Lead Culture with Jenni Catron

Join us in welcoming Ashley Warren, the passionate COO of Downs Books Incorporated, as we pull back the curtain on the art of fostering healthy team dynamics and cultivating a thriving work culture. We'll take you on a journey through our shared experiences, unearthing the joy and challenges of leading a team towards a unified vision. Ashley's insights, born out of her role in supporting Annie F. Downs and years of building healthy cultures, are a refreshing view into the heart and mind of a true team leader.
Ashley and Jenni dive headfirst into the complex world of team dynamics, providing a roadmap on how to strike a balance between a shared vision and the unique interplay of personalities within a team. We'll lend you our lenses, showing you the value of slowing down to truly appreciate the individuals within your team and the importance of understanding how the team is feeling. Together, we'll explore the delicate balance between transparency and accountability, and the powerful impact of setting clear expectations alongside regular check-ins.
Wrapping up our conversation, Ashley shares her growth journey as a leader, revealing valuable lessons she's picked up along the ride. She emphasizes the importance of understanding your team members on a personal level, a strategy that has helped her team reach their full potential.
About Ashley
Ashley Warren is the Chief Operating Officer of Downs Books, Inc., a media company based in Nashville, TN. Combining the communications, culture and team-building experience she gained as an educator and the Director of Employee Culture at a large multi-site church, she now leads the team that supports the work of author, speaker, podcaster Annie F. Downs. Ashley is passionate about creating a culture of clarity and care that allows every team member space to thrive.

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Do you ever face challenges or trials in your leadership journey? If you're like so many of the leaders we work with, your answer to that question is, "Yes! Every day." As leaders of faith, we have an invitation to not only face difficulties with courage and wisdom, but to find joy in the midst of them. Doing so can change the culture for those you lead. But how do we find joy when things are challenging? Listen in to this conversation between Jenni Catron and bestselling author, speaker and social researcher Shaunti Feldhahn as they discuss finding and leading with joy.
In this episode, you'll learn:

• what leading with joy looks like
• how gratitude changes things
• whether or not venting about our challenges helps as much as we think it does
• how to become a more joy-filled leader

Connect with Shaunti:
on Instagram
shaunti.com
Find Joy: A Devotional Journey to Unshakeable Wonder in an Uncertain World

We need your help to get the LeadCulture podcasts in front of more leaders! There are three simple things you can do that truly help us:

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In this episode of LeadCulture, Jenni Catron returns to one of the most overlooked yet powerful tools in a leader’s toolkit: the organizational chart. But this isn’t your typical HR conversation. Jenni unpacks how org charts—when designed with intention—become a strategic force for clarity, culture, and communication.

You’ll hear how a clear structure empowers better decision-making, aligns your team with purpose, and eliminates confusion around roles and responsibilities. Jenni also explores the hidden symptoms of dysfunctional org charts—like miscommunication, burnout, and power struggles—and gives leaders practical insight into designing charts that truly serve their mission.

Whether you’re leading a team of 5 or 500, this episode will reframe the way you view organizational structure and inspire you to lead with clarity and confidence.

"A well-designed org chart isn’t red tape—it’s a roadmap to team health, clarity, and mission-aligned leadership."

We need your help to get the LeadCulture podcasts in front of more leaders! There are three simple things you can do that truly help us:

1. Review us on Apple podcasts
2. Subscribe - we’re available wherever you listen to podcasts.
3. Share - let your friends know about the podcast by sharing your favorite episode on social media!

We all want to achieve success. And there are markers and indicators that will help us to do just that. One of the chief of those is whether or not we will take the responsibility of leading ourselves well in order to plant ourselves on the path toward success. In this episode, Jenni Catron, 4Sight's Founder and CEO, disusses the ways in which we can invest in our own leadership, that will, in turn, benefit all those we are privileged to lead.
Jenni's book The 4 Dimensions of Extraordinary Leadership
"There is a person with whom you spend more time than any other, a person who has more influence over you, and more ability to interfere with or to support your growth than anyone else. This ever-present companion is your own self." -Dr. Pamela Butler, Clinical Psychologist

Self-awareness is the foundation of leading ourselves well.

3 Core Elements of Self-awareness

1. Awareness of myself
2. Awareness of others
3. Awareness of how others experience themselves around me

The 4 Dimensions of Extraordinary Leadership

1. Heart
2. Soul
3. Mind
4. Strength

These dimensions comprise our whole self.

Leading from Your Heart

1) Lead with an understanding of who you are.

Things to consider:

• Do you see tasks or people first?

• Are you an introvert or extrovert? What gives you energy? Knowing this will help you

better manage your energy when you are with others.

• Are you independent or interdependent?

2) Learn how your experiences have shaped you.

3) The best of our leadership will emerge from emotional intelligence. This means

understanding your emotions, desires, and how you influence others.

Leading from Your Soul

The soul is the part of us that longs to know God. It’s the epicenter of morality, integrity, humility, and servanthood.

Leading from soul = what you value. A key part of self-awareness is understanding what you value - what’s truly important to you.

Understanding your values is the key to learning what drives you.

• What are your values and what is their source? What are your core motivations and convictions? What is your driving ‘why’?
• Take time to reflect, and recognize any patterns present in your behavior... how you manage your time, your priorities or decisions. What does your calendar tell you that you value?
• Consider your values in every sector of life: relationally, physically, spiritually and professionally. What principles do you stand on in each of these areas of life?
• Your actions, decisions, conversations and behaviors are all driven by what you value.
• Why do you handle conflict the way you do?
• What is the root behind how you make decisions?
• Why do certain conversations excite you and others drain you?
• Consider your character and integrity – what is true and what do you want to be true? What needs to change so that your reality and aspirations are congruent? What morals do you live by and how does that impact your influence. How do you want people to see you? What do you want to be known for? Wh

We need your help to get the LeadCulture podcasts in front of more leaders! There are three simple things you can do that truly help us:

1. Review us on Apple podcasts
2. Subscribe - we’re available wherever you listen to podcasts.
3. Share - let your friends know about the podcast by sharing your favorite episode on social media!

As leaders, there are times we have to think differently to lead better. There are some mindsets that we simply MUST embrace if we want the culture we’re leading toward to actually permeate the organization. And these mindsets involve getting honest with ourselves about whether or not we’ve given in to a common fallacy:  the idea that culture should be gleaned through osmosis - an effortless, unconscious assimilation. 

Some highlights and key points from Jenni's teaching:

1. Shaping the culture for your team is arguably the most important work you’ll do. You can’t accomplish your mission without a team that is aligned and working effectively together. 
2. Culture is not an episodic event of writing value statements, displaying them and hoping they catch on. Culture is living and breathing and needs your attention every day.
3. Both the organization and a new employee have a responsibility in helping the new employee succeed in the culture.

She also explores the Employee Life Cycle that William Vanderbloemen defines in his book Culture Wins. There are some incredible applications to make concerning culture at each stage in the Employee Life Cycle--places like hiring, daily and monthly rhythms, review processes. 

Jenni provides a series of guiding questions to ask yourself as you consider truly embedding team culture that will align your team and lead to organizational success. 

As you seek to embed culture in your organization, be sure to check out these two resources:

Registration is open now for our online Culture Group - this is a 6-week live online course that walks you through the specifics of building an extraordinary team culture. If this is the year you’re committed to building a great culture, this is the group for you. Click HERE for details!

We also have a free Culture Workbook that will walk you through the steps of defining your culture. THIS is a great resource to walk through with your team to kick start the conversation. Keep leading well!

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