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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: A rose is beautiful though because it grows alongside these thorns. You can't have one really without the other. How you choose to view stress and responsibility, that's where something new grows, where something gets to bloom inside of you. That same stem that holds the thorn. Is the one that blooms the most beautiful things out of us.
[00:00:28] Gretchen Schott: You're 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.
[00:00:47] Gretchen Schott: Hey there. I'm so glad you joined us today. This is the final episode of 2025 for leading. Well, it's gone by so fast. I can't believe we're already at the end of the year. Anyone who has followed me for any amount of time knows that I am a big believer and follower of the practice in selecting one word to be your life theme for the year.
[00:01:15] Gretchen Schott: And so in this episode, I wanna share my one word. For this year in 2025, and share a little bit of the reflection that I've had for myself in my leadership in the hopes that it will inspire and encourage you to do the same type of practice. So if you followed me earlier this year, then you know that my word for the year of 2025 was love.
[00:01:42] Gretchen Schott: And I chose that word because I wanted to, number one, I wanted to love myself better. And number two, I wanted to love what I was doing and as I took a look at the calendar this year and I went back month by month and looked at all of the things that occurred for me specifically with this lens on my on my mind of where did love show up.
[00:02:11] Gretchen Schott: I am very, very blessed to share all kinds of wonderful things that happened for me personally, in, in loving ways and ways in which I got to love on others and, and ways in which that I was loved personally and professionally, lots, lots of ways. And so in my professional life, I designed and facilitated a lot of new content this year and I used that content to transform leadership teams, which was such a blessing.
[00:02:36] Gretchen Schott: 'cause I love to create and I love to design. I was blessed to have the opportunity to coach over 20 different leaders this year and seeing all of these different people. Stretch and grow and get uncomfortable and have that light bulb go off. And so many of them have also given blessings back to me and showed me love by telling me that, you know, I hear your voice sometimes when I'm saying this.
[00:03:00] Gretchen Schott: Or I started to go down this path, and then I asked myself, what would Gretchen say to me? Those types of things as a coach are just like, mm, it is just like chocolate. It's the best. It's like dark chocolate. I love it so much. I was asked to be a, a keynote speaker several times, which was very wonderful.
[00:03:14] Gretchen Schott: It filled my bucket. I love speaking in front of audiences and it was such a gift. And I wrote and published my first book this year, joy at Work, which was an incredible growth experience for me, but just accomplishing that big goal. That was a wonderful experience. And then launching this podcast, right?
[00:03:31] Gretchen Schott: So like all these great things that I, that I love to do that allowed me to love myself and pursue some goals and demonstrate that I love what I do. And then on the personal side in my family, so many great things. My oldest daughter graduated college this year. Not only did she graduate, she moved outta the house, she moved outta state.
[00:03:50] Gretchen Schott: She's got a job working in the field of study that she went to school for and she's thriving, which as a parent, you know, it's a win when your kids are able to launch. And, um, I'm just so very proud of her and all the love that she puts out into the world. And it makes me so proud as a mom. My older son this year transferred colleges made a huge life choice, life change.
[00:04:15] Gretchen Schott: Not only did he go to New college, but he also moved outta state. And he's just thriving and he loves it so much and he comes home and he's motivated and he's excited and it's just been wonderful to see him thriving and see what's gonna come next for him. And my youngest son accomplished huge goals this year.
[00:04:31] Gretchen Schott: He started out the year and he performed at the National Show Choir Competition. His, his team came in third place. They flew all the way out to la which was amazing. I took him to New York this year to celebrate his 16th birthday. And we had this wonderful time sharing in the theater and we, and we love it so much.
[00:04:46] Gretchen Schott: My husband and I took my son. We went to Destin this year, and for the very first time in my life I tried something new. I pair sailed, which I loved, which is a great way for me to love on myself and try something new. So I have all these wonderful examples of this lens of how I kind of lived out my word for the year, but then with that, with great love, all these wonderful things happened, but I also recognized that great suffering.
[00:05:13] Gretchen Schott: It is like the shadow behind love because I started out the year with the loss of my dad, and that is a pain that has been constant all year and has been a shadow in my mind and in my heart really throughout the entire year. Even though all these wonderful things personally have been happening and I've seen great love.
[00:05:42] Gretchen Schott: I know now that I wouldn't have recognized that deep love without understanding deep suffering and pain. And even now as I am recording this, I am experiencing new hurts with the realization that, you know, we spent the holidays without him, and I'm coming up on the anniversary of his suicide and. It is with a heavy, heavy heart that I enter into this new year, and I'm just grateful that I can see a purpose for my suffering, which comes with great love.
[00:06:32] Gretchen Schott: And so knowing that one of my strengths is positivity, I have tried to take the pain that I have felt this year. And bring purpose and clarity around it, because I believe that suffering without purpose is actually torment. And I actually talk about this in my book, joy at Work. And so for me, I have applied a metaphor to this kind of as, as I think about, um, a rose, my favorite flower is a rose.
[00:07:08] Gretchen Schott: And a rose is. A really great metaphor for what I've learned, this tough truth about love and suffering. You can't separate the thorns from the rose because they grow in the same stem, and so the more deeply that we love, the more deeply we can also hurt. A rose is beautiful though because it grows alongside these thorns.
[00:07:36] Gretchen Schott: So if I take the same idea, the same metaphor of like a rose and then I apply it to leadership because they let high impact leaders grow in the same space as high responsibility and increase stress, you can't have one really without the other, but how you choose to view stress and responsibility, that's where something new grows, where something gets to bloom.
[00:08:05] Gretchen Schott: Inside of you. That same stem that holds the thorn is the one that blooms the most beautiful things out of us this year. As you are wrapping up your year and getting ready to enter into 2026, I'm coming at this from the lens of my word for the year of love, and so I invite you to. Get out a pen, get a journal if you're driving.
[00:08:33] Gretchen Schott: Listen to this now and then go back and replay this part. Here's some reflection questions I have for you to end this year and get yourself ready to bloom next year. The first question is, where did you experience thorns this year? Feeling frustrated, hurt, lost challenges. Maybe it was. A difficult conversation that you had.
[00:09:00] Gretchen Schott: Maybe it was a really tough meeting. Maybe it was job loss, maybe it was not getting promoted. Maybe it was something that you really wanted and it didn't come through. So what are those thorns that occurred in your life? And write those down. And then I want you to think about what bloomed as a result of that challenge.
[00:09:22] Gretchen Schott: What did you learn about yourself? Where did you learn? To love yourself more or better this year as a result of those challenges. What are you grateful for now that you really didn't recognize in the moment but looking back, you can now to demonstrate and see that you have gratitude for having gone through that challenging experience.
[00:09:47] Gretchen Schott: And where do you still feel some of those thorns now? What are those thorns preparing you for in the future? What still needs to be uncovered? What? What still needs to be healed? What still needs to be reconciled, what still needs to be forgiven? Each year, I choose a word as my life theme, and if you are interested in doing this practice with someone, I would love to do it with you.
[00:10:19] Gretchen Schott: I am hosting a very small cohort this year. On helping individuals find purpose in their life by living out their one word. So if this is something that you are interested in and want to do, message me. Send me a message on LinkedIn, go to my website, set up a free consultation with me so we can talk about it.
[00:10:40] Gretchen Schott: This practice has changed my life and I want it to change yours too. So if you're interested, get in touch with me and I can give you more details about it. But to close, I always like to leave you with a prayer or some encouragement. Um, and today, rather than writing a prayer, I pulled a quote from St.
[00:11:04] Gretchen Schott: Teresa Avila that I think is meaningful as we have time to reflect on what this year meant for us, what that future might look like, what do we want for ourselves in this next year? And so I'm, I'm gonna read this quote from her, and I, I invite you to just kinda let this wash over you as you're thinking about reflecting and advancing moving forward.
[00:11:32] Gretchen Schott: Here it is. Let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you. All things are passing away. God never changes. Patience, obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing, God alone suffices. I encourage you to listen to that, maybe meditate and, and pray with that and think about what of the quote, which of those words are hard for you?
[00:12:10] Gretchen Schott: What kind of sticks in your mind? What kind of makes you pause and go, Hmm, what is that about? And that what it's about might be something that you're being called to think about for your own personal growth in 2026. I hope that you continue to grow with me in 2026. If you like this episode, I would encourage you to share it with others.
[00:12:34] Gretchen Schott: If you want to work on living out your purposeful life with one word, I encourage you to reach out to me. But in the meantime, be sure to love yourself well. Lead well and love well, I'm so grateful for everyone that's tuned into this show, and I hope we continue to grow together in 2026. Thanks for listening.
[00:12:59] Gretchen Schott: Ready to lead well or need some coaching and encouragement. Sign up for my newsletter or reach out for a personal consultation. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe and leave a review.