Every year, my team and I attend the leadership summit. This year, there is a shadow hanging over the summit as I outlined here, but I’m still trusting that it will have some incredibly helpful content, just like in past years. To capture what I’m learning and to help you grow as a leader, I always share my notes from each session, so be sure to check back after each session and bookmark them for future use.

The first session featured a talk from Craig Groeschel. He is the Senior Pastor of Life.Church and the author of many books. His session was on what it looks like to be a leader that people love to follow.

The following are some takeaways:

1. When the leader gets better, everyone gets better.
2. Leadership is never about title and position, it is about trust and influence.
3. Leaders are given great power and must wield that for the good of others.
4. Leaders can make excuses or make a difference, but they can’t make both.
5. A humble leader can learn from anybody.
6. The two areas a leader needs to grow in is leadership (where are you taking me) and emotional intelligence (how are you treating me).
7. There’s a difference between a leader who is popular and one who is respected.
8. You will never be respected if you are only trying to be respected.
9. The 3 feelings you will have under great and trusted leadership: you feel valued, inspired, and empowered.
10. Leaders need a heart to care.
11. You will never be a leader that people love to follow if you don’t love people.
12. An essential part of being a leader is I notice, You matter.
13. Appreciate more than you think you should. Then double it.
14. Leaders need a passion to inspire. 
15. There is a difference between inspiration and motivation.
16. Motivation is about pushing people to do something they don’t want to do.
17. Inspiring is pulling out of them what is already inside of them.
18. Inspired employees are twice as productive as employees who call themselves satisfied.
19. Following through is inspiring.
20. The most important quality is a centered leader. A centered leader is secure, stable, confident, not easily distracted or swayed, fully engaged.
21. A centered leader is guided by values, driven by purpose.
22. All you need as a leader to inspire people is 1 or 2 developed strengths.
23. Leaders need a willingness to empower.
24. The best leaders unleash higher performance through empowerment, not command and control.
25. You can have control or growth, but you can’t have both.
26. If you delegate tasks, you’re creating followers. If we delegate authority, we are creating leaders.
27. We do this as leaders by making the decisions that only we can make.
28. The fewer decisions you are making, the better you are as a leader.
29. The strength of an organization is reflected by how deep into it people have the ability to say yes.
30. The best way to find out if you trust someone is to trust them.
31. If you don’t trust your team, you are either too controlling or you have the wrong people.
32. Leaders need the courage to be real, vulnerable, stand up with humility and take risks even when you’re scared.