ENGAGED

Episode Description
What makes the difference between a group of talented individuals and a truly excellent team?
Excellent teams don't happen by accident. They develop when people trust one another, share responsibility, communicate openly, and recognize the value of each person's contribution.
In this episode of ENGAGED, Cynthia Stewart and Christel Horton explore how leaders build teams that work together with unity and purpose.
Cynthia shares two experiences from her leadership career: how involving employees throughout a utility company transformed its preparations for Y2K, and how CliftonStrengths helped a leadership team better understand and appreciate one another.
Discover why trust, shared ownership, and strengths-based collaboration are essential to building excellent teams.
What We Talk About
Why trust is the foundation of strong teams
How shared ownership changes people's commitment to a mission
Lessons from a company-wide approach to Y2K readiness
How CliftonStrengths helps teams appreciate different perspectives and contributions
Why clear purpose, thoughtful organization, and communication matter
What leaders can do to strengthen the teams they serve
A Simple Invitation
Think about a team you're part of or have responsibility for leading.
Ask yourself:
Do people feel trusted, informed, and valued?
Are they encouraged to contribute their ideas and take ownership?
Do team members recognize and appreciate one another's strengths?
Choose one way you can strengthen trust, communication, or shared ownership this week.
Scripture Reference
Philippians 2:2–4 (NIV)1 Corinthians 12 (NIV)Luke 9 (NIV)
About the Podcast
ENGAGED is hosted by Cynthia Stewart and Christel Horton, featuring conversations about faith, work, and the life God invites us to live with confidence and purpose.
Through personal stories, biblical wisdom, and practical insights, Cynthia and Christel encourage listeners to live authentically, lead courageously, and walk in God's calling.
Next Steps
Explore Cynthia's book Serving As Leader: Lead with Courage, Humility, and Grace—in Life, Work, and Faith, Volume 3 of the C+Suite Signature Series for Women.
Discover the books and companion resources at CSuiteForWomen.com.
Enjoying the Podcast?
Subscribe to ENGAGED so you won't miss our next conversation.
Share this episode with someone who is working to strengthen trust and teamwork in their organization, ministry, or community.

Episode Description
Can we lead people well without first learning how to value them well?
Leadership happens through relationships. We may have authority, expertise, or responsibility—but our ability to influence others is deeply affected by how people experience us.
In this episode of our Serving As Leader series, we explore the relational side of leadership: treating people with respect, listening with empathy, communicating honestly, and offering the encouragement that helps others grow.
Cynthia shares stories from her own leadership experience—including making tough calls with employees and learning how to work well with people when relationships were difficult.
Strong relationships don't always mean easy relationships. Relational leadership isn't about making everyone like us. It's about choosing to value and treat people well—even when the relationship is challenging.
What We Talk About
Why relationships are central to leadership and influence
How respect, empathy, communication, and encouragement strengthen relationships
Why valuing people does not mean avoiding difficult conversations
How leaders can help someone recognize when a fresh start may be the best path forward
What it means to remain respectful when that respect isn't returned
Why reconciliation requires both grace and intentionality
How trust and understanding can grow through consistent actions over time
A Simple Invitation
Consider:
How do people experience me in relationship?
Do they experience respect, empathy, honest communication, and encouragement?
And is there a difficult relationship where I may not be able to control the other person's response—but I can choose how faithfully I respond?
Strong relationships aren't built by avoiding difficulty. They're strengthened when we learn to value people even as we work through it.
Scripture Reference
Philippians 2:3–4
Romans 12:18
About the Podcast
Engaged is a podcast about faith, work, and the life God invites us to live with confidence and purpose.
Next Steps
Follow Engaged, share this episode with someone who is navigating the relational side of leadership, and continue your journey at C+Suite For Women (csuiteforwomen.com).
If you'd like to explore how respect, empathy, communication, and encouragement strengthen your relationships and your leadership, you'll find Serving As Leader—and the rest of the C+Suite Signature Series—at csuiteforwomen.com.
Enjoying the Podcast?
If Engaged is encouraging you, we'd be grateful for a review—it helps more women discover these conversations.

Episode Description
Would you follow your own leadership?
It’s a challenging question—because leadership depends on more than competence, experience, or good intentions. Before people will willingly follow us, they need reason to trust us.
In this episode of our Serving As Leader series, we explore trust as one of the foundations of leadership—and why becoming trustworthy begins with learning to trust ourselves.
When we consistently honor our commitments, act with integrity, tell the truth, and follow through on what we say we will do, we build credibility with ourselves and with others. And when trust has been damaged, rebuilding it takes time, consistency, and a willingness to let our actions speak.
Cynthia and Christel share experiences that reveal both sides of trust: what happens when trust is present, and what happens when it is missing—even when we have done nothing to deserve another person's distrust.
Because we cannot control whether someone chooses to trust us. But we can choose to live and lead in a way that is worthy of trust.
What We Talk About
Why trust is foundational to leadership
What makes a person trustworthy
Why trusting yourself matters before asking others to trust your leadership
How broken commitments to ourselves can weaken self-trust
Why integrity and consistency build credibility over time
What to do when someone doesn't trust you—even when you have acted honorably
How remaining trustworthy can gradually reshape relationships and influence
A Simple Invitation
Consider:
Would I follow my own lead?
Do my words, choices, and actions give others reason to trust me?
And where might I need to rebuild trust—not only with someone else, but perhaps with myself?
Trust is rarely established through one grand gesture. It grows as we consistently demonstrate that our words and actions can be relied upon.
Scripture Reference
Proverbs 11:3
Luke 16:10
About the Podcast
Engaged is a podcast about faith, work, and the life God invites us to live with confidence and purpose.
Next Steps
Follow Engaged, share this episode with someone who is thinking about trust, integrity, or the kind of leader she wants to become, and continue your journey at C+Suite For Women (csuiteforwomen.com).
If you'd like to explore how trust shapes leadership, relationships, and influence, you'll find Serving As Leader—and the rest of the C+Suite Signature Series—at csuiteforwomen.com.
Enjoying the Podcast?
If Engaged is encouraging you, we'd be grateful for a review—it helps more women discover these conversations.

Episode Description
What if leadership has less to do with having a title—and more to do with recognizing where God has called you to serve?
Many of us hesitate to think of ourselves as leaders. We may associate leadership with authority, position, or personality. But leadership often begins much more simply: someone needs to step forward, take responsibility, influence what happens next, or help another person move forward.
In this opening episode of our Serving As Leader series, we explore what it means to recognize and step into your calling to lead.
Through Scripture, personal stories, and conversation, Cynthia and Christel consider how leadership begins with who we are, how we serve, and our willingness to respond when God places an opportunity to lead before us.
Because Christlike leadership isn't about becoming important. It's about faithfully stewarding the influence we've been given for the good of others.
What We Talk About
Why leadership is not limited to titles or positions
How calling can invite us into leadership
What Jesus teaches us about leadership through service
Why character matters more than status
How our strengths and experiences prepare us to influence others
What it means to accept the mantle of leadership
Why stepping into leadership requires both courage and humility
A Simple Invitation
Consider:
Where has God already given me influence?
And where might He be inviting me to stop waiting to feel like a leader—and begin faithfully serving as one?
You may already be leading in more places than you realize.
Scripture Reference
Mark 10:42–45
1 Peter 5:2–3
About the Podcast
Engaged is a podcast about faith, work, and the life God invites us to live with confidence and purpose.
Next Steps
Follow Engaged, share this episode with someone who may be discovering her own calling to lead, and continue your journey at C+Suite For Women (csuiteforwomen.com).
This episode begins a new series drawn from Serving As Leader, Book Three of the C+Suite Signature Series—exploring how to serve and lead others with courage, humility, and grace.
If you'd like to explore how calling, character, and Christlike service shape the way we lead, you'll find Serving As Leader and the complete C+Suite Signature Series at csuiteforwomen.com.
Enjoying the Podcast?
If Engaged is encouraging you, we'd be grateful for a review—it helps more women discover these conversations.

Episode Description
What does it really mean to trust God with what comes next?
“Trust God” can sound simple—until we're facing an outcome we cannot predict or control. And for someone new to faith, an even more fundamental question may come first: Why should I trust Him?
In this final episode of the It's Over series, we explore why God is worthy of our trust and how that trust grows as we come to know Him through His Word and experience His faithfulness in our lives.
Cynthia shares a deeply personal story of learning to depend on God during one of the most harrowing seasons of her life—and how that experience gave her more reason to trust Him when later seasons brought new loss and uncertainty.
Ultimately, trust leads us to surrender—not giving up, but giving over our plans, expectations, outcomes, and will to the God we've learned we can trust.
What We Talk About
Why trusting God isn't blind faith
How Scripture gives us a foundation for knowing God's character
Why our history with God strengthens our trust
What Jesus' prayer in Gethsemane teaches us about surrendered trust
The difference between giving up and giving over
Why surrender can free us to move forward
The six steps that emerged from this journey: Accept, Wait, Recognize, Receive, Release, Trust
A Simple Invitation
Consider:
What makes God worthy of my trust?
And where might He be inviting me to move from:
“This is what I want”
to
“Not my will, but Yours be done”?
Trust doesn't mean we know what comes next. It means we know the One to whom we're entrusting it.
Scripture Reference
Luke 22:42Ecclesiastes 3:1–8
About the Podcast
Engaged is a podcast about faith, work, and the life God invites us to live with confidence and purpose.
Next Steps
Follow Engaged, share this episode with someone facing an uncertain next chapter, and continue your journey at C+Suite For Women (csuiteforwomen.com).
This episode concludes our six-part It's Over series:
Accept. Wait. Recognize. Receive. Release. Trust.
Next time, we begin a new series drawn from Serving As Leader, Book Three of the C+Suite Signature Series, exploring what it means to serve and lead others with courage, humility, and grace.
Enjoying the Podcast?
If Engaged is encouraging you, we’d be grateful for a review—it helps more women discover these conversations.

Episode Description
What might you need to release in order to move faithfully into what God has for you next?
Letting go isn't always about leaving something bad behind. Sometimes we're releasing something that was very, very good—a home, a role, a job, a responsibility, a plan, or a season of life we deeply treasured.
In this episode, Cynthia shares what it meant to release Angelscape, her family home of thirty years: entrusting the transition to people God provided, letting go of treasured possessions, and ultimately placing the home itself—and its future—in God's hands.
Along the way, we explore an important truth: release doesn't diminish the value of what we're leaving. We can honor what was, carry forward what matters, and still open our hands to what God has next.
What We Talk About
Why knowing it's time to let go doesn't make releasing easy
The difference between releasing responsibility and releasing control
How receiving help can itself require surrender
Why memories don't disappear when possessions are released
How gratitude can change the way we experience letting go
Why a role, job, plan, or responsibility may have a season
The connection between open hands, trust, and moving forward
A Simple Invitation
Consider:
Am I thriving where I am in a way that serves me and those around me?
And if something may need to be released:
What am I afraid will happen if I let it go?
Release isn't about walking away simply because something is difficult. It's about discerning when a season has truly ended—and trusting God enough to follow Him faithfully into the new season He has for us and thrive there.
Scripture Reference
Ecclesiastes 3:1–8
About the Podcast
Engaged is a podcast about faith, work, and the life God invites us to live with confidence and purpose.
Next Steps
Follow Engaged, share this episode with someone navigating a season of letting go, and continue your journey at C+Suite For Women (csuiteforwomen.com).
Next time, in Trusting God with What's Next, we conclude the It's Over series by exploring why God is worthy of our trust—and what it means to surrender our will to the One we've learned we can trust.
Enjoying the Podcast?
If Engaged is encouraging you, we’d be grateful for a review—it helps more women discover these conversations.