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The Leader's Journey

Why words matter, burnout, separation anxiety in dogs, becoming an expert, and new podcast episodes!

Published over 1 year ago • 3 min read

Hi!

There is a lot to catch up on since we shared our last newsletter, so let's jump into it!

Finished The Leader as a Coach podcast series

This podcast series explored the idea that "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." Here are the links to that full series.

New podcast episode with Ben Sternke and Matt Tebbe

In the episode, Orienting ourselves in the deconstruction process, we talk with Ben Sternke and Matt Tebbe, authors of “Having the Mind of Christ: Eight Axioms to Cultivate a Robust Faith.” During the conversation, we explore deconstruction, how our response to it impacts those we lead, and much more!

This was a challenging, curious, and compassionate conversation, I highly recommend checking it out.

New Podcast Series: Leading Up and Out

Leadership is not just about being in charge. The best leaders know how to use influence and relationships to lead up, down, and sideways in order to shape the things they care about.

In part 1 of the series, Jim and Trisha explore what it means to lead up, leading yourself, the continuum of commitment, emotional bank accounts, and much more.

Jim and Mike are launching a new Pastor's Learning Community cohort starting soon

This fall, Jim Herrington and Mike DeRuyter will be facilitating a pastor’s learning community that we want to invite you to consider joining. If you're interested, I recommend registering or reaching out soon because the group is starting on September 15.

You can find the details and registration information here and if you have any questions, you can contact Jim at jim@theleadersjourney.us.

That's it for our updates today. I hope you enjoy the resources and reflections below!

Thanks for reading!

– Tim


Resources & Reflections

Words Matter

Shared by Aundrea Baker

Words matter more than we imagine. They matter in more ways than we imagine and they’re not just vessels for transporting a thought from one person to another. They are the thoughts.” –Marilyn McEntyre

There are times when I’m in conversation with someone where one of us has difficulty finding the “right” words to express ourselves. These moments have caused me to become curious about the power of words. In this podcast, Nathan Foster of Renovare’, interviews author, Marilyn McEntyre about why words matter and the various ways words impact individuals and society.

> Marilyn McEntyre — Words Matter (podcast)

Anxiety in a simple two-member system

Shared by Mike DeRuyter

I don’t own a dog and I have never trained a dog. However, this short video from Cesar Millan discusses how he thinks about solving ‘separation anxiety’ in dogs. Sharing this is not intended to suggest any endorsement of Cesar’s methodology or agreement with everything he says. Rather, my main interest is noting some things here about how Anxiety functions in a simple two-member system.

  1. Anxiety is driving the behavior. Rather than seeing a ‘bad’ dog (or a bad co-worker, congregant, family member) Cesar sees an Anxious dog.
  2. Anxiety is shared and reinforced. The anxious behavior of the dog makes the human anxious. The anxious human acts in ways that automatically ramp up the dog’s anxiety even more, no matter how well intended.
  3. The way out is to think about the situation factually. Cesar tries to gain a larger perspective on the source of the anxiety. Gaining a more factual perspective about a situation or relationship is always a way of improving decision-making and functioning.
  4. Ultimately, the human owner must solve the situation by interrupting the Anxiety in herself or himself. This is a fundamental switch from solving the problem that we perceive to be in the other (dog). A calmer human results in a calmer dog.

> Cesar Explains How To Fix Separation Anxiety With Your Dog (video)

Are you struggling with burnout?

Shared by Trisha Taylor

Leaders tell me just about every day that they think they might be struggling with burnout and when I hear their stories, I think that they probably are and with good reason. Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski wrote a terrific book about burnout but I’d recommend that first people listen to their interview with Brene Brown. I appreciate that the Nagoski sisters are practical, funny and balance an individual view of burnout with a systems view.

> Burnout and How to Complete the Stress Cycle (podcast)

The 4 things it takes to be an expert

Shared by Tim McGee

Many of us have heard of the 10,000-hour rule popularized by Malcolm Gladwell as a benchmark for what it takes to become an expert in a specific discipline. This video from the Youtube channel Veritasium takes that idea a step further arguing that simply investing the time isn’t enough and shares 4 more factors needed to move toward mastery.

> The 4 things it takes to be an expert (video)

Bonus: You can check out the sources used for the video in the description section below the video.


Thank you for being part of our learning community. As a team of lifelong learners, we frequently share resources with each other. This newsletter is a space for us to share some of what we are learning, thinking about, and being encouraged by, with you. If you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it and keep the learning going. If you've received this from a friend, you can subscribe here and get it direct to your inbox.

The Leader's Journey

As a team of lifelong learners, we frequently share resources with each other. This newsletter is a space for us to share some of what we are learning, thinking about, and being encouraged by with you.

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