Bring together 15 different speakers for a two-day leadership event and there’s one thing you can count on: A variety of takes on how to grow as a leader!
That’s by design, of course, because no one wants to sit for hours listening to the same message from different people. But one thing you might have noticed if you were at the Global Leadership Summit last week (either in person or online) is that the diverse group of speakers often reinforced each other in some powerful ways.
For instance, whether it was a CEO, a former football coach, a hip-hop choreographer, a research scientist, or a pastor, most of the keynotes hit on the importance of leading from a place of authenticity.
Be yourself.
I love that, I appreciated the different ways they all came to that conclusion, because they all came to it by … you guessed it … being themselves!
In the coming months, I plan to mine these great presentations for a series of blogs, but I wanted to take a moment and capture a few of the highlights that will help me be myself as a leader. Hopefully, they will help you, too.
Bradley Rapier, the award-winning choreographer and founder of Groove Theory, used the metaphor of stepping into a “dance circle” to break free of linear thinking so we can unleash greater creativity.
“You are not a math equation. And you are not gravity. Stop trying to prove yourself. It’s the wrong perspective. In the circle, we don’t prove. We offer. That shift is a gift. Offer what you uniquely have and bring that to the circle.”
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Juliet Funt, who advises companies such as Nike, Spotify, and Costco as the CEO of The Juliet Funt Group, reminded us that we can’t outpace the infinite demands of modern work unless we choose what not to do.
“We are not infinite—but the work is.”
“If you spread the peanut butter too thin, you’ll rip the bread.”
Nick Saban, the hall-of-fame former football coach, talked about the self-discipline needed to achieve individual goals that lead to team success.
“We all make hundreds of decisions every day that come down to two questions. Here’s something I know I’m supposed to do but I really don’t want to do; can you make yourself do it? And then over here there’s something you know you’re not supposed to do but you want to do it; Can you keep yourself from it? If you can make these choices and decisions correctly, you’ll always be able to stay on the path of accomplishing the goals you have.”
Christine Kane, founder of the nonprofit A21 that fights against human trafficking, highlighted idea that being yourself isn’t about self-promotion, but about seeing and serving others.
“In a world full of selfies, we need leaders who see others.”
John Maxwell, the prolific author whose books on leadership have sold more than 35 million copies, sees service as our true legacy.
“What you leave in people is more important than what you leave for them.”
Gabriel Salguero, pastor of the Gathering place and president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, had a great presentation on how to become “bridge builders” that included an emphasis on valuing your own story without feeling threatened by others who are different.
“Conviction and civility are not antonyms.”
“You cannot lead other people across differences unless you know yourself deeply. … Identity precedes mission. We lead out of who we are.”
Thasunda Brown Duckett, president and CEO of TIAA, shared how she learned to see herself as a leader by connecting to her purpose.
“The minute I could connect to purpose – and my purpose is to inspire and to make a positive impact in the world – then I could own the accolades … because I understood what the outcomes were about.”
Tasha Eurich, an organizational psychologist and author, unpacked her latest research, which led her and her team to identity several myths about resilience and how the better approach is to thrive by being “shatterproof.”
“When we’re taught to be resilient, we are taught that we can never break. But when we learn to become shatterproof, we learn that we can bend, that we can break, we can even hit rock bottom. And that’s where the choice lies. The choice to remake ourselves, to reinvent ourselves, to find these new ways of meeting our needs.”
I’ll end with David Ashcraft, the president of the Global Leadership Network that sponsored the event, because he spent his time talking about how listening to great speakers can create self-doubt and discouragement if we start comparing ourselves to others.
“Comparisons fill your head with self-doubt. Comparisons actually breed self-doubt.”
“Shift from comparing yourself to others, which just leads to self-doubt, and decide to start being an advantage to those around you by just being you.”
