How Great Leaders Navigate Crisis | Dr. Mark Rutland on Turnaround Leadership
Release Date: 12/16/2025
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info_outlineA crisis doesn’t have to break your church or organization. In this powerful conversation, Dr. Mark Rutland, Executive Director of the National Institute of Leadership and founder of Global Servants, joins Phil Cooke https://philcooke.com to share hard-earned insights on leading through crisis, turnaround leadership, and building a lasting leadership legacy. Drawing from firsthand experience in crisis management at Southeastern University, Calvary Church, and Oral Roberts University, Dr. Rutland explains why crisis isn’t always about scandal—and why vision, systems analysis, and truth-telling are essential for renewal and growth.
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Phil Cooke — Media Producer-Writer-Speaker-Coach
Helping Creative Leaders Influence the World — Faith, Media & Culture
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⚡️ More About This Episode: How Great Leaders Navigate Crisis | Dr. Mark Rutland on Turnaround Leadership
Mark Rutland, Ph.D., is a New York Times best-selling author. He is the executive director of the National Institute of Christian Leadership and founder of Global Servants, having served previously as the pastor of a megachurch and president of two universities. Rutland and his wife, Alison, have been married and in ministry for more than fifty years. They have three children and nine grandchildren. The Rutlands established House of Grace in Chiang Rai, Thailand, and Kumasi, Ghana, to protect tribal girls from sex trafficking through Global Servants. Since 1986 House of Grace has been "saving little girls for big destinies." Its work in West Africa, largely in remote villages, has built churches and village hygiene services in five countries.
📘 Get the Book “Keep On Keeping On: How to Die Young as Old as Possible” here: https://amzn.to/490oVft
🌍 Learn more about Dr. Mark Rutland: https://drmarkrutland.com
🌍 Global Servants: https://globalservants.org
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⏰ Timecodes ⏰
00:00 Phil Cooke introduces the topic of leading through a crisis
00:41 Meet Dr. Mark Rutland, Executive Director, National Institute of Christian Leadership
01:42 Crisis is not always moral failure, sexual abuse or financial mismanagement
04:44 Managing the PR in a crisis situation
06:38 The hard decisions that must be made by leadership
10:30 Why a systems analysis is important
13:38 Why casting vision is important in turnaround leadership
17:39 Things leaders must pay attention to
21:14 Decisions on hires and fires to turnaround a church or organization
26:00 Changing self-perception in an organization’s culture
31:42 Don’t obsess on the past
33:00 How to contact Dr. Mark Rutland