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When Strengths Sabotage: Personality, Emotional Intelligence, Comebacks and How to be the Most Effective Leader with Dr. Greg Stewart

🔥 Excerpt

“Put down the microscope and pick up the mirror.”

⚡ TL;DR

Dr. Greg Stewart shares how emotional intelligence shapes leadership, marriage, and personal recovery by helping you name negative emotions, measure what is actually at stake, and do the inner work before you try to fix the people around you.

📄 Show Notes

Emotional intelligence is not a soft skill. It is the line between a leader who grows and a leader whose strengths start doing damage. In this conversation, Dr. Greg Stewart and I talk about what happens when identity and worth get tied to outside validation, and how that shows up as inflated reactions in leadership and at home.

We get practical about emotional intelligence through a simple discipline: notice the negative emotion, assess what is truly at risk, and then ask why the reaction feels bigger than the moment. Greg points to three common drivers: lies we believe, identity wounds that make things personal, and unresolved trauma.

We also talk leadership in the real world. Emotional intelligence means you lead yourself first, pursue teachability on purpose, and reduce blind spots by inviting feedback before problems force the lesson. Along the way, Greg shares a framework for marriage and partnership that centers safety, pursuit, and mature responsibility, without turning your spouse into your source of worth.

Emotional intelligence shows up again when life hits you. Greg’s concept of scheduling the minimum helps leaders stay relentless without burning out by protecting the non negotiables that keep your life aligned.

✅ Key Takeaways

• Emotional intelligence starts by naming the emotion and separating signal from inflation
• If it feels personal, check your identity and worth before you confront the moment
• Teachability is a leadership practice, not a personality trait
• Feedback reduces blind spots when you invite it early and handle it with humility
• Schedule the minimum in the priorities that keep you grounded so you can sustain the pursuit

🧭 Chapters

00:01 Welcome and why this conversation matters
00:51 Greg’s journey from ministry to counseling and leadership work
05:30 The wake up moments that forced change
07:45 “I make your world” and the identity shift
11:37 Need versus want in relationships and leadership
17:15 Marriage, roles, and responsibility without losing yourself
27:11 Negative emotions as data, not direction
33:24 Leadership, validation, and the danger of taking it personally
36:30 Lead yourself first and pursue feedback to reduce blind spots
46:24 A practice to move from reaction to reflection
50:28 Staying relentless by scheduling the minimum
53:32 Where to find Greg’s books and work

👑 Host Info

Rick Meekins (https://rickmeekins.com)is a serial entrepreneur, strategic business disruption advisor, podcast guest, and host of The Relentless Pursuit of Winning Podcast, where he explores what it actually takes to build, lead, and sustain meaningful businesses. With over 30 years of experience working alongside founders and leadership teams, Rick focuses on helping companies develop and implement disruptive advantages and developing platforms to explore and distribute human insight.

Interested in working together, having Rick speak, or partnering with the show?

Start here: (https://rpowpodcast.com/contact/)

Biography

Dr. Greg Stewart lives in Rockwall, TX and is currently a full-time telehealth counselor, executive coach, and consultant. He has a BA in Organizational Leadership (Cornerstone University), a Master of Divinity (Grand Rapids Theological Seminary), a MA in Counseling (GRTS), and a PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision (Regent U). His dissertation was The Relationship of Emotional Intelligence to Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment. He wrote a trilogy on his concept of I3 – Information, Interpretation, Intensity. The first is I3: Unlock the Inner Strength Behind Your Negative Emotions. His second: I3 for Couples: Facing Our Negative Emotions to Build Intimacy in Marriage. And his third: I3 for Leaders: Unleash the Rage of Negative Emotions Against the Obstacles of Becoming More.

He was a pastor for 15 years in Portage, MI (youth, associate, senior), and was an Organizational Development Strategist for three years, traveling the country training and coaching leaders at all levels in all types of industries. Most recently, he served as the Director of the Residential Treatment Center for Cedar Crest Hospital and RTC in Belton, TX. He also has served as an adjunct professor for 20 years for a number of universities (Regent University, Cornerstone University, John Brown University, and Grace College & Seminary). Dr. Stewart and his wife are empty-nesters and are members of Lakepointe Church in Rockwall and lead a small group together.

Giveaway

To go deeper, Dr. Greg Stewart is offering a free resource for RPOW listeners.

This tool is designed to help you slow reactions, identify what’s really at stake, and lead yourself with greater clarity—before emotions hijack your decisions at work or at home.

If this episode resonated, this resource will help you turn insight into practice.

👉 Get it at www.drgregstewart.com

Simple. Practical. Built for leaders doing the inner work.

Other Information

“Unlock the Inner Strength Behind Your Negative Emotions is a transformative guide that invites readers to confront and embrace their negative emotions as a pathway to personal growth and healing. The negative emotions addressed are insecurity, anxiety, fear, worry, anger, and depression. Do you struggle with these? Then get this book!” – from Amazon.com

Dr. Greg on TikTok