Stephen Blandino joins us on the podcast to discuss his new book Insanely Practical Leadership. Stephen has delivered a book and resources that will be valuable to both learned and natural leaders.

insanelypracticalleadership.com

Send questions for Back Channel with Foth to aaron.santmyire@agwmafrica.org

Hey there and welcome back to the Clarity Podcast. This podcast is all about providing clarity, insight and encouragement for life and mission. My name is Aaron Santmyire and I'm going to be your host.

Today we have the phenomenal opportunity to have with us back on the podcast Stephen Blandino. Many of you know that Stephen's a and author, he's a pastor, he's a podcaster. And today we get to sit down and learn from him again.

Once again on his new book, Insanely Practical Leadership, Stephen will share. In the beginning of the podcast, there's people that are natural leaders and those who are learned leaders.

And he's written a book I believe that will help us all.

Whether you're a natural leader and you're looking to train and serve people that are developing in leadership and the things that maybe you take second nature or you just do naturally and it's hard for you to understand why other people don't do them. Or maybe you're a learn leader like me and you just need you're continually learning and trying to grow and understand what it is to be a leader.

Really value Stephen because he brings leadership, understanding and principles and he also lets and shares about being a spiritual leader. Always great to have Steven on the podcast and there'll be links in the show notes for this new book that's coming out. I think it'll be a blessing.

He's put great resources with it too. It's something that you could use. There's videos that can go along with that as far as a master's class, a masterclass.

And I think it's something that we can all use as we're training leaders. We're developing ourselves, growing personally developing others. Just a great resource.

Would ask you to continue to send in your questions for Backchannel with Foth. That's where we sit down with Dick Foth and get to learn from him.

It's always great to have Dick on the podcast and would ask you to continue to subscribe to the podcast. I know the podcasts that I subscribe to well, they're the ones I listen to.

They show up on my phone on Monday morning and I know what I'm going to be listening to throughout the week and do also just want to remind you my book A Caring Family came out in December and it's a book that I a clarion call just the return back to the importance of family. As I share it in the book. I spent a lot of time trying to be unique and special, but ultimately what's Important is being loved and cared for.

Well, there's no time better than now to get started, so here we go. Greetings and welcome back to the Clarity podcast. So excited to have our friend of the podcast, Pastor Stephen Blandino, back with us today.

Stephen, welcome back to the podcast. Podcast.

Hey, thanks so much, Aaron. Always good to be with you.

Stephen.

This is going to be a special episode because we're going to get to spend some time talking about your book that's coming out, Insanely Practical Leadership. So looking forward to that.

Stephen, will you share a little bit about yourself before I start peppering you with questions about this new book coming out?

Yeah, so I pastor a church in Fort Worth, Texas, called Seven City Church we planted 12 years ago. Hard to believe. And, and so have a great team. God's doing some, some really good things.

Also do some writing with Influence magazine as well as writing books and all that good stuff. So, yeah, that's, that's a little, little peek into what I do, who I am. All that good stuff.

Yeah. Enjoy. And always, Joy. We were talking before we hit record. Stephen is definitely the most prominent guest on the podcast, and I share it.

I love having him on because he has high character, he has great content, and he's. He's fun to interview, so it makes easy.

So.

But I really enjoy having you. Steven. Thank you for being on the podcast. Thank you for investing into my life and the listeners. And so today we're going to jump into this new book.

So can you share just a little bit how you landed on this. On the, on this title and, and what your focus of. The larger focus of the book is before I start asking some more micro questions?

Yeah. Yeah. So, of course, the title of a book is always the thing that you're trying to get just right, you know, as is your publisher.

But, you know, here's the, here's where this came about. Some people are natural leaders, and for them, leadership just comes easily. It. It's like it. They lead from the gut. You know what I'm saying?

They have this intuitive sense of what to do, and they can just lead very naturally. But then others, and this would be me, are learned leaders, meaning we have to think about it before we lead.

And, and we had to figure it out the hard way. We had to lear through trial and error and ups and downs and twists and turns and all of that.

And, and so all of us want to be natural leaders, but the truth is most of us aren't. We're learned leaders. And what I've discovered is that research actually backs that up.

In fact, the Gallup organization discovered that only 10% of people possess the raw talent to manage. And I recognize there's a difference between management and leadership. But, but the, the way they.

Management is someone responsible for leading a team toward common objectives. So if only 10% of us have the raw talent to manage and lead, then what does that mean for the other 90%? And that's what this book is about.

It's for the other 90%, if you will. It's for the person that says, hey, I'm not a natural born leader, I'm a learned leader. But here's what I want you to know.

You can be an extremely effective leader even though you're not a natural born leader.

In fact, Aaron, years ago I heard John Maxwell, who obviously is a natural born leader, I heard him say that learned leaders are very good at teaching and coaching leadership.

And the reason why is because they had to figure it out for themselves again through trial and error, through coaching and training, the ups and downs of leadership. They had to learn how to lead.

And therefore they know how to teach leadership in a clear, systematic and easy to understand way because they had to figure it out. It's like, have you ever talked to a natural leader and you're like, how do you do that?

And they can't really explain it because it's just so intuitive to them. Whereas a learned leader can almost tell you step by step, well, I did this and did this and did this and did this because.

Because that's how they had to learn it. So I'm not saying that one leader is better than another. That's not, that's not the point.

But I wrote the book to help, to give people a very clear and insanely practical roadmap of how to lead. So for learned leaders, it's fantastic like that. And here's the value it brings for the natural leader.

For the natural leader, it gives them a tool to train and equip the leaders on their team. Here's what it does. It puts into words what comes so naturally and intuitively for them.

It's good stuff. Good stuff. And man, it, it's a, it's an excellent book. And I would consider myself definitely a learned leader. Also.

Your spiritual gifting or one of your giftings, I see, Stephen, is you're able to articulate all this. And so you might be a learned leader like me, but you're not able to write a book like this.

And so I, I think, you know, I mean, at least for Me, but you are, you have this gifting, and God's given you to be able to write and to, to correlate and put things in a way that, like you said, other leaders can take and use, whether you're a natural leader or maybe you're a learned leader like me, and you just don't have the gifting of, to write on leadership. And so, and you have it. And so it's a, it's a, it's a definite, definitely a gift.

One of the things you share about is focusing, frequency and accountability. What are some reasons these are vital for growing yourself as a, as a, as a leader?

Yeah. In the first chapter, I talk about how to grow you. In fact, the book is, is, is divided into two sections. Six chapters are about how to grow you.

And the second six chapters are about how to. How to. Or excuse me, the first six chapters are about how to lead you. The second six chapters are about how to lead others.

And so every chapter is a how to chapter. And so chapter one is how to, how to grow you. And in that chapter, I, I talk about, one of the keys to growing you is having a, a growth plan.

And that part of having a growth plan is, is accountability. And good accountability requires focus and frequency. So focus provides your accountability partner with specific questions focused on your growth.

Like if I ask somebody to hold me accountable for something that, that's a little. I'm not sure I want to go there. Right? Because it's like, well, what do you mean by that?

So if I can put in their hands the questions to ask me to hold me accountable, that provides focus to the accountability relationship. But then with focus, there also has to be frequency. Meaning you don't just ask me once, but maybe we meet together once a month for coffee.

And that becomes the context for maintaining that accountability relationship. So when you've got focus, like, you know exactly the questions to ask and you've got frequency, it's happening on a regular basis.

It just brings the accountability necessary to bolster the growth that we want to see in our lives.

Stephen, are those questions, are those kind of standard questions that you would have somebody asking you, or is that something for the person that's going to be holding you accountable or they develop the questions. Any thought on the questions? Because that really resonates with me, that idea. Any further thoughts on the questions?

So I think it's best if the person who needs to be held accountable, if they actually develop the questions and give them to their accountability partner, and those questions, they can be kind of a standard, standard life encompassing set. But I think more times than not, if they're tied specifically to the area you want to grow, that's when they're going to have the greatest value.

It's good. And so that definitely takes the, it definitely takes the input of the person that's trying to grow. So it's not something that's mandated on them.

They're, they're speaking into it. No, that's good. It's good. Good. And, and you said maybe like once a month. You think that's, that's a good time frame?

It probably varies depending on the goal. The individual's calendars. I have a standing lunch appointment in my calendar every other week with a friend.

And we're not rigid about it in the sense that if one of us is traveling and we can't meet that week, well, okay, but it's a standard appointment. We don't have to remind ourselves at the end of the meeting, okay, when are we going to meet next?

This recurring appointment every other week in our calendar. And so that, that's the rhythm that, that I have. But again, I think it's going to depend on the growth focus.

It's going to depend on each person's schedule and. Yeah, you'll figure it out together.

Good stuff. Good stuff. You know, Stephen, one of the passions, one of the reasons I love having you on the podcast is, is you're a spiritual leader.

And so you, you teach leadership principles in, in conjunction with and being led by the spirit. And so I think it's so valuable. So you share in the book is this idea of intimacy versus efficiency with God.

How can focus, how can our focusing on efficiency with God sometimes be detrimental to being spiritually grounded?

Yeah. So there's a chapter in the book on, on how to be a spiritually grounded leader. And in that chapter, I share four keys.

And one of those keys is spiritual pace. So here's where this comes from. We read in Scripture where Jesus performs a miracle where obviously he feeds 5,000 people.

And after he does that miracle, he insists that his disciples get into a boat and cross the lake. And then he dismisses the crowd. Well, he gave his disciples that instruction. But Jesus, he goes up into the hills to pray by himself.

And scripture says that while he was praying, that that night fell while he was there alone. But the disciples that he had told to get in the boat and cross the lake, they didn't obey Jesus. They waited on Jesus before they got in the boats.

And they must have waited a good while because Again, night falls, and they finally give up, right? They finally do get in the boat. But here's what I find interesting, is that they were waiting on. On Jesus to return from his time of prayer.

And waited and waited and waited and waited. And when I read that, I, I kind of was convicted because the thought hit me. Has anyone ever had to wait on me to finish praying?

Wow, that's a good word.

And I don't, I don't mean like, finish praying for the meal. You know what I'm talking about. They had to. They had to wait on me to finish praying. And here's what I gleaned from that.

Jesus modeled unrushed time with God despite the demands that he faced. His leadership pace didn't exceed his spiritual pace. And, boy, is that hard for us as leaders, right?

Unrushed time with God for leaders sounds irrational. It sounds impossible, especially when speed is the name of the game for so many leaders. But. But here.

So this is where this, your question comes into play here. If we're not careful, we'll begin measuring intimacy with God by our efficiency with God.

And efficiency might be a good leadership tactic, but that does not help you finish well. It's intimacy with God that is the fuel to finish well.

So, you know, that pace, I think, is critical, boy, especially in the time we're in right now when everything is so rushed.

If we can slow the pace down, we're going to experience intimacy with God instead of trying to impose efficiency with God so we can get to the quote, real work of ministry.

That's challenging. And like you said, has anybody ever had to wait on me this. Not like you said, not for. Not for the meal. But has anybody ever had to say that?

And what a. What a challenging. What a challenging word. What a challenging word. Stephen, one of the other things you mentioned in the book is about layers.

I mentioned. One of the reasons I love having you on the podcast is your high character.

And so you share about five layers you've identified leading to leading with character. And could you share maybe just a few of those? We don't need to give them all away. We want people to get the book.

And then how have you applied some of those in your life?

Life, yeah. So. So again, a chat. One of the chapters talks about how to lead with character. This is in the, you know, leading yourself part of the book.

And as I really reflected on character development, I realized this plays out in multiple layers in our life. It really begins by first identifying your values. Values are like the. The North Star for Character development. And.

And those values are made up of our beliefs. They're made up of principles that we know, priorities that we have in our life. So you've gotta. You gotta identify your values.

But then once those values are identified, that's when you gotta start growing your character.

And I think character growth really happens through spiritual disciplines, through establishing boundaries of accountability like we just talked about, and building circles of community with people. You know, I love something that. That Wayne Cordero says. He says, when he talks about community.

He says that friends are rare these days, but it's not because they have diminished in importance. It's because we have increased in speed. He said friendships are not made in the blur of life. They are made in the margins. So I think when we've got.

When we've got community, when we've got accountability, and when we're cultivating disciplines of spirituality, that's how character grows in our lives. That's how it begins to form. And then.

So those first two layers are really kind of internal because you're identifying your values, and then you're growing your character. But then it begins to move outwardly because now you begin to model your behavior.

And by modeling, I don't mean, like, showing off type of modeling, but what I'm saying is that. That this is where your character comes to work every day, right? It's where you behave with integrity when you're under pressure.

It's where you're, you know, where you're doing more than talking about values, but you're actually living them out. It's where you ask for forgiveness when you've stepped out of line. It's. It's where you tell the truth when it's not convenient.

You receive feedback with grace and humility. It's where you're showing compassion to others. That's the. That's the everyday reality of character. And so I like to think of layer two and three.

You know, layer two, growing your character. Layer three, modeling your behavior. I like to think of them working seamlessly together.

The growing happens in private, and the modeling happens in public. It's where your character comes to work again every day. And then from there, it really turns into using your character to help others grow, right?

Debriefing the lessons you've learned, multiplying that example beyond you to help others. So I think that's kind of the ripples, if you will, of. Of character development. And here's what I've discovered, Aaron.

These are not levels that you leave, okay? But they're layers that you Pick up and take with you.

Meaning that, like, the first layer is to identify your values, and then the second layer is to, is to grow your, your character. Well, you don't leave your values to then start growing your character. Now you take your values with you. You.

So each layer, you're picking it up and taking it with you. You're not leaving that layer, you're adding that layer. You're taking it along in the journey.

And good differentiation between the, you know, those different, those levels and layers, that's what's good and further, you know, further clarifies it for us. Good stuff. Good stuff. On this, on the stand, on this character. You talk about expressions of character people look at when they interact with us.

Yeah.

Could you share a little bit more about that?

Yeah. Well, the apostle Paul, he really addresses this in First Timothy 4:12, right.

He's writing to his apprentice, Timothy, and he, you know, it's a passage, we've all heard it before when he said, don't let anyone look down on you because you are young. But then he tells him to set an example in five areas.

He said, set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and impurity. So speech, that's what you say, conduct, that's how you live love, that's your relationship with others.

Faith, that's your relationship with God, and purity, that's your morality. So to me, those are five expressions of character.

Those are five powerful areas of character that people look at and look for when they're interacting with us. And when people see character in all five of those areas, we become trustworthy to that. Them, right?

They're like, this is someone who's rock solid that I can, I, I can trust. They're, they're the real, the real deal. And the truth is we all struggle in some of those areas more than others.

And for each person, that's going to look different. Right. For one person, it may be I really struggle and saying the wrong thing.

And someone else, it's like, well, you know, I'm just not good at loving people and whatever. All of us have our, have our weak spot. But, but those five categories are really what give us moral authority with people.

No, it's good. And that you answered my. One of my next questions was, is it common to struggle maybe with one or more of those and different people, different ones.

And I think you answered the question, so that's a good deal. So, Stephen, I don't know if the news highlights it more or it is a reality or maybe It's a combination of the two or somewhere in the middle.

But it does seem that leaders are crashing, maybe at a Seymour increased frequently frequency and rate. How. How have you seen being focused on. Still staying on this, the subject of character. How can being focused on character help prevent these crashes?

And any wisdom there?

I love something that Bob Goff says and he, he says we plant sod where God wants to plant seeds. He's more interested in growing our character than having us look finished.

Wow, that's. I've never heard that one, but that's a good one.

I love that quote. And, and, and, you know, I think sometimes, you know, we live in a culture that's all about looking finished.

That's why you've got the highlight reel on social media, because you, you look finished. You look like the professional. You look like you're the one that has got it all together.

And if we're not careful, that will quickly deceive us into thinking we do have it all together.

And then we start giving ourselves, you know, making excuses for why it's okay to let up and, you know, compromise and I deserve a break and all those types of things. So, you know, Aaron, I think it comes back to, you know, what I was mentioning just a moment ago about growing your character.

You've got to cultivate disciplines of spirituality. That's your prayer life. You're, you know, reading scripture, worship, you know, serving community, like the different spiritual practices.

And, you know, one of the things that Richard foster, celebration of discipline. One of the things he talks about is how the spiritual practices are not what change you. They're not what transform you. It's God who transforms you.

But what the spiritual practices do is they place you before God so that he can transform you.

So if our character is going to be transformed, then we've got to cultivate disciplines of spirituality so that we're putting ourselves in the place where God can do that transformational work inside of us. And then again, we've got to create boundaries of accountability. You know, that's the external structure that helps support the internal self.

And, and then we've got to build those circles of community, those friends that will love us and encourage us and, you know, have our back and pray for us.

And I think that combination of those three things, the discipline, spirituality, the boundaries of accountability, the circles of community, it's kind of like a trifecta for the development of our character.

Good word.

Steve Cuss says something, and I'm not going to say it as eloquently as you quoted Richard Foster, but to sum the fact that those spiritual disciplines are not there to make us a perfect human being, but they are to draw us closer to God. So God, we're close to him and he is forming and he is shaping us in our time with Him. And so similar along on the same lines.

And I'm sure Steve said it a lot more eloquently than I just said, but it resonates with me this, this idea that a changing focus on the spiritual disciplines and why it's being in God's presence and letting him transform us is, yeah, is, is the way, is the way. Stephen Thinking like a leader so you talked about being a natural leader and being a learned leader.

How long does it take to begin thinking like a leader? And does this maybe increase and decrease in seasons of life? But how long have you, how long has it taken you to begin to think like a leader?

I think where I noticed this first, Aaron, is years and years ago, John Maxwell had come out with his book, the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. This is the first edition, not the second or third edition. This is the original, original one. Years and years ago.

And I remember I went to a lunch where he was speaking and he was talking about the 21 laws and there was just like a 30 minute lunch. He, he spoke for a few minutes. And then afterward, I remember I bought this, I bought the book, but then I also bought this kit.

And this is how old this was it. It was cassette tapes, right? So, so it wasn't a podcast or anything. Like it was cassette tapes and a workbook. And so I bought that kit.

And I remember I came into my office and I would work, you know, before work I would pop in a tape, I'd listen to it, I'd take notes in my workbook.

And I remember after doing that for, for a period of time, I was in my office one day and I was wrestling with a leadership decision I needed to make. And suddenly I found myself thinking and making that decision based on what I had learned in that material.

And it's like suddenly it just hit me that, wait a minute, I'm starting to think differently. I'm thinking the way a leader thinks. I'm not just thinking the way I would normally think. And I found myself actually pause in that moment.

And I kind of felt this excitement that, oh my gosh, this is working. It's changing my perspective, it's changing how I think on this.

And so I don't think there's a specific time I Think sometimes it's, it's, it's based in part on how you're wired, like your gifts, your abilities. All of those things, I think, can influence how long it takes you to think about. To think like a leader, maybe in certain areas.

I think another factor is how long you've thought that way. If you've thought for 20 years one way and now you're trying to uproot that and change a different way.

Those railroad tracks are pretty embedded in your, in your mind. And so it may take a little longer. Longer.

And I think it also impacts, you know, it's impacted by how aggressive you are in your learning posture, you know, you know, reading and getting coaching and learning. And, and so those factors, I think, all work together.

I don't think there's a specific time frame, but what I do believe is that regardless of how you think right now, you can think like a leader. It's just in some areas it's going to be more natural. In other areas it's going to be more difficult.

And your learning posture and your commitment to it is going to impact all of that.

Yeah, good word. Good word. Stephen, I got one or one or two more questions for you.

So practical things a leader can do to begin to think creatively rather than fall into conformity. And at the same, not. Same time, not seen it to be as cantankerous because you're not going with. You're going with the flow. So. Right, right.

Thoughts on that?

Yeah. So this comes from, again, there's a chapter in the book on. On how to think like a leader.

And, and so when it comes to specifically thinking creatively and not getting sucked into conformity, there's some research that Matthew Olson and Derek Beaver and Seth Varied write about in a Harvard Review article.

And they write that one of the culprits of stalled organizational growth is management's failure to bring the underlying assumptions that drive company strategy into line with changes in the external environment. And those assumptions become the undoing of the organization.

And what's interesting is they went on to say that the assumptions that the team holds onto the longest are the. Or they're the ones that are most deeply ingrained in the organization. Those are the assumptions that are likely to be your undoing.

And that that's kind of scary because what they. They make this statement in their article that, that for many organizations, they actually accelerate into a stall because they don't see it coming.

Coming.

And the driving thing, the thing that's causing them to accelerate into the stall is that they just have these long held assumptions that no longer are, are true, that are no longer accurate, that they have become barriers to progress.

So I think one of the keys to thinking creatively and innovatively and not getting sucked into conformity is that you have to, you have to address your underlying assumptions for why you do what you do. Yeah. And so, you know, one place I can start is by getting feedback from external coaches and internal team members. I think you need both.

When you invite external coaches to help you see with new eyes, suddenly there's things you see that you just have never seen before and your eyes are open. You're like, oh my gosh, how come I've not. Not this before?

And then internally, when you create space for internal team members to share fresh perspective or best practices, things like that, those two things can be a powerful way to jumpstart you out of your conformity into something more creative and innovative.

It's. Good word. Good word. Stephen, how can. I'm gonna. I think we're gonna flip the script a little bit. I'd like to pray for.

I don't think I've ever prayed on this podcast and almost 300 episodes, but I'd like to pray for you in this book. But before we get, before we get to that point, how can people access the book? And you shared about some resources that you've included with it.

Yeah. Thank you, Aaron. And thank you again for the opportunity to be with you today.

So the book again is called Insanely Practical Leadership and The subtitle is 12 no nonsense keys to Master the Art of Leading Yourself and Others. And again, this book is extreme. It lives up to its name. If I, if I can say it's, it's extremely practical helping you with all of these how to.

So we talk about, you know, how to, how to grow you, how to think like a leader, how to manage your time, how to make leadership decisions, how to build influence, how to become a servant leader, how to communicate with others, how to coach others, how to lead through conflict. Like all of these, these incredibly practical topics. And every chapter ends with a tool that will help you actually live that out in your life.

You can order it at insanely practicalleadership.com again, insanely practical leadership.com and not only is the, the book coming out, but we also have a 12 session master class that that with a video of about 10 to 12 minutes long on each of the chapters. So it's great.

Awesome. Well thank you for being on here and we will we'll get links to the your website on in the show notes and Stephen, let me pray for you.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for Stephen, I thank you for the wisdom and insight you've given him. Father, I thank you for the spiritual gifting you've given him to write and to communicate.

And so Father we do we submit this book to you and we ask God that you will use it for your glory. Father, I am thankful for Stephen and his focus on being a spiritual leader.

Leader and Father, as he takes these insanely practical ease to leadership Father, I pray that we're able to put them into use and then we'll put them into place. Father, I thank you for the the things that he's done to take people that have for natural leaders and learn leaders given us tools that we can.

We can use this with other people. So Father, I pray your blessing over this. Pray it all in the name of Jesus, the strong son of God.

Amen.

Amen.

It.