What the Church Needs to Know About Toxic Leadership | Yulee Lee
How can we recognize harmful leadership when it is hidden behind charisma, competence, or apparent kindness?
In this episode of Hear Women, Tara Beth Leach welcomes Yulee Lee, leadership expert and author of Unmasking Toxic Leadership, for an honest conversation about toxic leadership, healing, discernment, and the kind of leadership that helps people flourish. Drawing from her own experiences with both healthy and harmful leaders, Lee reflects on how our wounds can shape the way we lead and why true leadership renewal requires more than simply trying to avoid becoming like the people who hurt us.
Lee calls churches to move beyond good intentions and prepare for difficult moments by providing support, protection from retaliation, fair processes, and clear ways to report abuse outside the authority of the person being reported. Drawing from the story of the Good Samaritan, she asks what it would look like for the church to offer practical, costly care to people who have been wounded by toxic leadership.
Rather than simply recycling harmful patterns, this conversation encourages leaders to use their God-given imagination to consider a kind of leadership that heals rather than harms.
This episode highlights the following themes:
- How to recognize toxic leadership when the signs are subtle
- Why discernment requires awareness, wisdom, and the courage to act
- How churches can better care for people who have been harmed by toxic leaders
Links from this episode:
- Learn more about Yulee Lee
- Read Unmasking Toxic Leadership by Yulee Lee
- Read Prey Tell by Tiffany Bluhm
- Read the transcript here
- Learn more about Hear Women
- Learn more about your hosts, Dorina Lazo Gilmore-Young, Nijay Gupta, and Tara Beth Leach
- Read Redeemer by Dorina Lazo Gilmore-Young
- Read Tell Her Story by Nijay Gupta
- Read Emboldened by Tara Beth Leach
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SPONSOR | Hear Women is sponsored by Northern Seminary, where thousands of women have been equipped to serve as pastors, practitioners, church planters, and ministry leaders across the globe. Explore your calling and visit seminary.edu to learn more.
Credits:
✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo, Helen Lee, and Travis Albritton
✅ Research Assistants: Abby Lee and Jazmin Rose
✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts
✅ Social Media Manager: Makayla Payne
✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard
✅ Theme Song: "Organica" by Artax
Disclaimer: The comments, views, and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the host and/or the guests featured on the podcast and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of InterVarsity Press or InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.
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