I’ve been back at work since the week after returning from Orlando and my…episode. I thought I was good to go the Monday after the conference but I wasn’t. So I stayed home Tuesday and made an appearance on Friday at the office. The following week, which is now last, was a short one for our staff. We spent August 11 and 12, Thursday and Friday, at The Global Leadership Summit (GLS) via satellite from Chicago’s Willow Creek Association.
Our operations director has been a longtime attendee of the GLS and decided last year to bring the office this year to The People’s Church, Franklin, a host site in Nashville, to be inspired, challenged, provoked, and impassioned about leadership. The whole experience made me think about where I am and where I’m headed on three specific levels: career, health, spirit. I think about the many plans that people hatch every year during the GLS, and I wonder how many people stay stuck and make no changes in their lives when the afterglow wanes.
Before my details get murkier, and thanks to my trusty Evernote conference notebook, here are my highlights in no specific order:
From Bill Hybels – Your job is to move your organization from here to there. When was the last time you re-examined the core of what your organization is about? Why can your next five years not be your best?
From Len Schlesinger – We are all entrepreneurs but only a few of us know it.
From Cory Booker – See hope.
From Brenda Salter McNeil – Be a global Christian. Pray for a divine mandate; name your catalytic events; mobilize people to go.
From Steven Furtick – Dig the ditches and the water will come. Do the work and know that God will do the rest.
From Mama Maggie Gobran – (She made everyone cry. Her mere presence was very Christ-like, very anointed, very soft spoken, but so deeply attuned to the heart of God. She’s Cairo’s Mother Teresa and a Noble Peace Prize nominee.) God can be found in the poorest of the poor. He can use you if you make yourself available.
From Patrick Lencioni – Be vulnerable.
The rest of this year’s—what Willow calls—faculty included Seth Godin (Oh. Em. Gee.), Dr. Henry Cloud (he talked about three kinds of people: Wise, Foolish, Evil), John Dickson (he spoke on humility and shared a cool story on meeting his, and my, favorite band U2), and Erwin McManus (he shared how he explained the Gospel to Soledad O’Brien).
Of course I’m severely condensing all that was taught at this year’s GLS. I think I’ll try live blogging next year so my notes are fresh. Our office is already signed up to go August 9 and 10, 2012.
Now to put all that I’ve learned this year into practice.
Ready… set… go!
