My Morning Prayer- #WCGLS

My Morning Prayer was in our programs at Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit. I commit to praying this every morning for the next 30 days and I cannot wait to see how God works in my life!
 

Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit Day 2

What an amazing day! So much to take in and think about!! I was so overwhelmed yesterday, I couldn't sleep at night. However, I feel re- energized and like I could take on the World. I cannot wait for next year! Here is a list of quotes I took from the second day at the Global Leadership Summit.

John Ortberg:

- "The reason we must marvel at this man is because his work is not done yet"

- “What if the word associated with Christians during this election cycle was HUMILITY?”

- "God is a Father with an unquenchable love for every single person on the planet"

- “Life is not about comfort. It’s about saying “God give me another mountain.”

- "You should never work in ministry because you have to have a job."

- “2000 years later, we give our children names like 'Peter' 'Paul' & 'Mary' and we give our dogs names like 'Caesar' & 'Nero'”

- “Jesus started a movement that is still happening.”

- “To often we argue about Christianity rather than marvel at Jesus.”

- “Leaders need to expand their view of Jesus’s Kingdom impact.”

- “Jesus gave the world its most influential movement.”

- “Where before the church was there a movement that wished to include everyone?…It was His idea.”

- “Jesus changed how we think about history.”

- “Jesus expressed how we shape compassion.”

- “The Jesus movement shaped education.”

- “Education honors God and allows us to think God’s thoughts of us.”

- ”Jesus revolutionized the arts.”

- “The Jesus movement changed political theory.”

- “Jesus changed about how we think about human rights and dignity.”

- “Jesus has a way of refusing to stay submerged.”

- “Jesus uniquely taught to love your enemies.”

- “The discoverer of the role of forgiveness in human affairs was Jesus.”

- “The question is not who was this man? The question is who is this man?”

- “The reason we marvel at this man is His work is not done yet.”

- “Let love rebuild and unite us”

- “If you work in the arts, would you make them shine once more? Because the world needs that.”

- John Ortberg quotes Hannah Arendt "The discoverer of the role of forgiveness in the realm of human affairs was Jesus of Nazareth."

- "The response of early-persecuted Christians was not to dream of revenge or start a revolt but to love."

- Application Questions:

Do you spend more debating Christianity or marveling about Jesus?

Are you consistently and Biblically teaching about the life and ministry of Jesus?

William Ury:

- "Some conflicts are so difficult that they can only be healed by a story."

- "Give people basic human respect. It costs nothing and means everything to them."

- “Do I not destroy my enemy when I turn them into my friend?” Abe Lincoln via Bill Ury.

- Better alternative for better negotiation we must do “Less talk, more walk.”

- "One of the greatest powers we have in negotiation is the power NOT to react."

- "We are the biggest obstacle to successful negotiation."

- “With regards to conflict-a person can only argue for so long if nobody is fueling their fire.”

- The power not to react is the foundation of successful “getting to yes.”

- “During conflict you need to keep the big picture in mind, What are you trying to achieve?”

- “We R the biggest barriers 2 achieving our success. We need to go to a spiritual, mental & emotional balcony 2 get clarity.”

- “Separate the people from the problem.”

- “The goal of negotiating success is not eliminating conflict, it is to reach a decision that works for everyone.”

- “We must learn to be soft with people and hard on problems.”

- Negotiations- “The biggest barrier to achieving success is ourself, because we have a tendency to react.“

- "That's why God gave us two ears and one mouth. Listen twice as much as you talk."

- “The cheapest concession you can make in a negotiation is basic respect. It is free, and makes a huge difference.”

- “In a negotiation, to listen costs you nothing but means everything to the other person.”

- “We're trying to change the game to where we are metaphorically on the same side of the table and not enemies.

- “Negotiating? Go to the "balcony," a place of clarity w/ high-level perspective to keep the big picture/end goal in mind.”

- “Your values have to be things that you stick with—even if you aren't rewarded for them.”

- Mediation: 1. Focus on people, not problems. 2. Focus on interests, not positions. 3. Seek creative options. 4. Be fair.

- Six Critical Questions to Answer:

1. Why do we exist? (core purpose)

When you know what your reason for existing is than it informs decision making

2. How do we behave? (core values)

This must get down to the 1-3 truly critical values. Not aspirational values, or values you want to have, but actual company values. These are thing you're willing to lose customers over and get punished in the market for.

3. What do we actually do?

What do you really do at your core, not what you sell.

4. How do we succeed? (strategy)

Strategy should be accessible to everyone in the company. We can define strategy as the myriad of intentional decisions we make to separate us from our competitors. Boil strategy down to three things - three strategic anchors

5. What is most important in our organization right now? (rally cry)

6. Who must do what? (positional clarity)

- "The key foundation to successful negotiation is making sure you have clarity to what you really want to achieve."

- Here's a key question..."How could you possibly change someone's mind, if you don't know where that mind is?"

- It begins with awareness: "The single biggest obstacle to conflict is ourselves."

Bill Hybels:

- (On Jesus) “I don’t understand people who tell me they feel alone all the time. I’m never alone.”

- AGREE 110%!!! “I wouldn’t take a paycheck to get people involved in organized religion. But I’d work for free for the rest of my life to introduce people to Jesus.”

- “The human death rate is still hovering around 100%. Who and what are you living your precious time for?”

- "I'm not afraid of death, because I know the One who conquered it."

- “What dream needs to be born out of your journal?”

- "If we were to pull back all the layers of this thing we call leadership, at the core of it all is this thing called trust.”

- “The message of Christ has been given to the church; first to live it out and then to spread it to the whole world.”

- “The hope of the world is the local Church.”

- “I'm into something other than religion. I am into Jesus.” AMEN!

- "Jesus started a movement with His life and we are now the stewards of His movement."

- When I was young, someone asked, "What will you do with your life that will last forever? It wrecked me."

- "God, I'll keep doing THIS if you'll keep doing THAT." I know what THAT is. What's the THIS for my life?

- "Vision propels people forward who would otherwise be comfortable with the status quo."

- "Where there is no vision, what happens? People perish. They settle for a life of no purpose."

- “The greatest privilege on earth is when God taps you on the shoulder to build His Church!”

- “It's one thing to see a vision, it's another to be seized by a vision “

- How can someone say they love God but when He taps them on the shoulder say, “No thanks. I’m building my own thing”?

- "The Church will survive because of who it is that's actually building it, sustaining it, invigorating it: Jesus."

- "There are many who have been screwed by church and faith and by those who were in 'relationship' with Jesus Christ."

- "The church is the hope of the world! Not education business or government They're part but not like church!"

- “If the church is the hope of the world then EVERY ATTENDER matters because THEY are THE CHURCH!”

- “We must change the trajectory of hate-filled kids' lives by intersecting their life with love.”

- “Someone has to tell the kid w/the hate filled heart: There's a mind blowing love in Heaven with your name on it.”

Patrick Lencioni:

- "Trying to be all things to all people means you're nothing to no one."

- "To violate a core value is to ask you to sell your soul."

- "Your company: Ask yourself, Why do we exist?"

- "Core values should be behaviors you ALREADY have, not ones you WISH you had."

- "A core value is something you're willing to get punished for."

- "If your people can't do a good impression of you when you're not around you're not communicating enough!"

- "Minimum standards are different than core values."

- “Without humility there is no healthy organization.”

- “You must define the 3 anchors that you'd be willing to be punished for keeping. Make all decisions based on them.”

- "People need to be reminded not told."

Geoffrey Canada:

- "Significance is based in part on the depth of relationships. Trust is fragile."

- "I failed. I'm gonna try twice as hard. I'm still gonna be successful." How do you respond to failure?"

- "The way you build a more powerful organization is to demand a level of excellence from staff and hold everyone accountable to that."

- "Who do u need to intentionally thank 4 "saving your soul" as a young person? Who helped u on a better path? Thank them!"

- "It's easy to let some1 go when they're disagreeable. It's harder when they're passionate but not the right person."

- "Remember who you work for."

- "I failed, but I'm gonna come back twice as hard and I refuse to belittle my vision."That's powerful!

- “As a leader, it is much more difficult to admit failure when you are well known.”

- "We put a rover on Mars. We can do anything we set our mind to. There's no reason we can't also solve poverty & abuse."

- "When you fail, resist the temptation to scale back the vision. Try twice as hard!"

- "We can't allow one more generation to be on the pipeline from cradle to prison. Must be impatient with failure."

- "Actively think of how to REPLACE yourself when everything is on its way UP."

- "This younger generation is one of the most cause-minded, mission-oriented in our history EVER."

- "If u want to attract talent for succession you must be open about leaving & leave while things are good."

-"Never allow anyone to water-down your vision"

- "I want to leave when the organization is going up so the next person has a great first year." #legacy #succession

- "We are a moment in a path to victory."

- "If you have a child, there's no time in that child's life when you can't be a great parent"

- "The real test of faith is when you're dealing with something that only faith can take you through."

- "Know when your institution belongs to the young ppl now... Most ppl leave after they've expired!"

- “Christians want to celebrate and have a good time, but they're not prepared to do the tough stuff.”

- "As a leader, get your moral compass right. Otherwise, it will hurt a lot of people.”

- "It’s easy to have faith when everything is going great."

- “You know faith when you are going through something that hurts so bad that only faith can get you through it.”

- "Our real role models are the people we'll never know, who even in the darkest times just never gave up."

- "Hope is contagious, but so is despair."

-"Some people fight the good fight & never see progress in their lifetime. You are a moment on the path toward victory"

Rachael Turken:

- "God will continually catch you off guard."

- "Traveler there is no path the path is made by walking."

Mario Vega:

- "Leaders are qualified through their integrity of character."

- "Keeping failures secret is a mistake."

-"When values differ, life's road begins to pull people apart and only by accident do their paths cross."

- "Personality and talent, charisma and skill are not enough- Integrity of character is what is needed."

-"The morale failure of a leader will challenge the integrity of others as well."

-"Never give yourself permission to avoid doing what you know is right."

- On tough decisions: "We are not just responsible for our own actions, but also the influence we have over those we lead."

- "Integrity lost cannot be fully restored."

- "You can lose it all over just one moral mistake."

- "Preservation of your ego may be the destruction of your soul." Wow!

- “Never give yourself permission to avoid doing what is right.”

- “Sometimes we have to choose: will we be with God or will we be with man.”

Pranitha Timothy:

-"We are called to serve because this life belongs to God and God IS good."

- "My spouse and my kids are better off in the hands of God, not in my own." Now that's hard to swallow!

- "God gave me this voice - feeble and yet powerful in His hands."

- "Our pain constantly reminds us that we need God."

- "This life belongs to God, it is not my own."

- "God goes before us into the darkness to make straight our path so we can bring His light to the broken."

- "Being humble does not mean God won't require us to do something that requires great strength."

- "Take advantage of the moments and small opportunities applying every gift and ounce of skill entrusted." #fearnot

- "When we grieve death and all that could have been... we believe God is good, and it gives us hope."

- "Our lives belong to God. Strength doesn't come from willful determination but from He who is the source of all."

-"Being humble does not mean God will never ask us to do something that requires great strength."

Miscellaneous Quotes:

- "When selecting a life verse, be cautious about using OT Scriptures which reference Israel's unfaithfulness."

- (Craig Groeschel) "Respect is earned but HONOR is given. 1 Peter 2:17... Honor everyone."

- "The gift on you will destroy you if what is within is not strong enough to sustain you."

- "People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed." - Samuel Johnson

- "Gloriously or tragically, leaders lead from who they are on the inside." -Gary Haugen

- "Leaders lead out of who they are on the inside. This is why the God who made us is so eage to remake us on the inside."

- "God does his miracles of transformation through miraculously transformed people." -Gary Haugen

- Sometimes churches struggle to use core values because they think "Well she loves Jesus!"

- "Never stop looking forward and stay focused on Jesus and not merely the conflict at hand."

- "At the center of great leadership is HUMILITY combined with ambition." - Jim Collins

- Tony Morgan:"Have you thanked God recently for the privilege to lead something?"

- "The greatest asset leaders can give their organization is not their time. It is their ENERGY."

- "Honor publicly results in influence privately." (Craig Groeschel)

- "Organizational health is the single greatest competitive advantage in business."

- "Bad decisions made with good intentions are still bad decisions." (Jim Collins)

- "Jesus gave the world its most influential movement."

- "Bringing hope to the world requires courageous leaders."

- “Every young person has gifts & it's our job to help them find out what those gifts are-they will change our world.” (Marc Kielburger)

-"Fear is the thief of dreams.”

- "Just as we are what we eat physically, we are also what we consume spiritually." #SoulDetox (CraigGroeschel)

- “One of the greatest privileges is when Jesus taps YOU on the shoulder and asks you to be a part of what HE is doing in this world.”

Books to Read:

Who Is This Man? by John Ortberg

Advantage

Soul Detox by Craig Groeschel

Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit

Today I attended the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit for the very first time. Events like this get me so pumped up for the future and leading in the workplace. Below are the notes from day one. I am going to separate them by speaker.

Jim Collins:
- "Life is people and time with the people you love."
- "The only mistakes you can learn from are the ones you survive."
- "The signature of mediocrity is chronic inconsistency."
- "Are we responsible for out performance? Or do we perform based on what happens to us?"
- "Creativity is natural, discipline is not. The real skill is to marry creativity with discipline."
- "Your organization is not truly great if it can't be great without you."
- "The greatest danger isn't to fail. The greatest danger is to be successful without understanding why you are successful."
- "Greatness is not primarily a matter of what happens to you, but a matter of what you do."
- "In the end, it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. Live and lead in a way that when the end of you life comes, you will know that it mattered."
- "It is impossible to have a great life unless it's a meaningful life done with people you love."
- "Greatness is not a matter of circumstance, but rather it is a matter of choice and discipline."
- "It is what you do before you are in trouble that makes you strong when people most need you."
- "If we lose our values, we lose everything."

Condolezza Rice:
- "The true calling of leaders is not to accept the world for what it is, but rather for what it should be."
- "Frienship can be the place that let's you have difficult conversations."
- "Perhaps the greatest opportunity of leadership is helping people see their own leadership possibilities."
- "It is a privlege to struggle, and out of struggle comes victory."
- "Think of all those times when what seemed impossible became inevitable."
- "We as leaders can make the world not as it is, but as it should be."
- "Today's headlines and history's jusdgement are rarely the same."
- "It is a privilege to struggle. Struggle produces hope and hope doesn't disappoint. After Friday, there was Sunday."
- "No one wants to follow a sour puss!"
- As a leader, I must increase the opportunity for my followers to achieve greatness. Every life is worthy of the opportunity for greatness."
- "God is good... ALL the time."
- "There is a lot the government can do, but it cannot deliever compassion."

Bill Hybels:
- "If you want to see more trees, you have to plant more seeds."
- "Wrestle with words until they communicate your ideas in a way that captures the imagination, catalyzes action and lifts spirits."
- "A fundamental for leaders is to stay curious. We must insist on a series of non- stop experiments to keep people learning."
- "6x6 6 initiatives in 6 weeks. Focus, pray, and energize!"
- "Your primary resource is not your time it's your energy, and your ability to energize others."
- "Respect those of us who are trying to lead from a Christ- centered perspective."
- "Everyone wins when a leader gets better."
- "Where you invest your love, you invest your life."
- "The penalty of bad leadership: You're always stuck with the same problems. The reward of good leadership: You get to solve new ones."
- God didn't make you a leader to respong to stuff all day, but to move things forward."
- "As a leader, your whole organization takes its seed sowing cues from you."
- "I actually believe everyone's life would be better if God was at the center of it."
- "Leaders love to build teams... Primarily because we have no clue what we're doing most of the time."
- "If you want to see more trees- plant more seeds. Don't complain about few trees, plant more seed."

Miscellaneous Quotes:
- "Every life is worthy. Every life is capable of greatness." (Hybels?)
- "With God, 'Thank You' should always come before 'Please.'"
- "Click- Clack is the new AMEN!"
- "Leadership is a privilege."
- "God made you a leader to move stuff ahead. Stop prioritizing the tyranny of the urgent."
- "I guess I ought to get better too."
- "Christianity was meant for lovers, not experts." (Len Sweet)
- "Good intentions are never an excuse for incompetence." (Pete Drucker)
- "You are the most difficult person you will ever lead." (Hybels?)
- "If you really care about the people you lead, you have to humble yourself and learn from anyone who can help you get better."
- "When you communicate empathy you are able to create compassion."
- "If you ask what's in it for me? People who give to something bigger than themselves are happier. And happier people live longer."
- "Be the change you want to see."
- "You can have all the talent in the world, but if you're not humble people won't listen." (Kevin Olusola)
- "We can do no great things. We can do small things with great love." (Mother Teresa)
- "Sometimes some of the most effective ways to help people aren't the sexiest."
- "We have won the lottery of life, what we could do together is remarkable."
- "There are few things in life that elevate your happiness. One is contributing to a cause greater than yourself." (Sheryl Wudunn)
- "We are the generation that we have been waiting for. We just have to believe it."
- "Greatness is not a matter of circumstance. Greatness is a choice of what you do with the opportunities.