Catalyst ’15 – 59 Leadership Quotes From Brad Lomenick

As a member of the Catalyst Blog Team and INJOY Stewardship Solutions, I will be bringing you live updates from the much anticipated Catalyst Conference in Atlanta, GA.  The theme for this year’s conference is Awaken The Wonder.

Catalyst always begins by conducting a series of Labs on Wednesday for church leaders.  The afternoon’s next Lab session was conducted by Brad Lomenick.  As the former leader of Catalyst, Brad discussed his 5 Failures In Leadership.  Make sure you pick up his amazing book H3 Leadership by clicking HERE.  The following are 59 Leadership Quotes and Lessons from his challenging session.

Brad made a lot of leaders better today.

Also, before reading, make sure you check out the announcement from INJOY Stewardship Solutions shown below about a FREE webinar on October 13th for churches needing to raise capital in 2016.  Now onto Brad’s thoughts:

1. H3 stands for Humble, Hungry, Hustle and that has been my mantra since I was 21 years old.
2. The first failure was a personal identity crisis.
3. When I stepped out of running Catalyst, the hardest thing I had to deal with was Who Am I?
4. I’m not “the Catalyst guy” anymore. Will anyone care anymore about Brad Lomenick.
5. Who I am, who you are, is not defined by what you do.
6. Identity is who you are. It’s unchanging. I’m a follower of Jesus.
7. Calling should answer the question, “Why am I here?” it is where your strengths and passions come together.
8. Assignment is what do I do.
9. My assignment can change and will change multiple times. My calling is to Influence Influencers.
10. Catalyst was an assignment. That assignment is over. I didn’t lose my identity. I didn’t lose my calling.
11. The average 25-year-old will have 10-15 seasons of assignment in your career.
12. The second failure was Stale Leadership.
13. The slow steady decline over time for me was starting to take its toll.
14. Brad and Darb (Brad spelled backwards) were evidence of my stale leadership.
15. You have allowed the pursuit of the vision to get in the way of the people.
16. My pursuit in what was really great was becoming really bad.
17. Don’t allow your pursuit of what seems like something great to get in the way of what will ultimately take you down.
18. Catalyst was a very successful organization with an unhealthy leader.
19. I was glad I could have stopped while I was in “stale mode” and make changes.
20. I was glad I could do preventive leadership instead of prescriptive leadership.
21. I had a fear in me that people were finally going to find out I was a knucklehead from Oklahoma. How did I ever get into this seat?
22. Successful leadership is when you are helping other people thrive.
23. The people closest to me were getting the worst of me.
24. So many times we give the people closest to us our leftovers.
25. I was leaving people in the ditch on the way to getting the mountain.
26. My third failure was I was losing my authenticity.
27. I starting acting like all the people we were inviting to be on the Catalyst stage.
28. The more you carry the harder it is to lead from who you already are.
29. Be comfortable walking in with who you are. Your team wants to be led by that person.
30. So many of us walking around posing trying to be the next……
31. Just go be you.
32. Young leaders don’t need a relevant leader. They need a real leader.
33. All your team already realizes you have pit stains. They just want the leader they know to be the leader you know.
34. I don’t know if I did the sabbatical well. I watched a lot of Breaking Bad.
35. A lot of my friends grew fast and blew over because they weren’t rooted.
36. You have to establish systems that protect you from yourself.
37. If I didn’t have people and systems in place, I would destroy the thing I created.
38. Your spouse is your greatest accountability partner.
39. Have people in your life that need nothing from you and don’t get a paycheck from you that will tell you the truth.
40. When you’re paying somebody, they will tell you exactly what you want to hear.
41. You’re like the boxer in the ring in the 14^th round . You will pass out before you bow out.
42. You have to have people who will protect you from yourself.
43. My fourth failure was faithfulness to where you are.
44. My assignment is I hang out 10s. I used to run a movement of 1000s.
45. A lot of people who used to call me don’t call me anymore.
46. In God’s economy, your scorecard is based on how did you steward what you were given.
47. God is saying, “Be faithful to your 2. And if I turn it into 4, so be it.”
48. Under 30 leaders, stop worrying about being the next Mark Zuckerberg. Stop thinking if you don’t change the world you’re a failure.
49. To recharge your batteries, take as much vacation as you want. Part of new comp plans is what looks like a good vacation plan for you.
50. If you’re a leader, part of your role is helping your team flourish is to force margin for them.
51. I didn’t force my team to stop and rest.
52. Margin is one of the greatest lessons I’ve seen leaders I admire put in their schedule and protect with all their lives.
53. My fifth failure was my passion tank was empty.
54. I got my smile back.
55. So many of us at some point, the reason we got in it, is the reason we’re about to get out of it.
56. Do not let your passion get to where it is running on fumes.
57. Youth pastor, if you don’t stand up in front of your students with 100% passion, they’re out.
58. If you are leading with passion, people will follow you.
59. Do not let your passion tank go empty.

More leadership insights to come throughout the day.  And do not forget to join our team at INJOY Stewardship Solutions on October 13th for a session entitled How One Capital Campaign Raised Over $10 Billion.  It will be a fun hour of equipping and training.  Click HERE or on the image below to register today.