SUMMARY
At the 2025 Global Leadership Summit GLN President and CEO, David Ashcraft interviewed Joni Eareckson Tada—an internationally recognized speaker, author, and advocate who has spent decades leading with grace, resilience, and faith. After a diving accident left her quadriplegic at 17, Joni turned her pain into purpose, founding Joni and Friends, a global ministry serving people with disabilities. Her journey is a powerful testament to the kind of leadership that transcends circumstances—one marked by courage, service, and unwavering hope.
In this episode, we’ll dive into Joni’s journey to become the leader she is today, how leaders can better steward suffering, and other priceless pieces of wisdom from her life. Whether you’re leading in business, ministry, or everyday life, Joni’s wisdom will challenge and encourage you.
IN THIS EPISODE
0:00 Intro
2:00 Appreciating Joni’s long-term leadership
3:00 Surprises from Joni’s life
5:15 The pain and challenge of her life after her accident
9:00 The role of family in her life
10:30 Where her experience with leadership began
12:30 How her faith evolved
14:00 Wrestling through when you feel like it’s too much
18:00 Her relationship with her husband, Ken
21:45 Responsibilities of leadership
27:15 Her hopes for the future
28:15 Some frustrations
30:30 How to lead through your weakness
32:30 A closing challenge
33:30 The desire for trying new things
36:30 Outro
LISTEN
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
STANDOUTS AND TAKEAWAYS
- There’s a difference between feeling thankful and giving thanks.
- You can make a choice to move forward in life, and not let it suffocate you.
- Suffering has the way of making faith more visceral, robust and sturdy; it forges iron into your faith.
- Suffering is a textbook that lets you know who you really are and what you really believe.
- Joni’s hope is that every person with a disability finds hope, dignity and their place in the body of Christ.
- People of faith do not really buy into the idea of “boasting in our afflictions.”
- The gospel is never given from points of power; it’s always given from points of weakness.
- Leaders tend to rely on our natural gifts, rather than our weaknesses.
- Everyone suffers in some way; the question is whether we steward that suffering.
- It’s a glorious thing for leaders to be able to share their weaknesses with trusted friends.
LINKS MENTIONED
Whitney Putnam
Vice President of Marketing | Global Leadership NetworkDavid Ashcraft
President and CEO | Global Leadership NetworkJoni Eareckson Tada
Founder and CEO | Joni and Friends International Disability CenterEp 169: Joni Eareckson Tada’s Inspiring Story of Hope and Perseverance
TOPICS IN THIS PODCAST
CallingCharacterConfidenceInfluenceLeading OthersLeading YourselfLearning AgilityRelational IntelligenceRelationship with GodResilienceServant LeadershipWellnessAt the 2025 Global Leadership Summit GLN President and CEO, David Ashcraft interviewed Joni Eareckson Tada—an internationally recognized speaker, author, and advocate who has spent decades leading with grace, resilience, and faith. After a diving accident left her quadriplegic at 17, Joni turned her pain into purpose, founding Joni and Friends, a global ministry serving people with disabilities. Her journey is a powerful testament to the kind of leadership that transcends circumstances—one marked by courage, service, and unwavering hope.
In this episode, we’ll dive into Joni’s journey to become the leader she is today, how leaders can better steward suffering, and other priceless pieces of wisdom from her life. Whether you’re leading in business, ministry, or everyday life, Joni’s wisdom will challenge and encourage you.
On This Podcast
Whitney Putnam
Global Leadership Network
Whitney Putnam is the Vice President of Marketing at the Global Leadership Network. She is passionate about men and women working together to expand their influence so that many more people come to know Jesus. As a builder, Whitney cares deeply about building healthy and holistic communities of people, from the team she has the joy of working with at the GLN to those in her neighborhood. She is a well-respected leader and innovator having served as an executive leader at several global non-profits. She’s a mom to three little girls and married to a tall redhead named Michael. They can most often be found dancing in their kitchen and occasionally sprinkling confetti in greeting cards, all while living in Dallas, Texas.
David Ashcraft
Global Leadership Network
David Ashcraft is President and CEO of the Global Leadership Network, as well as President of The Advantage, a leadership collaborative serving pastors in Pennsylvania. As Senior Pastor of LCBC in Pennsylvania for 32 years, he helped grow weekly attendance from 150 people to a combined average of more than 22,000.
Joni Eareckson Tada
Joni and Friends International Disability Center
Joni Eareckson Tada, the Founder and CEO of Joni and Friends International Disability Center, is an international advocate for people with disabilities. A diving accident in 1967 left Joni Eareckson, then 17, a quadriplegic in a wheelchair, without the use of her hands. She has served on the National Council on Disability, the Disability Advisory Committee to the U.S. State Department and as the Senior Associate for Disability Concerns for the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization. She has hosted the five-minute Joni & Friends a syndicated daily radio program for over 35 years, has written over 50 books and has been honored with numerous awards for her work in publishing, broadcasting and as a champion for the disability community both in the United States and overseas.
Show Notes
SUMMARY
At the 2025 Global Leadership Summit GLN President and CEO, David Ashcraft interviewed Joni Eareckson Tada—an internationally recognized speaker, author, and advocate who has spent decades leading with grace, resilience, and faith. After a diving accident left her quadriplegic at 17, Joni turned her pain into purpose, founding Joni and Friends, a global ministry serving people with disabilities. Her journey is a powerful testament to the kind of leadership that transcends circumstances—one marked by courage, service, and unwavering hope.
In this episode, we’ll dive into Joni’s journey to become the leader she is today, how leaders can better steward suffering, and other priceless pieces of wisdom from her life. Whether you’re leading in business, ministry, or everyday life, Joni’s wisdom will challenge and encourage you.
IN THIS EPISODE
0:00 Intro
2:00 Appreciating Joni’s long-term leadership
3:00 Surprises from Joni’s life
5:15 The pain and challenge of her life after her accident
9:00 The role of family in her life
10:30 Where her experience with leadership began
12:30 How her faith evolved
14:00 Wrestling through when you feel like it’s too much
18:00 Her relationship with her husband, Ken
21:45 Responsibilities of leadership
27:15 Her hopes for the future
28:15 Some frustrations
30:30 How to lead through your weakness
32:30 A closing challenge
33:30 The desire for trying new things
36:30 Outro
LISTEN
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
STANDOUTS AND TAKEAWAYS
LINKS MENTIONED
Show Notes are Exclusively for Podcast Subscribers
Enter your email address to unlock them instantly