When Life Doesn’t Seem to Work for Those We Lead | An Interview with Roger Connors

Roger Connors has worked in leadership consulting for over 35 years and is a graduate faculty professional member of Utah Valley University. He is also adjunct for the Woodbury School of Business MBA program, and a four-time New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. His most recent book is Divine Patterns: Seeking the Blessings of Heaven. Roger has served as president of the Kennewick, Washington mission, stake president and branch president in the Provo Missionary Training Center, and currently serves in a Provo young single adult stake presidency. Highlights 01:15 Introduction to the topic of patterns 01:30 Roger’s background in leadership 03:30 How can we have smoother transitions in leadership? Start with results. Know what you want to accomplish How do we get people to change their thinking? Create new and powerful experiences 07:20 Cognitive bias and but leading by the Spirit 12:00 How can we get people to change their thinking? 12:40 Real life examples of suspending belief bias from when Roger was a mission president 14:30 As leaders we keep doing the same things over and over expecting different results 15:00 Roger talks about his new book Divine Patterns: Seeking the Blessing of Heaven. He explains how patterns tell us what to do. Especially patterns in the scriptures. 16:50 Where do we start as leaders when we are trying to help someone? Roger suggests starting by identifying patterns that could help that person in their specific situation. 17:20 We need to be careful applying patterns where they don’t fit. For example, the 5 steps of repentance. 22:30 We don’t earn blessings, we qualify for them by doing what we can. It’s up to God to deliver what He sees is best for us. He will make sure that the right thing happens at the right time for us. 23:40 Promising blessings as a leader 26:50 You can have what you want or you can have something better. Remember that God’s will is always better. 30:00 When you give your life to God, He will make something out of you that you could never make out of yourself 30:40 Roger shares experiences of listening to two different apostles speak and the very different talks they gave about following the spirit 32:15 Hold on, continue faithful, and God will come through for you. Bind yourself to Jesus Christ. 33:20 Roger shares his own difficult experience of coming home early from being a mission president because he was diagnosed with cancer. Trials can make us feel like victims. Roger’s advice is to stop focusing on why it’s happening. The right question to ask is what? What should I do next? 35:00 The main takeaways from Roger’s book Be conscious of the patterns found in the scriptures to help yourself and others Trust in the Lord’s timing and His way 35:50 Roger shares his own personal experience of trusting God and following promptings 38:15 God wants to be involved in your life. As leaders we need to help people see the hand of the Lord is their lives. 40:00 Roger shares how to find patterns in the scriptures using Ether 12:6. He shares his own trial of faith. 42:50 More scriptural patterns. There are a lot of simple scriptures that have powerful concepts. 45:30 Remember that patterns are not formulas Links Divine Patterns: Seeking the Blessings of Heaven Read the TRANSCRIPT of this podcast Listen on YouTube Get 14-day access to the Core Leader Library The Leading Saints Podcast has ranked in the top 20 Christianity podcasts in iTunes, gets over 500,000 listens each month and has over 10 million total downloads as part of nonprofit Leading Saints' mission to help Latter-day Saints be better prepared to lead. Learn more and listen to any of the past episodes for free at LeadingSaints.org. Past guests include Emily Belle Freeman, David Butler, Hank Smith, John Bytheway, Liz Wiseman, Stephen M. R. Covey, Julie Beck, Brad Wilcox, Jody Moore, Tony Overbay, John H. Groberg, Elaine Dalton, Tad R. Callister, J. Devn Cornish, Dennis B.