Global Leadership Summit – 2023 – Day 1

Am I a leader? If so, what and who am I leading? And how good of a job am I doing at leading? If I’m honest, these are the questions that I have wrestled with at times over the past three years. They are not uncommon questions. In fact, they are important questions for all of us to consider.

Two days in Chicago helped me to gain clarity on answering these questions. Yes (resoundingly yes!), I am a leader. We all lead in some shape and capacity. We all have influence (in our homes, our relationships, our work, our community). You do not need a fancy title to grant you permission to lead. You are a leader. And as is the motto of this conference every year: Everyone wins when a leader gets better.

The Global Leadership Summit (GLS) is a two day event hosted outside of Chicago each year in early August. My wife and I have been attending since 2011. We have always attended through one of the hundreds of satellite locations that simulcast the event. However, this year we made the commitment to attend in person. It is two days of world class speakers presenting actionable content on how to grow your capacity as a leader. I’ve said it for years and it always proves to be true. It is one of the highlights of our year personally, professionally, spiritually, and relationally.

Here is a quick breakdown of the speakers and just a few of the main takeaways from each speaker.

CRAIG GROESCHEL
We are less trusting as a society than we were 30 years ago. The future of leadership is about trust. If you are not trusted, you will not be followed.
Three ways to build trust – Transparency + Empathy + Consistency = Trust
Transparency: we have a truth to share (better to disappoint with a hard truth than to deceive with a lie)
Empathy: We have a heart to care (we listen our way into building trust, we don’t talk our way into building trust)
Consistency: We have a culture to trust (how will you show up? As a hummingbird or as a seagull?)
The best way to know if you can trust someone is to trust them. You’ll limit your leadership if you do not trust enough.

ERIN MEYER
Industrial thinking focused on error elimination. We need a new mindset in order to promote creativity, collaboration, and excellence. Reed Hastings of Netflix focused on increasing talent density, candor, and removing controls. What he found is that a great workplace is one with “stunning colleagues.”
Be careful not to underestimate the impact of a poor performer. Poor performance is contagious. The best predictor of how a team will perform is what the worst member of that team is like.
Decision Trees are better than Organizational pyramids. Trees have strong roots (CEO) that guide and encourage individual contributors (the branches) to grow and expand.

SECRETARY CONDOLEEZZA RICE
Own your past. Do not be a prisoner of it. As humans, we are unique in that we live in the present, we know of the past, and we have expectations for the future. The trick is to use effective and constructive narratives to bridge the past and the future. In doing so we cast a compelling vision for our lives.
Focus on opportunity. A key indicator of a leader’s success will be the leader’s willingness to learn.
And how does a leader lead through seemingly impossible challenges? We make the impossible seem inevitable in retrospect. There is cause to hope for a better tomorrow. You can lead towards it.

ERWIN MCMANUS
The room for error is huge when you settle for average. We are architects of our internal world. And some internal architecture limits our ability to be successful.
We can become empowered when we see that our internal limitations are due to how we respond to obstacles. Not the obstacles themselves.
Incremental adjustments in the way we think and talk to ourselves adjust the internal architecture and opens up possibilities to succeed.

PAT GELSINGER
One of the designers of the USB and now the leader of Intel who is championing the development of semiconductor factories to be built in the US. His tremendous goals belie his humble beginnings in a very small farm town in Ohio. His charge: MAP your leadership Path. Your MAP must include Mentors (those who make you better and leave their thumbprint on your life). Have Audacious Goals (Dream bigger than your eyes can see). Pursuit of your Passion and Purpose.

DALLAS JENKINS
How do you see a dream come to life when you start with no resources? Get to the place where you are okay if it doesn’t work. Bring what you can to the task. If God decides to make it fruitful, He will. Your task is to show up. You’ve been given skills and strengths and passions and gifts. What and who are they for?

ANITA ELBERSE
A case study on Formula One Team Manager – Toto Wolff. Creating a winning culture is a vast, all encompassing process. Leaders can shape a winning culture through their mindset, values, and actions. People respond well when they have expectations for high standards and they know they are cared for.

ALBERT TATE
You can have a hard season and still be a good leader.
Choose to look at what is presented that day as God’s provisions. The good, bad, hard, easy, joy, hope, heartache, grief. All of it can be what is ordained for you that day. Choose to trust.
So show up with what you’ve got. Don’t underestimate the power of showing up. And through it all – Just Keep Leading.