Jennifer Kay Smith
in love with creativity & its sourceArchive for leadership summit
Leadership Summit day 2, part 2
Brad Anderson, CEO of Best Buy
People matter. Have faith in your people and they’ll come up with a solution. See what’s good in people and pull it out.
Lots of people have gifts and don’t get a chance to find out they can use them. Everyone has something waiting in them to be developed.
If employees are highly engaged, customers have a much better experience.
You must authentically care about the people you’re leading. A lot of people are driven to leadership because they actually care more about themselves. People are looking for affirmation of themselves. True leaders get a higher fulfillment level out of empowering others instead of personal achievement.
A leader is held accountable because they should know better.
We’re all different with different callings, so we shouldn’t be so surprised when it can be hard to work together.
How do you fire someone up who has lost their passion?
How does the person see their work as significant?
Churches have to keep inspiration levels high without the financial bonuses that corporations can use.
One of Best Buy’s company values is family first.
Bill Hybels
Studied the life of Mother Teresa
She refused God nothing. Said yes to God’s bidding every single time, no matter the price.
She made little sacrifices like always going to the back of the line, cleaning up
She made little fidelities to Scripture. She guarded her words and actions very carefully. Honored God when no one else was looking.
God raised her up and entrusted her with a level of influence that many do not get.
Are you the kind of person who is lighting up the radar screen in heaven?
You meet leaders all the time who want to lead a big thing more than they want more of God. We sometimes secretly wish God would bless our plans.
Teresa prayed for over ten years for God to use her. She had an Inspiration Day on September 10, 1946 on a train. It took another year and a half before she was allowed to follow through on her calling.
Pay attention to callings. Embrace them. Accept them.
Is this calling from God or did I just make it up? How do you know the difference?
What price am I actually willing to pay?
How long am I willing to wait until God moves obstacles?
Do I adjust my timeline so that it’s God timeline?
Do I truly believe God can change the heart of the person who has authority over me?
Be careful when you’re in the waiting room. God is preparing you for the rest of your life.
She wrote her archbishop and said, “you don’t have to help me at all. I’m just asking you to not stand in the way.”
Outlast the opposition.
Out pray the problems.
Wear down those who stand in your way.
Be relentless.
Can you imagine what God could do through you if you hang on?
Callings are holy things.
How serious is your calling?
How bad do you want it?
Even thought I can’t feel God’s presence for a period of time, I will seek to love God as God has never been loved.
God deserves to be loved with our heart, mind, soul & strength.
Leadership Summit day 2
Craig Goeschel – Lifechurch.tv
A leader must discern what unique DNA they have. Are you trying to do things you’re not gifted for?
What’s the best expression of reaching people that YOU can do.
IT is something special of God that is very real.
We don’t need all these things we think we need to do church.
What is that intangible IT? Yes, it’s the Spirit of God. But it say that other places don’t have the Spirit is untrue.
IT is a special working of the Spirit through special people.
What’s IT? Don’t know. 
But I believe God makes IT happen.
I believe it is from God, by God, for God’s glory.
We can’t create IT. We can’t reproduce or manufacture IT.
It is rare that one person will bring IT.
It is common for the wrong person to kill IT.
IT can’t be taught. But it can be caught..
It’s not a system or model. It’s not a seeker-sensitive, purpose-driven, or emergent deal.
But IT can be found in all those models, or sometimes it isn’t.
Wherever you see IT, you see transformed lives.
IT attracts critics. If you have it, people will shoot at it.
IT happens.
But often it’s doesn’t.
Bad news is if you have IT, doesn’t mean you’ll keep IT.
Good news is that if you don’t have IT, doesn’t mean you can’t find IT.
1. Organizations that have IT, have a laser focus
- incredibly focused
- one church has 287 ministries – how can you do any of them well?
- We think more ministries = better, should be better ministries = better ministries
- What can you be the very best at?
- In order to reach people that no one is reaching, you’ll have to do things that no one is doing.
- You can’t do what everyone else is doing.
- We need a little bit of planned abandonment.
- We need a few ministries that God has uniquely created.
- Which ministries are producing mature disciples?
- What could we best do to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ?
- LifeChurch.tv cut everything but weekend worship experiences, small groups, kids ministry, student ministries & mission
- Gave them margin & resources to do things no one else is doing
- What are you doing that you need to stop doing?
2. Organizations that have IT, see opportunities where others see obstacles.
- Many times we believe we don’t ever have enough
- We have everything we need to everything that God wants you to do
- Some people think God guides by what God provides. But God provides by what God doesn’t provide.
- What is God trying to show you through your greatest limitation?
3. Organizations that have IT, are willing to fail.
- We think failure is not an option. That’s right. Failure is a necessity.
- Failure is the first step into seeing God
- Peter failed, tried to walk on water, experienced God
- God may be giving you a vision. There will probably be 3 steps of failure until you get there
- Story of people trying to get mule out of hole in the ground. Couldn’t pull him out. So they started dumping dirt on the mule to bury him. The mule didn’t like that and started shaking off the dirt. They kept doing it and the mule kept shaking off the dirt. He realized the dirt was building up underneath him. So the mule kept shaking off dirt and stepping up. Shake it off and step up.
- Shake off failure.
- You are not what others say you are. You are not a failure. You have everything you need.
- What has God called you to do that you’re afraid to attempt?
- When are you going to do it?
4. Organizations that have IT, are led by people who have IT.
- You need to have IT for your ministry to get IT
- You are freely saved by grace, not your WORKS
- God – I’ll go anywhere, anytime.
- For Craig – ministry started to kill IT. It became more about what will bring people in instead of what will bring glory to God.
- When you have IT in your heart, you get it out there
- When you have IT, it draws people
- You can start to trust what you see out there (sermons, resources, budgets, etc.)
- We start to acquire the very things that are unnecessary to have it
- He had become a full-time pastor and a part-time follower of Christ
- You’ve become more about your ministry than about God’s kingdom
It might be time to let God break your heart again.
IT hurts deeply, you’re never satisfied. But as much as IT hurts, you can’t get enough of it.
May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths and superficial relationships. May God give you tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn your pain into joy. May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in the world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.
Leadership Summit day 1
Bill Hybels – The High Drama of Decision Making
This is part of what leaders do: they make very tough calls
Do you have a process for how you arrive at a decision?
Traditionally, Christian leaders ask these four questions:
1. What does the Bible say about this?
2. What would smart advisors say I should do?
3. P/G/E. What have I learned from the pain of past decisions, the gains and the experiences?
4. What is the Spirit prompting? (there will be peace at your core even on big decisions)
Make a trial decision. Imagine life with the decision made. Is there life and peace or worry and anxiety? You still have time to change the decision.
Journaling helps to chronicle your past decision processes.
If it’s a good decision, thank God/advisors/everyone. If it’s a bad decision, don’t blame anyone. Take the hit. Bear the consequences.
Staying clear about your own responsibility for the poor decisions you make is what keeps the learning intensity so high in your life.
Colin Powell: Promote a clash of ideas. Reward your performers. Get rid of non-performers.
How much energy do you waste trying to take care of non-performers?
Vision leaks. People are like a bucket that has holes in the bottom. It slowly leaks. A leader has to keep pouring vision into people.
Get the right people around the decision-making table, bolt the doors and God WILL speak.
As the senior leader, do you REALLY believe these problems are solvable?
If you have committed Christians, you’ll change the world. You can’t change your block with status quo people who still want God to bless what they want to do.
When something feels funky, engage. When a problem in the church is brewing, don’t believe the lie that problems go away if unattended. Unattended problems grow fangs & claws.
Gary Haugen – Leadership that Actually Matters
Gary is a lawyer who was in charge of the UN’s investigation in the Rwanda genocide. He has established the International Justice Mission.
Just because I’m leading and people are following doesn’t mean I’m leading them in things that matter to God.
Are Jesus and I interested in the same things?
What is God truly passionate about? The world & justice.
The most difficult thing for people to believe about faith is the idea that God is good, because they’re in so much pain.
What is God’s plan for making it believable that God is good? The Bible says we’re the plan. God doesn’t have another plan.
How are people in Dayton supposed to believe God is good?
Did you know there are 2 million children held in forced prostitution right now?
Leading in the struggle against brutal & massive injusice feels intimidating. Sometimes most of us would rather lead people in things that are cheerful, safe and happy. That is not when leadership matters. People will take care of themselves in easy & happy things. Leadership matters precisely when they calling seems hard and tough.
How do we lead when the calling of God feels hopeless?
- recenter your focus on hope
- if God is passionate about getting it done, God is also responsible for getting it done
- Jesus didn’t ask for what was needed, just asked for what disciples had. Give it to him so he can do the miracle.
- Sometimes God is calling you to lead in a work that seems hopeless
How do we lead when the task seems scary?
- Jesus did not come to make us safe, he came to make us brave
- If my life feels safe, I should check to make sure I’m actually following Jesus
- Leaders can liberate people from living a life of making safe bets
- The saddest thing is going on the trip but missing the adventure
- Jesus says: “Follow me beyond your strength, competency, the crowd and you will experience GOD, wisdom, love, power…
How do we lead when it’s hard?
1. Choose not to be safe
- Do we have a life’s work that we can’t imagine doing for 30 minutes without prayer – if not, maybe we need a new life’s work.
2. Choose to seek deep spiritual health
- I won’t survive this if I don’t know what God knows about pain & suffering
- I KNOW I don’t have wisdom & clarity on my own
- If you want to ignite passion & purpose in people’s devotional life, then lead them on a more demanding climb where its unsafe to go without God
3. Choose to seek excellence
- We spiritualize mediocrity
- Reset the bar of excellence
- Flourish under transparency and accountability
4. Choose to seize joy
- The first thing to disappear when spiritual joy departs is laughter
- It should make us laugh every day to see God employ goofy people like us
- God is making his appeal to the world through us. That should strike us as funny.
- Lead others in celebration, feasting, good cheer, playing, recreation, hilarious generosity
- The JOY of the Lord is our strength
Wendy Kopp – Teach for America
Big dog leaders have huge visions and stick with them for a long time
We are so consumed with building churches, fighting AIDS that we look right over the injustice of the education system right here in the US
Great leaders have something that burns inside of them. It’s easy to be a leader if you’re pursuing something you deeply care about.
Our biggest asset can be inexperience. We have no idea it’s a crazy idea.
