These are my crazy summary notes. They may or may not make sense! Some of the speakers are unquestionably church focused, so their talks were more like a Sunday morning sermon. Others were more pure in their general leadership focus. I list the speaker, who they are, and my rating for their presentation.
BILL HYBELS - Founder and Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church - B
- Accept vision and ACT on it (don't ignore it)
- Be courageous enough to face current reality (be honest)
- Create positive culture in the organization
+ Staff cultures will only ever be as healthy as the LEADER wants it to be
+ Making brave apologies for contributing to poor culture is the best way to improve
+ Don't pay people to bruise or bust your culture (get rid of them)
- Establish and enforce organization values
+Vision has to be converted into organizational VALUES
- Finish strong
+ Succession conversations have to start early
+ Great rewards often come late in the race
GENERAL COLIN POWELL - Former Secretary of State, National Security Advisor, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - A+
- Leadership is getting more out of people than what the science of management says that you can
- Leadership focuses on followers
- Followers must understand purpose = WHY are we doing this?
- Invest in the people who get it done
- Empowering others means accepting risk
- Trust is the glue that holds an organization together and the lubricant that keeps it moving
- Remain calm and be kind
- Get mad, then get over it
- It's not as bad as you think; it will look better in the morning
PATRICK LENCIONI - Founder and President of The Table Group, Author (You can read my review of his book
Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team on Amazon) - A+
He spoke from his latest book,
The Three Signs of a Miserable Job.
- Anonymity - People can't be fulfilled in their work if they are not known.
- Irrelevance - Everyone needs to know that their job matters to someone. Anyone.
- Immeasurement - People need to be able to gauge their progress and level of contribution for themselves. It can't depend on the whims of another person.
LIZ WISEMAN - President of The Wiseman Group, Author - C+
DIMINISHER MULTIPLIER
- Empire builder - Talent magnet
- Tyrant - Liberator
- Know-it-all - Challenger
- Decision maker - Debate maker
- Micro manager - Investor
CHRIS BROWN - Co-Senior Pastor and Teaching Pastor, North Coast Church - A-
- Can we empower others by giving up our own title/position?
- With the title I've been given, do I have the ability to lead like Jesus?
- Do I expand God's kingdom through my leadership or my own reputation?
- What difference is the Holy Spirit making in my leadership?
BOB GOFF - Founder and CEO of Restore International, Author, Attorney, Honorary Consul for the Republic of Uganda to the United States - A+ (this guy was off the hook!)
- The key questions we have to be able to answer as leaders is "Who are you?" and "What do you want?"
- Love God, love you neighbors, and DO STUFF! This is the Christian life in its simplest form.
- LAND THE PLANE! In other words, just execute. Do something, anything, execute.
MARK BURNETT - Four-time Emmy Award Winner, Executive Producer of
Survivor and
The Voice - D+ (not compelling at all; just wanted to talk about how awesome he is)
- When Jesus calls, you have to get your ass off the couch and do something
- Raise up the people in the trenches that are doing the work
- Don't keep team members that suck the energy out of your mission
JOSEPH GRENNY - Co-founder of VitalSmarts, Business Strategy Expert and Author - B+
- Leadership is intentional influence
- Connect values to principles
- It's how good and bad behaviors are framed that affects the level of their influence
- Skills/abilities must be paired with motivation to get effective action
- Practice setting must approximate real world conditions to be effective
- Replace accomplices to undesirable behavior with friends and coaches
- Cues are extremely powerful
- Make good choices easier and more obvious
- Harness peer pressure
VIJAY GOVINDARAJAN - Professor at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, Author, Executive Coach - A
- If you want to lead in the future, you must be able to change and adapt. The future will be different.
- Manage the present ---> Selectively abandon the past ----> Create the future
- Most companies emphasize managing the present, when the emphasis should be on the other two
- Dominant logic imposes boundaries for innovation but is useful for current operations
- Innovation does NOT equal creativity
- Innovation = IMPLEMENTING creativity
- The bulk of the work of innovation is execution
- Innovation = Idea + Leader + Team + Plan
- Innovative leaders don't subvert the current performance engine, but harness it for change
- Innovation = non-linear shift
- Improvement = linear shift (improvement is not the same as innovation)
- If you want a tree that produces fruit in five years, you have to start working on it today
DR. BRENE BROWN - Research Professor, University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work, Author (check out her TED talks
The Power of Vulnerability and
Listening to Shame) - A
- There are two irreducible needs for every man, woman and child: Love and belonging. Without those two things, there is some degree of suffering in life.
- Growth comes through connection. Leaders model the courage to ask questions that establish connection (i.e. How are you kids doing?)
- As leaders we cannot give what we don't have. If you can't ask for help, then you can't give it. (Subliminally, if you are judging yourself when you ask for help, you are judging others every time that you offer help). Deriving self-worth from being the helper is a form of judgment.
- Professing vs. Practicing. Professing love and practicing love are NOT the same thing. Practice is important, and even messy practice is more acceptable than not practicing at all.
- What kills love will also kill organizations.
- If you're not failing occasionally, you're not trying hard enough. Failure MUST be allowed. In fact, failure is necessary.
- Blame has no value and nothing to do with accountability.
- Feedback is a function of respect, and you can't be good at feedback if you can't be vulnerable.
- Belonging vs. "Fitting In". To fit in, everything has to be perfect. To belong means being accepted as the real you, whether or not you dress, talk, and believe exactly the same way as everyone else.
- If you're in the arena, you're going to get beat up.
- "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly..." Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
OSCAR MURIU - Senior Pastor, Nairobi Chapel in Kenya - A-
- Matthew 9:37-38: The size of the harvest depends on the number of leaders. More harvesters = bigger harvest.
- Psalm 71:18: Invest your vision in the next generation. Live for the next generation.
- Numbers 11:10-18: Some of your best leaders are right under your nose. Identify budding leaders and take them before the Lord in prayer.
- Mark 12:30-33: Instill the 5 loves into your budding leaders: Love the Lord God with all of your heart, soul, mind, strength, and love your neighbors as yourself.
- Acts 4:13: Never do ministry alone. Surround yourself with budding leaders in EVERYTHING that you do.
DR. HENRY CLOUD - Executive Coach, Author - A+
- The hardest thing to be in charge of is yourself
- Take someone who can't but believes he can over someone who can but believes that he can't
- The three Ps that cause leaders to downward spiral
+ Personal - Data becomes personal; it's interpreted by the leader as, "I'M not good enough"
+ Pervasive - Limited data is applied to EVERYTHING, so everything looks bad
+ Permanent - Feeling that you need to bail or things will never change; always be like that
- Your brain gives up when you start a downward spiral
- Countering the three Ps:
+ Log negative thoughts and dispute them (for Christians, this may mean disputing negative thoughts about who you are with what the Bible says about who you are)
+ Control: Identify what you can and what you canNOT control so that you can focus effort
+ Connect through relationships - The opposite of bad is not good, it is love. Stress levels drop when you are in it with a community, with other people
- Remember your life is a movie, not a scene. Don't characterize your entire life based on one scene!
- In the end, as a leader, you are always going to get a combination of two things: what you create and what you allow
ANDY STANLEY - Founder and Senior Pastor, North Point Ministries - B
- Jesus said that he would build His church; He did and He IS building his church
- Find your place in the local church and get your hands dirty
- Obey God and leave all the consequences to Him
It was a good couple of days. As if I don't have a long enough "to read" book list, I added a few more after hearing some of the speakers:
It Worked For Me: In Life and Leadership by Colin Powell
The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business by Patrick Lencioni
Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter by Liz Wizeman
Love Does by Bob Goff
Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change by Joseph Grenny
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Dr. Brene Brown
Deep & Wide: Creating Churches Unchurched People Love to Attend by Andy Stanley
... suddenly become totally acceptable, even desirable.
