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Confirmation Bias – The Invisible Saboteur
Your brain is brilliant…but it’s not always fair. Confirmation bias is the invisible saboteur in leadership teams: once we form a belief about someone, we start seeing only what confirms it. In this vlog, I break down how this bias shows up, how it burns trust, and what we can do to lead with curiosity…
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White Christmas and the Culture Killer
What do a 1954 musical and your team’s communication habits have in common? More than you think. In White Christmas, a single overheard conversation derails a relationship—and it’s a perfect example of how assumptions can fracture trust. In this vlog, I explore how miscommunication and silence fuel stories that burn—and how asking one clarifying question…
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The Side-Door Strategy
End Runs and Undermining Authority: When decisions are made in whispers rather than in the room. Bypassing leadership structures or processes erodes trust and team alignment. I want to start by sharing a story. Stories have the power to teach us empathy and compassion, which is incredibly important if we are going to take on…
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Voices. Vision. Practices. Community. 3: The Big 10 Culture Killers of Effective Leadership Teams
In this episode of the Imago Leadership Podcast, Dr. Lee Carter exposes the ten hidden dynamics that quietly sabotage leadership teams from within, what he calls the “Big 10 Culture Killers of Effective Leadership Teams.” Drawing from global experience in nonprofit and faith-based organizations, Lee unpacks how poor listening, toxic narratives, unclear norms, and mismanaged…
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How to Lead with Hospitality
Leadership isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about making space for others to speak. Learn how hospitality can turn tension into trust.
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Voices. Vision. Practices. Community. 3: The Big 10 Culture Killers of Effective Leadership Teams, Part 1
In this episode of the Imago Leadership Podcast, Dr. Lee Carter exposes the ten hidden dynamics that quietly sabotage leadership teams from within, what he calls the “Big 10 Culture Killers of Effective Leadership Teams.” Drawing from global experience in nonprofit and faith-based organizations, Lee unpacks how poor listening, toxic narratives, unclear norms, and mismanaged…
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The Compliance Cage
Unhealthy HR Practices: When the “human” in Human Resources gets lost in the paperwork. An HR function that primarily focuses on protecting the organization and adhering to policy, but lacks a people-first development approach, tends to distract managers from their goals. This unintentionally hinders the organizational mission. Human Resources is a vital part of any…
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The Cure for Selective Leadership Listening
Want to lead with wisdom and warmth? Start by asking better questions. This vlog explores how appreciative inquiry can reshape your team’s culture from the inside out.
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Why You Need Disruption to Grow
Disruption isn’t the enemy of progress. It’s the birthplace of transformation. Discover why your team’s next breakthrough might come from its biggest discomfort.
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The Soundproof Room
The Soundproof Room What do Shakespeare’s Macbeth and modern leadership teams have in common? More than you think! And it starts with who we refuse to hear.
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Lone Wolves in Shared Fields
Power Without Community Accountability: When empowerment neglects the “we” behind the “me.” A healthy organizational culture balances individual empowerment with community discernment and decision-making. Like many others, I have been deeply affected by the story of Mars Hill Church as presented in the podcast series, The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, hosted by Mike…
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What’s Sabotaging Your Leadership Team?
Poor listening, toxic stories, unchecked conflict—these culture killers and more quietly sabotage leadership teams. This vlog begins a series on the Big 10 Culture Killers to watch for.
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The Stunted Mirror
Lack of Personal and Collective Growth: When leaders stop developing themselves, while others around them want to keep advancing, they set unspoken limits on the mission and breed resentment among their team members. In J. K. Rowling’s popular fictional series, Harry Potter is orphaned as a baby when the evil Lord Voldemort murders both of…
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Conflict Without a Compass
Avoidance or Mismanagement of Conflict: When tough conversations become harmful or are avoided altogether. This includes harsh confrontation, lack of explicit conflict norms, poor theology of reconciliation, and absence of due process. One of the biggest oversights among leadership teams is how to manage conflict effectively. In my personal and professional experience, conflict is often…
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Stories that Burn
Toxic Narratives and Reactive Behavior: When unexamined assumptions and reactive scripts torch relationships. Acting on harmful internal stories or assumptions that diminish others instead of seeking clarity and shared understanding. A common tactic here that is very destructive to cultures and people made in the image of God is scapegoating. One of my favorite holiday movies…
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The Soundproof Room
Poor Listening and Communication Habits: When leaders hear but don’t listen, speak but don’t connect. This includes not listening, condescension, arguing instead of seeking to understand others’ perspectives, and failing to ask appreciative inquiry questions. As a Scotsman, I am especially fond of William Shakespeare’s 1602 play, Macbeth. Macbeth is a Scottish general and nobleman whose…
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The Big 10 Culture Killers of Effective Leadership Teams
One of the most inspiring moments in the 2001 film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring occurs in the mythical forest of Lothlórien, home to the Galadhrim, a branch of the Elves ruled by Lady Galadriel and Lord Celeborn. The Fellowship of the Ring has arrived in…
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