Listening Leader: From Burnout to Clarity Ep 30

Leadership gets noisy fast—deadlines, decisions, and the constant pressure to speak with confidence. During this series, we choose a different starting point: listening. Kelley Johnson invites you into a slower rhythm where spiritual discernment fuels practical leadership, especially in seasons marked by burnout, transition, or sudden change. Through a candid story of a leader who moved from entrepreneurial exhaustion to the structure of a corporate role, we uncover how God uses stability, teams, and new skills as a quiet recovery plan that restores clarity and courage.

This episode is anchored in Elijah’s story in 1 Kings 18–19. After a public win comes fear, collapse, and a wilderness reset where God tends to basic needs before giving fresh directions. The wind, quake, and fire grab attention, but guidance arrives as a gentle whisper. That pattern—rest before revelation, stillness before strategy—reframes how we approach complex decisions at work and at home. Kelley breaks down simple practices to cultivate a listening life: creating space for silence, journaling decisions with spiritual questions, reflecting what you hear in meetings, and inviting wise counsel to confirm direction.

We also name two faithful pathways for this moment: solitude in the secret place or collaboration in community. Discern which one God is highlighting right now, then take a clear next step. If you’re longing to recognize God’s voice in everyday leadership, grab our free devotional How to Hear God at Work, and explore RAYAH, our cohort for women leaders seeking community and practical growth. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a gentle reset, and leave a review to help others find the show. Your next chapter might begin with a whisper.

Stay in the flow—subscribe wherever you listen, watch on YouTube, and download free devotionals at iamkelleyjohnson.com.

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Looking for leadership community?
RAYAH is my Spirit-led leadership cohort for Christian women who want to grow in both spiritual authority and executive excellence. Learn more and join the interest list here https://www.iamkelleyjohnson.com/rayah

EMERGE! Rise-up, Be Fearless, Take Possession of Your Purpose https://a.co/d/hrZWQGr
Kelley's book about overcoming trauma to find your God-given purpose.

INFINITE: The Power of Love https://a.co/d/51Fy4eq
A six-session Bible study about diversity, equity and inclusion.

Kelley Johnson is a creator, builder, and catalyst who helps leaders achieve breakthrough—personally, professionally, and spiritually. She spent 20 years in corporate leadership before founding KEIRUS, a learning and talent management firm serving thousands of leaders worldwide. 

This show is not a substitute for professional therapy or advice. If you need professional support, we encourage you to seek a qualified mental health, medical, financial, legal, pastoral or other accredited professional.

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Keywords: Christian women, Spirit-led living, Holy Spirit, faith podcast, women in leadership, working ...

Transcript

Welcome And Season Focus

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Welcome to In the Flow, a podcast for women pursuing God's spirit in life and leadership. I'm Kelly Johnson, and this season we're exploring what it means to become the listening leader. Because clarity and alignment with the Lord create a more impactful leader. Each conversation invites you to slow down, lean in, and lead from a place of attunement with the Lord so that we can grow in spirit-led wisdom and authentic power. Let's get in the flow. I am really excited to go on this journey with you as we explore what it means to be a listening leader. When I think about leadership, I feel like so much of the training that we get, so many of the articles we read, so much of the advice we might get. It's often about what we say and what we do. Very seldom do you see anyone talking about what it means to listen, to hear. As we go on this journey together, exploring what it means to be a listening leader, we're going to look at that from multiple dimensions. We're going to look at it on a practical level, sort of those leadership competencies, but we're certainly

Why Listening Beats Loud Leadership

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going to look at it from a spiritual standpoint because as believers, I really believe that the more we attune to Holy Spirit and we listen and we discern what the Lord is saying to us, we will, we will show up better and even more effectively in our sort of natural roles, our jobs, our families, our communities. So thank you for being on this journey with me. And I also want to just highlight sort of what's behind it, what prompted me to do this. And it really boils down to some recent conversations that I've been having with clients, executives that I coach, but also a friend who I've been walking on this journey of transition that has been unfolding for a few years. And so I want to tell you a little bit about her. She is an entrepreneur and has been for, gosh, probably a decade or so. Recently, she went back into a corporate role. So she's been in that role for about a year right now. And when she moved into that corporate role, she was in a major season of burnout and was just done. She was done and tired with the entrepreneur life. She was facing a lot of financial pressure, a lot of complexity in her personal life. And she just needed simplicity. And that's who I want to kind of highlight today. Those of us who feel like maybe we're in a

Burnout, Transition, And God’s Off-Ramps

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season of burnout, or maybe we are in just a season of new where we're out of our comfort zone. Maybe you've moved to a new city. Maybe you have a promotion. Maybe the company you work for was bought by someone else. Maybe you have a new manager. Maybe you have a new diagnosis. Whatever your change is, this is where I want us to start. Because listening when things are difficult or really complex or uncertain, I feel like can it can seem really, really hard. And sometimes the Lord is inviting us to listen differently in those seasons of burnout, transition, or complexity. And so as my friend took this new role in corporate, what we realized a year later is that it was actually an off-ramp for her. The Lord used it as a season of rest and recovery. She had a year of structure, a year of stability financially, but in sort of true God form, he is using this season for multiple reasons. So she's learned new skills. She has literally learned and sharpened skills that she really wasn't using or leaning into and actually kind of avoided in her entrepreneur role. And so the Lord put her in a job that required her to lean heavily into a skill that and a muscle that she was not accustomed to using. And on a practical level as well, just giving her that structure and stability, having a team, sort of pulling her out of the isolation of being a solopreneur, just really has so many benefits and God moments, God reasons tied into this that makes it exciting. And so as you're listening to me talk about my friend, I hope you're sort of thinking about your own situation. What change have you been a part of where maybe at first you didn't see the benefits? And maybe at first you were like, why, Lord? Why this change? I hope that you can start to pray about and use a different set of eyes to see, okay, Lord, I now see. I'm praying more as a result of this change. I'm reading your word more as a result of this change. I'm forgiving someone as a result of this change. Or maybe I'm forgiving myself. God is so multifaceted and multi-purpose. He's never just doing like one thing when he does something. And I just, it makes me just so excited because I think it's so beautiful and so caring of him to use things in multiple ways to grow us, to purify us, to refine us and to move us into all that he has for us. So as you hear this story, I want you to find yourself in it. Or even if you can't really find yourself specifically in it, I want you to look for ways that you can learn from it. What can you take away from my friend's story and my story to say, maybe I need to fine-tune my listening to Holy Spirit in some different ways. Before we continue, let me ask you, have you ever wondered how to tell if it's God's voice or just your own thoughts? In the Flow is so much more than a podcast. Each season, I produce a free resource to support your growth. And for this series on the listening leader, I created a free devotional called How to Hear God at Work. It'll help you slow down and recognize God's leading in everyday decisions, whether you're leading a team, a business, or your own heart. Visit imkellyjohnson.com and click

Seeing Purpose In Uncomfortable Change

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on the resources section to get your free copy today. After a recent conversation with my friend, I was praying about it and sort of reflecting on it, and I felt like the Holy Spirit brought up the story of Elijah out of 1 Kings 18 and 19. It's one of my favorites, and I wonder if you can relate to it. Let me give you kind of the cliff notes version of the story. I definitely encourage you to go and read 1 Kings 18 and 1 Kings 19. In 1 Kings 18, we find Elijah doing it big, having this big massive victory over the prophets of Baal. And he has this big showdown. God causes Elijah to bring down fire from heaven to burn, burn up this sacrifice that was doused in water before the fire came. And, you know, Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to produce fire and they couldn't. And so Elijah gives them all this time. You know, they're doing all the things. I think they were even like cutting themselves to try to produce fire. Like it was a big showdown between Elijah, the prophet of God, and the prophets of Baal. Well, we know how the story ends. The prophets of Baal could never produce fire. So now it was Elijah's turn and he produces fire, of course, through God. God causes this massive fire to come down. It not only burns up the animal sacrifice, the fire is so powerful. Like we know it's like fire from heaven. It is so powerful that it not only burns up the animal sacrifice, it burns up the altar, like the stones and everything. And so Elijah ends up killing the prophets of Baal. And next thing you know, Queen Jezebel threatens Elijah's life. And she sends him this no, like, by this time tomorrow, if I don't do to you what you did to my prophets, so help me. I mean, it was ugly. And so Elijah runs, he's afraid. And we find Elijah in 1 Kings 19. I think it's around verse 5. Let me check my notes. Yeah, somewhere around verse 5 in 1 Kings 19, Elijah finds himself under a broom tree. And I want to just read to you what he says when he gets there. Starting in verse 4, and I'm reading from the NLT version, it says, Then he, Elijah, went on alone into the wilderness, traveling all day. He sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die. He says, I have had enough, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors who have already died. And then he falls asleep. How many of us have been there where we are just in despair? Like we are done, done. That all we can do is fall asleep. I've been there. I've been there many, many times where I am just so overwhelmed. And even after praying, even after reading scripture, all I can do is sleep. This is where we find Elijah. So starting around verse six or seven, Elijah is awoken by an angel of the Lord who has prepared food for him. So the angel wakes him up actually twice to feed him. And the angel says in verse 7, get up, eat some more, or the journey ahead will be too much for you. So Elijah got up, he ate and drank, and the food surely was from heaven, because it gave him enough strength for him to travel 40 days to Mount Sinai. There, Mount Sinai is the same mountain where Moses would meet God. There he came to a cave where he spent the night. The Lord says to Elijah, What are you doing here? Elijah replied, I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty, but the people

Resource: How To Hear God At Work

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of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too. Okay, how many of us can relate to that? I'm the only one. I'm the only one who feels this way. I'm the only one who is going through this situation. That feeling of loneliness is hard and difficult. And I know that I personally can relate to that. And so the Lord tells Elijah, go out, stand before me on the mountain. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind, there was an earthquake. And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And a voice said, What are you doing here, Elijah? So twice God asked him, What are you doing here? Clearly, God knows the answer to that question. Elijah repeats himself. He gives God the same answer, kind of rooted in, here's the situation, it's bad. Your people have turned against you. They've killed all the prophets of God, and I'm alone. And the Lord says to him in verse 15, go back the same way you came and travel to the wilderness of Damascus. When you arrive there, anoint Hazael to be king of Aram, anoint Jehu, and anoint Elisha to replace

Elijah’s Triumph, Fear, And Flight

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you as my prophet. And so I think this is really interesting because I hate to say it, but God was not super comforting to Elijah. He never said, I'm sorry you feel that way. You know, he didn't give him a lot of sympathy. He gave him instruction. My gosh, that is so powerful. He told him three things to do. And first of all, he told him to go back the way you came. Like, okay, you had me walk 40 days to get to this mountain. Now you're telling me to go back the same way I came. You're telling me to anoint three people. And God does also tell him that God has preserved 7,000 people in Israel who have never bowed down to Baal or kissed him. So there's a little bit of comfort, I think, in that. But we definitely saw God's tenderness when he sent the angel of the Lord to feed him. And it does show us that God cares about our basic needs. And so wherever you might find yourself, if you're questioning, Lord, do you see me? Do you hear me? Yes, he does. And he cares. And this example of an angel providing food to Elijah clearly highlights that. What I find so powerful in this story is that, you know, it wasn't until Elijah was still that he received an answer, that he received instruction. And then I think it's also important to highlight that God gave Elijah rest before revelation. There was at least a 41-ish day period of time from the time that he first sat under the broom tree around verse five until Elijah is standing at the edge of the mountain with his cloak wrapped around him. So we know there's at least 41 or so days that Elijah had of solitude and quietness and I'm sure reflection. And so I think that's important. And it's also evident in my friend's story where she's been in this corporate role a little over a year now. And she was exhausted before she went into this role. God gave her rest, God gave her structure, God gave her provision. And I know that he wants to do that for you and I. And ultimately, I feel like the Lord is after our stillness. Really tuning in, leaning in more closely to hear from him so that we can get that revelation that we're looking for. Often being in the cave is not punishment. It's about preparation. It's about formation before we get the instruction. And so God meets us in our exhaustion. God meets us in our burnout. God meets us in our uncertainty. God meets us in our transitions, not to condemn, but to realign us into that next chapter, that next season. My question for you as we get ready to close is what might God be inviting you to step away from so that you can hear him again? Or maybe you can hear him more clearly. We are familiar with that verse in Psalm 46, 10 that says, Be still and know that I am God. Sometimes the Lord is inviting us to still into stillness. And I want to give you a resource around that. And before I do that, I just want to share sort of how one of my conversations with my friend ended. It ended with me saying, Hey, I think you just need to get in the secret place and get clarity. And she said to me, Kelly, I don't think that's what God is calling me into right now. I believe the Lord is calling me into collaboration and community. I've been in the secret place for a very long time. And that is just not what she was sensing. And so I want to just share that with you, offer that, that maybe the Lord is inviting you into a season of stillness, of being in the secret place. Maybe the Lord is inviting you into community and collaboration. Only you can discern that as you attune to Holy Spirit. And I want to give you a couple of resources to help you if you find yourself kind of in one of those options. Option one being stillness. There's a free digital

Whisper Over Wind, Quake, And Fire

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guide on how to practice stillness and being in the presence of the Lord. If you go to my website, im Kellyjohnson.com, click on resources, scroll, and you will find a free guide on how to practice stillness. And if you find yourself in a season like my friend, where you believe God is inviting you into community and collaboration, check out Raya, my new leadership cohort program for women leaders. That is also available to you. As we move further into this conversation about being a listening leader, I just want to leave you with this thought that listening is a leadership skill that we cannot fake. And I believe it's going to be key as we grow into our next chapter. Thank you for flowing with me today. If this episode strengthened your spirit and leadership, be sure to subscribe and share it with a friend. Remember, deeper clarity starts in community. Visit IamKellyJohnson.com for free devotionals and to learn more about Raya Circles, where faith and leadership truly go together in the flow.