Maxwell Leadership Executive Podcast #B2: Soul Leadership with Steve Robinson and Jared Cagle
Jan 23, 2026
In this engaging discussion, Steve Robinson, a pastor and author of 'Soul Leadership,' emphasizes the crucial link between a leader's inner health and organizational culture. He dives into how unprocessed trauma impacts leadership and decision-making, illuminating the brain's response to trauma. Listeners learn practical self-regulation tools for emotional resilience, and the importance of seeking trauma-informed support. Robinson's insights reveal how caring for one’s inner self fosters psychologically safe and thriving workplaces.
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Inner Life Shapes Culture
- A leader's inner life shapes organizational culture through subconscious mirroring.
- A dysregulated leader neurologically produces a dysregulated organization via mirror neurons.
Katrina Led To Crisis-Induced Trauma
- Steve Robinson describing post-Katrina burnout shows crisis-induced cumulative trauma in a leader's life.
- He explains how repeated crises reorganized his brain and led to an 18-month recovery and 15-year healing journey.
How Trauma Hijacks Decision-Making
- Trauma reorganizes brain function by overwhelming the prefrontal cortex and activating the emotional limbic system.
- When triggered the prefrontal cortex goes offline and leaders often make poor, unwise decisions.
