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.

The Global Leadership Summit is next Thursday and Friday, August 8-9. Speakers this year include Colin Powell, Mark Burnett (executive producer of The Apprentice, Survivor, and the recent Bible series on the History Channel), Patrick Lencioni, Liz Wiseman, and many more.

In case you aren’t familiar with the Summit, here’s a summary:

The Global Leadership Summit is a two-day, world-class leadership event experienced by more than 170,000 leaders around the world, representing more than 14,000 churches. It’s telecast LIVE from Willow’s campus (near Chicago) every August. Throughout the fall, Summit events take place in an additional 300+ cities, 92 countries—and translated into 42 languages. This event is crafted to infuse vision, skill development and inspiration for the sake of local church transformation.

I recommend the Summit for every leader. The on-site campus is sold out, but you can still attend through a host site (and there is likely one in your area).

I’ll also be blogging the Summit again this year, and am looking forward to it!

Some notes from John Ortberg’s message on the influence Jesus has had on history. Ortberg gave probably around 100 facts. This is just a small sample.

We are stewards of a movement that has reshaped history more than any other.

Jesus is not just the greatest king among kings, but is the King of kings.

Every world leader and king now has their birth and death marked in relation to Jesus’ birth.

Things did not change by accident.

Wherever you have an institution of self-giving for the lowly, whose recipients will never be able to repay, it probably has its roots in the movement started by Jesus.

92% of all colleges and universities started before the Civil War were started in Christ’s name.

Jesus revolutionized the arts. Dante, Bach, Luther’s hymns, Mozart, all did their work to the glory of God. Modern musical notation an invention of monks.

Separation of church and state, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.” This is perhaps the most influential political statement ever made. It had been assumed in the ancient world that religion was the prerogative of the ruler. Jesus separated the realms.

Jesus changed how we think of human rights and dignity. The notion of individual rights, where did this come from? It was not self-evident in the ancient world. Today almost everyone says “I believe in a God of love.” Where did that come from? It was rare in the ancient world. Jesus brought a new way of thinking about God.

Jesus uniquely taught love your enemies. In the ancient world it was admired to help your friends, but harm your enemies.

The real question is not who was this man but who is this man?

His work is not done yet.

At the core of leadership is trust. Do people trust you? Do they trust who you have empowered to lead in your organizations?

To the extent that you are trusted, you are free to lead. To dream great dreams and go from here to there. When you lose trust, it’s game over. You can no longer lead. It all comes to a grinding halt.

Integrity = trustworthiness.

How are you doing? Is there anywhere in your leadership and your life where you are not fully trustworthy?

Is there anyone in your organization with whom you think you need to have a conversation about their trustworthiness? “One of the biggest regrets in my organization is knowing some people are off track and not going and talking to them right away. And then by the time I have talked to them, lots of damage has been done.”

Or maybe you’ve already had the conversation, and it’s time to take them out. They hurt too many people, they don’t tell the truth. Give first warnings, give second warnings. At some point, you have to take action.

Ury is one of the leading world experts on negotiation and conflict. He is the co-author of the best selling Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In and a faculty member at Harvard Business School. Here are my notes on Jim Mellado’s interview with him. 

Jim: How did you get started in this?

William: I grew up during the cold war under the shadow of the bomb, and I could never understand why we were willing to put all of humanity at risk. The question I’ve devoted my life to is how do we live with our deepest differences?

Jim: Why is this relevant to everyone?

William: I see negotiation very broadly. Think of your own lives and who you negotiate with in the course of your day. Your kids, your spouse, your employees, your co-workers, your board. You spend a lot of time each day in the act of back and forth communication, trying to reach agreement on various issues. We are negotiating from the time we get up to the time we go to bed at night. Many of our decisions are made through a process of shared decision making. This is why negotiation is so central. It is a core competence for leadership.

William: Conflict isn’t necessarily bad because no injustice or anything gets resolved without conflict. We need to hear lots of different views that are very different. The question is can we deal with conflict in a constructive way, or are we going to handle it through destruction?

Jim: What is the biggest obstacle to negotiation?

William: It is not what we think it is. It’s not that difficult person out there. It’s us. We are the biggest barrier to us achieving success. It is an all too human characteristic to simply react — to act without thinking. The key foundation of successful negotiation is to get up on the balcony — a place where you can get a larger perspective. A place of clarity where you can see the ultimate goal. That’s key.

One of the greatest powers we have in negotiation is the power not to react.

Jim: What are the most significant skills we need to get good at to negotiate well?

William: You need to focus on underlying needs. You need to be creative. And you need to rely on objective criteria.

So the first is to separate the person from the problem. We often end up being soft on the people and soft on the problem. Or we make the opposite mistake, being hard on the problem and hard on the people. But you find successful negotiators drawing a line between people and the problem. They remain soft on the people while dealing hard on the problem. The harder the problem, the softer you need to be on the people. Soft on the people means listening, putting yourselves in the shoes of the other side, understanding how they feel (how could you change someone’s mind unless you know what it is?), and respect. It costs you nothing to give someone basic respect, and it means everything to them.

Jim: When I first read your book, I thought that was especially significant because one of the fruit of the Spirit is kindness.

William: Yes, this changes the game from face-to-face confrontation. You ought to see yourselves on the same side of the table, side by side, tackling the same problem together.

Jim: Unpack the second principle, focusing on interest, not position.

William: There is often a difference between interest and position. The key is to probe behind the specific position a person has to the underlying aims they have. Sometimes the aim can be accomplished in a different way. So the key is to always ask the question “why?”

Jim: Talk about the importance of developing multiple options.

William: What we bring to negotiation is our ability to be inventive. Once we see the interests, rather than just position, we can see that there are many ways of doing that. Creative options that meet the interests of all sides.

Jim: How about the power of objective criteria and fair process.

William: Often people think in terms of a fixed pie. But in the inventing process, you’ve asked “how do we expand the pie?” But now that’s say you’ve done that, and it is time to divide up the pie. How do you deal with that? In a merely positional process, this tends to be a question of will and ego. The alternative is to use standards that are independent of will and ego, objective criteria. You don’t have to “give in to the other side,” but defer to an independent standard of fairness that is objective.

Jim: What do you do if you aren’t able to reach an agreement?

William: We should go in to negotiations with what we call a BATNA — a “best alternative to a negotiated agreement.” This isn’t negative thinking, but positive alternative thinking. If you have an alternative, you are going to have more confidence. And this also gives you a way to measure the value of your agreement. Many times, people reach an agreement that is worse than their alternative.

“Organizational health is the single greatest competitive advantage in business. It is virtually free and accessible to any leader who wants it, and yet it is virtually untapped in most organizations.”

The reason? “Too many leaders think it’s beneath them.”

What is organizational health?

The best way to understand it is to contrast it with something we are more familiar with?

In order for any organization to be effective, there are two requirements for success. First, it must be smart. Strategy, marketing, finance, technology, etc. This stuff is important. Nobody should ever tell you it’s not important. The problem is it’s only half the equation, yet it gets 80% of the attention. If we are going to maximize our organizations, we also need to make them  healthy. A healthy organization has minimal politics and confusion, high morale, high productivity, and low turnover.

“When I show most CEOs this slide, they say ‘I’d give my left leg to have the right side of that slide — organizational health. But I don’t know how to do that. They didn’t really teach us that in business school. Let’s go to the left side of that slide and tweak some stuff.'”

Many leaders are more comfortable in strategy and finance than organizational health. But if we want to change our organizations, we have to make them healthier.

“Every organization I work with has enough domain expertise to be wildly successful, but few tap into it because they aren’t healthy. There are politics and confusion.”

Southwest Airlines is an excellent company, but it’s not because they’re smarter. They are great because they are so healthy as an organization. As a result, they use every bit of knowledge that they have.

So, how do we make our organizations healthy? There are four organizations you have to master. They are simple, but hard.

1. Build and maintain a cohesive leadership team

Trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, results. Leadership teams must be cohesive. [See his book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.]

2. Create organizational clarity

Many people this is just about mission statements. But many mission statements don’t work because they try to do too many things. Here’s an example: [Wait, it’s too long and boring — I’m not going to type it! Just imagine the most boring, hard to grasp sentence you’ve ever seen. It’s from . . . Dunder Mifflin! And yet it’s surprising how close to reality it is for many organizations.]

What you need to do is answer six critical questions. If you can answer these six questions, you can create clarity in your organization and the result is true empowerment.

1. Why do we exist?

This is your core purpose. This is not just a restatement of what you do. For example, the purpose of Southwest Airlines is to democratize travel — making it cheap and possible for everyone to fly. Your core purpose helps you make all your decisions. For example, in the issue of whether to charge fees for checked luggage, Southwest asked “would this help democratize air travel?” The answer was no, so they don’t charge.

2. How do we behave?

These are  core values. You can’t list every positive value here, however. That is too much and overwhelming. Get down to the one, two, or maybe truly endemic behaviors. So we need to distinguish different types of values. For example, there are aspirational values. These are things you aspire to, but which aren’t true of your organization right now. When you make these core values, you lose credibility. One of Enron’s core values, for example, was integrity! That was not a true core value for them. A core value is something you are willing to be punished for. You will hold to it even if it would be to your detriment.

When someone asks you to violate a core value, you lovingly recognize that this is not the place for them. This is how you know you believe in something — if you will hold to it even if it wouldn’t benefit you (externally).

Churches really struggle here. This is because they confuse core values with permission to play values. These are the minimum standards. For example: telling the truth. This is more of a minimum standard. Of course you won’t hire people who lie. Minimum standards are critical. But this isn’t what we’re talking about when we talk about core values. Here, one church is often very different from another. Everyone should be able to worship at your church, but this doesn’t mean anybody should be able to work there. There must be a core value fit.

“To work in a church, you should never do it because you have to have the job.” It should be only because you are able to contribute to the mission. [If you are there just to have a job, please leave as fast as you can! I know some people like this and there is no faster way to ruin a church!]

3. What do we do?

Many executives actually aren’t on the same page here.

4. How will we succeed?

This is the issue of strategy. Strategy boils down to three anchors, which become the filter for every decision you make. Every organization can do this. For example, at Southwest: make the customers fanatically loyal, don’t make the plane late, and keep fares low. They tell everyone in the organization these three things, and say: “As long as you do these three things, you can make whatever decision you need.” This empowers employees.

Most employees’ strategy boils down to this: I’m just going to try to avoid getting in trouble. This is why most customer service is so bad.

5. What is most important, right now?

6. Who must do what?

3. Over-communicate clarity

You need to hear something 7 times in most organizations before people believe it.

4. Reinforce clarity through human systems

Do things in creative ways that reinforce and demonstrate the values.

I hope that someday organizational health will become standard in organizations. That will change the world. Until that happens, this represents an incredible opportunity for competitive advantage.

Craig Groeschel is up now, pastor of Lifechurch.tv, one of the largest churches in the nation. Here is my summary.

Sometimes people say to me, “Craig, how did you come into ministry?” I would not be doing what I am doing today if it had been for my pastor who took a risk on me at 23 and said “I believe God can do something special with your life.”

Tragically, there is not enough of this today. I want to talk to the older generation, and then the younger generation. I think I can maybe do this for a bit because I’m about in the middle right now.

How do you know if you are in the older generation? Let’s just say if you have to ask that question, you probably are.

To the Older Generation

Don’t look down on the next generation, don’t resent them, don’t look down on them. Believe in them because they need you.

Know that even though some in our society don’t always value maturity, God values maturity. If you’re not dead, you’re not done.

If you’ve got breath, keep going. I’d dare to say your best days are before you.

One of the most innovative and impacting ideas he’s learned came from a guy who was 75.

How can you hand ministry over to the next generation? The key is in delegating. Don’t just delegate tasks to the next generation. If you do this, you create followers. People who simply do what they’re told. Delegate authority, because then you create leaders. And that’s exactly what my pastor did to me.

Embrace the season you are in. Don’t try to be something you aren’t. The younger generation can smell a fake from a million miles away. Be yourself. With the younger generation, authenticity trumps cool every single time. “There’s nothing worse than some fat, fifty year old preacher wearing skinny jeans. Just say no.”

You can be a spiritual father to those who come behind you.

To the Younger Generation

You need those who have gone before you more than you can imagine.

A characteristic of the younger generation is the sense of entitlement. This is not your fault necessarily — you were coddled. One result of entitlement is over estimating what you can do. But most people over estimate what they can do in a short time and under estimate what they can do in a long time.

Showing honor publicly results in influence privately. The younger generation, however, often doesn’t show honor, and this is hurting churches and ministries.

One reason we have failed to honor people because we have failed to honor God for who he is. When we honor God for who he is, we will more naturally honor those around us.

Honor builds up; dishonor tears down. Honor values others; dishonor tears down. I would argue that in our churches and organizations, because of a lack of honor and love, we are limiting what we are able to do.

Some people say “if my pastor (or boss or etc.) was honorable, I’d show honor to them.” But it’s respect that is earned; honor is given. Treating people with honor is often what leads to them becoming honorable. Some of you in the younger generation need to repent of how you have treated those above you, because you have dishonored them. If you want to learn to be over, you need to learn to be under with integrity.

How Do We Do This?

Both generations must be intentional about this.

1. Create ongoing feedback loops. For example, each week I go over my message with a group that has people from the older generation and from the younger generation. Then after teaching the first one on Saturday night, I go back into a room and have it critiqued by those older and younger. You need to create intentional opportunities to get feedback. And think what it says to your church when a senior leader says to a 23 year-old “I value your opinion.”

2. Create specific mentoring moments. For example, yesterday I had a chance to sit with one of the major business leaders in our country. I was taking notes and writing as fast as I can. Recently we had a gathering in our church of the older and younger meeting together. These meetings do not happen by accident. You have to plan for them. This is one of the most important things you can do to develop strength in your organization. If you are younger, ask someone older, “will you mentor me?” Then ask them questions like crazy. Don’t try to copy what they do. Learn how they think.

3. Create opportunities for significant leadership development. For example, at our church we had a developmental weekend where we wanted to help develop new speakers. In a single weekend, we trained 38 new speakers to proclaim God’s word, and sent a resounding message that we are a church that values the next generation.

My Thoughts

This was a truly fantastic message. Review this. Learn from this.