The H2 Leadership Podcast

What if the most powerful response to a divided world isn't another argument, but an invitation to the table? In a season marked by political division, outrage, and growing disconnection, H2 Leadership host Alan Briggs invites us into a different kind of conversation. Recorded around a backyard fire in Colorado Springs, Alan sits down with friend, school principal, and entrepreneur Derien Latimer to explore how intentional hospitality can bring people together across differences and create lasting change. What began as a conversation over tacos during the upheaval of 2020 eventually became SoulFULL, a gathering where people from different backgrounds, beliefs, and walks of life share great food, meaningful conversations, and a common desire to see their city flourish. Through personal stories, unexpected connections, and practical leadership lessons, Darien shares why hospitality is about far more than hosting a dinner. It's about creating spaces where people feel seen, valued, and heard, even when they disagree. In this episode, you'll discover: How Derien's childhood experiences shaped his understanding of genuine hospitality. Why bringing people together across cultural, political, and socioeconomic differences matters. The two intentional rules behind Soulfull's community dinners that help strangers build meaningful connections. How hospitality can transform difficult conversations in the workplace and the way we lead others. Why creating space to listen can be more powerful than having the perfect words. At a time when it's easy to retreat into cynicism or surround ourselves with people who think like us, Alan and Darien offer a different invitation: What would it look like to practice hospitality in the unique way you're wired to do it? You don't need to be a chef or host an elaborate gathering. You just need to be willing to make room for someone else. Your challenge: Before the holidays, find one intentional way to welcome someone into your life, your home, your workplace, or your community. Because sometimes the most meaningful change begins with something as simple as pulling up another chair. Connect with H2 Leadership Helping leaders become healthy and high impact. Explore resources, conversations, and opportunities to grow as a leader at https://h2leadership.com. If this conversation challenged or encouraged you, share it with someone who could use a reminder that connection is still possible, even in a divided world. And follow the H2 Leadership Podcast for more honest conversations and practical insights on leading well.

What actually makes a team healthy, aligned, and effective? In this episode of the H2 Leadership Podcast, Alan Briggs sits down with the H2 Leadership team for an honest conversation about the practices that help their team work well together. H2 happens to be decentralized, with team members spread across different states and time zones. That creates some unique challenges. But the things that make the team work are not remote-work principles. They are team principles. Trust. Clarity. Shared language. Knowing the people behind the roles. Creating space to think together. Understanding how each person is wired. Making expectations clear. Building enough relational connection that challenge and accountability can actually work. Those things matter whether your team works across the country or in the same office every day. Alan, Jonathan Collier, Mikelle Mosier, and Justin Ochocki talk candidly about the realities of working as a decentralized team and what makes healthy team culture possible. They also reflect on how nearly nine years of building, changing, and refining the organization between Alan and Jonathan has created history, trust, lessons, and shared language that now shape the way the current team works together. They unpack lessons from a recent team immersion, including why getting outside the normal rhythm of work can create clarity that weekly meetings cannot, why team development should be treated as an investment rather than an expense, and why productive time together needs room for relationship, reflection, and play, not just an overloaded agenda. The conversation also gets practical about culture: how curiosity and humility help teams navigate disagreement, why shared language matters, how leaders can care deeply about their people without treating the team like family, and why psychological safety still needs healthy challenge and clear expectations. And in an increasingly digital and AI-driven workplace, the team wrestles with another important question: what should become more efficient, and what needs to remain deeply human? Alan challenges leaders to think intentionally about where AI can help and where trust, judgment, relationship, presence, and human connection still matter most. The episode closes with each member of the team speaking directly to leaders who may feel tired, discouraged, stretched thin, or tempted to believe they need more people, more resources, or more capacity before they can make meaningful progress. In this episode What actually builds trust and alignment on a team Why strong team culture does not happen by accident What decentralized teams can teach teams that work in the same building Why shared language improves clarity and accountability How team retreats and offsites can accelerate alignment The role curiosity and humility play in healthy teams The difference between caring for your team and treating them like family Why psychological safety still requires healthy challenge What leaders should protect as AI changes the workplace Why small, scrappy teams can still create significant impact If you lead a team, manage people, or are trying to build a healthier culture without sacrificing performance, this conversation will give you practical ideas you can apply whether your team is remote, hybrid, or sitting together every day.

We're back from an amazing summer and we have news! The H2 Leadership Podcast is entering a new season. We’re moving from weekly episodes to one intentional, HIGHLY curated, HIGHLY PRACTICAL, episode each month, featuring conversations with HEALTHY, HIGH-CAPACITY leaders worth learning from and practical ideas you can put to work in your own leadership. In this first episode of the new format, Alan Briggs sits down with Kadi Cole and Justin Roethlingshoefer for two conversations about the health, capacity, and intentionality required to lead well for the long haul. Kadi Cole joins Alan after returning from a three-month sabbatical. She shares what it took to come out of years of operating in crisis mode, why her body needed time to catch up with the changes already happening in her life, and what she learned by deliberately putting herself in situations where she wasn’t already competent. Their conversation then turns toward the church and the leadership challenges Kadi is seeing right now: churches still confronting post-COVID realities, gaps in leadership pipelines and succession, unsustainable staff rhythms, changing systems, and the challenge of leading through an in-between season when the old model may no longer work but the next one hasn’t fully emerged yet. Kadi also shares about her work developing female church leaders and why many women enter significant leadership roles without having received the same developmental opportunities and repetitions earlier in their careers. Then Alan sits down with Justin Roethlingshoefer, founder of OWN IT Coaching and author of Holy Health, for a conversation about an area high-capacity leaders can easily neglect: physical health. Justin shares his own experience with chronic striving and burnout and explores why successful leaders often keep investing in the areas where they already know how to win while allowing their health to move further down the priority list. Alan and Justin talk about physical health as stewardship, the connection between habits and capacity, performance-based identity, and one practical warning sign leaders should pay attention to: when things that once felt manageable suddenly begin to feel unusually hard. In this episode What Kadi learned from stepping away for three months Why high-capacity leaders can struggle when there is nothing to accomplish What Kadi is seeing inside churches and leadership teams right now Leadership pipeline and succession challenges Why old systems may no longer produce the same results Leading well during an organizational in-between Developing healthier pathways for female church leaders Why successful leaders often neglect physical health The connection between performance identity and burnout Health as stewardship rather than obsession How habits affect your capacity to lead A warning sign that your current pace may no longer be sustainable Why transformation may require getting help instead of simply trying harder About Kadi Cole Kadi Cole is a leadership consultant, coach, speaker, and author of Developing Female Leaders. Her work helps churches and organizations strengthen leadership cultures and develop the people entrusted to them. She also hosts The Female Church Leaders Podcast. About Justin Roethlingshoefer Justin Roethlingshoefer is a performance and health expert, founder of OWN IT Coaching, and author of Holy Health. His work helps leaders better understand the connection between their health, habits, energy, and capacity to sustainably carry what they have been called to lead. A new season for the H2 Leadership Podcast The H2 Leadership Podcast is now monthly. Each month, Alan will bring you conversations with leaders worth learning from, along with practical coaching insight designed to help you become both healthy and high impact. You can also subscribe to The H2 Leader, Alan’s monthly email featuring practical coaching insights, tools, and ideas coming directly from the coaching table at H2 Leadership.

Do we practice what we preach or produce? That's the question behind this conversation. As Jonathan prepares for sabbatical and the H2 Leadership team enters a different rhythm for the summer, Alan and Jonathan reflect on a challenge facing leaders everywhere. We live in a culture that rewards constant production, celebrates busyness, and always asks for more. More content. More output. More growth. More momentum. But what happens when the things we say we value collide with the way we're actually living and leading? The reality is that not every season is a harvest season. Not every season is for building, launching, or pushing harder. Healthy leaders learn to recognize the difference and have the courage to lead accordingly. As H2 Leadership takes a short pause for the summer, we're inviting you to ask some honest questions about your own leadership, your own pace, and the things competing for your attention right now. In This Episode • Why the way many leaders work is no longer sustainable • The hidden cost of always producing • Why healthy leadership requires alignment between values and actions • How Jonathan is preparing for sabbatical after a season of significant growth and production • The role trust plays in healthy leadership • Why recognizing your season matters • How leaders can create margin without disappearing for months at a time • The difference between stewardship and endless productivity • Why the algorithm will always ask for more • What it looks like to lead from conviction instead of expectation Key Leadership Insight Not every season is for producing. Some seasons are for preparing. Some are for recovering. Some are for planting seeds that will not bear fruit until much later. Healthy leaders know the difference. Challenge Question What season are you actually in right now? Not the season you wish you were in. Not the season someone else expects from you. The season you're actually in. Resources Mentioned • Anti-Burnout by Alan Briggs • The Sabbatical Journey Field Guide • The Sabbatical Journey Podcast • Sabbatical Coaching Group Your Next Right Step Take fifteen minutes this week and ask yourself one question: Where is the gap between what I say I value and what my calendar says I value? Start there. The answer may reveal more than you expect. We'll be taking a short break from releasing new episodes this summer. We're grateful for you. We're cheering you on. And we'll see you in August.

Time is the most precious resource a leader has, and summer might be the most underused stretch of it. The school calendar opens up. Work expectations soften. The world feels a little more breathable. And then somehow, before you've caught your breath, it's gone. Alan Briggs walks through four keys that turn summer from a season that happens to you into one you actually shape: space, replenishment, relational time, and growth. If you've ever hit the end of summer and thought "where did that go," this episode is the planning conversation you didn't know you needed. Who this episode is for If you're a parent looking at the next stretch ahead and feeling both the gift and the overwhelm of it. If you're a leader who tends to let summer happen instead of leading through it. If you've been running hard and you know you need rest, but you also know "rest" without a plan turns into doom scrolling and chores. If you want this summer to actually mean something when you look back on it. This one is for you. What you'll take away Why summer plans you if you don't plan it, and the simple shift that flips the dynamic The four keys for an intentional summer: space, replenishment, relational time, and growth, and why missing any one of them leaves the season feeling hollow The great irony of unplanned space: it only happens if you plan for it How to figure out what actually replenishes you (and why it probably costs less and requires less travel than you think) Why most leaders nail rest and miss growth, and how to fold one of the most overlooked categories back into your summer The conversation worth having with your spouse before the calendar fills up, so friend time and family time stop competing A set of clarifying questions for each of the four keys that turn "I should plan summer" into an actual plan Quotes worth sitting with "Time is precious. We only have so much of it." "If you don't plan it, it will plan you." "Accept the great irony of planning unplanned time." "Most replenishing activities in our lives can happen at home." "Leaders, we're always growing." Reflection questions When will you plan empty space in your life, the kind with nothing scheduled in it on purpose? What activities actually recharge you, and when will you block them in? Who do you need to reconnect with before another season passes? What do you need to learn this summer, and who will you learn it from? Resources Download the free Summer Planning Guide, with journal prompts and planning blocks built in: https://summer.stayforthcoaching.com/plan-for-the-summer For coaching, frameworks, and tools to help you lead well, head to h2leadership.com. If you've been running hard and you know your next step involves real partnership, coaching might be the right call. Start a conversation at h2leadership.com.

There is a moment in every baseball game where everything stops. Not because something went wrong. Because the game was designed that way. The 7th inning stretch is not a timeout. It is not a sign of weakness. It is built into the structure of the game because whoever designed baseball understood something most leaders forget: you cannot finish strong if you never pause to reset. Jonathan and Alan bring back one of the most talked-about episodes from the H2 Leadership archives because heading into summer 2026, most leaders need this conversation more than ever. If you are six months in and running on fumes, this is your inning. They get into what it actually looks like to use summer with intention, not just survive it. Reflection, realignment, solitude, celebrating small wins. This is not a productivity conversation. It is a rhythm conversation. In This Episode: Why the 7th inning stretch is one of the smartest leadership metaphors hiding in plain sight How to pause with purpose and reconnect with your why before the fall sprint hits What reflection and realignment actually look like for a leader in the summer months Alan's and Jonathan's personal slowdown practices, and how to find yours Reflect On This: What is one practice helping you slow down this summer? What do you need to let go of before Q3? What are you most hopeful for in the second half of 2026? Resource: Download the free 7th Inning Stretch for Leaders Checklist and catch the full summer series: Becoming an H2 Leader.

Tara Owens has spent over twenty years as a spiritual director, and she also trains other spiritual directors. She's the author of Embracing the Body, the executive director of a nonprofit, a boxer, and a coaching client of Alan's. That last detail matters, because this conversation is about something most leaders quietly wrestle with: which kind of helper do I actually need right now? Alan and Tara unpack the three lanes (therapy, spiritual direction, and coaching), where each one shines, where leaders most often apply the wrong tool to the wrong problem, and what it cost Tara to finally say yes to a coach after years of resisting it. Who this episode is for If you've been in therapy for a while and have a gut sense the season is shifting but you don't know where to go next. If you've been pursuing growth through one modality and quietly suspect you've been trying to use a hammer on a screw. If you're a leader who's allergic to coaching (or to spiritual direction, or to therapy) and you want to understand what you might actually be allergic to. If you sense you're stuck and you can't tell whether you're stuck in the past, in the present, or in the future. This one is for you. What you'll take away A simple framework for which lane fits which season: therapy integrates your past, spiritual direction sits with you in the present, and coaching is for the leader who needs someone in their corner for the future What spiritual direction actually is (and isn't), and why "director" is a confusing word for what's really a non-anxious, non-manipulative, agenda-free listening presence Why "there are no spiritual direction emergencies" and what that reveals about the slower, deeper work most leaders never make space for The trap of "spiritual cannibalism" that helping professionals (and pastors, and leaders of any kind) need to watch for in themselves Why Tara, a deeply respected spiritual director, had a years-long allergy to coaching and what finally moved her The phrase that named what she was missing: "I didn't have anybody in my life who was for my future" Why the resources you actually need are usually closer than you think, often already on your team and under your nose How to evaluate fit when looking for any of the three, and why "they say they're your coach" doesn't mean they actually are Quotes worth sitting with "There are no spiritual direction emergencies." "You're not Jesus. I'm not Jesus. That's not our job." "I didn't have anybody in my life who was for my future." "Hope is the ground of everything I do, and it's probably my weakest muscle." "So much about coaching is naming and permission." "Ask 'who' instead of 'what.' Some of God's greatest 'what' questions or opportunities are answered by 'who do I need.'" Reflection questions Where are you actually stuck right now: in something from your past, in something happening in your present, or in something you can't see clearly about your future? What's the right partnership for that specific kind of stuck, and have you been trying to solve it with the wrong tool? Who, not what, might be the answer to the next thing God is doing in you? Resources Embracing the Body: Finding God in Our Flesh and Bone by Tara Owens. Learn more about Tara's work at anamcara.com. For coaching, frameworks, and tools to help you lead well, head to h2leadership.com. If you're a leader sensing you need partnership but can't quite name where the gap is, that's exactly the kind of clarity our coaching work is built for. Schedule a breakthrough coaching session.

Jillian Johnsrud has taken thirteen mini retirements (sabbaticals) over the last twenty years. She's raised five kids (three adopted), built and renovated rental properties that changed her family's financial trajectory, and coached hundreds of leaders through their own sabbaticals. Her new book Retire Often might be the most practical and philosophically rich thing written on the subject. She joins Alan Briggs for a conversation about something most leaders get wrong: the assumption that caring about your work means never stepping away from it. Who this episode is for If you're a leader who runs hard and assumes the operation falls apart without you. If you've watched peers burn out and quietly wondered when it's coming for you. If you're caught between a 60-year-old generation that grinds and a 25-year-old generation that won't, and you're trying to figure out a third way. If your identity is so wrapped up in what you do that you're not sure what's underneath it. This one is for you. What you'll take away The halftime analogy that reframes extended rest as competitive strategy, not indulgence, and why the leaders running sprints through their break aren't the ones winning long term A clear three-part definition of a mini retirement (one month or longer, away from your primary profession, focused on something meaningful) and how that differs from a vacation How to address the four objections that stop almost every leader from doing this: money, work obligations, "what would I even do," and "what if it goes badly" Why "my whole identity is my work" isn't a badge of honor, it's a problem to solve before it solves itself The "spring cleaning" effect on your business or team when you step away, and why most leaders come back to a tidier, more efficient operation than the one they left Why your sabbatical plan is a hypothesis and your sabbatical reality is an experiment, and how that one reframe eliminates the emotional suffering most leaders inflict on themselves What Jillian thinks AI is about to change about leadership, and why the companies that figure rest out are going to dominate the next twenty years Quotes worth sitting with "The only options are you figure it out or you die at your desk." "Machines are getting better at being machines. Humans need to get a lot better at being human." "No one looks at the basketball players running sprints during halftime and goes, oh, they're the ones who really care. No, they don't. They're being stupid." "You're always more tired than you think." "You don't include yourself in the people first." Reflection questions If your identity is entirely defined by your work, what would it take to start building meaning and purpose outside of it before life forces the issue? What season are you actually leading from right now (spring, summer, fall, winter), and is your current pace honest about that? What would have to be true for you to take a real break with purpose? And what's actually stopping you from making that true? Resources Retire Often by Jillian Johnsrud, available wherever you buy books. The Sabbatical Journey field guide by Alan Briggs, available from Amazon & Barnes & Noble This episode is also featured on The Sabbatical Journey Podcast from our sister organization, Sabbatical Coaching Group, which helps leaders prepare for, experience, and return well from a life-changing sabbatical. Learn more at sabbaticalcoachinggroup.com. For coaching, frameworks, and tools to help you lead healthy and with higher impact, head to h2leadership.com.

Rebecca Hinds, researcher, organizational designer, and author of Your Best Meeting Ever joins the Alan Briggs for a conversation that is long overdue in most, if not all organizations. Alan has threatened to write a book about meetings for years. He no longer has to. Why? Rebecca wrote it. After 15 years studying how humans communicate and coordinate at work, Rebecca brings both the research and the practical frameworks to help leaders stop letting meetings kill their culture — and start designing them as the powerful, expensive tool they actually are. If you've ever sat in a meeting wondering why you're there, or felt the creeping guilt of a calendar so packed with meetings that the real work gets squeezed into the margins, this one is for you. What You'll Learn in This Episode: Why we keep having bad meetings even when we know they're not working — and the visibility bias that drives the cycle What "calendar carnage" is and why it's not just a scheduling problem — it's a fundamental communication problem Meeting Doomsday — the 48-hour calendar cleanse that forces every recurring meeting to earn its spot back Why AI is making meetings worse, not better — and the specific behaviors Rebecca is watching with alarm The danger of sending your AI bot to a meeting instead of showing up yourself — and what it signals to your team Why brainstorming is one of the most overrated meeting types — and what the research says actually produces better ideas The four dimensions of meeting minimalism: length, cadence, attendees, and agenda items Parkinson's Law and why your 30-minute meeting will always take 30 minutes — and how the rule of halves fixes it How to convert every agenda item into a verb and noun combination — and why it changes everything The one meeting most organizations are cutting that they absolutely should not be: the manager one-on-one The question great leaders are asking about AI right now — and why it's not "what can I automate?" What Rebecca hopes meetings look like five years from now — and the mindset shift that gets us there Reflection Questions: If every recurring meeting on your calendar had to earn its spot back tomorrow, which ones would survive? Are you designing your meetings for yourself as the organizer — or for the people in the room? What would you do with your time if your meetings were cut in half — and is that answer worth fighting for? Resources Mentioned: Your Best Meeting Ever — Rebecca Hinds (available wherever books are sold) Working Genius Assessment — Patrick Lencioni and The Table Group (referenced by Alan) Marco Polo — async video tool used by the H2 team H2 Leadership Coaching — h2leadership.com Want more? Visit h2leadership.com for coaching, resources, and tools to help you lead well.  

In this episode, Alan Briggs sits down with Holly Tate, founder of The Ready Network and a consultant who has spent 15 years serving churches, ministries, and organizations at the intersection of leadership development and strategic clarity. Holly brings a rare vantage point: nearly a decade at Vanderbloemen doing executive search for churches, four years as Chief Marketing and Services Officer at a leadership software company serving over 600 ministries, and now running her own coaching and consulting practice helping leaders and teams scale. The conversation covers a lot of ground and moves fast. From the moment organizations outgrow their basketball team culture and have to become a football team, to the trends Holly is watching unfold in real time around shared leadership models, AI adoption, spiritual formation, and what it means to actually be ready for what's coming next. If you lead a church, serve on an elder board, work as an executive pastor, or simply want to understand the challenges facing ministry leaders right now, this one is for you. And if you lead a business or nonprofit, Holly estimates about 70% of this conversation will translate directly. What You'll Learn in This Episode: Holly's 15-year leadership pathway — from cold calling at a radio company to executive search at Vanderbloemen to chief marketing officer at a leadership software company — and what all of it taught her about organizational health The doer to developer jump — why top performers get promoted into management roles they were never equipped for, and the tension that creates between executives and managers The basketball team to football team analogy from Larry Osborne's Sticky Teams — what breaks down when organizations cross that threshold and what leaders have to change about themselves to navigate it The READY framework — Reality check, Evaluation, Action plan, Delegation, Yes barometer — and how Holly uses it as a 90-day strategic planning process for churches and organizations Why the Yes barometer is the hardest part of the framework to implement — and why psychological safety determines whether it works The emerging trend of shared and co-leadership models in churches — Holly's two hypotheses for why it's happening and what's making it work What's really driving fear around AI in church culture — and why Holly believes leaders should be the first to explore it, not the last The discipleship disruption — why churches are rethinking spiritual formation from the ground up and what that means for buildings, campuses, and Sunday morning models What men on leadership teams are accidentally doing that excludes female colleagues — and the simple habit shift that changes it What Holly is obsessed with right now: the concept of readiness and what it means to be a truly ready leader in a world changing faster than ever Reflection Questions: Is your organization still running basketball team systems inside a football team reality — and what would it cost you to acknowledge that honestly? Where does your team need a Yes barometer — a shared language for what you're saying no to when you say yes to something new? As a leader, are you approaching AI and rapid change with anticipation or dread — and what would it look like to move toward curiosity instead? Resources Mentioned: Sticky Teams — Larry Osborne The Ready Network — thereadynetwork.com Leading Smart Podcast — Tim Stevens and Holly Tate (find it wherever you listen to podcasts) McCrindle Research — multigenerational leadership data H2 Leadership Coaching — h2leadership.com Connect with Holly: Website: thereadynetwork.com Want more? Visit h2leadership.com for coaching, resources, and tools to help you lead well.