In the final episode of his leadership series on the Student of Life Podcast, Tim Pratt Jr. reflects on the importance of surrender and submission in both faith‑based and business leadership contexts. He announces a personal life transition—expecting a daughter and taking a six‑week leave—to frame the discussion about having a "covering," i.e., a mentor, coach, or pastor who holds responsibility for a leader’s growth. Pratt distinguishes between positional authority and relational influence, arguing that true submission is a heart posture of teachability toward those who guide us. He draws parallels between church hierarchy (pastors delegated authority by God) and corporate structures (C‑level leaders, boards), emphasizing respect for authority without equating it to dictatorship. Drawing on his five‑year experience in Agile coaching, he illustrates how coaches facilitate self‑discovery rather than simply providing answers, and stresses that leaders must be willing to submit to such guidance. Pratt warns against the complacency that can arise from years of experience, urging continuous learning across domains—from personal finance to leadership and faith. He challenges listeners to examine their own willingness to submit to mentorship, coaching, and spiritual leadership, reminding them that even CEOs and senior pastors report to higher bodies. The episode concludes with a call to share the content, connect via his website, and reflect on personal teachability.
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Hey, this is Tim Pratt Jr. and I want to welcome you to the Student of Life Podcast. Listen, we're going to get into so many transferable truths throughout the content of these episodes that I believe God is going to use to help you apply because he's going to reveal what's already been there the entire time. Enjoy. Yo, what's up? This is Tim Pratt Jr., your host of the Student of Life Podcast, and this is the last episode of our leadership series, and I'm going to take a 2 to 3 week break uh, just really because of everything that's hitting, because I really had to navigate. And I want to kind of get into that just first, uh, first things first. And like I say, for— as I said on the last one, for you all that's been tracking with me, my wife and I will be welcoming our daughter here on, uh, the 15th of October. So it's quickly approaching the last few weeks in pregnancy, and it's been a journey. And like I said, I just want to focus on that due to some scheduling conflicts and things that I had to change up, you know, not just hidden here but with my ministry obligations of course, with my employer, thankfully they're letting me go on a 6-week leave to really focus on my wife and my daughter and just, you know, my family in general. Uh, that being said, this is— I did want to conclude this, uh, this leadership series, and this is episode 4 of season 5, and we're going to talk about surrendering in leadership. Surrendering in leadership. So what that means to me when I talk about surrendering in leadership it's more so having a covering, having, having a dedicated covering, someone that, that's responsible for you. Uh, no matter— so if you're a CEO, if you're the senior pastor, if you're out here leading your family, you know, do you have someone, a mentor, a coach? If you're just an executive person, like I said, like, you know, and I don't mean like that in a bad way, but I'm saying like ministry, ministry leaders do have executive coaches too. But a lot of times they find also their first and primary thing is finding a pastor, where if you're not really in a faith-based movement, you might look more to like a coach or a life coach or executive coach, business coach, whatever that particular area that you feel like you need to be coached and covered in. Or like I said, a mentor. Coaching is a little bit different, but we're going to kind of hit on that and why it's important when we talk about, uh, surrendering and leadership. Better yet, the title of this will be submissive— submissive, that S word— submitting in leadership. Submitting in leadership, I like that better. Um, so When we talk about the word submission, submission and leadership, anytime we're learning something or we submitting— matter of fact, even every anytime we're learning, it assumes the heart posture of submitting. So in any given moment in my life, you know, especially when I'm under leadership or I'm learning from people, my heart posture is assuming the posture of submitting to the authority that's teaching or to the authority that's in charge or whatever at the moment. And I try to practice, practice this in every dynamic of my life. Like, I understand that yes, it's times we see that and we understand that when we are called to lead, you know, they should be submitting to me, they should be submitting to my authority. But at the same time, we have to ask ourselves the same question. Do we do it? Do we practice the same thing? Do we have a covering? Do— can we surrender in certain areas of our life when it comes down to someone being over covering us? Uh, like I say, now when you talk about this in a faith-based setting, yes, God is the head of the church, but God has also given pastors authority, so much authority, to help direct and help pastor and shepherd the people of God. Now don't confuse this, they're not the pastor's people, they belong to God, but he's shepherding them. And so this, from these people, from the leadership, the elders in the ministry, I believe according to scripture that it has to be some, uh, submission, act of submission there. Now, this doesn't mean that the pastor is a dictator, or like I say, he's replacing God. No, that's not what that means. It's just God has given this pastor— he has called this, this person to be the pastor and delegated so much authority to them to operate and shepherd his people. And when we look at this in a business setting, you know, we really understand this when we look into titles and influence and things like that. Like, I have people that I have to report to, but I also have people that are indirectly over when you start getting into C-level leadership and things like that. Like, I might not— they might not have a direct influence where I report directly to them or I have ongoing conversations with them, but however, due to the way the org chart is laid out, these people are responsible for the direction of this organization. They have been given so much authority from the CEO and the board of directors and things to carry out these people. So I have to submit in certain aspects. It's not me being fake, it's respecting that authority and respecting that person. And, you know, we talked about this before with leadership is influence, and there is times with certain people that, yes, I just respect the title, but I really don't have anything for the person. And what I mean by that is that I'm literally respecting their title only, the authority that that title carries. But if they're not just a good person, they don't take the time to, you know, maintain and cultivate relationships, then I'm not going to like just disrespect them, but I don't really respect the influence that they have because I'm like, all you have is positional authority. But we talked about that, and you can go back to episode 1 and 2 of this season to kind of further unpack that. Moving back along, when it comes to submitting, submitting in this day and age, from my perspective, is very hard because all of us are so learned now. I mean, we're a Google click away from knowing what's what. I mean, think about it, you know, I, when I was growing up, and oh my God, I thought I'd never say this, but I'm 31 years old And it was different. Like, I didn't have just the access that, you know, people can fact-check you today. I see this often when I'm in ministry, I'm doing leadership development things. When I say something, or not just me, but a pastor or a leader says something, right there in the moment, these people can fact-check you with their phone. Hey Google, is this, is that, or is this, is this true? And so we have to know our stuff. So it's very important that we become learned in the wisdom that comes with it, because knowledge without wisdom is really nothing. I mean, I tell my kids this all the time. They're becoming very knowledgeable because they can go look up things, but they haven't really learned how to apply or what to apply, what not to do. And this is where wisdom comes in, Tack. And honestly, I believe wisdom comes from having a heart, a heart posture of submitting, submitting to people that can help you go faster, to help you accelerate. I've been in the Agile space for like almost the last 5 years, going on 5 years, and this was my first time going to like specialized training. So I've been to a few project management conferences, and I went to Agile conference a few years ago. I did also— my— the company allowed me to do some training where I was working under an Agile enterprise coach and trainer, but the company also brought on a coach, I believe for 6 months, and, and I got some to spend some time with him. And regardless of agree or disagree, I do believe that he helped me, he helped accelerate me in a lot of areas with the challenges and just talking things and bouncing things off through him. But also too, I noticed that he didn't always give me the answer, and that's what I try to do when I coach or mentor people. I try to ask questions or direct them in the path of self-discovery. In other words, in helping them basically tap into what they have and say, okay, wow, no, you figured it out. You just needed someone to guide you and help you. But once again, we have to be willing to submit. We see this when coaches, you know, sometimes, most cases, players are way better than their coach, especially at a given moment when we look at elite players at an elite level. But if the players don't listen to the coach or buy into the coach, then a lot of times it's going to be friction. Now, like I say, whether you agree or disagree, if you say that I'm going to play for this coach, then I believe you should buy into his system, or you should leave, or the coach should but nevertheless, you— we have to assume a heart posture of submission. So whether you've been in leadership for a long time, whether you're just now getting in it, you have to ask yourself, you know, am I teachable? Do I have a heart posture where I can submit to an authority? Do I have a heart posture that I can submit to mentorship, submit to a coach, submit to a covering? These are questions that we have to ask ourselves when it comes to submitting in leadership, because this is probably one of the most vital things in leadership that's often overlooked. I've seen people say, well, what's the point of, you know, if you know it and you've had 15, 20, 30 years of experience or whatever, what's the point of— what can someone tell you? Well, the moment that I believe that we feel like we arrive and no one can teach us anything, especially the— what— with the way things moving, with the way things are moving, I believe we are already starting to decline right there, like just straight up. And so for me, I would just say in my life I've— I'm not gonna say I've always been an avid reader, but in my early 20s I became an avid reader, and it was more so in the personal finance space. Then it transitioned to investing, and then I got into leadership books and a lot of business, and then going back to personal development and faith-based books and just different type of journals and things like that. But because I was reading so much and I was listening to so many podcasts and I was talking to so many people, and then I had launched like a pretty successful coaching business, uh, dealing with finances early on, and I got kind of tired of becoming the money guy and just went away from it. Uh, one of the things I learned is that especially if people didn't read as much as me, I didn't really take to them well because I'm like, you don't know what I know. But that was error on my part because at the end of the day, they are the ones that was called to lead in that space. And so therefore, I just want to challenge you. I really want to challenge you. Don't be like me in, in that capacity of my life, in that season of my life, no matter what you know. You can always learn something else. And if you don't have a heart of submitting, and if you have a problem with submitting— because in ministry, a lot of times we can pick the pastor or the team that we want to be under, and we can even quit and go work elsewhere. But I do believe it's easier to find a local church than it is sometimes for us to find jobs based on what's out there in our skill set. But however, at the end of the day, long as you're under that leader, like, long as they're not having you to do anything that's, you know, totally contrary to the will of God or your values and things like that, You are called to submit, and that's order. We are all called to submit. So we can never get so big that we feel like, no, no, I don't need to like anyone covering me or reporting to anyone anymore. Because even most CEOs report to board of directors. A lot of senior pastors that have mega churches, they're reporting to the board and things like that. So you want to ask yourself, do I have that heart posture of submit— submission— submitting? Do— can you submit? Can you submit to leadership? Can you submit to coaching? Can you submit to mentorship? Can you submit to your pastor? Can you submit? And so this is a big thing that I want you to just really dig down within and ask yourself, hey, you know, if I'm leading in a space, I understand that people have to submit to me, but is it possible where they also where I'm submitting to them. Straight up. Hey, what's up? I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to this Student Life Podcast today. If this content has impacted you in any kind of way, please take some time to share it on your social media feeds. And also, if you want to connect with me or just learn more about me, go over to www.timothypratt.org. Once again, thanks.
