Leadership Summit: Opening Session - Bill Hybels

My stream of conscious highlights from 2014 Willow Creek Leadership Summit

Key value of Summit - Humility.

• "Armed with enough humility, pastors can learn from business leaders and business leaders can learn from pastors... at Summit, it's all about the learning."
• Hybels respectful evangelistic heart in the midst of this experience always strikes me.
• "Hard Leadership Lessons."
• T or F:  All leadership is intensely spiritual. (T)
• By definition... leaders are visionary, but team morale can slip when 
• Leaders with the highest level of vision and passion have the lowest level of awareness of the team's passion. Begins to think of his/her team "They just don't care."  Not necessarily true.
• A tough moment for Bill... reading a staff review and one staff member said, "I love this church, but I feel like a grunt."
• Dang it Bill, why you gotta get so in my grill and challenge me right away.
• 5 key steps taken to build a better organization

1. Hired outside firm.
2. Staff fully engaged the culture.
3. Get real serious about training people on staff who manage people. 
• People join organizations.  They leave managers.
4. Raise the level of candor in performance reviews.
•  Three words:  START, STOP, CONTINUE. 
•  With Stop...In leading people MOVE people ahead. MODIFY what isn't working. MOTIVATE people before leaving.
• Key word in performance review, specificity
5.  Ruthless commitment to resolve conflict regardless of how scary it feels.
• Resource Recommendation Reconcile:  John Lederach
• Bill, "Every time I drive onto this campus, my heartrate increases a beat or two.  I LOVE WHAT I DO."

• T OR F:  Relentless leadership development o is a crucial part of a leader.
• Of course true, but the rub is in "How."
1. Give them a tough job.
2. Assign poeple short term task force roles.
3. Provide coaching and mentoring
4. Classes
5. Some other that I didn't catch.

• Bill's dad's parenting technique.  FIGURE IT OUT.  DON'T CALL ME.

• Big idea 3.  Develop leaders with a leadership legacy mindset.
• Organizations cannot be healthily built on hirelings with short-term mindset.
• Be a legacy leader.  Working for the grander vision.
• Legacy Leader example:  Nelson Mandela.
• We only get 1 shot at this thing called life.  Maybe the most profound thing said.a
• "What are you going to do with your 'dash'?"  -In reference to the "-" between the year of your birth and your death.

• Big deal 4:  Endurance.
• General rule:  The grander the vision, the greater the price tag.
• It's hard to hear God at Mach 2.
• Are you exhausted, discourage, and on the brink of lost hope?  Call for help!