Brenda Salter-McNeil at WCA Global Leadership Summit
Adam Jeske, one of the other guest bloggers I’m working with, took excellent notes on her session, which you can read here.
It’s also worth checking out his blog, Executing Ideas.
Seth Godin Up Next
Godin is up next.
Got to interview him for my book a bit ago as well. It was very generous of him and I am very appreciative! (It was also great insight that goes right to the core.)
I might post the video shortly (3 minutes); or, I might just hang onto it exclusively for the book. I haven’t decided yet. Any thoughts?
Stand Up – Cory Booker
Here are my notes from the Cory Booker’s session:
Brief Info on Cory Booker
Mayor of Newark since 2006. Rhodes Scholar. Degrees from Oxford, Yale Law School. Urban reformer. Founded non-profit Newark Now. 1,000,000 people following him on Twitter. Recently entrusted with $100 million donation from Mark Zuckerberg to address education.
Core Points from His Message
“How do you stand up when everything around you is telling you to let go?”
“The challenge of the lesson I’m sharing with you is that I’m still seeking to be a better proponent of it myself. It’s not something I learned at Oxford or Yale, but what I learned from my parents.”
“You will always face in this life outrageous adversaries. People that will try to trip you up. Friends who won’t act in your best interests. You must be the one who regardless of the storm is willing to stand.”
“You drink deeply from wells of freedom and opportunity and dignity that you have but did not dig. You have a choice: are you going to grow dumb, fat, and happy on the basis of other people’s sacrifice and struggle, or stand up and use all your blessings to move forward and serve?”
“My parents exemplified love in action. Unyielding faith, fearless hope.”
“You are a result of a grand conspiracy of love. People stormed beaches in Normandy for you.”
“Many people will try to seduce you into mediocrity. Don’t fall for it. You were born an original, but most die copies.”
“You have access to untold opportunities, but you must claim them. Don’t accept your existence as it is. Rise.”
“We are the result of people who did not see the world as others saw it. In the midst of sweatshops, they saw workers rights. In the midst of slavery, they saw freedom. We are here because of people who had the extraordinary vision and the courage to stand up and do something about it. To me, what you see in the world is less a matter of the facts that are there than more being a reflection of who you are. Your attitude about the world says nothing about the world, but speaks to your character.”
“I’ve found in my journey that I can talk about the world all I want and deplore the darkness and point fingers of blame real easily, but in truth that is nothing but spitting in the wind. The only way to make change in this world is for it to start with yourself. Now I see people every day in my city exhibiting that kind of courage. We as a people, if we live our values, can create radical transformation. Human history is, and American testimony in particular, is a testimony to the achievement of the impossible. But before you tell me what you teach, show me how you live and give.”
“Sometimes you have to fast and pray.”
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
“So now I end with a simple call, that my dad gave me as a boy: Let us now stand up. Let us stand because people stood for us and fought for us and bled for us. Let us stand because … change never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. Let us stand because ‘liberty and justice for all’ must be a passion and purpose every day. And if we stand like this, then we will find a way to get to the roof.”
Three Reflections
1. I loved his emphasis on character. At the heart of character is not seeing yourself as a victim, but as someone who is proactive — someone who can stand up for change. Hardship and adversity will happen to all of us. You cannot make a difference if you respond to that by blaming others and pointing the finger. You have to respond constructively and take responsibility to continue doing the right thing, in spite of adversity. Sometimes people respond cynically to all the problems they see, and they think they are justified in thinking this way because there is indeed lots of injustice in the world. But in reality, “your attitude about the world says nothing about the world, but speaks to your character.”
2. I also loved the fact he did not just talk about character, but exemplifies it. He has clearly made a massive difference for good in his community and as mayor of Newark.
3. I appreciated his story at the end about the importance of sometimes having to fast and pray. We cannot rely only on your own strength, and that’s not what leadership is about. The tasks are too great, and God honors it when we realize that all strength ultimately comes from him, not ourselves.
How Successful Entrepreneurs Act – It’s Not What You Think
“Successful entrepreneurs realize that in a world where you can’t predict the future, what do you do? Act. If you can’t predict the future, create it. Creation-oriented action. There is an academic, real correlation between entrepreneurs and this belief; that is, studies show this is how most entrepreneurs think.
“Indiana Jones is actually a good example here. He’s thrust into the dark. Can’t see. What does he do? You ask: What do I have on me? Where are my feet? Not going to jump around. I’ll take a small step. OK, does it feel like I can take another step? Oh, on my belt I have a flashlight. Maybe that can help me a bit. You, playing Indiana Jones, know exactly how to get out of a dark hole. And these are exactly the rules you need to understand to take entrepreneurial action.
“In the face of unknowability, what does rational behavior look like? Action. You can’t think your way into an unknowable future, so your only way forward is to act. How? Take small steps–not big leaps. Small steps. [Prior point: It is a myth that entrepreneurs are inclined to take huge risks; they are inclined to minimize risk.] Take a small step with what you have in hand. Limit the risk with each step. Then build off what you actually find from taking that step, whether good or bad, and would be nice to have some friends and resources standing by to help.
“Successful entrepreneurs also start with things they care about. The question is not where do you find opportunity, but what is it you would like to do? We start with you. Entrepreneurs are always doing what they want to do, or think will get them what they want. In the face of unknowability, taking any other action is simply foolish. So, given who you are and what you want, what step should you take? Sometimes you might see someone else with an idea, and partner up. 50% of entrepreneur partnerships in their study started simply because the people liked each other — not even a big idea. This works.
“Now we get to the part where the bankers and financial experts in the room will be deeply offended. They have all developed ways to measure risk. We live in a world of affordable loss. To put more numbers on that just makes things more depressing and doesn’t work. How do you decide what to do? Well, how badly do you want to do it. Then you act. Then you bring some other people along. Willow Creek is a good example here actually — take a look at what they’ve been doing.
“Now, what keeps people from doing this? First, they get completely caught up about what they’re trying to do. So how about not worrying about that, but instead thinking about what you’ll do next. Stop worrying about what you want to do, and instead worry about what you should do next. [Sounds familiar -- what's best next!] Second, people fear failure. They think ‘we can’t fail.’ We’ve been educated to believe that failure is a dirty word. That when people fail, we send them away and they disappear. ‘If you fail you go to the desert and don’t come back.’ But in reality, if you take a step and it doesn’t turn out how you expected, quite likely you just learned something that nobody else knows. So for those uncomfortable with calling it failure, call it ‘an exercise in learning what nobody else knows.’”
Solving big problems:
- Baby steps
- Small wins
Multiple simultaneous ventures.
With action trumping everything, you get more at bats in the same elapsed time. And greater aggregate number of ventures for society as a whole, taking us all on a journey towards solutions.
“Entrepreneurship is Not Magic; It’s a Discipline”
“Large organizations often don’t want entrepreneurs.” But let’s look at their performance as a result: Over 30 years, out of the Fortune 25, only 6 remain. Over 10 years, 13 of the 25 have fallen. So the half life of the Fortune 25 is 10 years. They are disrupted by entrepreneurs or transacted out of business. None of you can tell me you can run one business model through your life and career. You have to systematically be going to war with your business model and reinventing it 3-5 times in your career.”
“Focusing on economic outcomes to the exclusion of any other variable is a problematic construct. The notion that we can address economic issues separately, and then only deal with sustainability and social issues if there is anything leftover, doesn’t work. You can’t deal with those things sequentially, but have to do so simultaneously. That requires significant invention and entrepreneurship.”
“Peter Drucker, who shows up in this Summit all the time, says: ‘Most of what you hear about entrepreneurship is all wrong. It’s not magic, it’s not mysterious, it’s a discipline, and like any discipline, it can be learned.’ We are all entrepreneurs, only too few of us get to practice. My job now is to show you how easy it is to practice it.”
“The Leader is Committed to a Reality That Does Not Yet Exist”
Some posts now from Len Schlesinger, President, Babson College, Harvard Professor, Former Vice-Chair, Limited Brands
“The leader is committed to a reality that doesn’t exist yet; everyone else is quite content in the world as it exists now.”
“Everyone shows the Martin Luther King ‘I Have a Dream Speech,’ and then sits down and wonders how they can develop a vision just as articulate and compelling. What they forget is that King took 3 years smashing the way things were before he could get people energized about an alternative future. You can’t get ‘there’ until you are very clear about aspects of ‘here’ that you find unacceptable.”
“What is unacceptable about how things are now? The fact that 2 billion people live on less than $2 per day.”
“Entrepreneurship goes a long way toward enabling the kind of future we want to have.”
“There is Too Much at Stake in This World for Leaders to Have a Defeatist Mindset”
Hybels’ words to a church that said “if we could just hire two more people, everything would change. Until then, we’re stuck”:
He said essentially: “If you are sick enough of being stuck, you get on the solution side of the problem and take action. You will find the resources and do what you have to do to make it happen.”
They were a bit frustrated at first! But a few days later they called and said: “We were making excuses for being stuck, instead of making bold new solutions to problems.”
“Your job as a leader is not to pontificate or preside over your organizations’ demise, but to move from here to there. And you have to believe from the core of your being that God is willing and eager to help you move from here to there. If you don’t believe that anymore, step aside. Make room for a leader who believes God can enable you to move from here to there.”
“Summits exist to ring your bell. There is too much at stake in this world for leaders to have a defeatist mindset.”
“Good story of a recent discussion on why the next five years at the church should be the best five years. That is what they believe and are seeking. Why not think and seek the same thing at your church? It really comes down to whether you want this and believe it. Why go out with a whimper? Why hobble to the end? How you finish is how you will always be remembered. Why not take a full sprint to the finish line?
“My challenge to you is: Don’t end it with a whimper.
“It really all comes down to whether you want your next five to be your best five.”
Hybels’ Five Words Summarizing the Core of Christianity
Continuing from the previous post, what are the five words Hybels is thinking through to summarize the core of Christianity?
“When I started doing this I thought it would be a fun, exciting exercise. What I saw is that this can turn soft-spoken Christian leaders into junkyard dogs. What are our five words at Willow? We are still in the process of agreeing. But what I’m working through as I try to distill this, my five words are:
“First, love. “God so loved the world. . . . The second is evil. The world is fallen. The guy who just recently killed about 20 people, there is no other word for that than evil. And even in our own hearts, why is it that when I promise a thousand times I won’t say certain words, I say them anyway? When I do something that brings bad results 100 times, why do I do it again? There is evil out there, and it has a little bit of a grip on me [that is, even as a Christian -- we aren't perfect yet]. That’s just true, and part of the message of the Christian faith.
“Third, rescue. Through the substitutionary atonement of Christ. Redemption is available as a gift.
“Fourth, choice. There has to be something about making a choice. You don’t have to choose this stuff. Some people try to clean up their own act, or thumb their nose at God. We have to come to Christ and make a choice to accept his rescue.
“Fifth, restore. When you come to Christ, you are restored and you join a team of people who are helping make things better in the world.”
Hybels: Don’t Lose the Core of Christianity
Hybels right now:
“It’s easier than you think it is for churches to ‘lose the plot’ of what’s most important.
“Churches are in the life transformation business. Churches are supposed to turn hateful people into loving people, selfish people into loving people, prejudiced people into radically inclusive people. We are in the people transformation business. Now, church leaders learn very early on that there is only one power sufficient to actually do this — the power of the gospel. The power of the good news of Christianity. And we all know what the good news is, don’t we? Don’t we? Don’t be so sure. Some of us can get fuzzy about the very message that transformed our own lives, about what that message actually is.
“I would challenge you to do another exercise that I’ve been challenging our people to do. You say to your elders, your staff, whatever people you want to, you say in five words, in five words you explain, or summarize, what the central message of Christianity is. What are the five words that best describe the good news of Jesus Christ?”
What Do You Do When Someone Lacks the Talent Elasticity to Stay in the Organization?
More from Hybels message right now:
“No one ever questions a church leader’s judgment if they fire someone for a clear values violation.”
But if you sit down with someone who has contributed for years and years, but it seems they no longer have the elasticity to keep being effective in the role required in the future, he gives 6 – 12 months. The first thing they do is redeploy the person to another role — the issue may be the role. So they try another role. (And maybe even another after that.) But then if it’s not resolved in 12 months, then it is time to move on.
If you don’t deal with underperformers, you discourage and demotivate your best people. “Fantastic people do not want to be dragged down by whiners and underperformers.”
“Difficult people, deep down, are usually not happy people.”
About 3 years ago, they had some cultural issues that had developed in the organization that needed addressed. They got to the bottom of it and now Willow Creek is officially recognized as one of the best Christian places to work by an organization that has established those best practices. So there is hope for any organization — if you have cultural issues that need to be addressed, you can do so.
How Long Do You Tolerate Underperformers?
Three months.
“The reasons for underperformance are complicated and multi-dimensional. May even be poor management.”
But as soon as you identify a pattern, you address it. Then there is 3 months to resolve the issue.
How Long Do You Tolerate Someone with a Pervasive Bad Attitude?
Hybels: You address it the minute you see a pattern developing. And then there are 30 days to address it. A bad attitude is a 30 day issue, because the damage someone can do when they spread radioactive fallout throughout your organization is breathtaking.
“Help us understand why you’re carrying a pitchfork around the office and poking people with it?” The rest of us are working hard to build an infectious, optimistic attitude in our culture. Let us know how we can help. But Fred, you need to know this has to be resolved in 30 days.”
Notice: Hybels is not saying you just get rid of the person out of the blue. You talk to them about it and address it specifically. Then, they have 30 days to rectify the situation.
The Value of Good People
Hybels: “We need to build a team of fantastic people with fantastic energy to serve our fantastic God. The key to our future is unquestionably tied to our ability to attract and retain fantastic people.”
Is it Possible to Over Rev an Organization?
Yes. And the leader sets the tone — if he is over challenged, the rest of the organization will likely try to keep up an unsustainable pace as well.
On the other hand, you can also under challenge your organization. That fails to develop people and is a disservice to them.
Hit the right target:
OVERCHALLENGE
CHALLENGE
UNDERCHALLENGE
The Danger of Being Underchallenged
The danger here is not to your health, as over challenge is.
The danger here is to organizations: people that are continuously underchallenged usually end up leaving.
Don’t under challenge your people.
The Danger of Being Overchallenged
Fantastic, fantastic points right now by Bill Hybels.
First, he pointed out that if we underchallenge ourselves, we don’t grow. We need to challenge ourselves and be rigorous at that. That’s how you grow.
But if you over challenge yourself, you break down. Think of weight lifting. You stretch yourself and that causes the muscles to break down, and then the muscles regenerate and come back stronger. But if you over do it, you injure your muscle.
When we over challenge ourselves, we lose our ability to be replenished. A three-day weekend is no longer sufficient to recharge you. You could keep taking three-day weekends and it won’t help, because the issue is not that you just need some rest, but that you are over stressing and over challenging yourself.
Studies have shown that, upon trying to sustain being over challenged for too long, your performance doesn’t simply drop; it drops to negative. It doesn’t just decrease your productivity to over challenge yourself; it leads to negative productivity.
The lesson is: Work hard and challenge yourself. But maintain the discipline of replenishment, and avoid the realm of overchallenge that becomes ultimately destructive.
A Second Interesting Paradox of Christian Leadership, Exemplified at the Global Leadership Summit
Bill Hybels is talking now, and just said (slightly paraphrasing): “This conference is unapologetically Christian. Yet, when it comes to who we invite to teach, we seek to learn from everybody — people in the church, people in the business world, people leading in all walks of life.” (The first interesting paradox, by the way, is why Christians don’t just act and do, but also worship – see the previous post.)
I think he’s reflecting here something true and essential for Christian leadership. First, if we are Christians, we need to lead as Christians. We need to think about leadership from a Christian perspective and lead for the good of others and glory of God.
Second, we need to be willing to learn about leadership from all people, not just Christians. There is some really solid and helpful and true teaching on leadership outside the church. Christians should not neglect that. It is a matter of humility to say “I’m going to learn what I need to learn from any source that is speaking truth and making helpful, winsome, solid observations.” And the speakers that are invited to the Summit reflect some of the best of this thinking, both inside and outside the church.
Some might be skeptical about the value of Christians learning about leadership from non-Christians. But let me just list three theological reasons that it is right and necessary and helpful to learn about leadership from non-Christians as well as Christians:
- The doctrine of vocation affirms the validity and helpfulness of the insight and work of people in all areas of life, both Christian and non-Christian. The issue is whether something is true.
- The doctrine of common grace affirms that there is truth in creation that is accessible and discernable to believers as well as unbelievers. To deny that Christians can learn about leadership from non-Christians is to unwittingly deny the doctrine of common grace.
- The Summit isn’t inviting non-Christians to teach theology. I’m not saying we should look to non-Christians to teach the Bible. But, in accord with the doctrines of vocation and common grace, there is value in learning from non-Christians about life and the world, and this includes leadership. We need to think through everything from a biblical point of view, but we shouldn’t commit the genetic fallacy by rejecting something just because the person who came up with the idea or made the observation is not a Christian.
Blogging the Leadership Summit Today — Keep Checking in To Stay Posted
I’m still not entirely sure of my strategy today — whether I will do one long post with notes from each session, and then some overall reflections at the end, or a bunch of shorter posts as each session goes along.
As I think about it now, I’ll probably do some version of the latter.
Let me know any of your preferences, if you have any.
About Matt Perman
Follower of Christ. Husband of one, father of three. Former director of strategy at Desiring God. This blog exists to help equip Christians in good works, because that's what productivity is really about.
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