Leadership is hard. There are so many systems to manage and personalities to navigate on top of the small, but urgent tasks that await you. It’s all you can do to keep chaos at bay, so you keep your head down, working furiously, and hope you can make it home by dinner.

Unfortunately, poor leadership is often a process, and many leaders don’t notice the downward spiral until it’s too late.

In today’s episode of the Think Orange Podcast, we’ll hear from our guests, Brad Lomenick and Jeff Henderson as they discuss why rest, emotional health, and consistent dialogue are the keys to your success as a leader.

Topic Timeline:

Dave introduces today’s episode guests, Brad Lomenick, founder of BLINC Consulting and author of H3 Leadership and The Catalyst Leader, and Jeff Henderson, lead pastor of Gwinnett Church and cofounder of Preaching Rocket (2:51)

Brad talks about his time as a leader at Catalyst Conference (8:40)

Brad talks about the definitive moment he had in his leadership (10:50)

Brad talks about a time when he and his team celebrated the accomplishment of selling out an event and how he thought it was a waste of time (12:15)

His team gave him two gifts: An angel doll and a Satan doll. His coworkers said these dolls represented Brad’s two sides in leadership (14:46)

In that moment, Brad said he had a realization that his leadership was decaying (16:51)

Dave introduces Jeff Henderson into the conversation (19:00)

Jeff introduces himself (19:35)

Jeff talks about how his offstage leadership at home with his wife and two children impacts his leadership at work (20:50)

Jeff talks about the importance of leading yourself through preventative counseling (21:59)

Jeff talks about the particular challenge those who work in ministry face (22:46)

What are the systems, groups, or process that help you get a regular checkup? (23:54)

Jeff and Dave talk about the difference between onstage availability and offstage credibility (24:23)

Jeff shares a story about a first-time visitor at Gwinnett Church (24:47)

We’re not just on platforms, this is a true pastoring role. (25:19)

Dave says as leaders, we need to be out there kissing babies and shaking hands because it enhances what we do onstage (25:43)

Jeff talks about how he finds margin in his life (26:08)

We live in a world where we hustle 24/7, but ‘here’ is greater than hustle (29:02)

Rest isn’t necessarily taking a nap. It can be about pouring into relationships (29:40)

Ask yourself, “What’s it like to be on the other side of me?” (30:04)

You can’t have an emotionally healthy organization if you have unhealthy people on your team (30:44)

Jeff talks about what will happen when a leader asks people what it’s like to be on the other side of their leadership (31:27)

Jeff says as a leader, we bring a climate with us, and when you walk into the room, that climate is with you. When you walk away, it still exists for awhile (32:35)

Kevin Jennings, producer of the podcast, asks Dave and Jeff how to encourage your team to be emotionally healthy (32:38)

Dave says modeling your emotional health helps a larger group (34:01)

Jeff talks about how he picked one fruit of the spirit a year to dig deeper into (35:37)

Jeff talks about when he turned 50 years old and had a low point. The people around him encouraged him to take 30 days off for rest (36:01)

Jeff talks about how ministry leaders can manage their personal climates when working with kids (37:23)

Jeff says being better listeners and observers of people will help ministry leaders reach people more (38:06)

Jeff offers words of advice and encouragement to student pastors (38:15)

How you lead up is really important. It’s more important than how you execute your ministry (38:36)

Important but not urgent things are the ones that can derail your leadership (39:26)

Dave talks about how many churches miss the mark on social media (40:27)

Dave and Kevin offer closing remarks (42:23)