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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: What are you proudest of as you look back on this year? When were you happiest this last year? If you could accomplish one thing in 2026, what would it be? 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.
[00:00:22] Gretchen Schott: I'm your host, Gretchen Schott. Let's dive in.
[00:00:31] Gretchen Schott: Hello. Welcome bock. Happy New Year. This episode is the first episode of 2026, and I'm so grateful that you came back and listened to the show. So let's dig in As we step into this brand new year, I wanna offer you permission to ease into it. Alright? Not to rush, not to hustle. Not to prove anything, just to arrive.
[00:01:04] Gretchen Schott: Arrive in 2026. January doesn't have to begin with pressure. It can begin with space. Space for clarity, space for reflection, space for stillness, because here's what I believe more and more as a leader and as a coach, clarity comes from stillness, stillness. Leads to discernment. Discernment leads to wisdom.
[00:01:31] Gretchen Schott: Recently, a listener of the show, Ryan Cox, reached out to me on LinkedIn, but after listening to the show, he posed a question to me and he asked me to. He said, can you talk about how leadership isn't about. Being strong all the time, and I love this, I love this challenge. I love this question 'cause I, I believe that leadership isn't about being strong all the time.
[00:01:55] Gretchen Schott: Leadership isn't about titles. Leadership isn't about the hustle. It's about caring for others more than it is about yourself. And it definitely isn't about pretending you have it all together being a vp. Or an executive doesn't automatically make you a strong leader. Burning the candle at both ends doesn't make you a strong leader.
[00:02:18] Gretchen Schott: Always being on isn't about being strong. Wisdom is strength in leadership. Growth is strength in leadership. Caring for others, even when it costs you is strength in leadership. I believe in this so deeply. We should celebrate moments of deep reflection just as much as we celebrate achievements and accomplishments.
[00:02:45] Gretchen Schott: One of my top strengths is achiever, which means I have an incredible stamina and capacity for being productive as well as achieving and accomplishing goals. And so I say this to you, telling you, I know that this is hard. I know. That it's difficult to take time and space to just deeply reflect on where you're at, what you want, how it's going, examining your conscience, and reflecting on where you have growth and where you screwed up and where you wanna get better, right?
[00:03:20] Gretchen Schott: But I also know this to be true. Some of my best work in my career has come from seasons when I slowed down, when I got really quiet. When I prayed and when I made space to listen instead of push, scripture gives us a powerful model for this. Jesus fully confident in his mission, regularly stepped away.
[00:03:41] Gretchen Schott: He withdrew from crowds. He even leapt his closest disciples. He went to quiet places to pray. If Jesus needed stillness for clarity, how much more do we need it? A lot more in my experience wise, leaders are strong leaders. They demonstrate vision and foresight, the ability to see beyond immediate challenges wise.
[00:04:05] Gretchen Schott: Leaders have integrity and ethics, a moral compass that helps drive their decisions wise. Leaders have empathy and compassion. They have genuine connection to the needs of others. They have resilience and perseverance, a steadiness in adversity. And they have strategic thinking, long-term perspective with adaptability.
[00:04:27] Gretchen Schott: This kind of strength doesn't just shout, it doesn't rush. It listens. As we begin this new year, I wanna invite you to seek clarity, not about what you'll do first, but about who you wanna be as a leader. Each year I choose a word for the year. As a life theme for myself, and I've been doing this for over a decade, it becomes a lens for me, a guide, a theme for how I want to live and lead and grow.
[00:05:02] Gretchen Schott: I was first introduced to this practice through the work of John Gordon, Dan Britton, and Jimmy Page, and their book One Word That'll Change Their Life. I'm eternally grateful for that book and it's a must read for anyone who is interested in being an intentional leader. In my next episode, I'll be sharing my word for 2026, and I hope that you'll join me and you'll come up, you'll, uh, tune in for that conversation.
[00:05:29] Gretchen Schott: But before we close, I wanna offer you an exercise, something I've been doing that's really powerful with a lot of my coaching clients here in the last few weeks. So if you're able to grab a pencil and a pen, I want you to write these down. I have some questions for you. The first one. Is, what are you proudest of as you look back on this year?
[00:05:51] Gretchen Schott: What are you proudest of next? When were you happiest this last year? Third question. If you could accomplish one thing in 2026, what would it be? What needs to be on your not to-do list? 'cause too often we're putting together a list of all the things we need to get done, all the goals we want to have, but what needs to be on your not to-do list.
[00:06:18] Gretchen Schott: What are you dissatisfied with right now as you enter into 2026? What are you dissatisfied with? And then finally, what do you need most from your friends next year? And how do you want to feel one year from now compared to today? So as you vision cast, and think about your life and your intentional leadership, how do you wanna feel one year away from now?
[00:06:50] Gretchen Schott: Don't rush these stillness, do the work. A good friend of mine once said, let's silence, take a seat. Alright. So play this back, maybe share those questions with a friend, and if these questions resonate with you, I wanna support you in turning daily clarity into intentional action. And so I invite you into something special starting January 23rd.
[00:07:18] Gretchen Schott: I am hosting purpose in the new year. It's a six month virtual coaching experience for leaders who wanna lead with clarity, confidence, and wisdom. And here's what it includes. Monthly Zoom coaching, accountability and mindset work, guided worksheets and instructions, and small intentional group conversations.
[00:07:39] Gretchen Schott: It's less than a hundred dollars a month and it's designed to help you slow down so you can move forward with purpose. If you're seeking structure, support, and space to grow. Let's talk. I would love to work with you in this new year. I would love to hear how these reflection questions resonate with you.
[00:08:00] Gretchen Schott: Um, and as I close this episode, like I always do, I wanna leave you with a prayer to help you kind of be focused, help you meditate. And it's a simple one that I wrote, uh, just for all my listeners and for my coaching clients. And so here it goes, Lord, guide my thoughts and my words that I may lead with peace and purpose.
[00:08:24] Gretchen Schott: Give me the desire to lead with not just strength, but with wisdom. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right. I hope that you took something away from this. I hope that you continue to stay with me and enjoy these episodes. I hope that you find some stillness and some quiet, and more importantly, I hope you tune into my next episode.
[00:08:50] Gretchen Schott: If you liked this, please let me know. I love hearing from you. If you have topics that you want me to dive into, I wanna hear that too. Thank you so much, Ryan, for getting that ball started, but most of all, remember loving well is Leading Well. Please choose to lead well. I will talk to you soon. Ready to lead well or need some coaching and encouragement.
[00:09:15] Gretchen Schott: 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.