What Happens When Leaders Choose Appreciation As Their Strategy

What looks like waste to some can be the wisest investment a leader makes. We open with a candid debrief from the road—hours spent at the Flight 93 National Memorial and a surprising tour beneath the Greenbrier’s halls—before shifting into John 12, where Mary breaks open a year’s wages to honor Jesus. That single act challenges our reflex to measure value only by spreadsheets and speed. Vision often looks wasteful to the uninspired, and yet those “inefficient” choices—gratitude, presence, and personalization—are the seeds of durable culture.

We get practical fast. When budgets are tight, appreciation becomes strategic currency: handwritten notes on work anniversaries, a small, thoughtful gift that says “I see you,” public recognition that elevates character as much as output, and blocked time to simply walk the floor and listen. We unpack the difference between rewarding performance and honoring people, why leaders must know names and stories, and how consistent, low-cost gestures compound into trust. Along the way, we look at the plot against Lazarus and the triumphal entry to illustrate how pressure, popularity, and distractions test mission clarity.

There’s a reason John devotes nearly half his Gospel to the final days of Jesus’ life. Focus intensifies when stakes rise. We explore how to fight drift by naming the few priorities that drive most outcomes, moving even when conditions aren’t perfect, and building momentum through small steps. We even leave room for joy—yes, dad jokes and an unexpected owl cameo—because a light touch helps teams breathe in heavy seasons.

If you’re ready to honor people, protect the mission, and turn vision into daily habits, this conversation will give you tools you can use today. Subscribe, share with a leader who needs encouragement, and leave a review to tell us how you’re practicing appreciation this week.

Chapters

• 0:00 Tempo: 120.0

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:12

Oh no.

SPEAKER_01: 0:28

Alrighty, welcome, welcome, welcome to another, another exciting episode. Just another exciting episode of the Biblical Leadership Show. What's going on, Dr. P?

SPEAKER_00: 0:39

Not too much. How you doing?

SPEAKER_01: 0:41

The traveling man.

SPEAKER_00: 0:42

Yeah, we were traveling. Got back last week.

SPEAKER_01: 0:45

Traveling, man. Yeah, man. Good to see you. It's been hanging out here. And just, you know, Dr. P went on the road and I haven't been able to talk to him. I left him alone.

SPEAKER_00: 0:57

See, once you're retired, it's not called a vacation. It's called a trip. Right. I gotcha. I gotcha. So we were on a trip. It was good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:07

I got I got some trips coming up. So we'll see how it goes.

SPEAKER_00: 1:10

We couchsurfed. Yeah. You know, invited ourselves over to some people's houses and spent some time with friends and family.

SPEAKER_01: 1:17

It was really fun. It's it's crazy. We're can you believe we're going into October, last week of October? This is crazy. Rolling into November. I know it. It's it's like eight weeks away from Christmas or six weeks, seven weeks or something. I forget what it was. Somebody told me the other day. I'm like, I know it's like crazy.

unknown: 1:35

My goodness.

SPEAKER_01: 1:36

Oh wow.

unknown: 1:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:37

So yeah, so you did some traveling. We did your back.

SPEAKER_00: 1:40

Enjoyed your time. I always enjoy some time with people, you know, people that we've known for decades. I understand. So it was good. It was really, really good. But I'll tell you about one. Well, we went to two things. One was very humbling.

SPEAKER_01: 1:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:56

And uh that was in Pennsylvania. We were up there. Our our daughter lives in that part of the country. And we were up there before we visit her. We stopped at the Flight 93 Memorial for 9-11 and just was um humbled by the bravery of those men and women on that airplane, um, Flight 93. And um so the memorial is is just phenomenal. And um and so you can walk around, you see the flight path, you can read about the people, you know, that uh um were on that plane that day. Right. And um I just think, wow, the bravery uh and the sacrifice that they were willing to make uh to save so many other lives. Right. Was is just it was it was humbling. And um and so we were there, uh we were there for several hours walking around, just reading everything we could read and and uh just trying to imagine uh which was impossible. Imagine what what would it have been like to be on that plane that day. Yeah, and uh know that your life's gonna end. Uh the question is uh when, you know, and and so they the story is that they uh all voted to charge the cockpit and and take the plane down and you know, and uh we'll for be forever remembering, you know, their sacrifice, but not just theirs, the the thousands of people that died in New York or you know, the firefighters, first responders in in New York City that day, and and so it was just a humble reminder of the great country we live in and um uh you know the reason we're here uh and we live in the great country that we do is because just countless uh brave women and men throughout the centuries have been willing to give their life so we can have the country that we have. So that was uh I encourage if you're ever up in I don't remember the exact little town that it's in. It's not it's kind of out in the country in Pennsylvania. Um but uh I encourage you to f look at the Flight 93 Memorial and if you have time or just make time uh to go up there. Uh it's just um it's it's definitely worth the time to do it. And um yeah, and then they have a a a Carolyn bell tower um that's got uh one one Carolyn uh bell for each of the 40 people that are on the plane. And uh, you know, just sit there and listen to the chimes uh with the wind and and uh just just contemplate, you know, what what they went through that day. And so that was one of our stops. Before then, we were at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. Now, that's it white there. It I don't know. Uh it was it was dark. No. No. But um uh what reason we stayed there uh is because uh we were there a couple years ago, and there's a very famous hotel there called the Greenbrier Inn. And it's been around for a long, long time. I mean, uh people from Washington, like presidents and other uh people and government would go there many for even way back when, uh, and go there as a retreat. Well, back in the early 50s, President Eisenhower um dealing with uh, you know, after World War II and and dealing with the threat of of uh you know with Russia and everything, the Cold War, um, he decided we needed to have a place for the Congress to be in case uh uh Washington C DC was attacked. And so underneath the Greenbrier Inn, there is a let's just say a bomb shelter that was uh built in secret, kept in secret for over 30 years, um, to house a thousand people, all of the members of Congress, one of their staff members. And so you can actually go and tour that bunker. Have you stayed here before? Um, no. Oh, I mean, we we were there um uh two years ago, but we didn't have time to go see the bunker. We didn't know we we just didn't know really about it.

SPEAKER_01: 6:26

I think this I think you're telling me about it.

SPEAKER_00: 6:28

We said something about it, but this time we actually took the time, okay, made reservations, went to see the bunker, and um got the tour. We had a a guide that was really good. He was only 19, but my gosh, he really knew his history. And um, and so that was just fascinating. So if you're ever in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, go to the Greenbrier Inn. You can spend hours just walking around the Greenbrier Inn. It's so phenomenal. Uh, it's massive. It looks like the White House, you know, from the outside. Um, but make a make a reservation to go to the bunker tour. And uh it takes it takes about an hour and a half, two hours. But you learned so much about the history of that area of of our country, and and it was just fascinating. It was just fascinating. So we're back, but and then we saw our daughter and we saw some friends in South Carolina, Atlanta, came back home uh last week, and so we're we're excited to be back here in the studio.

SPEAKER_01: 7:27

Nice, yeah. Well, welcome back.

SPEAKER_00: 7:29

Yeah, thanks. Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome.

SPEAKER_01: 7:32

So, where we left off was this uh this this John dude, right?

SPEAKER_00: 7:37

Yeah, John chapter 11. So today we're gonna talk about John chapter 12, which to me is uh a unique passage because um it starts out and says six days before the Passover. So so they're talking about the second to the last week of Jesus' life, and he goes to a little town of Bethany, goes to the house of Lazarus, who just in the chapter four, Jesus raised from the dead. Um he has two sisters, Mary and Martha. Um, and we read there that Mary took some um ointment and uh anointed Jesus' feet and then wiped his feet with her hair.

SPEAKER_01: 8:24

Was it perfume or something?

SPEAKER_00: 8:26

Yeah, it was like a perfume. And um and the the the disciples, some of them were upset. Why didn't you just sell this perfume and give it to the you know the money to the poor? And and Jesus was basically saying, you know, don't don't don't go there, leave her alone. Um she kept this for the for the day of my burial, you know. He said, You're always gonna have the poor with me, but you're always not gonna have me with me. So so let's think about that from a leadership point of view. You know, here is someone, um Mary, who was honoring Jesus. Um she was sacrificing something that she had for someone else. And so my my question from a leadership point of view is how often do we honor those people that we work with? Right. Okay, whether it's a birthday, um, employee of the month, uh, you know, give them a special parking place. What do we do to honor our employees? And I know for a long time in my life, in my career, I was I didn't even really process that. Um later on I I realized the value of that, and whether it's just writing a note, um you know, on the someone's anniversary date of their employment, giving them a gift card to, you know, whatever. Um I remember buying a uh Whataburger Yeti for one of our employees. Um just because I just want to say thank you. Thank you for what you're doing. And uh thank you for the the time you put in, thank you for the expertise that you give. Just thank you. And so the question would be how how do we do that? You know? Um and the I think the more we practice that, even though I was a late learner in that, it really does um give tremendous feedback and value because you know, uh as a church, the the the staff knew I couldn't give them more money. Um we didn't have the money to do that. So you can give them something to just honor them. It could be a note. It could just be a note. Um writing a note saying thank you for what you do.

SPEAKER_01: 10:39

Um that makes that that goes a world of difference. You don't have to spend a lot of money on that. No, you don't have to spend value and appreciated number one motivator of people, 100%. And and you know, and and you know, when when we were talking about this, uh the leadership lesson I got, yeah, because that perfume that was worth worth nearly like a year's year's worth of wages. It's a lot, right? So um one of the lessons I sort of put down here is vision always looks wasteful to the uninspired, right? And uh I I got that from a gentleman. Um, no, I didn't get it, but I I'm going through it right now with one of the guys that was in one of my leadership classes. He goes, Well, it's a sort of waste of time. I'm like, well, you get what you put into it. And everybody else is very motivated, very getting a lot, but this one person feels like this was a waste of his time. I'm like, well, not a problem. I mean, but he's not putting into it. He's the one guy sitting there the whole time over in the corner, didn't say a word. He's not, you know, uh interjecting in this. And that's one of those things that that you know, sometimes, you know, I tell a lot of the new speakers, I mean, you you you need to try to please 99% because there's going to be that one percent that could have had a bad day, they don't like things, they volunteer to be here, you know, whatever it might be. And and so yeah, I sort of took that away from uh, you know, those uninspired people and made me think of it. And then while before we get it, the what Whataburger, I I once bought a uh case full of Whataburger ketchup to somebody who lived in Texas to move to Wisconsin and couldn't get it anymore. So I shipped a whole case of Whataburger ketchup to ketchup. If you know, you know, right? Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_00: 12:10

That spicy ketchup is really good. Yes. And so one of the things I think that this kind of a um, you know, you you appreciate give them a note or a little gift or something. Um but I think the the principle underneath that is you're saying to your people, uh, it could be like I was a pastor, it could be your congregation, and might be not the staff. You're thankful for who they are. You're thankful not just for what they do, but you're thankful for who they are and the fact that they're there. And so many times we focus on the action instead of focusing on the character of the person or the just the fact that they're willing to just to come and work. And and so I think it's important to show appreciation to the people. And uh like I said, I was not even aware of that in my early years as a pastor. I I had I really I I never was taught that, I never never really learned that. Um I learned it from making just ignoring it and then realizing I need to change. Um and so I think good leaders uh be realize that they can always continue learning and um that it was like, okay, how can I show appreciation to my people? Um either corporately, individually. Now, if you're in a company that's got 500, you know, employees, obviously you might not be able to do something for everybody, but the question would be, what do your department managers do? Um you know, if you're gonna do something for your 12 uh people that you talk to all the time, are they are they being encouraged to pass that on down the line? And uh that is so important.

SPEAKER_01: 14:07

And I still go back to the one I mentioned a couple weeks ago, Doug Conant, you know, and Campbell Soup. He had an impact and he had thousands and thousands, but you know, he just walked around and said hi to people on the the floor and everybody walking. He just he he he spent like an hour, two hours just walking around saying hi to everybody. I mean, you can have an impact, you know. It doesn't take a lot, it's a simple hello and nod, you know, nod of the head, shaking the hand, wishing somebody good morning, you know. Yeah. It's uh it's little things that go a long way.

SPEAKER_00: 14:37

It really is. And so you think, you know, you I value you. Yeah. Um and so you're right. You you might not just walk around the factory floor, walk around the building, look at your talk to your employees. Just doing that. Now, obviously, you're not gonna be able to do that every day. No, but if you said, okay, from Thursday from 10 to 12, I'm gonna take the time to walk around the office or I'm gonna do this. And my job, my primary job right then is to focus on saying thank you to the people for being here, for doing what they need to do, and and uh and just show appreciation. And that habit will pay dividends for a long, long time.

SPEAKER_01: 15:18

Yeah, my daughter's picked up the habit. I do it all the time. I I compliment people if if people are you know dressed up or they're they're looking nice or they have good shoes or whatever it might be. I compliment my daughter. I don't know if she got it for me or she just picked it up. Everywhere we go, I'm so proud of her. She always says, Oh, those are beautiful nails. Oh, I love your hair today. That is a beautiful dress, right? Because a lot of people do that to her, so I think she's picked it up more from from people doing that. Plus, I do it to everybody. Uh, it's just much cuter coming from you know, my daughter than than you know the the old guy, you know. Exactly right. But but uh, you know, I've just always done that. I've always, you know, if somebody we went to a play last night and um the uh Adams family play over at Bass Hall, and a lot of people are dressed up as Wednesday in character, and the moms are dressed up and we're just walking around and it's complimenting like, hey, good job, you know, because it takes a lot to go out to a fancy place, you're all dressed up in character and all that stuff. So it was just fun to see. I just I I love that uh uh people, you know, you can get that spark, you know, that little spark out of them where they just they shine for a second after you say it.

SPEAKER_00: 16:26

So yeah, yeah, they really do uh just somebody noticed me, you know. It just seemed very very important. Yeah. So one of the things that I did, and uh I didn't do this at the beginning, but uh not too long into my ministry, I I thought, you know, I'm gonna go to a new church. Uh I want to get to know the people. So I I remember this. I stood up in in the church one day and I said, okay, um, over the next year, I want to vi if you want me to, I'm gonna visit every single one of your of the families. Um if you want me to come to your home, I'll I'll have the you know, the secretary schedule an appointment. I have no agenda except to meet you. And uh we'll spend 30, 45 minutes in your home. I'm gonna do two visits every Sunday. And uh, if you want me to come, fine. If you don't, fine, you know, I just want to get to know you. And I said, and one other thing, though, when I'm come, just make sure that there's some dessert, you know. I should, I said, no, I'm just joking. I'm just joking. Oh my gosh, I had so much dessert. Uh, I really needed to exercise that that's when you took up triathlon.

SPEAKER_01: 17:35

That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_00: 17:36

Um I need to move. Yeah, I just need to, wow. Um, but anyway, just taking the time on a Sunday afternoon to do that for a couple hours, paid dividends for years and years and years. Um, and and so that's the the thing is how much time as a leader are we getting to know the people, not not their performance. You know, how how much time are we spending and get to know the people that we work with? Right. And that's just very valuable. Nice. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 18:07

Well, the next one in John, it rolls into the plot against Lazarus.

SPEAKER_00: 18:12

Yeah, because you know, Lazarus raised from the dead, and and so the Jewish people, they they said, you know, you know, what happens if he's not around anymore? You know, they were trying to get rid of Jesus, and we thought, well, we need to get rid of Lazarus too. And so um they were thinking, no, we don't we don't want this to happen. We don't want this to happen. There's there's this guy, Jesus, is getting too much popularity, so we just need to get rid of them. That was not a new thing for Jesus, but it was a new thing for Lazarus. And so we see that it the there's only a few verses that talk about that, and then it goes.

SPEAKER_01: 18:46

John 9 through 11. Yeah, just a few verses. No, just a few.

SPEAKER_00: 18:49

And then it goes into the um the triumphal M3, which is we call uh now the Palm Sunday. So that was the Sunday before that was the beginning of what we call Holy Week on the Sunday, and many churches still celebrate that today. Uh Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter. And so we see that Jesus rode into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey, and people were shouting and and uh proclaiming him as the Messiah. And um, if you have not watched the the series called The Chosen, um this particular episode, I mean, I've watched all all of the seasons and all the episodes. Um, this particular um um episode that shows this is does a very, very good job of what it that could have been like that particular day. Um people were excited about it, and then just a few days later they were calling for Jesus to be crucified. So so this is the beginning of a you know, a good week at the beginning, a tragic week at the end, and then a week later is Easter and the resurrection. So um, you know, this whole chapter, right? I mean, beginning with chapter 12, the triumphal entry, uh goes into the last week of Jesus' life. And what's interesting about the book of John, okay, so we have the book of John, you know, the book of John has 21 chapters, beginning with so three years of Jesus' life take up 11 chapters, and then from 12 to 21 take up like 40 days. Okay, so so that that shows the importance of this event. And so you have the the um the triumphal entry, then you have a few things that happen during the week, and then you have the Last Supper, then the crucifixion and resurrection. So this um and and that's basically how all the four gospels are are written. There's so much emphasis on that last week of Jesus' life, um that um it it just has a and it's such a a world-changing event um that happened with Jesus that on that Friday, that the Gospels, rightly so, spend so much time uh focusing on uh the impact, whether it's the Last Supper, whether it's a crucifixion, resurrection, how the disciples responded, how the Jews people responded. And so um it makes me think from a leadership's point of view, we need to spend time on the things that are most important. So many times we get caught up in the things, the you know, the 20% um or the 80% that that give 20% of the results, you know, instead of the and the 20 that'll give 80% of the results. And so we need to this goes back to the very one of the very first things we ever did, uh the focusing on your vision and your mission. And um and so it's so easy to get distracted from just everyday things, whether it's emails or business things or financial, but it's like you've got to focus on the vision and the mission of the organization.

SPEAKER_01: 22:16

And you know, watch the procrastination, you know, and nothing's ever gonna be in a perfect world, right? You know, and I get in this little rut where I want everything to be perfect and and trying to get every it's just you gotta just go out and do it, you know. If if you got the vision, you got that, stay take baby steps and and and put one foot after the other and and get it done.

SPEAKER_00: 22:36

So yeah, and and because it's never it's never gonna be where everything is perfect for you to move forward. It's just not gonna happen. Uh you've got to take the commitment to move forward in spite of the situation not being perfect yet. And um, I think good leaders do that to keep focused. There's gonna be distractions, there's gonna be interruptions, there's gonna be all kinds of things. Um and and there, you know, you have to deal with those or have people that will. Um but the focus has got to be on the mission. So I think that's what we get from the beginning of that. We'll talk about more of that next week, but um, you know, that's the focus is good leaders make sure that they keep focusing on the vision and mission of the organization.

SPEAKER_01: 23:26

Nice. Yeah. You know, I was just sitting there thinking, like we started the show and there was no dad jokes. There was no dad jokes. I thought about that about halfway through. I'm like, wow, that's sort of different, you know.

SPEAKER_00: 23:41

Well, you know, my thinking is that uh here we are in the studio, and uh one thing I like about it, we don't have a clock in the studio. Well, we have a clock that doesn't necessarily work, but you know, we don't have to, but if you think, what is your favorite time of the day? Your favorite time of the day. Uh my favorite time is 6 30. Hands down, 6 30. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 24:08

Make sure I still had the right buttons in the street. Yeah, I'm just like, oh. I was what's sad as you caught me off guard. I was like, well let's see, was he getting ready to eat? Is he is he done done working out? I'm like, oh, hands down. I got it, I got it, I got it.

SPEAKER_00: 24:26

Um you know, you're in the construction business, you've been there for a long, long time.

SPEAKER_01: 24:30

I have.

SPEAKER_00: 24:30

And so I have a friend um down the street that's renovating their house. Okay. Well, the first floor looks great, but the second is another story. I'll give you that one.

SPEAKER_02: 24:44

You like that one?

SPEAKER_00: 24:48

So you know, and and speaking of that, um uh you know, I can I've been in the uh you know, people business for a long, long time. So I can always tell when someone's lying, yeah, but I I can always tell when they're standing too. Yeah, that's probably you're way too late on that one.

SPEAKER_01: 25:09

Oh well, it's good to have you back in the studio.

SPEAKER_00: 25:16

Hey, let me ask you a question. Yes. What did Earth say to the other planets? What did Earth say to the other planets?

SPEAKER_01: 25:28

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00: 25:29

You guys have no life.

SPEAKER_01: 25:35

Oh, I definitely probably could give you. I was like, I was thinking something like excuse my moon or something. Oh. Oh I was thinking that because uh Fester last night in the play, he was in love with the moons. He loved the moon. So he thought the moon was great.

SPEAKER_00: 25:58

So you know, there's a lady down the street that uses, I heard that she uses lemon juice for her complexion on her skin. Yeah. And maybe that's why she always looks so sour.

SPEAKER_01: 26:12

All right, all right. Got one more, and we'll let people go.

SPEAKER_00: 26:16

And so, so this happened last night at our house. Okay. What do you call a nocturnal bird wearing a suit of armor?

SPEAKER_01: 26:31

I don't even know what to do on this one.

SPEAKER_00: 26:34

What do you call a nocturnal bird that wears a suit of armor? Um a night owl.

SPEAKER_01: 26:39

Night owl.

SPEAKER_00: 26:40

We had two owls in our backyard last night.

SPEAKER_01: 26:42

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_00: 26:43

Yeah, they were amazing. Diana went out there, she saw one flying from one side of the yard to the other. I heard them, but I didn't make it out in time. But it's like, oh my goodness. You know, I don't remember us ever having actual owls. And I don't know a whole lot about owls. Um uh they have an amazing neck. Yes. But uh yeah, so we had these two owls in our house last night, and um it it was like, oh my goodness, maybe that's why we don't have a whole lot of squirrels.

SPEAKER_01: 27:15

That's probably for sure.

SPEAKER_00: 27:16

You all stay around as much as you want.

SPEAKER_01: 27:18

Yeah, I mean, a couple years ago I saw a couple owls. It was really dark. I could just see their shadows in the tree right above where they were gonna go down and take a drink. And there's one coolest one I saw, it was probably 15 years ago, walking through the woods and huge. I mean, I mean, I can't imagine it looked like an eagle's wings. It was huge, but it was a snowy white owl. I mean it was just and it was in Texas here. Gorgeous birds.

SPEAKER_00: 27:41

I mean, my goodness, owls are amazing.

SPEAKER_01: 27:44

All right, well, all right, well, well, that was uh fun and exciting. And uh nah, I'm I'm glad to have you back in the studio. Glad to have you back in town and and uh you know, going into uh Halloween this weekend and dressing up, going trick-or-treating around your neighborhood or anything.

SPEAKER_00: 28:03

So I'll just eat the candy by myself.

SPEAKER_01: 28:05

All right, we should have just searched Halloween jokes, you know.

SPEAKER_00: 28:08

Yeah, we should have had some Halloween jokes.

SPEAKER_01: 28:10

All right, uh, guys, check us out Biblical Leadership Show.com. Uh follow us, uh text us, tell us some dad jokes, tell us uh whatever you'd like. We need dad jokes. But other than that, Dr. P take us away. Hey, make it a great day. Thank you guys.