In this episode of the Unseen Leadership podcast, Chandler Vannoy and Mike Kelsey are joined by Horst Schulze the former president and co-founder of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company and founder of the Capella Hotel Group. He is also the author of Excellence Wins. During their conversation, they discuss defining ourselves with excellence, making employees feel like a part of the organization, and being sincere in our leadership. QUOTES FROM EPISODE 63: "Excellence is never an accident. It's always the result of high intent and hard work.""Excellence is doing our very best in the functions that we fulfill in our work.""It's not the product, it's more the relationship: how you are treated, how you were respected.""You have to give people a place where they feel a part.""Leadership creates an environment in which the employees want to do it and feel a part of it.""That is a serious issue with managers: moving from problem to solution instead of moving from problem to analysis to test to solution, and using the people connected with the process to do that.""The urgent thing has to be done, you can't let the fire burn around you, but after you are finished, how do you make sure the fire never happens again?""I cannot love my neighbor as myself, but I can try.""If I can identify their talent and help them to be successful in a way they can apply the talent, that's how I want to select employees.""From today on, know that in a new role as a leader you have the honor of impacting the life of people positively." RESOURCES MENTIONED Excellence Wins by Horst Schulze 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey HorstSchulze.com This Episode's Sponsor: No matter how many people you have on staff at your church, there’s only so much you can accomplish in a day, right? Your church exists to serve your community, so the mission of your church and its staff is to reach as many people as you can. So BELAY, the innovative staffing solution with over 10 years of experience serving churches with virtual assistants, bookkeepers and social media strategists, is offering a free download of their resource, ‘Church Leaders: Essential Strategies to Unleash Productivity.’  Let BELAY help your church live its mission in your community by helping you juggle less and accomplish more. Visit belaysolutions.com/lifeway for your free download.

In this episode of the Unseen Leadership podcast, Chandler Vannoy and Mike Kelsey are joined by Tyler Reagin founder and CEO of The Life-Giving Co., former president of Catalyst, and author of The Life-Giving Leader and his latest, Leading Things You Didn't Start. During their conversation, they discuss calling out uniqueness in leaders, moving from self-awareness to self-management, and honoring the past as a new leader. QUOTES FROM EPISODE 61: "We spend our days chasing other people's uniqueness.""If we don't believe that how He uniquely made us matches what He called us to do, that is a bad theology.""Do not spend your days trying to become someone you're not. Become confident in that uniqueness God has for you.""My credibility is what gets me in the room. It's my EQ that keeps me in the room.""You have to move from self-awareness to self-management.""The more successful in ministry you become, the more isolated you become.""If you come in there and you do not honor what they've been through, what they've been working on, where they've come from, you will lose influence from the moment go.""Honor the things you want to celebrate so that they understand what you value.""Every day I want to find somebody I can celebrate and somebody I can bring life to.""Become proud of how God uniquely made you and it will blow your mind how He is going to call you to stuff when you trust that calling." RESOURCES MENTIONED The Life-Giving Co. Catalyst The Life-Giving Leader by Tyler Reagin Leading Things You Didn't Start by Tyler Reagin Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves 10Ten Project This Episode's Sponsor: No matter how many people you have on staff at your church, there’s only so much you can accomplish in a day, right? Your church exists to serve your community, so the mission of your church and its staff is to reach as many people as you can. So BELAY, the innovative staffing solution with over 10 years of experience serving churches with virtual assistants, bookkeepers and social media strategists, is offering a free download of their resource, ‘Church Leaders: Essential Strategies to Unleash Productivity.’  Let BELAY help your church live its mission in your community by helping you juggle less and accomplish more. Visit belaysolutions.com/lifeway for your free download.

Jon Tyson, Lead Pastor at Church of the City in New York and author of Beautiful Resistance, shares profound insights on the power of prayer and the challenges of leadership. He emphasizes the importance of cultivating love while balancing compassion and conviction in today’s complex world. Tyson further explores how toxic ambition can harm church dynamics and discusses the necessity of intimate prayer to strengthen leadership. His thoughts on navigating social media as a ministry tool add a modern perspective to spiritual leadership.

In this episode of the Unseen Leadership podcast, Chandler Vannoy and Mike Kelsey are joined by Michael Hyatt who is the former chairman and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers and author of many books including Win at Work and Succeed at Life. During their conversation, they discuss self leadership, how vision drives results, and adding constraints around your work to achieve more. QUOTES FROM EPISODE 60: "I was on the verge of losing my family and compromising what were my most important priorities all on the altar of my ambition.""If you can't lead yourself, you don't really have the right or the capacity to lead anybody else.""If you are leading people, you are taking them somewhere, and if you don't know where you are taking them, you aren't really qualified to be a leader.""Once you have vision, then you can create alignment.""Clarity of vision drives an acceleration of results.""One of the things that is critically important for success is likability.""Once you've hit about 55 hours per week, you've maxed out your productivity. And worse than that you blow out some other really important things in your life like your health and your most important relationships.""Life is more than work and you will actually achieve more by doing less if you put some constraints around your work and force yourself not to work all the time.""Our thinking really does shape the outcomes in our lives." RESOURCES MENTIONED Win at Work and Succeed at Life by Michael Hyatt and Megan Hyatt Miller The Vision-Driven Leader by Michael Hyatt Living Forward by Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy You Are the Placebo by Dr. Joe Dispenza This Episode's Sponsor: No matter how many people you have on staff at your church, there’s only so much you can accomplish in a day, right? Your church exists to serve your community, so the mission of your church and its staff is to reach as many people as you can. So BELAY, the innovative staffing solution with over 10 years of experience serving churches with virtual assistants, bookkeepers and social media strategists, is offering a free download of their resource, ‘Church Leaders: Essential Strategies to Unleash Productivity.’  Let BELAY help your church live its mission in your community by helping you juggle less and accomplish more. Visit belaysolutions.com/lifeway for your free download.

In this episode of the Unseen Leadership podcast, Chandler Vannoy and Mike Kelsey are joined by Jonathan Pokluda who is the lead pastor of Harris Creek Baptist Church in Waco, Texas and author of Outdated. During their conversation, they discuss long obedience, how selfish ambition is not fulfilling, and how healthy leadership requires service. QUOTES FROM EPISODE 59: "We underestimate what we can do with long obedience in the same direction and we way overestimate what we can do in a short period of time.""We must learn as leaders delayed gratification and faithfulness.""Every moment is training for a future moment.""So much of faithfulness starts with doing the things that nobody wants to do.""If I am preaching or writing books or doing podcasts for any reason other than the renown and fame of Jesus Christ, it is not going to satisfy me.""There is always selfish ambition sitting right beside kingdom ambition.""I'm constantly tempted to think that leadership is all about authority.""Anytime we see leadership in the Scriptures it is really defined as service.""The biggest enemy to our quiet time is our iPhone.""I think one day we will be face-to-face with Jesus and we will see our greatest moments of productivity were deep contemplative prayers.""Your greatest way to be self-aware is to understand the thoughts you are feeding." RESOURCES MENTIONED Outdated by Jonathan Pokluda Bible App by Olive Tree Love Does by Bob Goff This Episode's Sponsor: No matter how many people you have on staff at your church, there’s only so much you can accomplish in a day, right? Your church exists to serve your community, so the mission of your church and its staff is to reach as many people as you can.So BELAY, the innovative staffing solution with over 10 years of experience serving churches with virtual assistants, bookkeepers and social media strategists, is offering a free download of their resource, ‘Church Leaders: Essential Strategies to Unleash Productivity.’ Let BELAY help your church live its mission in your community by helping you juggle less and accomplish more. Visit belaysolutions.com/lifeway for your free download.

In this episode of the Unseen Leadership podcast, Chandler Vannoy and Mike Kelsey are joined by Rich Villodas who is the author of The Deeply Formed Life and lead pastor at New Life Fellowship in New York City. During their conversation, they discuss the integration between soul and role, the balance of reading and experience, and our ability to grow in self-differentiation. QUOTES FROM EPISODE 58: "Leadership must be this integration between soul and role.""Don't aspire to a role that your soul is not ready for.""Just filling the position because it needs to be filled can lead to a lot of heartache.""I must recognize certain conversations require particular spaces in order to shepherd people well.""Find yourself among people for enough time and you will come across lots of things to help you in your experience - conflicts, disagreements, criticism.""I am trying to become aware of the way these misconceptions shape the way I see myself and shape the way I lead others.""Self-differentiation at its core is about remaining close to myself and remaining close to others, especially in times of high anxiety, and resisting the polar opposite pull of either cutting people off or finding ourselves enmeshed in them.""How do I lead people that disagree with me? By first tending to what is happening inside of me.""We need to hold these things together if we are going to be faithful in the particular generational social and cultural moment we find ourselves in.""We have often been discipled into superficiality." RESOURCES MENTIONED The Deeply Formed Life by Rich Villodas Generation to Generation by Edwin Friedman A Failure of Nerve by Edwin Friedman The Pastor as a Minor Poet by Craig Barnes

In this episode of the Unseen Leadership podcast, Chandler Vannoy and Josh Hunter are joined by Mike Kelsey who is the lead pastor of preaching and culture at McLean Bible Church in the Washington, D.C., area. During their conversation, they discuss the process of growing as a young leader, finding the balance of an internal and external call, and evaluating and examining social media in our lives. QUOTES FROM EPISODE 57: "God began to show me, 'You have a passion for communication and you have a passion for truth and that is for a reason.'""Your character, the inner life, has to be stronger than your external responsibilities or reputation or else you will get crushed.""I love seeing leaders who are young and don't know what they are doing and giving them a sandbox to play in because God wants to do big things through them.""God I know you have me here for a reason and there is a responsibility and a stewardship that comes with that influence.""You may have gifting, and you don't always have to wait for somebody else to validate that, but that is one of God's designs for the local church.""There is a benefit in being rooted in a local church where other brothers and sisters in Christ, pastors, and elders are able to say they see that in you.""I love team leadership. I love having some folks that fill in my gaps and I can help fill in their gaps and we sharpen each other.""I didn't make a lot of big leadership mistakes in my early days, but honestly I think that was my biggest mistake.""You are where you are for a reason, and, under authority, take some risks for good reason, to make the glory of God known.""You don't realize how much your feed is actually controlling the feed in your mind.""It's not always wise to just be an open book." RESOURCES MENTIONED The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer The Libby App Deep Work by Cal Newport

In this episode of the Unseen Leadership podcast, Chandler Vannoy and Josh Hunter are joined by Lisa Whittle who is a sought after Bible teacher, founder of Ministry Strong, and host of the popular Jesus Over Everything podcast. She is the author of seven books, including her newest Bible study release Jesus Over Everything. During their conversation, they discuss what it means to be a natural-born leader, needing a revival of the soul, and the benefits of being patient in the wait. QUOTES FROM EPISODE 56: "I never meant to be in these roles that I am in today, I just sort of led with my gifts where I was and it took me where I am.""One of the most important lessons to me was that their response is not your responsibility.""One mistake I made was wasting time worrying about some fake arrival point.""I did not realize the value of community.""In 2012, I was going to quit everything - writing, speaking, my blog - and I thought to myself, why can't I?""The Lord really spoke to my heart and gave me a picture of revival.""If you leave Jesus, your leadership is doomed.""It's really about any books that drive you closer to the Father, because that is the relationship that is going to hold your leadership together.""Some of the most powerful ministry I have ever done has been in a room with five people.""Making plans isn't a bad thing, but hold them loosely because God will likely change them.""Wait with belief that God is going to do something amazing with your life, but you are not on pause. There is a world in front of you that needs to be served.""It is to your benefit to be exercising your gifts and practicing.""Your leadership will only be as good as your relationship with Jesus is." RESOURCES MENTIONED Jesus Over Everything by Lisa Whittle Jesus Over Everything Podcast Ministry Strong Revolution by George Barna The Wounded Healer by Henri Nouwen Called Creatives

In this episode of the Unseen Leadership podcast, Chandler Vannoy and Josh Hunter are joined by Bruce Ashford who is a Professor of Theology and Culture at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has also worked on the mission field in over 40 countries, and the author of multiple books, including Letters to an American Christian, One Nation Under God, and his latest, How to Survive an Election Season. During their conversation, they discuss being shaped by and serving institutions, learning to move past unfair criticism that comes with being a leader, and stepping up during moments of crisis. QUOTES FROM EPISODE 55: "It is quite the change from leading a movement of your own that you and your friends started moving into an institution that has history, tradition, rules, and an authority hierarchy.""Institutions are good things and they should shape us.""We really ought to not say everything we want to say sometimes. We need institutions to shape us.""If you are going into a leadership role, there will be naysayers and critics.""When I was younger, I thought that if I was a good leader I would get universal acclaim.""If you are really leading out you will get some serious criticism, much of it will be unfair or inaccurate, and you have to learn to deal with it and move past it.""If your leadership role at a given institution is far and away the most important thing in your life, maybe rethink your life a little bit.""Unless it's a biography of Jesus Christ, you are dealing with a deeply flawed human being and you don't want to imitate everything that person says or does.""All of the people we admire, if they have done something big in life as a leader, they have probably also messed up big time.""It's really during moments of crisis and criticism that as a leader you've really got to step up and show resolve and humility." RESOURCES MENTIONED Letters to an American Christian by Bruce Ashford One Nation Under God by Bruce Ashford How to Survive an Election Season by Bruce Ashford A Time to Build by Yuval Levin Churchill by Paul Johnson Winston Churchill: Walking With Destiny by Andrew Roberts The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self by Carl Trueman

In this episode of the Unseen Leadership podcast, Chandler Vannoy and Josh Hunter are joined by Trevin Wax who is senior vice president of Theology and Communications at Lifeway Christian Resources. He is also the general editor of The Gospel Project, and the author of multiple books, including Rethink Your Self, This Is Our Time, and Gospel Centered Teaching. During their conversation, they discuss how to produce high-level content, the cultural trends for young leaders in the years to come, and how to create a habit of writing. QUOTES FROM EPISODE 54: “We should first look up to God to see who we were created to be, then look around to the people of God that we belong to, then last we should look to yourself to understand who we are.” “God doesn’t just lead us to the valley. He leads us through it.” “Indecisiveness can be very counterproductive in leadership for your young leaders.” “It takes a certain level of mental energy to consistently be creative over the long haul.” “If you want to write consistently, then you need to learn to write and not be afraid of your reader.” “You need to write to serve the reader.” “If you want to write constantly, you have to read constantly.” “One of the misconceptions I had earlier on was that once you step into greater leadership was that the weight of the execution work you have to do would get easier. But it doesn’t.” “In a remote work environment, it will be harder for young leaders to stand out and rise up in an organization.” RESOURCES MENTIONED Rethink Yourself by Trevin Wax 4 Disciplines of Execution by Sean Covey The Accidental Creative by Todd Henry Strong and Weak by Andy Crouch The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm by William Manchester