Leadership Summit 11 of 11

On this blog I will be re-posting quotes from the Leadership Summit at Willow Creek that happened last week.  Bill Hybels heads up this conference and brings in some of the most influential leaders in the country each year to be a part of the process.  I am simply re-posting what Tony Morgan has on his blog www.tonymorganlive.com, these are not my quotes or comments.  These quotes may or may not apply to you or the position you may hold but if you can benefit from any of the truths that are written than run with it.

Top 11 Leadership Challenges

I had a great couple of days at the Leadership Summit at Willow Creek earlier this week. The notes for all the sessions are available in previous posts. Here are my top 11 leadership challenges from all the sessions. These are my favorite challenges from each speaker.

1. “Sometimes the comfortable thing to do isn’t the right thing to do.” -Tony Blair
2. “What I really find hard to take is lifeless ceremony.” -Bono
3. “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” -David Gergen quoting unknown person
4. “In God’s economy, vision should move from the fringes to the middle.” -Dave Gibbons
5. “When an organization misses the future, it’s not because it was unknown–it was because it’s inpalatable.” -Gary Hamel
6. “When you find the bright spot, study it and clone it.” -Dan Heath
7. “When I listen to God slowly, he speaks more frequently.” -Bill Hybels
8. “People consider it compassionate not to be honest with people. It’s not. That’s disrespectful.” -Carly Fiorina on dealing with poor performance
9. “People who believe the Gospel are utterly different.” -Tim Keller
10. “There is no country in the world that has developed through handouts.” -Andrew Rugasira
11. “What’s your cause? Does it move you to tears? What is it that moves you passionately?” -Wess Stafford

Leadership Summit 10 of 11

Over the next blog I will be re-posting quotes from the Leadership Summit at Willow Creek that happened last week.  Bill Hybels heads up this conference and brings in some of the most influential leaders in the country each year to be a part of the process.  I am simply re-posting what Tony Morgan has on his blog www.tonymorganlive.com, these are not my quotes or comments.  These quotes may or may not apply to you or the position you may hold but if you can benefit from any of the truths that are written than run with it.

Leadership Summit: Tony Blair

• “Sometimes the comfortable thing to do isn’t the right thing to do.”
• “Be prepared to walk away.”
• “If the facts change, I change my mind.”
• “There are those running a commentary and then there are those who are actually trying to shape the world around them.”
• “If you are of religious faith, it’s the most important thing in your life.”
• “Of course it sustained me enormously.”
• “Faith is a potent force for good or bad.”
• “Are we going to react or make a statement?”
• [It's interesting how many times the various speakers over the last couple of days have referred to "emotional appeals" in communications.]
• “I feel like I have a purpose in life.”
• “Leadership is a blessing. It’s a gift–a gift you can use to help others.”
• “The joy of getting something done makes all the pain worthwhile.”
• “It’s a gift from God and we should use it.”
• Hybels: “What is my irreducible core?” (referencing Blair comments)
• Hybels: “Will I pay whatever price I have to pay to stay true to that?”

Leadership Summit 9 of 11

Over the next two blogs I will be re-posting quotes from the Leadership Summit at Willow Creek that happened last week.  Bill Hybels heads up this conference and brings in some of the most influential leaders in the country each year to be a part of the process.  I am simply re-posting what Tony Morgan has on his blog www.tonymorganlive.com, these are not my quotes or comments.  These quotes may or may not apply to you or the position you may hold but if you can benefit from any of the truths that are written than run with it.

Leadership Summit: Bono

• This is a video interview between Bill Hybels and Bono. It’s a follow up from a similar video interview three years ago.
• “I didn’t know the giant could run that fast.”
• “The church is in the lead–not in the rear.”
• “Malaria deaths are down 50%. We’re actually winning on this stuff.”
• “We believe that ‘love thy neighbor’ is not advice. It’s a command.”
• We’re watching a video sharing the story of Eagle Brook Church’s involvement in addressing AIDS in Africa. www.eaglebrookchurch.com
• Bono wrote the words to “Where the Streets Have No Name” in Ethiopia twenty-some years ago.
• “Intuition is greater than intellect.”
• Watching a video about Whittier Area Community Church’s efforts to help kids in Africa: www.wacc.net
• “I go where the life is.” (referring to church.)
• “What I really find hard to take is lifeless ceremony.”
• “When you’re making a sermon, people want you to be honest. They want a spirit of humility.”
• Now we’re watching a video about Lives Changed By Christ church: www.lcbcchurch.com
• “The church tends to separate itself from people.”
• “That’s not grace.”
• “Whenever I see grace, I’m moved.”
• “There is always resistance to the journey of equality.”
• “These statistics have faces.”

Leadership Summit 8 of 11

Over the next three blogs I will be re-posting quotes from the Leadership Summit at Willow Creek that happened last week.  Bill Hybels heads up this conference and brings in some of the most influential leaders in the country each year to be a part of the process.  I am simply re-posting what Tony Morgan has on his blog www.tonymorganlive.com, these are not my quotes or comments.  These quotes may or may not apply to you or the position you may hold but if you can benefit from any of the truths that are written than run with it.

Leadership Summit: Chip & Dan Heath

Leadership Summit 7 of 11

Over the next four blogs I will be re-posting quotes from the Leadership Summit at Willow Creek that happened last week.  Bill Hybels heads up this conference and brings in some of the most influential leaders in the country each year to be a part of the process.  I am simply re-posting what Tony Morgan has on his blog www.tonymorganlive.com, these are not my quotes or comments.  These quotes may or may not apply to you or the position you may hold but if you can benefit from any of the truths that are written than run with it.

Leadership Summit: David Gergen

• Here’s a link to Gergen’s book: www.amazon.com
• “Ford was the most decent President I worked for.”
• “We have come to prize people who are decent…because they seem to be so rare.”
• “The quality I most admired in Clinton was his resilience.”
• “Reagan was the best leader in the White House since Franklin Roosevelt.”
• “He had a contagious optimism about life.” (about Reagan)
• Reagan used to say, “Sometimes the right hand doesn’t know what the far-right hand is doing.”
• “Nixon had demons in him that he could not control. Eventually they brought him down.”
• “Ford could sometimes be a little naive.”
• “Reagan would sometimes let others put their hands on the wheel.”
• “Clinton clearly had cracks in his character. He made mistakes. He made grievous mistakes.”
• “Not all great leaders are deeply flawed.”
• “I think all of us is flawed. Maturity is about coming to grips with our flaws.”
• “With regard to our leaders, we should be more forgiving about their private lives but more demanding about their public lives.”
• Warren Bennis: “The days of the ‘lone ranger’ as a leader is over.”
• “Your role as a leader should be to build a team of other leaders.”
• “We build things together.”
• Gergen quoting someone else: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
• “Trying to order people doesn’t work. We need to persuade people.”
• [The "go fast" line may be the best takeaway of the entire conference.]
• Hybels: “Your brand, I think, is your hair.” (about Gergen)
• “We are so bombarded with words.”
• “You’re not going to listen to someone who is sounding off. You’ll listen to someone who is rooted.”
• “A speech shouldn’t last more than 15 or 20 minutes.”
• “In the early part of your speech, establish who you are.” (assuming they don’t know you.)
• “Then introduce the emotion.”
• “Then the message should be the reasoned part of your speech.”
• “At the end, it’s really important to come back to the emotional appeal. You have to have a call to action.”
• “I think the best preachers bring the argument, but they also bring the emotional appeal.”
• [Hybels has always been a very good interviewer.]
• “Leadership is a very physically demanding part of life.”
• “You have to be physically fit.”
• “You have to build time into your day to reflect.”
• “You have to build time into your day to spend time with the people you cherish.”
• “Having a moral compass is extremely important to leadership.”
• “It’s important to have good anchors in life.”
• “Faith and family and friends are great anchors in life.”

Leadership Summit 6 of 11

Over the next five blogs I will be re-posting quotes from the Leadership Summit at Willow Creek that happened last week.  Bill Hybels heads up this conference and brings in some of the most influential leaders in the country each year to be a part of the process.  I am simply re-posting what Tony Morgan has on his blog www.tonymorganlive.com, these are not my quotes or comments.  These quotes may or may not apply to you or the position you may hold but if you can benefit from any of the truths that are written than run with it.

Leadership Summit: Wess Stafford

• Wess is the CEO of Compassion International.
• The organization is 57 years old, but they’ve doubled in size in only 4 years.
• “If you are a leader here without your team, you are missing a golden opportunity.”
• “Terrible things can happen when children are considered the lowest priority.”
• “I was beaten in that place 17 times a week.” (boarding school)
• “God must hate me.”
• “There was no one to protect us.”
• He said, “There will be Africans in hell because of this little boy.”
• “How is Daddy doing his work without me?”
• “I had gone from a victim to a victor. I received my calling.”
• “Last year, 187,000 children accepted Christ. And 50,000 of them were little Africans.”
• “I may never have the courage like I had when I was only 10 years old.”
• “It was a story that God intended for evil, but God redeemed.”
• “By God’s grace, I’m still useful.”
• “What’s your cause? Does it move you to tears? What is it that moves you passionately?”
• “If it’s nothing, don’t live like that.”
• “We have worth because of Who gives us worth, not because of what we do.”
• “You took yesterday. You cannot have tomorrow.”
• Revelation 21:4

Leadership Summit 5 of 11

Over the next seven blogs I will be re-posting quotes from the Leadership Summit at Willow Creek that happened last week.  Bill Hybels heads up this conference and brings in some of the most influential leaders in the country each year to be a part of the process.  I am simply re-posting what Tony Morgan has on his blog www.tonymorganlive.com, these are not my quotes or comments.  These quotes may or may not apply to you or the position you may hold but if you can benefit from any of the truths that are written than run with it.

Leadership Summit: Andrew Rugasira

• Andrew is from Uganda. See “Good African Coffee.”
• Here’s the link to their site: www.goodafrican.com
• About Africa: “We have entrepreneurs, but we don’t celebrate that.”
• 53 countries in Africa. 900 million people.
• “Africa produces products but they do not consume.”
• 14,000 coffee suppliers in his company.
• Handouts don’t generate change.
• “There is no country in the world that has developed through handouts.”
• “Trade is the only sustainable way to take a country out of poverty.”
• Africa contributes only 2% of world’s merchandise.
• “Every time we look at Africa, we only see the problems and not the opportunities.”
• “Aid is not effective. Aid is not really aid.”
• “Aid undermines accountability.”
• [He's talking about how government aid is making things worse in Uganda. Yet, this is the same strategy we use to fix problems in the U.S. Go figure.]
• “The best kindness you can demonstrate is by helping people help themselves.”
• “That’s how the most advanced economies developed.”
• “Trade not aid.”

Leadership Summit 4 of 11

Over the next eight blogs I will be re-posting quotes from the Leadership Summit at Willow Creek that happened last week.  Bill Hybels heads up this conference and brings in some of the most influential leaders in the country each year to be a part of the process.  I am simply re-posting what Tony Morgan has on his blog www.tonymorganlive.com, these are not my quotes or comments.  These quotes may or may not apply to you or the position you may hold but if you can benefit from any of the truths that are written than run with it.

Leadership Summit: Dave Gibbons

• “Third culture” = adaptation
• “It’s normal for us to love someone like us.”
• “Third culture leader is focused on the fringe.”
• “It’s about the misfits rather than the masses.”
• “The margins lead the movements.”
• “In God’s economy, vision should move from the fringes to the middle.”
• “Who is the outsider?”
• “Third culture leaders have a different set of metrics.”
• “Failure is success to God. It’s your platform to humanity.”
• “Do you have time to listen to people’s stories at your church?”
• “When you walk through the crowds, walk slowly.”
• “Weakness guides us more than our strengths.”
• “Relationships trump vision. You can’t have a great vision unless you have a great relationship with God.”
• “We don’t need more visionaries. We need more relationaries.”
• “I spend most of my time on leadership development.”
• “Let the local leadership lead the way.”
• “Obedience is more important than passion.”
• “I don’t think Jesus ‘felt’ like going to the cross.”
• “If you were dependent on the Holy Spirit, you would pray.”

Leadership Summit 3 of 11

Over the next nine blogs I will be re-posting quotes from the Leadership Summit at Willow Creek that happened last week.  Bill Hybels heads up this conference and brings in some of the most influential leaders in the country each year to be a part of the process.  I am simply re-posting what Tony Morgan has on his blog www.tonymorganlive.com, these are not my quotes or comments.  These quotes may or may not apply to you or the position you may hold but if you can benefit from any of the truths that are written than run with it.

Leadership Summit: Tim Keller

• Tim Keller has just taken the platform and begun his talk.
• Tim is talking about the parable of the prodigal son.
• Both sons loved the Father’s things but didn’t love the Father.
• Both sons rejected God–one was moral and one was immoral.
• “The ‘bad boy’ is saved at the end of the parable, but the ‘good boy’ is lost.”
• “Elder brothers are obeying God to get things.”
• “People who believe the Gospel are utterly different.”
• “Older brothers get angry when their life doesn’t go well. They believe God owes them.”
• “The one thing elder brothers rarely do is just enjoy God.”
• “It’s impossible for elder brothers not to be constantly loathing people.”
• “Elder brothers can’t forgive. You have to have a fair amount of pride to stay angry.”
• “Until you have learned to repent for the motivation for your right doing, there’s no renewal.”
• “You, the leader, have to work this into your heart yourself.”
• “If you are a preacher, move beyond biblical principles to the Gospel.”
• “Get a group of leaders and help them through this process.”
• “Work it into your congregation.”
• “Pray for this.”

Leadership Summit 2 of 11

Over the next ten blogs I will be re-posting quotes from the Leadership Summit at Willow Creek that happened last week.  Bill Hybels heads up this conference and brings in some of the most influential leaders in the country each year to be a part of the process.  I am simply re-posting what Tony Morgan has on his blog www.tonymorganlive.com, these are not my quotes or comments.  These quotes may or may not apply to you or the position you may hold but if you can benefit from any of the truths that are written than run with it.

Leadership Summit: Gary Hamel

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