because of difficulty?

Idea #1: Your perspective is the product of your identity Idea #2: Your identity is the product of your behaviors, not your beliefs. Idea #3: The foundation of all growth is personal responsibility. Idea #4: The enemy of all growth is victimhood.

Episode 145 Also Available On: 3 Lies in Ministry September 21, 2022 Leader Notes Lie #1: What you win them [...]

#1: Don’t ask someone to let go of something until they can hold onto something else. #2: Be more focused on culture than systems #3: Use cultural evidence to determine systems pace

The reason we don’t have better content is we don’t think long & hard enough.

Plagiarism: The practice of taking someone’s work or ideas and passing them off on one’s own. What we are saying 1. Ideas do not come out of a vacuum, they come out of a culture. Frank Moore, “No preacher is greater than the tradition itself.” Your perceived originality is overhyped. 2. As you’re learning to turn the faucet on, you might need a clear springboard to get to your own idea. Where people get in trouble: They make no effort to make it their own. Originality is overstated. You have to copy before you can be original, you have to know the moves before you can make up your own steps.

Turn the Faucet On: – Release the valve, don’t blocking the flow. You already have something to teach, you’re just unaware of it because it’s currently being blocked. What turning the faucet on does: – Creates awareness – Stirs your creativity – You start to learn rhythms You know more than you realize because you’ve never attempted to communicate it.

“Some people say, ‘Give the customers what they want.’ But that’s not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they’re going to want before they do.” – Steve Jobs 4 Keys 1. When designing a system, ask: Does it make it easier for us, or those we are serving? 2. When utilizing technology, ask: Is it cool, or does it actually aid our vision? 3. When changing an environment, ask: Am I tired of it, or are they tired of it? What have I become blind to? 4. Stay Relationally Connected to those who are disconnected from faith and then don’t do what they said, do what they really need.

Your approval rating can be a poor indicator of if you’re a healthy leader. When you think of who needs to change, which comes first: You or them? Healthy leaders know the change begins with them. Toxic leaders assume the change begins with others. Healthy leaders think personal transformation. Toxic leaders blame others. The healthy leader is the scaffolding for the people. The followers are the scaffolding for the toxic leader.

Arrogance eliminates the space for others and for the future you. The more concerned you are about your arrogance, the less you have to be concerned about your arrogance. Arrogance is a pre-occupation with you and your agenda. Attacking Arrogance: 1. Serve, where you can’t get any credit 2. Appreciate, where you have no authority 3. Give, where you have no leadership.

Satire Culture flattens people because they don’t want to become the joke. To combat this more of your identity needs to be built on your desired contribution than your criticism. Personality testing is great when it is a tool, not a crutch. Your lack of confidence may actually be your issue, and your confidence can be developed like anything else.

What Humility Is A fake lack of confidence Unawareness of your giftings Humility is the absence of pre-occupation with yourself. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, humility is thinking of yourself less. CS Lewis One Reason Humility Is So Important Proverbs 16:18, "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall." Humility reveals the gap that you can grow into. Important idea I used to think humility was the default and pride slowly crept in. I now believer that pride is the default, and humility has to be learned. Evidence: JJ Reddick & Lebron James podcast. Kids, Staff. We assume competency and mastery are much closer than they actually are. Learning Humility Part One People use the phrase "being humbled" "Humbled" comes at two moments: When ignorance meets competency When competency meets mastery Notes: Humbled does result in at least a short-term humility. You don't have to be humbled to be humble. Part Two Humility is a posture, humbled is an event. Humility is not being unaware of competency, it is believing you have more to learn to reach mastery. Key: I don't have to be around a master to grow in my mastery. I can learn it from anywhere. That's humility: I have room to grow and everyone can help me get there.

Not all effective leadership is good, positive, healthy leadership. The most important leadership questions isn’t what can you do, or even what do you want to do, but who are you? The size of your impact comes from you ability, the quality of your impact comes from your identity. It is not the ends that separate good and evil, it is the means. 2 Questions to help determine the quality of your leadership, not the ability of your leadership. 1. When you’re squeezed, what comes out? 2. When you look at yourself, what story do you tell? We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are. What you see flows from your essence – what you see is who you are.

1. When you make it look easy, you won’t be celebrated, because it looks easy. 2. When you make it look easy, others are able to focus on the impact, because they’re not looking at the effort. 3. When you make it look easy, amateurs will tell you they want to do what you do, professionals will ask you how you do what you do.

Be selfish about your personal growth. – Be selfish about putting yourself in positions in which your character & competency will develop. Be selfish about your personal growth, then use that growth to benefit others. – Don’t just use it for personal gain, pass on what you learn. – In doing so: Your act of selfishness will become the most generous thing you can do. Look at where something leads and not just what it is. Be selfish at the right time.

From Team Members: “We’re bad at communication.” From Leaders: “We struggle with execution.” Most organizations lack a sense of “this is what we’re attempting to accomplish.” What is happening is not the primary issue in communications, most communication complaints are because people don’t know why something is happening.

A bad coat rack is a great culture. Hook: Something you can stuff hang on. A hook turns a moment into a culture. Stays accessible, adds depth.

Episode 131 Also Available On: A Better Guide to Goal Setting June 8, 2022 Leader Notes Why we set goals: - To [...]

Episode 130 Also Available On: The Audacity To Decide June 1, 2022 Leader Notes Why Decision-Making is Audacious: 1. None [...]

Episode 129 Also Available On: The Audacity to Dream May 25, 2022 Leader Notes Vision: A preferred picture of what the future [...]

Audacity has two definitions 1. A willingness to take bold risks. 2. Rude or disrespectful behavior. To Lead is Audacious. To want to lead is audacious. To lead itself is audacious. The question will be how far into audacity are you willing to go.

Creativity is 3 things 1. Creativity is solving common problems with unique solutions. 2. Creativity is solving unique problems with common solutions. 3. Creativity is solving unique problems with unique solutions. Things to know about creativity: 1. Everyone can imagine. 2. Imitation precedes innovation. We often have to do what everyone does before we can do what we uniquely do. 3. Be willing to be bad.

People buy into a leader before they buy into a vision or culture. - They Need to Like You - Tim Sanders book on Likeability People who came out after biographies of Steve Jobs to counter them. - They Need to Trust You - Character & Competency. Integrity & Ability. - Competency attracts - Character sustains They Need to Want to Follow You - Able to follow: you’re going somewhere. - Want: Bold Direction. They need to know you trust them. - You have to be willing to go alone on hills you’ll die on. - You have to be willing to change your path. - People buy into your why (where), they need to know you’ll change your how. People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.

Leader Notes Get Rid of Authority – Not tasks, authority and decision-making power. – There is a right time to get rid of authority, don’t just pass it off blindly and flippantly. Get Rid of Accessibility – You release accessibility as it is necessary, not desired. (When you “have to” not at the start when you want to.) Get Rid of Credit – If you want to build a great organization and not a “cult of personality” you have to get rid of credit.

The bigger you get the less people are on the same page in regards to the past, present, and future. When less people are “in the know”, what is “in the know” needs to become less. Complexity is the enemy of culture. What your goal is: memorable. 1. Easy 2. Obvious 3. Repeatable Questions: 1. Values: How many are there? How are they repeated? How often are they repeated? Are there stories that are connected to them? 2. Strategy: Can you draw it? Can you draw it and it all looks the same? 3. Vision: If everyone on your team wrote down 4 sentences to “What are we trying to accomplish?” How close would their answers be? How about the organization as a whole.

You can’t really improve until you start to eliminate (release). Key Part of the Strategy: Focus on Momentum You don’t focus on improving everything, you focus on improving what is essential to your momentum, begin eliminating outside that. Fire Bullets, then Cannonballs. Don’t just improve the quality, improve the quality around momentum and release programs that aren’t momentum contributors.

3 Basic Categories: 1. What needs improved? 2. What needs simplified/clarified? 3. What needs released? To make an improvement isn’t complicated, but to go to another level is.

Switch the thinking from “Symbols are what you inherit” to “Symbols can be what you create”. Symbols communicate what is valued. Resistance to change comes because we now tilt away from something we currently value and towards something we don’t. The Power of the Symbol is in its felt meaning. The deeper the symbol, the deeper the meaning.

Focus on playing the role that is needed instead of the role that is familiar. The Roles: The role of the coach is to elevate performance of the group. The role of the counselor is to create clarity on where clients are, where they want to be, and how to get there. The role of the consultant is to provide insight that creates actionable improvement. The role of the manager is to align individual actions with overall goals and provide accountability to those actions. You need to know which role you’re in and play the ones that’s needed not the one you like the most.

Virtues like ambition, courage, vision, work-ethic have become highly distorted by our current state of struggle. The baseline has fallen and is now significantly burdened. Virtue is now met with skepticism. Courage is now met with cynicism. A desire to be healthy is viewed as over the top. A desire to make an impact is viewed as over the top, why aren’t we good enough. A message for the person who is ambitious and driven: For all the criticism you’ve received on your ambition, your courage and drive, it’s still too low. As the baseline keeps falling, what you previously thought you could do is still lower than what you can actually do!

The conversation doesn’t mean that you’ll accomplish what you set out to do, but the absence of that conversation ensures that you won’t. Great Leadership: 1. Great Leaders can identify which outside inputs enhance and distract from the most important conversation. 2. Great Leaders can engage in the outside conversation without bringing it into the culture. Application: 1. Quit saying, “Oh, we’re just talking”! 2. Be aware of the conversation 3. View conversation as the most powerful culture shaping tool you have.

The Price of Impact is criticism. Sociopath: no regard for others’ rights or feelings, lack empathy and remorse, will lead to exploiting and manipulating others for personal gain. Key Tips: – Know You’re Going to Get Hit – Anticipate the Reasonable Response – Stay Connected to the Struggle

God will take you through a process. 3 Things Cyclically 1. Collect 2. Discern 3. Pray You just keep going through that over and over again. Prioritize the perspective that is aligned with your purpose, not your perspective. Everyone will tell you what they think you should do. Accept it, and then do what you need to do.

Episode 231 Also Available On: How Leaders Decide What to Work On May 29 Leader Notes Intro Feeling I've [...]

The Trap of Experience is to universalize what is unique. To universalize what is unique is to dismiss all other data other than what you have experienced personally. We sometimes underestimate the level of our ignorance. This Is dangerous because you’re: 1. Wrong 2. Stuck The greatest source of your wisdom is your awareness of your ignorance. There is nothing that exists that is all bad. Don’t turn it into a game.

Burnout: State of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. Burnout isn’t a medical diagnosis (Mayo Clinic), could be a number of factors like depression coming together that creates what we call burnout. The difference between burnout and stress is that burnout is extended stress that can’t be lifted. Even when the stressors are all gone, the stress is the same.

Episode 114 Theme It February 9, 2022 Also Available On: Leader Notes Why Theme Your Year? 1. Keeps us from [...]

Brave is Reactive, Bold is Proactive. When you have the title, you must value the impact more than the title. Bold Leadership 1. Intentionally challenges the Status Quo. 2. Is more focused on opportunity than obstacles. 3. Is willing to be wrong.

Leader Notes: John Maxwell, “Trust is change in your pocket.” Non-Leaders define themselves by their authority not by the permission of the people. There is a world of difference between “I can do this because I have the right to,” and “I know some people won’t like it, but I still believe it’s worth it because this is for the best.” The goal is not credibility, the goal is impact. Applications for Development 1. Gain an awareness of the change in your pocket: How do people respond when you propose change? Are they pushing back on the change, or are they pushing back on you. 2. If you have a staff, have this conversation. 3. Pick your battles.

Who you are is more important than what you accomplish. Leaders will not change their identity for the sake of a short-term gain. Leaders view financial profitability as one factor, among many factors, that contribute to ultimate success. Think Pony’s. View Culture as Fluid & Fixed.

An over-abundance of options creates paralysis. An over-abundance of information does the same. 1. Don’t underestimate the difficulty, and the significance, of a first step. 2. Ask, “What can lead people to actually do.”

The life that you create is first created in your thoughts, so if you’re not thinking like a leader you won’t lead. Book, “The Score Takes Care of Itself” – Bill Walsh Quote, “Culture precedes positive results” – Bill Walsh Event + Response = Outcome. Leaders are very distrusting of an unexpected win. How? – Obsess about habits. – Make your energy in the process match your energy for the event.

List #1: What can you not fail at? – This list should be short, and it defines priority. List #2: What do you want to do? List #3: What should you not do.

Tip #1: Prep for Rest Tip #2: Don’t Waste your Rest Tip #3: Don’t Interrupt it for everything

Episode 230 Also Available On: Know Your Excuse May 22 Leader Notes Intro We know: Growth and Comfort [...]

The further removed you are from a typical response, the more frustrated you will be by a typical response. Help your team learn to respond like a great leader, expect them to respond like an average person.

Buy-In is the shared ownership of an idea or initiative. It is lifeless to have something that you spend 1/3 of your life at that is just a means to an end and you really don’t care about it. The #1 factor for why you’re not gettin buy-in is you never give anyone else an opportunity to have ownership. Key question: What can I create ownership of that is meaningful?

Calling is the undeniable connection between human activity and divine purpose. Calling will only be sustained by two sources: your confidence or your faith. Calling stands at the intersection of Your God-Given ability, what you deeply care about, and God’s purpose