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Global Leadership Summit (GLS) 2016: Words of Wisdom

Last week, Thursday and Friday, I was blessed enough to attend the Global Leadership Summit 2016 at a satellite facility at The Compass Church in Naperville.

I want to thank The Compass for hosting this event. Next year's summit, which broadcasts live from the home base in Barrington, IL, has already sold out their 7,000+ seat facility! The summit has been held annually since 1992 and is simulcast at over 550 locations in 675 cities, 130 countries to over 300,000 people.

This was the most amazing conference I have attended in my 20+ years as a business professional. I kept thinking, I wish my boss was here (and he is not religious at all).

The summit is led by some of the most intelligent, nobel minds of our lifetime. It was so inspiring to me, I have to share this information thinking others may not know of its existence and be curious enough to look into it.

The goal of the summit is to inspire minds and hearts to news ways of looking at our lives in the workplace.  This is not just for "leaders" as the title implies, it is for everyone! It will give folks a toolbox to tap into their leadership potential no matter what role they play in life. Even stay at home parents could learn from this!

Personally and professionally, I want to embrace hearts and souls thru my work activities and not just build relationships and execute "transactions."

I leave you with my personal highlights reel for each speaker which is only the tip of the iceberg of their talks.  I am sure each attendee would have a different list of bullet points. This conference fans your spiritual flame and sparks your motivational leadership potential with real life testimonies, strategies and action items to extend into every day life for every day use!

Top GLS16 Impact Impressions

Alan Mulally - CEO Ford Motor Co.

  • People first; include everyone in your vision
  • Respect, listen, help, appreciate
  • One clear, focused plan backed by facts and data

Melinda Gates - Gates Foundation

  • Engage in daily practices (silence, prayer, journalling)
  • Change one life
  • Work in the community

Travis Bradberry - EQ Expert/Author

  • Emotional Quotient is more important than IQ
  • Self awareness and self management
  • Lean into your weakness "if you spot it you got it"
  • Social and Relationship Management - how does your behavior affect other people

Patrick Lencioni - Organizational Strategist/Author

  • Humble, Hungry and People Smart
  • Personality Dissection
  • Hire the right people - interview strategies
  • Don't focus on the tangible (resume/tech skills), focus on the soft/people skills

Chris McChesney - Execution Expert

  • Execution is harder than strategy
  • Hardest thing to do: Drive a plan that changes human behavior
  • Focus on the wildly important
  • What are the fewest battles to win the war
  • Engagement is key: get team to say "Game on!"
  • Do the people feel they are playing a high stakes winnable game?

Erin Meyer - Culture Consultant/Professor

  • Cultural differences highly impact global businesses
  • Understand the communication context of each culture [low (i.e. US) to high (i.e Japan) context]
  • Low context is literal, clear; high context is subtext and "read the air" (understand what I mean, not what I say)

John Maxwell - Leadership Expert/Author

  • You must "find" the person before you can lead them
  • Get everyone to think and act with intention
  • Intentionally, every day, add value to people
  • Everything worthwhile is uphill
  • People have uphill hopes (significance) and downhill habits (selfishness)
  • Think of and look for ways (every day) to add value to people and do it!

TD Jakes - Swiss Army Knife

  • You should not surround yourself with those that look, think, act like yourself
  • You should be challenged, not comfortable, take risks
  • You can't go thru the door of destiny without going thru the hall of hatred
  • Your dream should be bigger than you, leverage the people around you to accomplish your dream
  • It's not where you want to go that's the issue, it's what are you willing to leave behind?

Horst Schulze - Ritz Carlton

  • Hire for the purpose of the destination, not by function/role
  • Repeat every day as needed
  • Focus on the people - your market and your employees
  • What you should deliver: product/service with no defects, timely delivery, kind service

Continue reading in LinkedIn for more inspirational quotes from the Summit!

Margaret is our Director of Delivery - North America. Besides her enthusiasm for being a true client partner, Margaret enjoys singing, writing and helping others achieve their personal and professional goals. Feel free to contact her on LinkedIn.
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