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Leading Well is a short, impactful podcast for executive women, and the men who support them, who want to lead with purpose and show up well in every part of their lives.
Through 10–15 minute solo episodes, leadership coach and speaker Gretchen Schott shares insights, practical tools, and personal reflections that help you navigate people problems, lead with authenticity, and grow your confidence from the inside out.
Rooted in faith and designed to inspire, each episode ends with a brief prayer—an invitation to pause, reflect, and reconnect.
If you’re ready to build trust, clarity, and connection in your work and life, Leading Well is your weekly dose of encouragement and strategy.
[00:00:00] Gretchen Schott: When we are very clear on what is at the center of our life, and because it's at the center of our life, we understand how our values and actions support that, how our beliefs are a part of that, how we make decisions around that. That is what leads to having greater influence and impact in the world.
[00:00:20] Gretchen Schott: You are listening to Leading Well, the podcast for executive women and the men who support them, who are ready to lead with clarity, confidence, and compassion. I'm your host, Gretchen Schott. Let's dive in.
[00:00:39] Gretchen Schott: Hi, thanks for being here today. I wanna talk about why leading well begins with you as leaders. We can't know others unless we know ourselves. We can't lead others unless we lead ourselves and we can't love others until we love ourselves. And at the heart of that, I do an exercise often with my coaching clients around what is at your center.
[00:01:09] Gretchen Schott: Whatever is at the center of your life determines your values and your beliefs. Your values and your beliefs determine the actions and decisions that you make and the actions and decisions that you make determine the influence and the impact that you have on the world. And too often as leaders, we focus on the external impact and not on the internal clarity.
[00:01:36] Gretchen Schott: We get too wrapped up in our own heads around what kind of impact am I making? How's my brand? What do people think of me? How many people are following me? How many people respect me, how many people are listening to me? All of that is the external stuff, and we fail to pay attention to the internal clarity as what is at our core and how is who I am at the core of who I am, determining the values and the beliefs that I have, the actions and decisions I make for the influence and the impact I have on the world.
[00:02:07] Gretchen Schott: This week I moved my son up to college his second year. And one of the very sweet things that happened in that very emotional day for us was my son took a copy of my new book and he put it on his bookshelf, in his room, unprompted. I did not know he was doing this. He got his room set up and he had me come in and he said, look at what I've done.
[00:02:31] Gretchen Schott: And I, I was like, oh, my book's here. And for me there was that moment of incredible. Joy and the book I wrote is called Joy@Work: When Women Lead. But I had this incredible thought that something, some content that I've put out in the world is now sitting on the shelf of a 19-year-old man in college.
[00:03:00] Gretchen Schott: Never in my wildest dreams when I wrote that book did I ever think that that book would be sitting on the shelf in a college dorm, but I. Have incredible gratitude that he wants to do that and that he did that and that feels really good. So getting really clear on internal, like what's important for you.
[00:03:22] Gretchen Schott: For me, my goal was to be a published author and I achieved that and that was great. And my choices for writing that book were ones based on my values and beliefs in sharing and spreading joy. And so I took action and I made decisions to make my schedule available to et cetera. I had the time to be able to write it, and now there's this incredible impact where my own son is now putting my book on his bookshelf, which I just think is kind of cool.
[00:03:52] Gretchen Schott: So if you are struggling maybe with this idea of external impact versus internal clarity. I have a little three minute exercise that I wanna share with you to kind of help you get there. I did something like this actually before I decided to participate in writing this book that I participated in this last year.
[00:04:15] Gretchen Schott: And the exercise is this. So you're gonna pause, take a deep breath. I am a person that loves to journal, but you don't have to write these question, these answers down. But here are the three questions that I want you to ponder, and I want you to set a timer for three minutes and think about these three things.
[00:04:31] Gretchen Schott: The first one is, where in my leadership do I feel most aligned? Right? And when we're most aligned in our leadership, that means our values and our actions are together. We are not acting out of alignment. We're not saying we value something and then we're behaving in different way, or we're not behaving one way, which has absolutely nothing to do with what we value, right?
[00:04:51] Gretchen Schott: So where in my leadership do I feel most aligned? And then I want you to ask yourself where. Do I feel out of alignment in my leadership and out of alignment might show up as places where you're feeling tension. It might also be places where you're avoiding things. You're avoiding a conversation, you're avoiding taking on a project.
[00:05:12] Gretchen Schott: You're avoiding getting started out of alignment might also be times when you think about how you've behaved and in reflection you think, gosh, that's not me. That's not how I show up. That's being out of alignment. So where is your leadership out of alignment? And the last thing I want you to ask yourself is, what is one small step I can take this week to get into alignment with my leadership?
[00:05:39] Gretchen Schott: It doesn't have to be something big, small things matter. It's just the effort, it's the intention and the focus on wanting to get internally clear so that we can have greater external impact. Because when we are very clear on what is at the center of our life. And because it's at the center of our life, we understand how our values and actions support that, how our beliefs are a part of that, how we make decisions around that.
[00:06:07] Gretchen Schott: That is what leads to having greater influence and impact in the world. So I hope that's helpful for you. I like to start my day and end my day with prayer. And so for this podcast today, I actually wrote a prayer. Sometimes I'll bring one of my favorite prayers, but today I wrote a prayer to share with you because I believe we are called for something more, and I believe that we need to take time to be present and still and grateful for the Lord our God.
[00:06:41] Gretchen Schott: And so I'm gonna read my prayer that I wrote for all of you today, and I hope that it helps you. I hope that it brings you a moment of inspiration and clarity on your leadership, so let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for the opportunity to lead and serve others. Give us wisdom for the decisions ahead, grace for the people that we lead, and courage to show up as ourselves.
[00:07:14] Gretchen Schott: Help us lead with love. Clarity and confidence. Amen. I hope that was helpful to you. I would love it if you would let me know if it was until next time, friends, keep Leading Well. Ready to lead well or need some coaching and encouragement, sign up for my newsletter or reach out for a personal consultation.
[00:07:42] Gretchen Schott: If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe and leave a review.