S7E06: Healthy Habits for Long-Term Leadership

Imagine just finishing a thirteen-year run leading a large, global, Christian ministry. What would you consider your legacy? What would your plans be? How did the selection of your successor go? What was your involvement in helping in the process? Doug Nuenke, who just finished a thirteen-year term as the President of The Navigators, responds to these questions and more.

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In this episode:

• The Navigators have been certified as a Best Christian Workplace for at least the last 6 years (02:04)
• The Navigators have been all about helping people to know Christ and make him known (02:34)
• Some of the habits or rhythms of life and leadership that have helped you get across the finish line with a smile on your face. What habits have sustained you as a leader in the long haul? (04:38)
• Abiding with Jesus (05:45)
• Rhythms of Grace: joining God in what he's already done (06:39)
• Set aside a day a week, days a month, weeks a year (8:33)
• Keep a learner's posture. Suspend certainty as a leader (10:39)
• Tell us about how you have been supported in accountability as a leader. Do you have some individuals or groups who have been important in this area during your tenure as President? (12:02)
• Board of Directors; US President Advisory committee (12:58)
• Four men each month call me to check in (13:32)
• Small group – other believers walking with us in life (14:45)
• You and Pam have been married for many years. Are there some habits or practices you share as a couple that have helped you serve hand-in-hand and heart-to-heart for all these years? (16:07)
• Keep dating; time away as a couple; prayer, keeping together in areas of spiritual growth and how God is speaking to us. (16:36)
• Healthy Sabbath rhythm (17:52)
• The Navigators have been certified as a Best Christian Workplace for a number of years. Even in the midst of a pandemic, your Healthy Communication and Leadership results saw significant improvement.  This wasn’t always true for our ministry partners.  To what do you attribute the Communication progress this year? (20:54)
• Our staff appreciate communication when it affirms that they are seen and heard (21:24)
• Leaders being more empathetic (22:08)
• In the employee engagement survey, we ask respondents to evaluate diversity – rating the statement: “Diversity is clearly valued in The Navigators.” Your organization has been higher than other ministries in this area. I know diversity is something you continue to work on, what have you learned that might help other leaders in this area? (25:38)
• Can you give us some insight into your own decision that it was time to step back from your role as U.S. President of The Navigators (29:46) 
• Seeking the Lord in prayer and seeking the counsel of leaders (29:58)
• Tell us about how you have intentionally poured into the next generation of leaders over the past few years, knowing that you wouldn’t be president forever. (33:02)
• We have put a lot of effort into growing as a mission with a developmental bias (33:04)
• "When I first started out in my role as US President of The Navigators, my greatest hope was that we would leave behind a more healthy culture, that would help people flourish and that is a fragrant aroma of Jesus Christ, for His glory." (43:34)

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