Jul 27, 2026 · 1 hr 6 min · 12 segments
Season 6 | Episode 24 In this final episode of the Life & Leadership podcast Jez speaks to James and Hannah Silley about their journey into leadership and the lessons they've learnt along the way.
James SilleyGuestJezHost
Hannah SilleyGuestit's funny that dynamic, isn't it, of when you take on leadership or something, you know, you hear it a lot from politicians and you're aware of what happens when people canvass or they set out a manifesto of how they want to lead and then they enter office and events unfold outside of their control and they have to respond and adjust and adapt.
And I think often that's where you see, you know, when people are leading leadership, when people are having to lead in a way that they can't predict and they didn't plan for this, you see the character and the values of the leaders and the leadership team and the culture that comes through.
And I think it's been really encouraging to see how you've both led with such empathy and clarity, commitment to truth, and also seen some of your values come through in that as well.
you are in a position where you are a figurehead and a representative of a group of christians and a group of churches now um whilst also being the person who's trying to you know pioneer new things so that we're not just into institutionalism there's always that tension between well there's this there's this institution of a family of churches but there's also a movement because this isn't primarily about staying still and staying put and i think it's been great to to see how you've done both of those two things from my point of view really well over the past year.
But that dynamic that you talked about, I know you've alluded to it before as well.
There's a difference, isn't there, between being on a team and observing someone else lead and thinking, I've got loads of ideas of how you should lead, whoever's leading.
This is just a lot harder than I realized it would be.
Talk to us a bit about that, both, I guess you said you've talked about that before at a local church level as well.
Talk to us about how that's played out for you both.
And also when you are in a position of leadership, managing people who have lots of ideas about how you should be leading.
Any wisdom or insights on some of that as we start to come into things?
Yeah, well, I mean, yeah, I think you've heard me say before, I've certainly said in lots of public sayings, I was the best leader I ever was when I was on Dave's team at home base many, many years ago.
And then as soon as you sit in with those responsibilities, as you say, become slightly less clear.
I think actually in the wider transition stuff within Newgrounds, That's probably changed a little bit.
And actually, I read years ago, Al Mohler's Conviction to Lead book, and I found it massively shaping just this principle that leaders really have to have deep convictions and you've got to be really clear.
It's got to come from the word, got to come from kind of the spirit leading us into stuff.
And so I think I do hold deep convictions of values that stand on, again, stand on the shoulders of giants and really aware, just linking our previous conversation about next generation leaders, really aware of something that, We're really from first generation to second, and we're now kind of, I guess, third generation leaders that this thing, the values, the things that hold us and have held us, they must continue.
Contextualized into different context, in different age, in a different space and all the rest of it.
it's funny that dynamic, isn't it, of when you take on leadership or something, you know, you hear it a lot from politicians and you're aware of what happens when people canvass or they set out a manifesto of how they want to lead and then they enter office and events unfold outside of their control and they have to respond and adjust and adapt.
And I think often that's where you see, you know, when people are leading leadership, when people are having to lead in a way that they can't predict and they didn't plan for this, you see the character and the values of the leaders and the leadership team and the culture that comes through.
And I think it's been really encouraging to see how you've both led with such empathy and clarity, commitment to truth, and also seen some of your values come through in that as well.
you are in a position where you are a figurehead and a representative of a group of christians and a group of churches now um whilst also being the person who's trying to you know pioneer new things so that we're not just into institutionalism there's always that tension between well there's this there's this institution of a family of churches but there's also a movement because this isn't primarily about staying still and staying put and i think it's been great to to see how you've done both of those two things from my point of view really well over the past year.
But that dynamic that you talked about, I know you've alluded to it before as well.
There's a difference, isn't there, between being on a team and observing someone else lead and thinking, I've got loads of ideas of how you should lead, whoever's leading.
This is just a lot harder than I realized it would be.
Talk to us a bit about that, both, I guess you said you've talked about that before at a local church level as well.
Talk to us about how that's played out for you both.
And also when you are in a position of leadership, managing people who have lots of ideas about how you should be leading.
Any wisdom or insights on some of that as we start to come into things?
Yeah, well, I mean, yeah, I think you've heard me say before, I've certainly said in lots of public sayings, I was the best leader I ever was when I was on Dave's team at home base many, many years ago.
And then as soon as you sit in with those responsibilities, as you say, become slightly less clear.
I think actually in the wider transition stuff within Newgrounds, That's probably changed a little bit.
And actually, I read years ago, Al Mohler's Conviction to Lead book, and I found it massively shaping just this principle that leaders really have to have deep convictions and you've got to be really clear.
It's got to come from the word, got to come from kind of the spirit leading us into stuff.
And so I think I do hold deep convictions of values that stand on, again, stand on the shoulders of giants and really aware, just linking our previous conversation about next generation leaders, really aware of something that, We're really from first generation to second, and we're now kind of, I guess, third generation leaders that this thing, the values, the things that hold us and have held us, they must continue.
Contextualized into different context, in different age, in a different space and all the rest of it.
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