Leadership Summit Day 2

Sorry it has taken me a couple of days to find time to put together my thoughts from the Leadership Summit Day 2. I will have my normal Monday Ramblings tomorrow. Here are some thoughts from Summit Day 2.

Overall – Day one had a distinctive focus on leading in the new reality of our changing global economy and shifting cultural philosophies. Day two had more of that, but really seemed to have a bigger focus on the inner life and desires of leaders. It was a really powerful day and I found myself in tears in multiple points and that is a rare occurrence for me.

Dave Gibbons – The day began with California pastor and writer Dave Gibbons. He focused on the idea of being a 3rd Culture leader. What does that mean? I am not exactly sure. I understood the dynamics of leadership he expressed but he wasn’t given nearly enough time and didn’t create the need or set the table very well for his talk. I picked up his book however so I will probably report back with more thoughts on that part later. Here are some things I gleaned. He focused a lot on focusing on those in the fringe in our leadership situations. He made a compelling case that it is often those at the fringe of any movement who provide the most important feedback and the most original ideas. It takes courage to listen to them, but they make us better leaders.

He also offered a different set of metrics for evaluating our success. He especially talked about focusing on our failures, understanding our weaknesses and letting those guide us in leadership. He made the point that it is our weakness that is often the most powerful witness we have. “Most of the world doesn’t understand America’s success but they know suffering.”

Good presentation, too short a time. I will read the book and offer more.

Andrew Rugasira – This speaker from Uganda is the founder and CEO of Good African Coffee. His presentation focused on the need to focus on trade, not aid, in building up countries, economies, and individuals. His talk  and the work he is doing in Uganda was very convincing in the benefits of helping educated and facilitate the economic growth of indigenous people in order to truly help change their environments. He was brilliant.

Wess Stafford – Wess is the head of Compassion International and if you weren’t moved by his talk you probably don’t have a soul. Seriously it was so powerful.  His talk focused on leveraging our past, using our hurts and moments of pain as the fulcrum for ministry in the world. Woven throughout his talk was the unbelievable story of his childhood growing up in a horribly abusive missionary boarding school in Africa. But as he said, “What Satan intended as evil God intended to use motivate me to spend my life loving children.” Wess and the work of Compassion International are so amazing. He asked powerful questions of those in attendance. “What moves you passionately? Can your cause move you to tears? Tears of sorrow at the need? Tears of joy at the victories?”

Wess also gave a powerful testimony for the necessity of forgiveness for all people. Our inability to forgive is perhaps the most limiting thing in our life. His talk was followed by powerful moments of worship and a focus on forgiveness. Wow.

David Gergen - This dude is a stud. If you don’t know David Gergen from his frequent work on CNN, he is the head of the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. If that doesn’t impress you, he also served as a White House adviser for four presidents. (Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Clinton) He is probably the most level headed political commentator in the media and his interview with Bill Hybels was wonderful.

He is an extraordinarily well spoken man and his mind is filled with such great wisdom from lessons learned watching leaders on the biggest world stages. He shared individual insights from each of the presidents he served under about their strengths and weaknesses.

He said that some of the most important things he has learned about being a leader begin around the practice reflection. Great leaders maintain the discipline of reflecting on themselves, their decisions and the world around them.

Some great quotes from David. “It is easy to confuse motion with progress.”

From Reagan, “Sometimes the right hand doesn’t know what the far right hand is doing.” (I laughed hard at that one)

“If you want to go fast go alone. If you want to go far go together.”

Chip and Dan Heath – These brothers who wrote the book, “Made to Stick” (a must read for any communicator) have a new book coming out called Switch. Amazingly the book isn’t available until March but there was an advanced copy those at the Summit could purchase. I did so and will report back soon.

Anyways, their interview focused on the idea of making big change, flipping the switch, and why it is so difficult. They said some incredible things that defy convention. The talked about how as an organization you should not focus on your weaknesses in order to grow, you should look for bright spots. Look for the things that are working and focus on them. Study the things that are going really well and then go back figure why they are so much better than anything else you are doing.

They also talked about filling our minds with the wrong information. They referenced TBU – True But Useless information that bogs us down from making good decisions.

They also talked about the necessity for developing a growth mindset that needs to have a tolerance for failure. The best quote of the conference, “Failure may be an early warning sign for success.” This is a reference to the process through which ideas become great creations, failure is an integral part of the process of learning to succeed. Buy their books and read them, they are awesome.

Bono – Back after his rousing and scathing remarks to the leaders of the church three years ago, we find a very different Bono today. His opening comment was this, “As a person who really enjoys getting off on the church you have completely ruined it for me. It irks me, but when it comes to meeting these needs (AIDS, Africa) the church is in the front not in the rear.” What a change from three years ago when Bono called the church to the carpet for ignoring the plight of Africa. Instead this interview was a celebration of churches and individuals who responded to Bono’s plea three years ago and have done something about it. These stories made me cry. I absolutely lost it. The church is so beautiful when she looks like the bride of Christ.

Other quotes:

“We believe that love thy neighbor is not advice.”

“I think U2′s best work is when we don’t know what we are doing.’

In response to a question about the ability for the government to so rapidly find the money for the Economic Stimulus Package to bailout banks, “In a crisis we can find the money but evidently we believe that someone begging for their life in a far off part of the world isn’t a crisis.”

“There is always resistance to the journey of equality.”

Great piece, not enough Bono, I cried at the kids selling lemonade for Africa. Good day indeed.

Tony Blair – I love Tony Blair. He is an extraordinary leader. He lead his country through some unbelievable moments in their history and emerged a better man than he went in. His interview was good, but didn’t have enough anecdotes of his life. Here are some things he said.

“Conventional wisdom can just be the comfortable thing to do and the comfortable thing to do is often the wrong thing to do.”

“Politicians are like most people, only more so.’

“Doubt is best presented as deep reflection and consideration of whether or not what you are doing is right.”

Quoting his wife, who would tell him this when he came home complaining, “It is a privilege to do the job. Stand up and get on with it.”

Blair focused on the irreducible core of leadership, those things we believe so strongly in as to hold onto them even if it means walking away to maintain them. He is so impressive.

So there you go. There are some of the multitude of insights I gleaned from the Leadership Summit. Check out the DVD that will be coming out in November if you want to experience it for yourself.