Themes from "Nailing It": Why Successful Leadership Demands Suffering & Surrender

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Sep 26, 2025

Nicole Massey-Martin, COO at Christianity Today and author of 'Nailing It,' discusses her transformative journey in leadership. She emphasizes the need for cruciform leadership—surrendering to God's guidance while overcoming barriers like perfectionism. Nicole highlights the vital role of women in leadership, advocating for empowerment and collaboration. She also addresses the consequences of disconnecting faith from suffering, urging leaders to crucify ego and embrace a community-focused approach for impactful leadership.

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ADVICE

Actively Sponsor Talent, Not Just Mentor

Sponsor and open doors for people actively rather than only mentoring from the sidelines.
Ask, 'Who else needs to be here?' and help bring them to the table.

ANECDOTE

When Mentors Can't Sponsor

Nicole recounts approaching a female pastor for mentorship and being told to 'earn my stripes.'
She realized some women leaders had little capacity left to sponsor others after exhausting struggles to get where they were.

INSIGHT

Workplace Norms Have Permanently Shifted

The workplace expectations and worker needs shifted sharply after 2019–2020, changing what healthy work looks like.
Leaders must now prioritize mental health, belonging, and multi-generational care alongside performance.

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Summary

Exclusive sneak peak into our Women, Work, & Calling 2025 keynote speaker's talk: Reverend Dr. Nicole Massey-Martin COO at Christianity Today. Dr. Martin joins us today to discuss her journey as a leader, and calls us to to crucify our ministry idols and nail our outdated leadership practices to the cross. As she shares the inspiration for her new book, Nailing It: Why Successful Leadership Demands Suffering and Surrender, Dr. Martin emphasizes the need for cruciform leadership, which and highlights the vital role women play in leadership and the workplace. Nicole shares insights on overcoming barriers, the significance of relationships in leadership, and the necessity of empowering women to lead effectively.

Wherever you're listening—Spotify, Apple, or YouTube—subscribing, rating, and reviewing the show helps others discover what we're doing here. It's a small way to support the mission—and it means a lot to us.

Highlights On Surrendered Leadership "Someone said to me recently, leadership is 59 % about what you know and 51 % about who you know. And while that may be true, I would suggest that it is 100 %about who knows you, you are known by the Father and also 100 % dependent upon a God who knows it all. The moment I get to leadership and I think I've got this worked out is the moment I stop depending on God. But to me, cruciform leadership says, God, I do not know what to do, but my eyes are on you, says Hezekiah. God, I don't know how to shape this path, but I need you to show us how to shape it." On Crucifying Perfection "What am I seeing most frequently repeated in my life and in the lives of other leaders around me? It is definitely crucifying perfection, a sense of perfectionism. I am still an overcoming perfectionist and the issue with perfectionism isn't excellence. It's not that. We want to pursue excellence, perfectionism is at its core a form of idolatry toward a God that does not exist. It is a worship of a standard that does not exist. And it is a sin for leaders and a problem and a stumbling block that needs to overcome, needs to be overcome because leaders who have an ideal of perfection, not only worship it themselves, but they train their teams to worship this fictitious idea of perfection as well. The way that we are perfect is by dotting every I and crossing every T... So the question can't be, what does it look like for us to perfectly meet our mission? The question has to be, how can we be perfectly connected to each other, to the team, to our stakeholders, to the people that we serve, so that what comes out of that exceeds what we ever imagined? This is the joy of releasing and surrendering perfection. When I release what I think is perfect, I get to embrace what God says." Resources

Download the episode transcript here
Women in the Workplace report by Lean In referenced
Trends @ Work Report by Barna referenced
Attend Women, Work, & Calling Annual Event to hear more from Nicole Martin. Available in Denver, CO, Online or at Host Sites around the country!
Purchase Nailing It: Why Successful Leadership Demands Suffering and Surrender