Joseph Grenny is Co-Founder of Vital Smarts and a best-selling author of many books.

I’ve never mentioned him on the blog for some reason, but Joseph Grenny is one of my favorite authors. His book Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High is one of the best I’ve read. Very clear, profound, and wise. And his book Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change, Second Editionshould be required reading for every Christian.

Today in his message he talked about mastering the skill of influence. Here is the chief point that stood out to me: When we want to influence people, we often focus just on motivation. Motivation is indeed a big part of change. But ability is just as crucial. In fact, most people who become effective actually start with ability and then move to motivation.

Hence, helping people develop skills is an essential part of influence.

The most effective way to develop a skill is through deliberate practice. “If you and I want more influence, we need to involve more people in deliberate practice.” In deliberate practice, the practice setting must approximate the real world; practice is done in small bites with intense focus for brief periods, and the person receives immediate feedback.

“You want to change the world? Learn how to change behavior.” And you help change behavior not simply through motivation, but through helping people develop skills.

I really enjoyed Hybels’ interview with Mark Burnett, four-time Emmy award winner and executive producer of the Apprentice, Survivor, and the recent Bible series on the History Channel.

Here’s the best quote:

“Making Christian movies or shows doesn’t give you the permission to make it crappy.”

And here’s how Hybels ended the day yesterday, which was excellent (note: this is slightly paraphrased):

Whether you are a lawyer, in advertising, in construction, in film, or whatever you do: Do it for God. Make the difference you can with the skills and talents he has given you. You only have the time now to do something beyond yourself and that will serve others.

I loved Liz’s message. (Her book is Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter.) The main point is that there are two types of leaders:

1. Diminishers
2. Multipliers

Have you ever worked around someone who made you feel smarter and more capable? That person is a multiplier.

Have you ever worked around someone who made you question your intelligence? That person is a diminisher. Some leaders literally shut down brainpower in the people around them.

Multipliers get so much brainpower from their people that the workforce is effectively doubled for free.

Conversely, organizations can’t afford diminishers! (And, it’s disrespectful.) Diminshers on average get about 43% of a person’s capability. Multipliers on average get 91%.

Why do some leaders drain intelligence while others multiply it?

At root, multipliers believe that people are smart.

The multiplier approach is to let people weigh in. Because when people weigh in on something important, you get buy-in in the process.

Multipliers are liberators. They create space. Space for people to do their very best thinking. But a bit of a deal—what do they owe the multiplier back in return? their best thinking.

They are challengers. They ask people to do hard things. They invite people into the space of difficult and challenge, and they don’t apologize for it. They are debate makers. They give others the responsibility and put them in charge. They create owners, not hirlings in their organizations.

Lencioni’s message is based on his excellent book The Three Signs of a Miserable Job. This was the first Lencioni book I read and which got me interested in his work. Here are my notes from his message. (You might also be interested in a blog series I wrote on Lenionci’s book a few years ago.)

“The content of this book is the reason I started my career. My dad would come home from work every day and complain every night because his company drove him crazy. It was really a pain. I was only 8-9 and I felt really bad for my dad. I thought ‘wouldn’t it be great to do something about that.'”

Not about a good job or bad job, but a fulfilling job or a miserable job.

There are three things that cause misery in a job:

1. Anonymity.
2. Irrelevance
3. Immeasurement

Anonymity

It doesn’t matter if you are head of marketing or a professional sports player, if your manager doesn’t care about you, your job easily becomes miserable. Good people don’t want to leave jobs where they’re known.

Irrelevance

“I think we are called to love the people who work for us.”

What if your manager doesn’t take interest in you—do you leave? Minister upward to your manager. Take an interest in them. It will change their perspective and they will probably reflect it back to you.

God made us with an innate desire to love others. If there is nothing of that in our job, we feel irrelevant.

Immeasurement

People need to be able to assess for themselves if they are doing a good job.

Money is a satisfier. These things are drivers—you can never have too much of them.

“I can’t imagine being a Christ-like leader without getting to know the people who work for us and showing how what they do connects to others.”

“Management is a ministry. It’s great to be at a place where I can say that out loud.”

As I thought might happen, I’m ditching (for the time being) my attempt to focus on just one thing from each talk. So, here are my notes from Colin Powell’s message and then his Q&A with Bill Hybels.

Leadership is getting more out of people than the science of management says you can. You lead by having a vision. By believing in yourself, having courage in your convictions, inspiring people to reach beyond themselves.

“Even though I’m the leader, I’m not the one getting the work done. It’s the followers who get the work done.”

Purpose is “what are we doing this for? How are we making a contribution to society by what we’re doing?”

“I couldn’t achieve my purpose as secretary of state if she didn’t achieve her purpose of cleaning the room.”

You have to constantly show people that they are important. The best organizations I’ve been in are those that not only cast a vision, but also how everybody in the organization has an individual purpose. It is the collectivization of those purposes that give you the momentum to accomplish the vision.

You have to invest in people and give them what they need to get the job done.

Mentors: family, community, the church he grew up in as a kid.

Reagan’s point: “I trust people to do things without bringing everything to me.”

Always empower people. Empowering people means taking risks.

You have to empower people so they feel important. When treated like tools who cannot make judgments and take initiative, people feel demeaned. You have to empower subordinates and trust them. And you have to gain their trust.

What makes a great leader is a vision and a sense of purpose. Simple themes, constantly repeated, that people understand. That’s what leaders do.

“If you want to be a great leader, take care of your troops. If you want to make sure to keep moving forward, always have a destination.” It’s not just planning, it’s execution. Execute and review how you are doing.

Soldiers aren’t looking for sympathy, but for their service to be respected. They want to talk about and share about their experience. “Never say sorry.” Obviously devastated that they’ve been injured, but you say “I know it had to be tough.”

“You have an obligation to reach back, reach down, reach across to help someone out.” Colin Powell

You might have had a terrible day, and things look so bleak at night. It will look better in the morning. “You know why it’s going to be better? We’re going to make it better.”

Successful leaders are really those who infect their people with optimism.

“Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.” In the military, you always look for ways to make your force more powerful. As a leader, one of the most significant ways of doing this is through optimism.

People look to the leader for confidence, to solve problems.

“People think generals go around saying “that’s an order.” I never said that in my whole life. The reason is, American people and soldiers don’t respond to that. You have to show people it is in their interest to share the organizational interest, and not order them around. And they will do anything needed.”

“Get mad, then get over it.” “Mad is a bad attitude.” “Mad is a human emotion, but I don’t find that if you act while you are mad, you are at your best. So get mad if you have to, then get over it.” You can’t stay mad, or the whole organization is contaminated.

How do you know when to fire somebody, and when to give that same person a second chance? “I’ve always tried to adapt to the personality of my subordinates. No two human beings are identical. It was my job to find the strengths and weaknesses of my subordinates, building on their strengths, working with them on their weaknesses. But the thing you can’t do is get someone to believe in the vision if they just don’t want to. People are often waiting for the leader to have the guts to do something about the culture killers. Leaders are people who solve problems; if you don’t solve these kind of problems, you lose the trust of your subordinates.”

The worst effect of not being a problem solver is that people think you don’t care.

What’s a red flag for an emerging leader? Ego. Many who are incredibly talented, but somewhere along the way nobody taught them humility. They start to think they turned the sun on that morning. I just can’t work with them.

Many are perfect at the level they are at, but they shouldn’t go higher. “You promote people on the basis of their potential, not past performance.”

You’ve been a church attender your whole life. What challenge would you give to pastors and preachers? “We come to church to learn more about our faith and more about the Bible, and we also want it made relevant to the world in which we are living. So tell us how to apply. Tell us how our faith and the Bible makes us relevant to the world we are living in and how to apply it.”

I loved Hybels’ message kicking off the Summit today. I’m seeking to avoid my standard inclination to write down everything that is said in the sessions, and instead am just going to hit one core point from each session. (We’ll see how that goes…)

Here’s my main take-away from Hybels: One of the most critical skills required in leadership also seems very basic. But don’t let how basic it is fool you—it is very hard. That skill is courage.

Whatever vision God gives you is going to put your courage to the test. Every time a leader seeks to move people from here to there, a certain percentage of people are going to resist going. Another group will have a wait and see attitude and will need persuasion over time. And another group knows how ugly it would be to move people half way and not be able to finish the job, and fear grips them.

Lots of incredible initiatives die for lack of courage. What do a lot of leaders do when they receive a vision from God? They abort the mission secretly. They kill it off without telling anyone about it—because fear grips them.

“God has sent millions life-enhancing visions to leaders all over the world, only to have those visions snuffed out because the potential for failure seemed to great.” “These deaths occur behind a veil of secrecy and silence” because the leaders don’t tell anyone of what God has put in their heart.

Don’t do this! Don’t let your vision die for lack of courage. Be willing to step out, take a risk, and take bold action to do the right thing.

I’m at Willow Creek today blogging the Global Leadership Summit. Once again, it should be an exciting time with lots of excellent content.

In previous years I basically took notes over each session, writing down everything I thought was interesting. This year, I think I might try to do a 500 word summary after each session with 1-2 application points. We’ll see if I’m able to do that!

Here’s the schedule.

I’ll also be posting some core take-aways on twitter.