Leadership Summit

We're one day in and it has been a great Summit. Bill Hybels opened the conference with a very passionate cry to become a more invested leader. He spoke on the process of forming, refining, and selling a vision. About how vision leaks and how great leaders spend far more time trying to obtain more ownership of the vision than taking credit for it. He closed by discussing the difference of ownership versus being a hireling. It made me wonder what path I am headed down.

Carly Fiorina, New York Times Bestselling Author, told her story of her climb to the top as President and CEO of Hewlett-Packard. She spoke of the tough choices that leaders are often faced with. It was made clear from her story that leaders are often set apart by their ability to make the tough calls and handle them with integrity.

Rev Floyd Flake filled the always difficult "post lunch" slot and was a bit to intellectual for me at that time of the day.

Marcus Buckingham closed the first day with a great session. He was one of the most engaging and entertaining people I have ever heard speak on leadership. His session was on playing to your strengths and managing your weaknesses. We explored ways to spend more and more of our time and energy building on our strengths. I'm walking away with some clear actions steps of ways to discover and excel at my strengths.

Our leadership team was challenged to commit to six action steps to take to become a better leader as a result of something we learned at the summit. One (maybe two) of my action step will be on discovering and spending more of my time in my strengths.

I desperately want to become a better leader. I'm willing to make the investment.