The H2 Leadership Podcast

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Jun 2026

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Leadership is complex, but it doesn’t have to be lonely. The H2 Leadership Podcast is the place for leaders who want to be healthy and high impact . Each week, you’ll be shaped by our coaching , our experience , and the voices of expert guests . We ask deep questions and share practical tools to help you gain clarity, build courage, and create culture where leaders and teams thrive. This is more than a podcast. It’s the most practical resource available to help you take your next right step toward healthy and high impact leadership.

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June 11, 2026Episode 52324 min

The Way We Work Is Not Working

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.

June 4, 2026Episode 52215 min

Summer Is Short. Here Are 4 Keys to Make It Count Before It Slips Away

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.

May 28, 2026Episode 52130 min

The One Inning That Changes the Whole Game (And Your Leadership)

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.

May 21, 2026Episode 52034 min

Therapy, Spiritual Direction, or Coaching? How to Know Which One You Actually Need, with Tara Owens

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.

May 14, 2026Episode 51942 min

Retire Often Why the Best Leaders Take Halftime Seriously: with Jillian Johnsrud

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.

May 7, 2026Episode 51832 min

Another Meeting That Could Have Been an Email: Redesigning How We Work Together with Rebecca Hinds

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.

April 30, 2026Episode 51746 min

What's Coming for the Church: Trends, Readiness, and the Leadership Shifts Nobody Is Talking About

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.

April 23, 2026Episode 51636 min

Bridging the Gap: How We Building Leaders Create Trusted Teams with Laura Kriska

In this episode, Alan Briggs sits down with Laura Kriska — cross-cultural consultant, speaker, and author of The Business of We — for a conversation about one of the most underestimated challenges in leadership today: the invisible gaps that keep teams from reaching their full potential. Laura was born in Japan, raised in Ohio, and spent her early career as the first American woman working inside Honda's Tokyo headquarters. What started as a fascinating cross-cultural immersion became a three-decade career helping leaders and organizations bridge the us versus them gaps that quietly undermine collaboration — whether those gaps are cultural, generational, geographic, or simply the difference between how two departments approach a problem. If you lead a team of any kind, the frameworks Laura shares in this episode are immediately actionable and long overdue. What You'll Learn in This Episode: Laura's origin story — born in Japan to missionary parents, raised in Columbus, Ohio, and what that unique upbringing taught her about cultural differences hiding in plain sight What happened on her first day at Honda's Tokyo headquarters — and the split-second decision she made that shaped her entire philosophy of cross-cultural leadership The We Building framework — what it means to bridge an us versus them gap and why the best leaders do it even when they don't agree with or like the difference they're bridging The trust continuum: stranger → acquaintance → colleague → trusted colleague — and why most teams get stuck at colleague and never make it to trusted Why cultural differences are inevitable and predictable — and what changes when leaders start treating them that way The difference between visible and invisible cultural differences — and why the invisible ones cause the most damage The Team Machine — Laura's 90-minute interactive simulation that exposes the real collaboration behaviors teams bring to work every day Three categories of action for bridging any cultural gap: safe actions, challenging actions, and radical actions What males can specifically do — with humility — to better include female colleagues in their work cultures How hybrid work and the pandemic have made silos worse and what leaders can do about it right now Reflection Questions: Where in your organization is an us versus them gap quietly costing you collaboration and trust? When did you last take a safe, challenging, or radical action to bridge a cultural difference on your team? Are the people you lead stuck at colleague — and what would it take to move them to trusted colleague? Resources Mentioned: The Business of We — Laura Kriska (available wherever books are sold) The Accidental Office Lady — Laura Kriska (her first book chronicling her Honda experience) Harvard Business Review — co-authored piece on the Team Machine (coming May 2025) Connect with Laura on LinkedIn (her most active platform) H2 Leadership Coaching — h2leadership.com Want more? Visit h2leadership.com for coaching, resources, and tools to help you lead well.

April 16, 2026Episode 51550 min

Dream Big. Think Boldly. Do Now: With Mitch Matthew’s

Making Time for Your Next Chapter — mitchmatthews.com/time (free with code H2LEADERSHIP) In this episode, Alan Briggs sits down with Mitch Matthews — coach, speaker, and host of the Dream Think Do podcast — for a conversation that feels less like an interview and more like two coaches getting honest with each other over coffee. Mitch is the CEO of a training organization focused on helping executives, entrepreneurs, and founders define what success actually means to them — and then build a plan to go after it. What unfolds is a wide-ranging, practical, and genuinely fun dialogue about dreams, the questions that unlock them, the questions that shut people down, and what it looks like to lead well in a moment of historic change. If you've ever locked up when someone asked you what your big dream is — or if you've watched someone else lock up when you asked them — this episode is going to reframe how you think about that conversation entirely. What You'll Learn in This Episode: Mitch's origin story — from a 12-year-old loitering at a bike shop in Iowa to discovering his life's calling at a Schwinn Selling School at 14 Why Mitch calls his work "success coaching" instead of life or executive coaching — and why that distinction matters The Dream Think Do framework — why dreaming has to come before thinking, and why most people start strategizing too early Why the question "what's your big dream?" actually shuts people down — and the better questions to ask instead The power of the word "might" — and how one small word change opens up possibilities that pressure closes off What semantic interference is and why it matters for every leader, coach, mentor, and manager in the room The story of the first Big Dream Gathering — how a product nightmare in 2006 became a movement now happening on college campuses and corporate retreats across the country Why dreams have seasons — and how to tell the difference between a dream that isn't right and a dream that just isn't right yet How the best leaders are navigating AI — standing in the tension of what's scary and what's possible at the same time Why AI is actually making people hunger for real human connection — and what that means for coaches and leaders Alan and Mitch coach each other live on the question "what do you want?" — and what makes a great clarifying question great Reflection Questions: What's something you want to experience more often — and what would it take to give yourself permission to pursue it? Are you dreaming before you think, or are you jumping straight to strategy before you've given yourself enough space to imagine? Where in your leadership are you standing in the tension between what's scary and what's possible? Free Resource from Mitch: Mitch put together a training called Making Time for Your Next Chapter — built specifically for high achievers who want to figure out what's next but feel like they don't have the time to even think about it. It's normally $97, but he's making it free for H2 Leadership listeners. Head to mitchmatthews.com/time and use the code H2LEADERSHIP at checkout. Connect with Mitch Matthews: Website: mitchmatthews.com Weekly "4 Things" email: mitchmatthews.com/4things Instagram: @mitch.matthews Facebook: @mitch.matthews.104 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mitchmatthews Dream Think Do Podcast: mitchmatthews.com/blog/ Resources Mentioned: Making Time for Your Next Chapter — mitchmatthews.com/time (free with code H2LEADERSHIP) Gradually Then Suddenly — Mark Batterson The Second Mountain — David Brooks (referenced by Alan) Working Genius Assessment — Patrick Lencioni (referenced by Alan) H2 Leadership Coaching — h2leadership.com

April 9, 2026Episode 51415 min

Fight for Space Why Every Leader Needs Micro, Medium, and Macro Breaks

In this episode, Alan Briggs brings two of his popular Taking Steps video emails to the H2 Leadership Podcast — short, practical teachings he sends to leaders every couple of weeks. Today's focus is space. Not the theoretical kind. The kind you actually have to fight for in a real schedule with real demands pulling on you from every direction. If you're constantly behind, constantly stressed, and never quite present in the moment — Alan has a reframe for you. Space is not a luxury. It is an occupational requirement of leadership. And if you don't fight for it, it is not going to show up on its own. Alan walks through three types of space every leader needs to build into their life, and then zooms in on one of the most powerful practices he's implemented in his own leadership — the quarterly think day. Eight hours, no meetings, no email, just deep thinking on the biggest decisions and opportunities in front of him. The results have been consistently transformative. What You'll Learn in This Episode: Why the way most leaders think about time is actively working against them The three types of space every leader must fight for: micro, medium, and macro What micro space looks like in a real day — and why even five minutes matters The Sabbath as a "get-to day" in a world full of have-tos — and why every leader Alan knows who takes it seriously wishes they had started sooner The quarterly think day — what it is, how Alan structures it, and why it costs about ten dollars and returns serious clarity Why leaders who only react are slowly losing their creativity and their purpose What it looks like to go from a full day of deep thinking to presenting clear objectives to your team How macro space — vacations and sabbaticals — isn't just good for you personally, it's essential for your team and your leadership The simple challenge: can you take two, four, or eight hours this quarter to actually think? Reflection Questions: When was the last time you had uninterrupted space to think about where you're actually going — not just what's in front of you right now? Which of the three types of space — micro, medium, or macro — are you most neglecting, and what would it take to fight for it this week? If you blocked a think day this quarter, what are the two or three big topics you'd bring with you? Resources Mentioned: Right Side Up Journal — available on Amazon H2 Leadership Coaching — h2leadership.com Taking Steps — Alan's monthly email and video series for leaders