Rapid-Fire Leadership Advice for Christian Women | Alex Boggs

From balancing faith and ambition to handling conflict and workplace ethics, Jennifer Paulson tackles eight of the most common leadership questions Christian women face in their careers and leadership journeys.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the Vanderblue and Ladies Leadership Podcast, where we help Christian women grow in confidence, calling, and leadership. If you want to excel in your career while staying true to your faith, you're in the right place. Thanks for being here. Let's dive in.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

All right, we're gonna do something exciting in this episode of the podcast. We are joined by my producer, Alex. Hi, Alex. Hi, thanks for having me. Oh, you're doing such a great job. And we're gonna do rapid fire. And this is taken from a concept of uh an episode of 30 rock. Did Beth tell you that, Alex?

SPEAKER_01 0:32

No, she didn't.

SPEAKER_02 0:33

Yes, so an episode of 30 Rock. I don't remember what it was called. What did when Beth slacked us? What did she call what did she say? And then I repeated it. Do you remember? It was like snapped, or like you got it, or something like that. So we're gonna, we're taking off from this concept of 30 rock, and Alex is gonna rapidly fire questions at me, and I'm just gonna give you my initial gut reaction.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Love it. All right, Alex, let's go for eight. All right, question one. Yes. I want to be known as a strong leader, but I also don't want to come across as harsh or unkind as a Christian. How do I balance strength and gentleness at work?

SPEAKER_02 1:04

Well, Missy, and I just recorded a podcast on that topic, caring for your employees. Uh, the answer to this one is that leaders have to have, you have to have strong leadership skills to be a leader. You can't just be a pushover and you can't be too strong because then no one's gonna want to work for you. So the way that you balance it is you take a little bit of the strength and then a little bit of the kindness and you put them together, kind of like sugar and spice and everything nice. That's what leaders are made out of. And then you take that middle path after you've done some of the sugar and some of the side, some of the spice.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Love it. Okay, question two. How do I stay rooted in my identity in Christ when my workplace constantly measures my value by performance?

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Well, that just means you have to have a strong prayer life. So you have to have a strong life outside of your job. And that means being involved actively in a church, maybe a Bible study, um, and then also studying the Bible on your own because our value from Christ, I've said this before, we're human beings, not human doings. And the second that you start associating who you are with your job, you've lost your identity in Christ. And our identity in Christ doesn't matter how, if we're high performers or low performers, it doesn't matter how we're doing at work. What matters is that we're children of the most high God. And the second that you start to forget that means you need to spend a little more time in the Bible, Alex.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

Absolutely. Question three When is it actually my responsibility to speak up about something that feels off ethically at work? And when should I stay quiet?

SPEAKER_02 2:24

Okay, my answer to this one is you should have enough of a relationship with your manager that you should ask them that question. So if you see something that is not ethical and it is not, it does not line up with your values, then you should talk to your manager about it. And you should not talk to the manager about it in a very threatening fashion. You should just say, I'm a little uncomfortable with with this particular thing because it kind of seems like it's maybe, maybe is not what we should be doing. It doesn't seem, it doesn't seem to be too ethical. And then ask the manager to um the manager then can either explain to you why it is, because maybe you don't have the whole picture. Something that's really important to realize as an employee is that the higher up the org chart you get, the more information that you have. So it's like a 50,000 foot view, 20,000 foot view, 10,000 foot view, and maybe you have a 500-foot view. And maybe from the 50,000 foot view, what what the issue is and what they're asking you about really does make a whole lot of sense and is ethically sound. But if you just take this one individual thing and your part to it, you might not understand the whole picture. So maybe asking your manager to explain the whole picture will give you enough information to be able to accurately test if it is in line with your values or not.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Awesome. Love it, love it, love it. Question four I've been put in a leadership role over people older than me. How do I lead with authority while still honoring them?

SPEAKER_02 3:39

This is a common question that we get. And to me, you know, it's the expression age is age is just a number, it doesn't mean anything. It's the same thing in leadership. Your life experience matters a lot more than your age. And once your employees see that you have enough experience and that you handle situations in a responsible, mature fashion, the age is going to completely be wiped out. Every new manager who's young thinks that. And then once you have, once you get your leadership chops kind of worked out, you'll realize that even though they're older than you, you've had experiences that are relevant to the job that make you the right choice for the role.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Awesome. Okay, question five. My company values don't fully align with my faith. At what point do I need to consider leaving versus staying and being a light?

SPEAKER_02 4:25

Well, these are all kind of like we've talked, we've talked about these in other podcasts too. This is again a conversation that you have to have with the Lord, your God, your maker and creator. And I said in the podcast, God doesn't want you to be in a place where you're having to act unethically. He might be putting you in a place where you have challenges, or he might be putting you in a place where your manager is a difficult person to work with, but God does not want you to behave unethically. You can never get to where the Lord wants you to be by behaving unethically. It's basically like a house of cards. You know, if you're doing all these unethical things to get up here, it's not, it's not, it's built on sinking sand and not on the strength of the Lord. So I would say if you're being asked to do things unethically, talk to your manager about it. Try to make sure you're understanding the whole picture. But then at the end of the day, if it's not in line with your values, it's probably not in alignment with where God wants you to be.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

Absolutely. Okay, question six. How do I know if I'm pursuing a role because it's my calling or just because I'm ambitious?

SPEAKER_02 5:24

Oh, I think that they can easily overlap. I think your ambition and your calling can easily overlap. What God put in your heart, He will give you the gifting to do, He will give you the energy to do it, and He will give you the resources to do it. So that's if those three things line up, you know that that's where God wants you to be.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

Yes, I totally agree. Okay, question seven. How do I handle conflict in a way that reflects Christ but doesn't avoid hard truth?

SPEAKER_02 5:49

Oh, I think that I think that one's that is something that a lot of managers struggle with, a lot of leaders struggle with, but that is a critical skill. And I think it's pretty easy to do. If you have developed a consistent pattern of behavior where you address issues, your employees just know to expect that if something comes up, you're gonna, you're gonna handle it. Something to remember is that you need to stay calm. Your role as the manager is always to be the calmest presence in the room and to try to help your employee feel calm about the situation. So come to them with love. The another piece of advice I would give is when you're looking at your employee, look at them with love. They're also a child of the most high God. So look at them with love and then try to bring up the issue, ask how you can help with the issue, ask how you can support them in dealing with it, and then set a boundary or set an expectation for that type of behavior, that issue ceasing.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Awesome. Okay, question eight. How do I know the difference between being sacrificial and just being overworked?

SPEAKER_02 6:49

You don't. That's a hilarious one. That's a hilarious one. Um, I and you know, men might experience this as well. I'm not gonna just say that this is all women, but I do know a lot of my friends that are women are sacrificing a lot. And going back to the Bible, God does not want you to sacrifice more, like he his goal for you is not to walk around defeated and exhausted and beaten down by the world. So if you are feeling exhausted and beaten down by the world, then that means that you are sacrificing too much. And Missy and I talked about this a little bit. Like for a couple of weeks, people can do anything and they can support others and they can, you know, plow through exhaustion if you're helping the company or if you're helping another team member. But the second that it becomes more than just a short period of time, and when it starts to affect your life outside of work, then you have sacrificed too much, my friend.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Yeah. Thanks, Alex. Of course, thank you. That was really fun. That was so much fun. It's like instead of watching all the podcasts, just watch these little short episodes and y'all set. All the info you need. Thanks, Alex. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

Thanks for joining us. Have a blessed week and lead on.