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The LeadingSmart Podcast
Honest conversations. Practical insights. Smarter leadership.
Hosted by Tim Stevens and Holly Tate, The LeadingSmart Podcast exists to equip church leaders who care deeply about leading with integrity, clarity, and wisdom—even when it’s hard.
We are officially on Season 3! This season is about staying sharp in today’s rapidly changing environment. We’ll dive into the practical issues leaders are facing right now—from running effective executive team meetings to navigating crucial conversations to leading in moments when the playbook doesn’t exist yet.
Holly and Tim are moving out of the studio into our offices, and they will be recording and posting in real time, responding to current events as they happen, sharing fresh insights from our work with leaders across North America.
Be sure to email us at tim@leadingsmart.com if there are specific topics you want us to cover!
Enjoy!
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The LeadingSmart Podcast
[S2EP14] 5 Steps Toward a Healthier Staff Culture
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Culture is either getting better or getting worse — there's no neutral. And yet so many churches wait until something breaks before they pay attention to it. So how do you build a staff culture that's truly healthy, deeply owned, and actually lasts beyond a leadership transition or a hard season?
In this episode, Holly and Tim walk through the five practical steps LeadingSmart uses with churches of every size — from well-resourced megachurches to small church plants — to assess, define, and sustain a thriving team culture:
- See it — Before anything can change, you have to know where you actually are. Take an honest, structured assessment of your current culture — and don't make the mistake of surveying your team and never sharing the results.
- Say it — Define your values collaboratively, not top-down. This isn't a job for ChatGPT or a leadership offsite without the team. Real buy-in requires real weigh-in from the people who have to live it out every day.
- Saturate it — Say the values so often you think you might vomit — and then keep going. Culture doesn't stick from a one-time announcement. It has to show up in every meeting, every conversation, and every decision.
- Systematize it — Build the values into the regular rhythms of your organization. Monthly spotlights, staff newsletters, team meeting questions — if it's not in the system, it won't survive.
- Spotlight it — What gets recognized gets repeated. Celebrate the people who are living out your values, and make sure you're celebrating the value itself, not just the person.
Tim also shares an unforgettable story from his time at Willow Creek — a typo on a stress cube that accidentally became the most powerful culture moment of the entire year, and a vivid reminder that how you handle the small moments says everything about who you really are as an organization.
If you're a church leader who wants to stop reacting to culture and start intentionally shaping it, this episode will give you a clear framework and the inspiration to get started.
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