Episode 5- When the Metrics Don’t Move

In Episode 5 of The Practices of a Healthy Leader, Rick and Brad discuss the pressure leaders feel when things are not “up and to the right.” They explore how metrics can be helpful without becoming ultimate, why leaders often confuse results with faithfulness, and how a fixation on growth can lead to anxiety, comparison, and reactionary leadership.

Drawing from ministry, leadership, sports, and personal experience, they unpack the danger of “resulting”—judging leadership effectiveness solely by outcomes—and invite leaders to recover the freedom to be faithful rather than the burden of trying to control results. The conversation offers a deeply practical and spiritual reframe for pastors, ministry leaders, and organizational leaders navigating stagnant seasons, declining numbers, or the pressure to perform.

The episode concludes with a coaching practice: replacing purely performative evaluations with formative questions that help leaders assess clarity, presence, faithfulness, truthfulness, and rootedness in the Father’s love.