My notes from Leadership Summit 2013 for my book

These are some of my notes from the Global Leadership Summit 2013

Remember, I am using this blog as kinda a personal journey, so...this is an insight into my mind as I try to jot down notes on a life changing event. This is for me, and I don't think it will make any sense to anyone else. So you can just skip this.

Bill Hybels-Courage that Leadership requires

Everybody wins when a leader gets better

Nelson Mandella-“a cause I am fully prepared to die for”

Leader is “Strong and Courageous. Do not be afraid. God is with me.” Joshua 1:9

There is an extremely cool vision inside of me(don’t let lack of courage deter me from the vision)

Visions are holy commodities, they are Gifts from God and treat them as such.

In a downturn, a leader must declare an emergency. Create a plan of action, and get it going fast. They must be dramatic and announce a code red situation-be a little dramatic(bill hybels hospital fire situation)

In a status quo situation, leaders must get the team to break the quo. It’s bad for the team, must go for good to great.

It takes courage to define your current reality. Your team knows the current reality. They are waiting for you to lead them out of the downturn or the status quo.

The courage to build a fantastic culture. (Bill Hybels hiring an outside firm to measure the culture of the church staff culture)

People join organizations. They leave managers.

Staff Cultures will only be as healthy as the CEO/Leader/Senior pastor wants it to be

Enormous courage will be needed. Brave and sincere apologies. Courage to say, “Unless you are willing to be a part of building a healthier culture, you can’t be here.”

A flourishing staff performs better than a toxic staff

How healthy is the staff culture? Have to measure the culture!! Take courage!

Establishment and enforcement of values takes courage. Story of Gary and Bill(how no one reached out to Gary in his time of need). There is a time from when you need to go from casting vision into establishing culture and inviolable values. You like it or leave it.

Courage to lead when you have a broken heart. (Bill leading the last easter service after some almost died in the parking lot)

Courage required for leaders to finish strong. You have to have the courage towards succession plan.

Some of the most rewarding periods of leadership are in the end of the race. So lead strong in the beginning of your life Zach so the end will be that much sweeter. Grow as much as I can now so that in the end, I will taste the sweetest fruit of leadership only God can give. Plus, leading and growing strong, teaching, and speaking, to me seems like the path to be fully alive.

Bill-“All I want is to be used and watch God change human lives and destinies”

Do not bail on mission!

Patrick Lincioni-read book and study this guy because he is awesome!

You Remind people of stuff that people already know. “You should be remind people more than you teach people” CRO(Chief Reminding Officer) not CEO

Joseph Grenny-read book

Leadership is intentional influence. Our ability in leading is an acquired skill that results from changed behavior.

If our religious behavior is not visible in our actions, we Christians aren’t leading.

Six sources of Influence-Motivation = personal, social and structural, ability=dido

Personal motivation problems-when the bad stuff feels good, and the good feels bad

Your job as an influencer is to make the good stuff feel good.

People can feel profoundly different about the choices they make.

Want more influence-Don’t just teach principles, connect to values. Help people frame specific actions to feelings

Personal Ability- The influence of skill.

The practice setting must approximate the real world. Small bites. Intense focus for brined periods. Immediate feeback

The influence of other people-through modeling, praise, helping, and enabling.

The influence of costs, incentives.

The influence of space, data, cues, tools, processes, and other environmental factors.

Use, data cues, tools and surroundings to 1)make bad behaviors harder and conscious 2) Make good behavior easier and unconscious.

They work for or against you

You want to change the world, change behavior

Session 9-Vijay

Strategy is Innovation. Competition for the present-efficiency and Competition for the future-innovation.

Innovation is commercializing creativity and executing creativity.

Ideas+lader+plan=innovation

Innovation killers=Assume innovation can happen in the performance engine. Separate the team so a different team is innovating and another team is performing.

Brene Brown-Awesome. Read her book

The irreducible need for men, women, and children is Love and belonging.

People need to be 1)seen and loved, 2) belong, 3) be brave.

Love can only be cultivated between two people when there is self-love.

Growth through connection. We have too many problems, leeaders are not supposed to have all the answers. A leader is supposed to model ask the questions.

We can’t give what we don’t have. We can’t give help when we can’t ask for it.

When you feel self judgement, when you ask for help, that means you are judging other people when they ask for help. Deriving your self worth from helping is a form of judgment.

Professing v. practive- the space between how we behave/ what we practice everyday and our aspirational values is where we lose people in that gap.

What kills love kills organizations. Shame love blame disrespecting,  withholding

Shame-plays out when you see gossip and favoritism. When self-worth is gained from success, than failure isn’t an option and failure is needed.

How many times did you fail, how quickly did you clean it up, what did you learn from it.

Blame-the simple discharging of pain and discomfort. Has nothing to do with accountability

Disrespect- feedback is key so people can

Feedback should be vulnerable

Be here, be loved, belong, be respected.

Being brave makes us feel alive.

“It’s not the critic who counts. “-Theodore Roosevelt

You can choose courage or comfort. If courage is your value, than you signed up for the arena.

If you are not in the arena getting your butt kicked, Im not interested in your feedback.

Carly Fiona-Read her stuff and study her cause she is awesome

Colin Powell-

You get nothing done without the followers. They are the most important part.

Start with Purpose. There's no such thing as an unimportant person. Every person has a purpose and the collective of everyones purpose fulfills the grand vision.

You must invest in the people.

I empowered you and I trust you to do things without bringing your problems to me.

Always empower (it involves taking risks because when you empower, you give up some of your power)

Need to have constant themes and vision(Bill Hybels "Local Church")

Leaders are people who solve problems. So don't get mad when someone brings you a problem. 1) It's ok to be mad, but get over it quick because your not at your best 2) It freezes the organization

Firing People-you must because the others are waiting for it(Ex. Working at Royal and we all were waiting for someone to be fired, but because they weren't, we stop respecting the boss and stop believing in him)

Ego-Ruins Careers!!!

Promote people based on future potential, not just past successes 

I'm a product of the best and worst things that happened to me

"Tell me early"-Lets use our time on how to solve it quickly

Liz Wiseman-Read her books bc she's great. I will get more out of her books bc her speech was all about her book.

Chris Brown-Listen and study him speaking bc he is an amazing storyteller

Stories are powerful. Paint the picture well with words and you can transplant the listener into another reality. It helps when you cast vision and want to take people from Here to There(Bill Hybels saying)

Celebrate the achievements of others (especially those in your team and those you're leading)

Don't let jealousy get in the way of leadership. Pride and ego can get in the way, it just hurts us.

Do I get God's Kingdom or my kingdom

Bob Goff- Become like him. He has such a great joy for life and for creating action/doing stuff in this world

What was I made to do? Live a life worthy of the calling YOU have received(not someone else)

Let it develop over time

See people for who they were made to be

God wants to blow our minds

Mark Burnett

NO stands for Next Oppurtunity

Bill said to Mark about the Bible TV show, "Stop playing defensively, play offensive!)

Choose your companions before you choose your road

You need to empower people if you want big teams and growth, then get out of there way (story of a producer in the editing room with the editor, and the producer is editing)

Henry Cloud-read his books

Silver Lining Playbook

I just watched the oscar winning performance of Jennifer Lawrence, and I was moved. That's normal the point of movies, to move you. Right?

Well, if you haven't seen the movie, please do. It's great. But this isn't an ad for the movie. What I want to write about is ideas it sparked. Please, if you haven't seen the movie, stop reading this and GO WATCH THE MOVIE!

I was thinking about how in this movie, and like so many others, the main character has something great in front of him, abut he is so caught up in his own goals and agenda that he can't see it.

First, I wonder, what is something great that is in front of me that I just can't see. Is this what it's like for God when he gives us so many great and wonderful gifts, but we just can't see it? Please God, open my eyes so I can see Your Goodness.

Second, it takes the entire movie for him to figure out that Tiffany (his dance partner) is good for him and the "one" for him. Now here is where some of my thoughts get confusing, and I know they do, but remember, I am the one thinking them. So I feel even more confused than you readers. But, back to my point, what if the journey to the discovery that Tiffany is good for him, is what makes the movie so wonderful. What if, in the beginning of the film, when he first saw her, they got together and that was the end. I know it would make for a terrible movie, but I think it also would not be good for their relationship. They wouldn't build into each other's lives. They wouldn't spend those 2 days a week, practicing their dance, or running into each other on their runs, or even getting raisin bran at the diner. Is it the journey of discovering the good that is in front of us so wonderful? Maybe.

Or is it just journeys that we love. Think of Lord of the Rings, it's one big, epic, 9 hour's of cinema, 4 bags of popcorn journey. And yet, it did so well, that the final movie in the series won 11 oscars. It tied for the most oscars a movie won along with Ben-Hur and Titanic...ever. Back to my point, we love journeys. Maybe, what this movie and so many other movies are telling me, is that I need to start appreciating the "journey" I am on.

Maybe that's how my brain will understand my first two points. Maybe its that I need to see the good that's in front of me, which is the wonderful journey I am on with God. This may sound so cliche and cheesy, but maybe that's why so many of us ignore it. We here something like that, and we call it cliche, so we don't have to admit that we were wrong, or maybe admit our mistake, or maybe we are just to lazy to open our eyes to the good in front of us because we enjoy feeling miserable. Whatever it may be, I pray that I will continual try to keep my eyes open to the constant good in my life, be thankful for the journey I am on, and watch more Jennifer Lawrence movies, cause she's great.

Failure

What do you do when you fail? Most people either crash, cope, or change.

Most of you know what I'm talking when I say "crash". You've seen it before. It's not pretty. When you crash, it's destructive. You think there is nowhere to go. (insert story about crashing)

When you cope, you becoming stationary. You become used to a problem, and you survive. (insert story about someone coping)

When you change, you become progressive and proactive. This is how I always want to respond to failure. Right? (Insert lessons i learned from Craig Groeschel podcast at willow July 28)

Navigation is Key to Leadership

When you want to lead, you must be a navigator. Even before problems arise, and they will arise, you must chart your course.

Robert Falcon Scott vs. Roald Amundsen story.

Stories are Powerful

One of the most powerful things in this world is a story. The most influential leader that has every walked the other told stories that changed the world. There was a man name Jesus who walked around and told parables, stories, that caused the most powerful politicians and religious leaders of the day to try to do anything to silence him forever. Still, leaders are trying to kill followers of Jesus. But you can't stop a story(also, mainly, you just can't stop Jesus). People to this day are willing to lay down there lives for a leader that hasn't walked the earth in 2000 years. That's how good his leadership is. And one of the ways he lead was through stories.

One day, as I finished reading a book by John Ortberg, one of my favorite communicators, I thought of how great the book was. It was so inspiring. I was so excited about the book. I wanted to tell one of my best friends (Jon Jorgenson-this guy is awesome people). I'm walking towards my dorm room and pulling out my cell phone, getting ready to tell him about my favorite parts of the book. Then I realized that my favorite parts were all stories. In fact, as I was thinking back, the book was just a bunch of stories. I went home and listened to Ortberg's speeches that I love so much, and they were full of stories, a lot of my favorite authors, speakers, and leaders.

Here's what I'm saying, tell stories. Whether it's yours, your friends, or those you love. Stories have a profound impact on the world.

Tell stories.

Maximizing my connection with others is one of the ways I get so much joy and energy out of life. So many times, I get told by people that I am a happy person, full of energy, or very positive. Part of that is just the way God created me to be, but part of that comes through my connection with others. I think we all feed of the energy of each other. Whether that's positive or negative energy, it makes little difference. It happens.

The Law of Shared Energy

I must point out that the people with greater leadership and influence, can have a bigger affect on the energy that's shared. When I was in college, a couple of my friends told me I needed to be aware of my attitude. They said, often, when I would come in with a bad attitude, I would pass that attitude around. I thought that was strange, why are you telling me this? Just because I am having an off day, I need to act like I'm having a good day? I didn't realize how powerful my influence was. Maybe it is a cross leaders have to carry(or at least be aware of). And I'm not saying that you can't have bad days, but when you have a powerful influence over others, you must bring great energy into what you are leading. If not, you cast a dark cloud over the work that is done(Insert story of a leader who brought negative energy to the job).

It doesn't matter whether you are a extravert or an introvert, the rule still applies. John Ortberg is one of my favorite communicators, and he openly claims his introvercy. Yet, with his energy, presences, and words, he can move you to tears of laughter and tears of sadness. He can impart his joy, sadness, angers, and peace(Insert Story).

Hey Y'all,

It's been a while. I'm going to start using this blog space as some pre-emptive writing for books that I want to write. I don't know what I want to write about, but we will see. That's why I'm so thankful to have this open space and community where I can write and just put my work out there. So, if you see enjoy some of these posts, just wait until the book comes out.