Resilient Leadership with Dr. Tod Bolsinger

Igniting Imagination

In this episode of Reservoirs of Resilience podcast, Lisa Greenwood, Vice President of Leadership Ministry at Texas Methodist Foundation (TMF), and Bishop Janice Huie, who works in Leadership Formation at TMF, speak with Dr. Tod Bolsinger, Senior Congressional Strategist and Associate Professor of Leadership Formation at Fuller Seminary. Dr. Bolsinger offers insight on what resilient leadership looks like today. He describes the character qualities required of a resilient leader, how stress makes a leader and why anyone facing constant resistance should keep leading.

QUOTES

• “The hardest thing about leading change is having to grapple with our own vulnerability.” -Dr. Tod Bolsinger [15:12]
• “Empathy is what we need for leadership. Because when you attuned to people and they feel cared for, they will trust you and go further into their own pain and further into their own discomfort if they don’t.” -Dr. Tod Bolsinger [20:21]

TIMESTAMPS

• [00:00] Intro
• [00:26] Bishop Huie reads from Reservoirs of Resilience
• [03:01] An overview of the six episodes of this podcast
• [05:23] An excerpt of Bishop Huie’s writing about resilience
• [08:49] Meet Dr. Tod Bolsinger
• [09:50] How Dr. Bolsinger thinks about resilience
• [11:16] Crucible of change
• [13:52] Blacksmithing metaphor
• [18:27] Character qualities of a resilient leader
• [21:38] Why work so hard to face resistance and how stress can make a leader
• [29:30] What does tempered resilience mean for a pastor today
• [32:51] What Dr. Bolsinger means by Rule of Life and why it’s important
• [36:45] Rapid fire round with three sentences
• [38:36] Bishop Huie’s reflections and takeaways
• [41:44] Outro

RESOURCES & RELEVANT LINKS

• Resilience: Why Things Bounce Back by Andrew Zolli and Ann Marie Healy
• Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth

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Follow Tod Bolsinger: @todbol

For more resources from Tod and his team, text change to 66866.

Find out more about the De Pree Center Church Leadership Initiative at depree.org/church.

Tod Bolsinger is the author of Canoeing the Mountains, It Takes a Church to Raise a Christian, and most recently, Tempered Resilience: How Leaders are Formed in the Crucible of Change.

Reservoirs of Resilience is inspired by the monograph written by Bishop Janice Huie. Read the full publication here.

"That's Something" music and lyrics by Billy Crockett, © 2016 Spare Room Music, BMI, from the album In Session (with Roscoe Beck), Blue Rock Artists, 2020

"Resilience" music by Billy Crockett, © 2021 Spare Room Music, BMI

This podcast is brought to you by TMF’s Leadership Ministry. Leadership Ministry connects diverse, high capacity leaders in conversations and environments that create a network of courage, learning, and innovation in order to help the church lean into its God-appointed mission. For more information and to support TMF’s Leadership Ministry, visit https://tmf-fdn.org/leadership-ministry.