This morning when I came in to work I had a particularly busy brain. I arrived at work at about 7am so I could start my day with a quick workout. While I was exercising, as usually happens, my mind started to wander into a talk that I’m giving later this week. I was thinking about how far too rarely I am stopped in my tracks. How rarely I take the time to stop, listen, pray, and just relax away from the noise of my agenda for the day. For the talk I’m doing later this week, I’m using a from the book of Jeremiah in the Bible that goes like this:

“Ah, Sovereign LORD,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.”
But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the LORD.

Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “Now, I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”
Jeremiah 1:6-10

After I rushed through my workout I headed into the locker room. My busy brain was still going. I was beginning to frantically plan for how I was going to talk about “What stops you in your tracks?” The irony that I realized right then in the locker room was that I hadn’t been stopped in my tracks in my planning for talking about being stopped in my tracks. The first thing I thought was, “What an idiot!” Then I thought about the message God was handing me through the words in Jeremiah. Jeremiah is confessing that he doesn’t have all the answers, and that in fact, he doesn’t even know how to speak.

Sometimes when I’m trying to get my kids attention I actually have to stop them in their tracks, get them to look me in the eye, and then let them know that I have their best intentions in mind, and I have them covered. Like a father gently putting his hand over Jeremiah’s mouth, God says, “Stop right there man. I’ve got this one. I have the words for you. I have the agenda. I have the plan.” In that moment in the locker room, I sat down on the bench and spent the next fifteen minutes in silence, letting go of my day. While my busy brain is still here, I realized I don’t have all the answers and I may not get it all done. Most importantly, God stopped me in my tracks this morning.
What stops you in your tracks?

Dr. Rob McKenna

If it truly is important to be intentional about your development as a leader, we would really be missing it if we didn’t take a chance to pause and reflect on our own learning over the last several weeks. I’ve learned some valuable lessons for sure. First off, I am now so convinced that this generation of emerging leaders is anything but entitled. There are plenty of high potential leaders out there who are ready for the challenge, willing to consider the stakes, and willing to learn. Second, I have seen the impact of letting go and letting others speak their own voice. These have been big lessons for me. Now that so many of you have spent the last 10 weeks in my class taking a deep dive into your own leadership presence and potential, what personal lessons have you learned about leadership that you will surely be applying in the coming months and even years?

Based on the conversations we’ve seen over the last several weeks in the blog, I have some advice I want to pass on. While this is certainly not me trying to speak like the master of leadership, it’s advice I’ve received from a group of wise leaders who have invested in me over the years that has really helped me as a leader. So, here goes…

1. Seek out tough feedback on how you show up.
2. Learn how to lead and follow.
3. Become self aware.
4. Get in touch with your developmental stage.
5. Don’t blame—take responsibility—it’s good for you.
6. Leadership is not only about talking—this becomes really important
7. Develop your list of mentors now!
8. Keep success in perspective—self preservation and self sacrifice
9. Learn to write well.
10. Set learning and performance goals and shoot for them.
11. Be intentional—it makes you more interesting.
12. Don’t gossip—Ask yourself, what are you going to do about it?
13. There are lessons to learn right now—are you learning them? Write them down.
14. Take on a whatever it takes attitude
15. Don’t take yourself too seriously, but take others seriously
16. Why do you lead—three questions down.
17. Say you’re sorry.
18. Consider the stakes every day.
19. Be thankful.
20. Know that God loves you.