Sharing From My Treasure Box (Part 2)

As promised, Part 2 of my Treasures from the Leadership Summit. I don’t know exactly what I expected the second day of the conference to be. Whether I thought it would be better than the previous day or how it could possibly compare to Day 1. I just honestly don’t know. But I did feel that God had some things He wanted me to hear and I was ready to listen.

Again, my nuggets of gold from each speaker (order by appearance, my commentary in italics):

1. Dave Gibbons: His topic was Thinking Forward – 3rd Culture Leadership
   Takeaway: Failure is success. (What?!)
   Questions: Can I accept that unless I fail, I can never move forward? Without failures, I’d never relate to real people?


2. Andrew Rugasira: His topic was Thinking Forward – Aid vs Trade
   Takeaway: Aid alone undermines accountability, integrity and dignity.
   Question: What does God want me to do (not JUST give, but DO) to help people help themselves?


3. Wess Stafford: His topic was Leveraging Your Past
   Takeaway/Question: What is your cause? Does it move you to tears? What moves you passionately?
   Hint: Read his book Too Small To Ignore


4. David Gergen: Interview with Bill Hybels, topic Eyewitness to Power
   Takeaway: Don’t confuse motion with progress.
   Takeaway: Maturity is coming to grips with your flaws.


5. Chip & Dan Heath: Interview with Craig Groeschel, topic Switch (new book, due out Spring 2010)
   Takeaway: Big problems are most often solved by a series of small solutions
   Takeaway: Prepare for the “valley”. This is where you find solutions.
   Takeaway: Failure is a necessary step to success. (Dang! Didn’t I hear that somewhere else recently?)


6. Bono: Interview with Bill Hybels
   Takeaway: Love your neighbor is not advice, it’s a command.
   Takeaway: Inspire people to do missions, don’t bore them.
   Takeaway: If we neglect leadership positions as a means to serve the poor, we will be held accountable.
   Question: Where does your sphere of empathy end? Who is far enough away from you that they don’t matter? (Hint: the answer is no one.)


7. Tony Blair: Interview with Jim Mellado
   Takeaway: If the facts change, we can change our minds.
   Takeaway: Doubt doesn’t always go away once the decision is made. (Ain’t that the truth?!)
   Takeaway: It’s the way the world works. Without leaders things don’t get done.

You may have noticed there were fewer “Questions” than "Takeaways" for me on the second day. Beats me why. Maybe I was so full of questions from the day before that I just didn’t write them down. But I did pick up on more pearls of wisdom the second day. I’ll close out this post with a few miscellaneous quotes that I think are particularly nice.

Listen more. – Bill Hybels

The kindest form of management is the truth. – Bill Hybels

Are you changing as fast as the world around you? (I don’t quite see how that is possible, myself, but it’s a goal to strive for, I guess). – Gary Hamel

God doesn’t have a Plan B – we are it! – Gary Hamel

Just because a leader isn’t asked to do something hard, doesn’t mean it’s not important. – Bill Hybels

And a final word from Bill Hybels…

You have one life to live full-on for God. What are you going to live for? What are you willing to lay your life down for?