Just the Gravy
Highlights from day one of The Global Leadership Summit:
- The leaders most valuable asset isn’t time its energy and the ability to energize others. Leaders manage energy.
- Arrange your schedule around six priorities that you’re shooting to accomplish in six weeks. (6X6)
- You’re not a leader to respond to stuff. You’re a leader to move stuff ahead.
- Create dissatisfaction first. Don’t paint a picture of “there” until you’ve made the case for why we can’t stay “here.” (My personal favorite.)
- Fanatic discipline is consistent, consecutive, performance. Don’t save your best efforts for the best conditions. Reach your goal everyday regardless of conditions. “The 20 mile march.”
- “The signature of mediocrity is chronic inconsistency.”
- Fire bullets to calibrate a line of sight and then fire cannonballs.
- Creativity is natural discipline is not.
- Greatest danger is not failure it is being successful without knowing why.
- Ask yourself, “What is the best way to leverage the unexpected.”
- Bad events are defining moments.
- “Greatness is not a matter of circumstances.”
- Determine your real purpose by asking, “Who would miss us if we were gone and why.”
- Organizations are not truly great if they can’t be great without you.
Condoleezza Rice:
- Optimism is the essential leadership quality.
- “No one wants to follow a sour puss.”
- Things that once seemed impossible become inevitable in retrospect.
Marc Keilburger: (Co-CEO, Me to We)
- Most senior leaders under-communicate mission and vision by a factor of ten.
- Impact in the world is the result of aligning your gift/ability/talent with an issue.
- Look for young people who have empathy.
- Show don’t tell.
- Embrace shameless idealism.
- Take people out of their comfort zone.
Which ideas get traction in your thinking? Why?
Freak alert: I’m at the The Global Leadership Summit. It’s likely I’ll be posting once or twice more today.
Hi Dan
nice post today, sounds like its a great conference. Keep those tips coming!
Best regards
Killian
The one that rings the truest for me is Keilburger #3. “Impact” is a result of aligning all you have and who you are. These are all things which take time to discover, uncover and nurture in ourselves, as well as others. But when you find the sweet spot, you know, and you produce almost effortlessly.
And also that we need to show and not tell. We do best and get the best consistent results from others when we constantly model the behavior we expect. We have to embrace and demonstrate our own unique greatness to get the best from others.
Martina
Thank you Martina.
I hadn’t heard Keilburger before …he’s like a squirrel on steroids, filled with passion. His insights were great for everyone especially those working with volunteers.
I loved the simplicity of his idea that we can make the world a better place by bringing our “gift” to an issue. For example, if your gift is soccer and your issue is hunger then have a fund raiser for hunger using soccer.
What a brilliantly simplistic way to get people to see that they can serve others and still do what they love.
I had not heard of him either but look forward to hearing more.
Thanks for sharing
Glad you mentioned the show don’t tell Martina…wonder if a variation or next step might be, ‘ask to be shown’.
I agree with the fish or show how to fish, however, if the fishing has been happening with limited results, asking to be shown how others have been fishing might help them find flaws in their process.
Rather than showing them the flaw, much more is gained beyond the fishing, when they discover a way themselves to do it better. also conveys respect for the work they do.
Dan,
This is so valuable. Thank you for taking us with you.
My favorites:
‘The signature of mediocrity is chronic inconsistency’. Oh yeah.
“Things that once seemed impossible become inevitable in retrospect.” How helpful when we face the seemingly impossible.
‘Align your talent with an issue to impact the world’. What great advice for we non-celebrity folks.
‘Talk people out of their comfort zone’. Yes! They will value you forever if you can accomplish that. You will enrich their lives beyond measure.
Dauna Easley
Thank you Dauna.
One of my personal favorites is taking people out of their comfort zones. It’s an inevitable reality when it comes to developing leaders. We all tend to cling to the safe and familiar…
when we get people to let go of what they know they have the chance learn what they don’t know.
Thanks so much for this post. I wanted to go to the summit, but was not able this year. Keep the notes coming. 🙂 I like the 6×6 concept of Hybels you shared. I always am in need of prioritization and focus it seems, as a leader. That is something I will try to put into place when I do my next weekly review. I also love Jim Collins’ latest book, Great By Choice. The 20 mile march is what I need to define for me, as disciplined focus on my goals/KRAs is hard at times. Thanks again.
Thank you Arman.
I have another post in my head from yesterday…who knows what will come out today. Thanks for the encouragement and sharing things that matter to you.
I’m with you, Great by Choice is a great read. I was fortunate to spend 1/2 a day with Jim in a small group, last year while he shared his ideas. Very helpful.
The 6X6 idea is some of Hybels’ writing…it’s worth exploring.
That must have been really awesome in a group with Jim. I’ll have to check out Hybel’s book.
Loving the summit and these posts! Really liked what Condee said about Todays Headlines and Histories Judgement rarely being the same and He might be your friend but he’s still the President.
Thank you Earl.
Agreed, totally cool quote. Thanks for adding it.
just give them the vision — your team can make it happen once the visualize what success is
Thank you Bill.
You did a fantastic job of distilling the key points – thank you! All of these are awesome quotes.
Thank you Happy. Enjoy!
BH1&4. JC1&4. CR – all of ’em. MK4&5. And others. But, today, most of all MK4 because: “Henry Blogg never spoke to the press if he could avoid it. He spoke of the courage of his crew but never his own. He neither drank nor smoked and preferred the quiet of his cottage to the clamour of the world. His medals were rarely worn in public and kept in a sideboard drawer in his home.
Did the real Henry Blogg ever make himself known? The answer is no. Henry Blogg is the most celebrated son of Cromer, England and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution’s most decorated lifeboatman. People know his name all over Britain and in many parts of the world. Yet he was a man of very few words and managed to resist the lure of fame.
Like many of the fishermean around him, this hero among lifeboatmen never learned to swim.
Much of what we know about Henry Blogg comes from what others have said of him.”
Well stated Ben, thanks!
I second Doc’s comment!! Thanks
What an elaborately interwoven tapestry of excellent leadership perspectives! I believe I would be picking up my jaw frequently, thanks so much for being there/here Dan!
The most powerful and least applied might be JC’s #10 Organizations are great only if they can be great without you…great legacy perspective. MK’s #6 and BH’s #4 consistently speak to comfort zone which fits Kotter’s sense of urgency. I wonder if it is a case of ‘creating’ dissatisfaction/discomfort in contrast to leaders pointing out what will become obvious markers for the need to constantly and consistently improve on what you are doing. Of course, timing and pace are parts of this weave too.
Liked BH’s point about aligning and distributing energy, great reframe. Doesn’t matter if it is positive energy or negative energy, it is all convertible…negative may take a bit more time/energy to convert. And his comment about responding to stuff (manager’s role?) rather than moving stuff ahead, spot on.
Great fun for a Friday, thanks again Dan.
Thank you Doc.
I love thinking about the tension between creating dissatisfaction along with painting a vision. I find that I’m frequently dissatisfied…holding that quality optimistically is a great opportunity for leaders to effect change.
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Bobby
Yep – my favorite … Leaders manage energy. It is all about movement. i remind my folks to think of the energy they possess and how to use it to move forward. Thanks for the post – also Jim Collins has been a favorite for a long while.
– Michael
I just love this post! Thanks for sharing insight from the summit, I’m looking forward to reading more!