The Triangle That Keeps Eric Lindsey Moving Forward

Eric Lindsey will tell you straight: leadership with only two out of three doesn't work.

He's tried it. Knew his strengths, had great people around him, but wouldn't pull the trigger on decisions. Other times, he charged ahead with action and self-awareness but operated alone — a long and lonely road, he calls it. The pattern repeated until he realized something: sustainable leadership requires all three working together.

Today, as Director of Health Ventures at Indiana Wesleyan University, Lindsey is building an integrative healthcare center in Fort Wayne that brings holistic healing under one roof. He's also a Gallup-certified strengths coach helping professionals align their gifts with their calling. But his framework for leadership didn't come from a business school case study. It came from getting knocked flat.

When Everything Falls Apart

A few years back, Lindsey and his wife got violently sick. The diagnosis: toxic black mold exposure triggering an autoimmune disease. They lost significant money. Their health spiraled. The kind of crisis that strips away everything non-essential.

The biggest factor in getting through that was the people around me who showed up.

Not their savings account. Not their five-year plan. People.

That season rewired how Lindsey thinks about stewardship. Most leaders hear that word and immediately think finances. Lindsey thinks relationships first. When Indiana Wesleyan started exploring holistic healthcare, he didn't see a job opportunity — he saw a chance to steward his story for someone else's healing.

It's the same impulse that drives his coaching practice. At fifteen, he had a Clifton Strengths coach. At twenty-four, an executive coach — almost unheard of at that age. He received coaching when he desperately needed it, so now he gives it back. Not as charity, but as stewardship of what was given to him.

The Nudge That Changed a Classroom

Before Fort Wayne, Lindsey spent four years at Duke University directing Fuqua on Board, a program placing MBA students on nonprofit boards across the county. Traditional wisdom says when you take over a program, repeat the first year to learn the system before making changes. Lindsey kept 80% the same — but that last seminar, he couldn't shake a nudge.

These students had spent months analyzing case studies. They needed something else. Something human.

So he brought in a mentor — a man who'd earned his MBA from an HBCU, led multiple nonprofits as executive director and VP, served on numerous boards, and raised a son with a disability his entire life. Someone who didn't just work in the nonprofit space but depended on it for his own family's well-being.

They did a fireside chat instead of case studies.

Students cried. Afterward, several told Lindsey it was the best class of the year, hands down.

I care deeply about people at the human level. Organizational structures are important, but for me it's about what we do each day as humans to take that step forward.

That decision to follow the nudge instead of the playbook? That's the triangle in action.

The Framework That Holds It Together

When Lindsey teaches leadership, he comes back to three pillars arranged in a triangle, with God at the center: Strengths. People. Action.

Know your strengths. Have the self-awareness to understand who you are and what you bring. Operate from your wheelhouse, not someone else's.

Know your people. Who's in your corner? Who's on this journey with you? Who will call you to a higher standard when you need it?

Take action. What are you physically moving forward? What decision are you making this week?

The danger isn't picking the wrong pillar — it's operating with only two. Lindsey has tested every combination. Strengths plus people without action? You become the leader who knows everything and does nothing. Strengths plus action without people? You burn out alone. People plus action without knowing your strengths? You're moving fast in the wrong direction.

When Lindsey feels stuck or stagnant, he pulls out the triangle and asks: Which part am I falling short in? Am I operating too far outside my wheelhouse? Do I not have the right people in my corner right now? Am I taking the wrong action — or failing to take any action at all?

It's rooted in First Corinthians 12, the passage about spiritual gifts and the body of Christ working together. As a high school student, the first time Lindsey ever spoke in front of a church crowd, he taught on that entire passage. It became core to his identity — the conviction that we need each other's differences, perspectives, and gifts to accomplish what God calls us toward.

The Question That Cuts Through

In Fort Wayne, Lindsey is rallying holistic healthcare practitioners around a shared mission. He takes those relationships seriously. He's the person who reaches out when no one else will, who asks the real question instead of making small talk about Indiana's weather swings.

I want to know what's actually going on. How are you feeling when you wake up? How are you really doing?

It's First John 4 in practice: No one has seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us. For Lindsey, that means approaching everyone with love regardless of background or perspective, then figuring out how to be on mission together.

Whether he's building healthcare services to bring holistic healing to people who are hurting deeply, or coaching professionals to understand who they are and where God is calling them — it all centers on the same question: Who am I on mission with, and what is God calling me to?

Your Move This Week

Pull out a piece of paper. Draw a triangle. Label the three points: Strengths. People. Action.

Now be honest: which corner are you neglecting right now?

If you're stuck, it's probably because one leg of that triangle is weak or missing entirely. Maybe you're taking massive action but operating outside your strengths, so you're exhausted and ineffective. Maybe you know exactly who you are and what you're good at, but you're isolated — trying to lead without the right people in your corner.

Or maybe, like those Duke students before the fireside chat, you've analyzed enough case studies. You know your strengths. You have your people. But you haven't taken the action that's been nudging at you for months.

This week, shore up the weakest point of your triangle. Get specific. If it's people, name one person you need to reach out to and ask the real question. If it's action, identify the one decision you've been avoiding and set a deadline. If it's strengths, stop trying to be someone you're not and operate from your actual wheelhouse.

Because sustainable leadership — the kind that lasts through autoimmune diseases and organizational pivots and the long obedience in the same direction — requires all three. And it only works with God at the center, holding the whole thing together.