2019 Leadership Summit – 15 Quotes from Ben Sherwood on How to Lead in Times of Change

Every year, my team and I attend the leadership summit and it is always refreshing, challenging and recharging for me. Easily the best leadership material in a conference that is out there. I try to share some of the highlights I took from each session.

Here are some thoughts from the session with Ben Sherwood on how to lead in a time of change and disruption:

  • To be a great leader in a crisis, you must be able to see things differently.
  • To win in crisis and disruption, you must fight the unorthodox way. You must lead like you have nothing to lose.
  • The best ideas and most ideas win in change and disruption. 
  • A leader must constantly be looking for ideas.
  • Leaders who make change believe in the power of magic, the impossible. 
  • The way to move forward is to quit talking and start doing. 
  • Theory 10-80-10: in an emergency 10% of the people in the emergency emerge as leaders (they know what to do, where to go, they lead others to safety), 80% of the people in an emergency do nothing (they freeze and wait for someone to tell them what to do), 10% engage in counter-productive or negative behavior.
  • 10% of leaders are ones who emerge at the moment that leadership is needed.
  • In a crisis, maintain your point of reference. Know which way is up, which way is the way out. Where you are. 
  • If you lose your point of reference as a leader, you get off course and get lost.
  • In a crisis, wait for things to stop, to slow down.
  • In a crisis, practice realistic optimism. 
  • Realistic optimists are someone who has an unflinching sense of their surroundings. ruthlessly honest about the situations they face.
  • Faith is the most powerful survival tool and leadership tool we have.
  • If you want to increase your influence…connect.