Global Leadership Summit 2015: Reflections

When I got home from the summit yesterday, I was sent a message that presented these seven questions to me. 

1. Why do you keep returning to the summit?
2. What made you want to come to the summit?

3. What speaker or session spoke most to you? Why?

4. How will you implement the things you’ve learned at the summit?

5. What piece of advice really resonated with you?

6. Describe the summit in three or five words. Please elaborate on why you chose those words.

7. Why is it important for others to attend the summit?

I thought it would be a neat way for me to reflect on what I had learned, so here are my answers.

1. Why do you keep returning to the summit?

I come back to the summit because through what I hear and what I learn, God empowers me to make change in the world we live in. It doesn’t teach me to “get a great job” or “be the boss”; it teaches me to make a positive change in others’ lives by making a positive change in myself for others to see. It’s how to get out of a rut and move everyone from “here” to “there” in God’s will. I keep coming because the journey never stops, there’s always more to learn, and I want to keep moving forward.

2. What made you want to come to the summit?

The first time I attended the summit, I went because I was part of an emerging leadership group for youth. I was aspiring to become a great leader, and I was encouraged to go, so I thought I’d try it out. At the time I thought I’d receive a guidebook on how to become a great leader, but instead I got information and ideas that are so much better and have helped me become a better leader. When a leader gets better, everyone benefits. 

3. What speaker or session spoke the most to you? Why?

Albert Tate’s session about the time when Jesus fed the crowd of 5,000 stuck out to me. The way that He took the boy’s scarcity and turned it into abundance amazed me. And all I have to do is give what I have to God, back away, and watch Him do wonders. It encourages me that even though I may not have a lot to give, if I give it all, through me God can do miraculous things.

4. How will you implement the things you’ve learned at the summit?

As I enter college, I’ll be presented with more opportunities to lead, and as I continue to establish a life in the adult world, I know I’ll find myself in the leadership position Because of these years of training as a youth, I’ll hopefully be prepared to demonstrate great leadership as an adult. In the near future, I’ll be focusing on working on myself so that I can be an example of a good leader in even the smallest situations.

5. What piece of advice really resonated with you?

Jim Collins suggested that people work their best and give their greatest effort when committed to a couse, not a leader. I always thought of the people following the leader, but I see how commitment to a cause makes the effort and goal more personal, which usually produces the best effort. 

6. Describe the summit in three to five words. Please elaborate on why you chose those words.

Encouraging. Exciting. Exploring. I know I’m not the best leader, and it encouraged me when prominent leaders stood on the stage and talked about their shortcomings and how they overcame them. The summit itself proves that there is hope of creating better leaders. All the ideas and concepts I learn excite me as I imagine implementing them in my life sometime in the future. I feel a fiery passion to do God’s will and learn as much as I can from the summit so I can do His will to the best of my ability. During the summit, it is a constant exploration on my part of new ideas that can change the world for the better.

7. Why is it important for others to attend the summit?

The main purpose of a leader is to move his or her team from point A to point B. If more people knew how to do that more effectively, business would run smoother, people would be more taken care of, and I believe that it could make a better world. Everyone benefits when a leader gets better.

Global Leadership Summit 2015: Day 2

The second day of GLS is done, and I was again blown away by the speakers and their messages. I’ve gained a lot over the past two days and am excited to develop it and use it in my future. Here are some of my notes from the summit!

Horst Schulze

• 3 Wants of a Customer: product to be defect free, timeliness, nice people who give it to you
• 1) Service starts with a great greeting, you are important to me
• 2) Complying to what a guest wants from you, helping caring-ly with their needs
• 3) Farewell
• Continued satisfaction leads to loyalty
• Service is your product
• Personalized service shows caring for the customer, creating loyalty
• CEO is important, but so are you, your job is important, without you doing your job it’s a disaster. Orient them to why of the company
• If it’s important, repeat it

Sheila Heen

• In a conversation between giver and receiver of feedback, it is the receiver in control; instead of instructing givers on how to give feedback, we need to instruct receivers how to receive feedback properly even if delivered poorly, 
• 2 Human needs: learn and grow & to be accepted and respected and loved the way we are now
• Feedback is saying that we need improvement to continue to learn and grow, so the 2 human needs create conflict
• 3 Kinds of Feedback (we need all three kinds to learn and grow): 

1. Evaluation: ranks you, tells you how you do and what to expect, you know where you stand so you know what to expect
2.  Coaching: helps you get better, grow skill/knowledge/effectiveness, help someone else learn, advice/correction/instruction
3. Appreciation: I see you, you matter, I wish someone noticed I work here, keeps us motivated

• An organization needs all three to keep functioning
• Better questions to ask: What’s one thing you particularly appreciate? (you need to feel noticed/something you’re doing well) What’s one thing you see me doing, or failing to do, that you think I should change? (don’t ask if there is something, assume there is)
• They don’t give you feedback until they believe you want to know
• The two human needs are like God’s love

Sam Adeyemi

• The object of Christ’s leadership was the success of His followers
• Focus on the people, what are their issues, their problems, their concerns
• The downside to power distance is that it can leave followers with low self-esteem and a fear to suggest change, they have to wait for approval to do anything, teach them to be able
• Jesus said if I can do it so can you
• God used ideas not money to start the world, one can create something wonderful by beginning with an idea

Liz Wiseman

• In the rookie zone, we are so motivated to reduce the tension, so we work hard to advance
• Warning signs of comfortableness/on a plateau:

1. Things are running smoothly
2. You already have the answers
3. You get positive feedback (you’re good at what you do)
4. You’ve become the mentor, but are not longer being mentored at
5. You’re busy but bored – contagious!

• Pivot: leader and learner

1. Throw away your notes/template/agenda – things are running smoothly
2. Ask the questions – you already know the answers
3. Admit what you don’t know – You get positive feedback
4. Let someone else lead – You’ve become the mentor
5. Disqualify yourself (take a challenge way bigger than you) – You’re busy but bored

• Spend time with the newcomers and allow them to renew you
• When we step out of our comfort zone we feel alive
• Rookie zone is where we find our greatest joy – awkward but exhilarating 
• As you grow as a leader, keep being a learner

Greg Groeschel

• Expanding leadership capacity:

1. Build your Confidence
2. Expand your Connections
3. Improve your Competence
4. Strengthn your Character
5. Increase your Commitment

Global Leadership Summit 2015: Day 1

I am currently attending the Global Leadership Summit, and I thought I would show a few key notes I took on ideas that stuck out to me. I immensely enjoyed the speakers today and cannot wait for tomorrow!

Bill Hybels:

• 5 Intangibles of leadership:

1. Grit: when a person believes they can overcome any obstacle regardless of talent or IQ, many elite leaders push themselves physically because physical grit can transfer to grit in other life areas, comfortable with being uncomfortable
2. Self-awareness: blind spots (leader thinks they are great at something, but actually aren’t and everyone else knows it),  growth demands input from others
3. Resourcefulness (learning agility): endlessly curious about how things work, stick with it until they figured it out
4. Self-sacrificing love: make it personal in your leadership with others, don’t hesitate any opportunity to show love, get personal, create a caring culture,
5. Create a sense of meaning in each worker: Start with a Why, the Why will either fuel you or reveal that you need something new in top box(main purpose in life ex. transformed lives)

Jim Collins:

• If you have a charismatic cause you do not need to be a charismatic leader
• Commitment to cause
• True leadership is when people follow when they have the choice to not follow
• Leadership is getting the people to willingly do what needs to be done
• Reframe failure as growth
• Communal success built into the culture
• It’s hard to have a meaningful life without meaningful work
• The Hedgehog: passion+encoded for it+can make a living
• Focus on unit of responsibility, not career
• Take care of your people
• Life is people

Ed Catmull:

• Stories are the way we communicate with each other
• How to measure progress – measure the team/teamwork
• Creativity is about solving problems,
• Two types of failure: we’ve all failed and learned from it, failing is messing up or inadequate.
• Trying to make it safe to be honest/for failure
• Budget is good because pushes people to be more creative
• Go outside to do research in the world
• Stories will improve our world, real goal is to have a positive impact on the world

Albert Tate:

• The little boy’s meager fish and bread transformed by Jesus into abundance
• The moments when Jesus asks dumb questions, He already knows what He’s going to do, He wants his followers to see that it’s not possible with their resources and that it was His doing, He wants you to do the math so you’ll come to His conclusion
• Bring what you have and Jesus can use that do a miracle
• As leaders, bring what we have, give it to Jesus, and then get out of the way
• Your scarcity went into his hands and became his abundance