Catalyst ’16 Labs – 53 Leadership Quotes From Brad Lomenick On Leading The Next Generation

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 Uncommon Fellowship.

The Wednesday sessions consisted of Catalyst Labs.  The afternoon’s next speaker was Brad Lomenick.  Brad was the former head of Catalyst and author of H3 Leadership: Be Hungry. Stay Humble. Always Hustle.  He is generally considered one of the world’s most influential leaders.

Also, as a special gift to everyone reading these posts, INJOY Stewardship would like to invest in your leadership by inviting you to a FREE Thursday October 13th online event entitled “How To Overcome The Challenges Of Leading A Growing Church.”  Click HERE or on the image below to sign up.

The following are 53 Leadership Quotes and Lessons from Brad’s wonderful session:

1. I went from gathering thousands of leaders to now impact 10s. And those 10s are strategic.
2. I am the biggest fan and friend to Catalyst.

9 Trends To Leading The Next Generation

1. Authenticity – The Awareness Generation is looking for you to be real. You need to lead from your true self.
2. The higher we go, the more influence we get, the more we try to fake it.
3. I felt like a substitute teacher just one step ahead of the students.
4. Rise Of The Free Agent – We live in a free agent generation. Every young leader is thinking project.
5. The average will have 13 seasons of career.
6. People are looking at assignments that will probably be short term. This is the Gig Economy.
7. You must let your young leaders have freedom to lead projects.
8. 25% of the U.S. will be in some kind of free agent environment.
9. Everyone Is A Content Creator And Content Provider – The Producer Generation
10. Every person on the team should be part of the Marketing team. Spread the word.
11. Membership Economy – Included And Belong Generation
12. People who are walking into your church need to feel like they are known.
13. Your people want to be part of something bigger than me that I am connected to.
14. The new measurable for church leaders should be engagement not attendance.
15. Decline And Death Of Hierarchy – Organizational Innovation
16. You want to move away from things that feel like they have hierarchy tied to them. Young people will move away from having hierarchy. This is the Starter Generation.
17. Reverse Mentoring – the average 19-year-old walking into Facebook knows far more than the 57-year-old.
18. If you are still sending memos, STOP!
19. Meetings – c’mon. Kill them! Stick a sword into your embedded meeting DNA culture.
20. Meetings give us a sense that we’re actually doing something. Don’t meet about it. Actually do something.
21. Mergers, acquisitions and takeovers are commonplace. You may have experienced this in the church.
22. New Outlook On Success – Retirement? Really?
23. Retirement is going away.
24. We will take seasons of sabbatical throughout our 60 years of working.
25. Your 4^th Quarter is your best years. We need you in the game.
26. New Outlook On Succession – Everyone of us is in the business of succession.
27. A Mobile Workforce – Flex Generation. Half of you don’t even go into the office.
28. You have to build all the measurable on results. Are we actually accomplishing something.
29. Small, Local and DIY – Power shift towards the niche.
30. The average leader today is not necessarily attracted to the thousands of people in an arena. I am more attracted to intimate than big.
31. How do we drive towards intimate? How do we drive towards small?
32. In 2000 when we started Catalyst, people were driven towards content. In 2016, you still want content but connection will bring you back.
33. Aggregator, Coach And Curator – A New Kind of Leader. The conductor is the picture of a new kind of leader going forward. Leaders today are in the trenches with their team. Their fingernails are dirty.
34. Young leaders want you to coach them. No one wants to be managed anymore.
35. We have to have EQ as much as we have IQ.

Q&A

1. Everyone on the team must understand people walk in with different perspectives.
2. Everyone must know each other very well.
3. Nobody’s walking in anymore expecting to wait their turn and wait in line to get something done.
4. The flattening of organizations is occurring.
5. Doing a stupid task for my boss will repel eagles.
6. We lead like we were led but we have to reverse the cycle.
7. Trends are changing way faster than they’ve ever changed.
8. The church should actually be setting the trends in the way organizational leadership should be done.
9. Politics is not trendsetting. Politics is downstream to where trends are happening.
10. When you ask people their name you are giving them honor.
11. The greatest assimilation strategy is “What’s your name? How can I help you?”
12. Identity is who I am. Calling is why I’m here. Assignment is what I do.
13. Catalyst was an assignment.
14. The greatest felt need among the emerging generation is the question of “Why?”
15. At the core of content creation is it’s a discipline.
16. You can’t police suckiness. We can help navigate it. The best way to get better is to keep doing it.

Next up is Derwin Gray.  Be sure to check back for more leadership insights throughout the day.

On Thursday October 13th, INJOY Stewardship Solutions is hosting an online event entitled, “How To Overcome The Challenges Of Leading A Growing Church”.  You will able to learn church growth lessons from experience pastors like Shawn Lovejoy, Marty Schmidt, Josh Pennington, Mike Linch and Jeff Maness himself.  Click HERE or on the images provided to sign up.