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2018 Leadership Summit – 12 Leadership Quotes from Rasmus Ankersen

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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 of the second day featured a talk by Rasmus Ankersen. His talk focused on the mindset cultivated by successful brands to create sustainable success in our organizations.

The following are some takeaways:

  1. Your products reveal what your brand is like.
  2. Arrogance, complacency, and resistance to change can kill any company.
  3. Leaders must think through how to keep their companies fresh and away from complacency.
  4. One of the big problems for companies is outcome bias which is good results are always the result of superior decision making.
  5. Data never lies.
  6. The fewer goals in a game, the more randomness has an impact. That’s why the best team wins less often in soccer compared to basketball.
  7. Some data is more important than other data.
  8. When you are successful, you should always ask why you were successful.
  9. Never trust success blindly. 
  10. Too many companies hesitate to change, they wait until they have a burning platform.
  11. When we become successful, comfort becomes more important than improvement.
  12. One of the most important jobs of a leader is convincing people they haven’t reached the top.
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2018 Leadership Summit – 21 Leadership Quotes from John Maxwell

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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 final session of the first day featured a talk from one of my favorite speakers, John Maxwell. His book on leadership was the first book I ever read as a leader at 18 and thought, I can do this. He outlined how to maximize your impact as a high-character leader in our world today. It was fun having my two oldest kids in this session with me and have some excellent discussions.

The following are some takeaways:

  1. All leaders see more than others see and before others see.
  2. If you can see the bigger picture, you are the leader, but now you have to see before others see.
  3. The key to leadership is starting first.
  4. Leaders have to ask how I do increase my more and before?
  5. Know that there is more “more and before” out there (think abundance). 
  6. Creativity and flexibility are crucial in leadership today.
  7. Creative people believe there is always an answer.
  8. Flexibility says there’s usually more than one answer.
  9. Develop a process for finding more “more and more before.”
  10. The way you find more is to test.
  11. Test -> Fail -> Learn -> Improve.
  12. When you know what you want for your future, your mind will begin to think things that will help you get what you need; your heart will feel things that you need, your attitude will help you to believe.
  13. Put yourself in places with people who will inspire you to see more “more and more before.”
  14. Get people out of your life that drag you down.
  15. Be around people who inspire you.
  16. Intentionally grow every day so you will have the capacity for more “more and more before.”
  17. The only way to guarantee that tomorrow will be better is that you grow.
  18. If you’re still excited about what you did 5 years ago, you aren’t growing.
  19. Always have a vision gap that requires you to need more “more and more before.”
  20. You will fill the vision gap by asking God to send you the right people.
  21. You will fill the vision gap by asking God to do for you what you cannot do for yourself.
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2018 Leadership Summit – 23 Leadership Quotes from Danielle Strickland

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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 final session of the first day featured a talk from Danielle Strickland who looked at men and women in the workplace (and church) and looked at the challenges associated with power dynamics in organizational culture. This is definitely a talk that my tribe in the church world could learn from. It was fun having my two oldest kids in this session with me and have some good discussions.

The following are some takeaways:

  1. In order for the truth to set us free, we must be disrupted because truth disrupts us.
  2. To make changes and change minds you must be able to imagine a better world and understand oppression.
  3. We all want a better story and that is what everyone is after.
  4. What makes the world flourish is men and women working together.
  5. Believe that it is possible for men and women to work together. 
  6. Women’s empowerment is a key to so many things improving in our world.
  7. Believing that it is possible is to refuse despair. It is to confront the hopelessness of inequality.
  8. Do not be afraid.
  9. 2/3 of women are not optimistic that gender equality can be achieved in the next 5 years.
  10. The enemy in relationships isn’t hate but fear. -Gandhi
  11. If our actions, decisions are fear based we will either be oppressed or be an oppressor. Fear is the currency of oppression.
  12. Difference through the lens of fear is a threat. Difference through the lens of faith it is an opportunity.
  13. Mutuality is crucial for men and women to work together. The enemies of mutuality are power and sex.
  14. Power is the ability to manipulate the course of events. 
  15. How we use our power is the measure of our leadership.
  16. A misuse of power is coercion and threats: Are you kind to those you lead? Do you treat them well? Can you accept change? Do you cut people off when they’re talking? Do you close yourself off to feedback? Do you show regard for people’s opinions or feelings?
  17. Isolation is a misuse of power. Trust and support is a good use of power.
  18. Minimizing is a misuse of power. Honesty and accountability is a good use of power.
  19. Male privilege is a misuse of power. Shared responsibility is a good use of power. Do you invite women into your decision making?
  20. Great leaders use power to empower other people. 
  21. If we’re willing to listen to voices we don’t normally listen to and are willing to learn from them, it will change how we live.
  22. Never give up on the dream of men and women working together. 
  23. Real empowerment and real freedom is a long walk in the same direction.
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2018 Leadership Summit – 10 Leadership Quotes from Danny Meyer

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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 third session featured a talk by Danny Meyer, Restaurateur; TIME Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People.” His talk focused on creating a customer-focused culture, which churches can always grow in.

The following are some takeaways:

  1. There’s nothing worse than wasting your life on something you don’t want to do.
  2. The road to success is paved with mistakes well handled.
  3. To get anywhere worthwhile is to listen to the people on the front lines.
  4. The places with the best service will last the longest.
  5. Service means doing what you said you would do.
  6. Hospitality is how you make someone feel while delivering service.
  7. The shelf life of innovation is 2 minutes.
  8. Companies thrive by doing the thoughtful things. Thoughtful is thinking and feeling.
  9. If we know how to make you feel better than the next guy, you’ll come back.
  10. Once a mistake is made, you can’t erase it. The only thing you can do is write a great next chapter.
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2018 Leadership Summit – 26 Leadership Quotes from Carla Harris

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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 third session featured a talk from Carla Harris, who is the Vice Chairman, Managing Director and Senior Client Advisor at Morgan Stanley. She talked about how to achieve your potential and become the leader you were created to be. She used the word leader (Leverage, Efficiency, Authenticity, Decisive, Engagement, Risk taker) to show what makes an impactful leader.

The following are some takeaways:

  1. Leverage: powerful, impactful leaders know there is not a monopoly on intelligence.
  2. Someone on your team has the access or experience that you need.
  3. If people think there will be retribution for making a mistake, no one will give you an out of the box idea.
  4. A leaders job is to create an environment where people want to contribute.
  5. Leadership is a journey from execution to empowerment.
  6. Efficiency: If you are an influential, impactful leader, you must be clear about what success looks like.
  7. If you aren’t clear about what success looks like, you will create a tremendous amount of frustration.
  8. Productivity goes down when things aren’t clear.
  9. If you aren’t clear on what’s next, you must be clear on what success looks like.
  10. If it doesn’t work this time, it informs your next success.
  11. Authenticity: this is the heart of your power and the heart of influential leadership.
  12. No one else can be you.
  13. Most people are not comfortable in their own skin, so when they see someone who is, they gravitate towards you.
  14. The easiest way to penetrate a relationship is to bring your authentic self to the table.
  15. Your authenticity is your distinct competitive advantage.
  16. To be authentic, you have to know who you are and what you bring to the table.
  17. Decisiveness and diversity: the price of inaction is greater than the cost of making a mistake.
  18. At the end of the day, your team is depending on you as the leader to make a decision.
  19. Part of your task as a leader is to make a decision, even in the face of incomplete information.
  20. If you need a lot of ideas (and you do to succeed), you need a lot of perspectives and experiences in the room.
  21. Engagement: you must be engaged with your people and understand what makes people motivated to win. What engages your staff?
  22. Everyone on your team wants to be seen and heard.
  23. Risk taker: leaders must be comfortable taking risks.
  24. The way you differentiate yourself is by taking risks.
  25. Fear has no place in your success equation.
  26. The thing that makes a leader stand out is courage. This is what holds all these words together.
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2018 Leadership Summit – 20 Leadership Quotes from Strive Masiyiwa

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Every year, my team and I attend the leadership summit. 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 second session featured an interview Strive Masiyiwa, who is the founder of Econet (one of Africa’s largest telecommunications companies), will help us learn what it means to be a leader who perseveres to fight for the future of our world. This was an inspiring interview.

The following are some takeaways:

  1. Too many people think they run into failure that they’re done.
  2. Vision is what we hold onto.
  3. If we’re doing what God is calling us to, we are not losing anything.
  4. Cultures matter when we grow a business or organization.
  5. Multiculturalism begins with the way we think and thinking differently.
  6. Values are universal. Just because you have differences doesn’t mean you can’t embrace and work together across cultures and differences.
  7. You haven’t been to a country until you have been in the home of someone who lives there.
  8. If your business or vision solves a problem, people will seek it out.
  9. If you want to be a success, find a human need and reach out and solve it.
  10. Meeting a need changes the way people see themselves and changes the way they live.
  11. We’re raising kids to not only think for themselves but think for us as parents.
  12. You can mentor all you want but if you don’t model it, I won’t see.
  13. A dream often dies when it is shared with people who have not seen what you see.
  14. Building anything always takes longer than you think.
  15. A great vision is only as good as your ability to deliver daily wins.
  16. Consistency is the bridge to each short-term win that finally leads to the great vision.
  17. If you know how to do things you will always have a job. If you know why you, you will always be the leader.
  18. Your people must believe in you.
  19. The best of our people are volunteers, whether we pay them or not.
  20. If you want to know who someone is, watch how they treat people they don’t need.
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2018 Leadership Summit – 11 Leadership Quotes from T.D. Jakes

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Every year, my team and I attend the leadership summit. 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 second session featured a talk from one of the best communicators, T.D. Jakes.

The following are some takeaways:

  1. You want a vision that brings out the best in you.
  2. A vision should sound ridiculous until you do it.
  3. If you don’t believe in anything crazy, you will never find out what you could be.
  4. You think something you can’t tell anyone because it’s so big. Something beyond your means. Takes you out of your comfort zone and scares you to death.
  5. Too many people have to see their way clear before they get started.
  6. It doesn’t matter where you start, it matters where you finish.
  7. Visions start in small places.
  8. Sometimes you build the idea in the wrong place. Visions need the right wind.
  9. So much of what we learn is about winning but what stimulates growth is losing.
  10. What did you learn from your last failure and how has it prepared you to soar?
  11. To believe that something is possible is what makes greatness.
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2018 Leadership Summit – 14 Leadership Quotes from Juliet Funt

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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 second session featured a talk by Juliet Funt, who spoke last year.

The following are some takeaways:

  1. Casualness makes us comfortable.
  2. When people are casual, you acquiesce to all sorts of unfortunate things.
  3. The casualness of unnecessary work is killing us. This leads to companies falling into overload.
  4. The seeds of problems in a company are conformity, compulsivity, and control.
  5. Conformity
  6. The whitespace 50/50 rule: Anything that bothers you at work is 50% your fault until you have asked for what you want.
  7. Compulsivity
  8. The yellow list: This is with everyone you work with and ask, does this need to be sent right now? If it doesn’t, you add this to your yellow list.
  9. Control
  10. The more we have our fingers in everything, the slower we’ll move.
  11. 2nd tier delegation: First tier delegation is people you give things to you that you trust implicitly. You don’t give the same respect and trust to the second tier, but you have to. You build first tier delegation by delegating to the second tier.
  12. Compliance is when everyone says yes because no one knows how to say no.
  13. At some point, the only thing left in people’s minds is your legacy.
  14. Legacy is a story yet to be written but you hold the pen.
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2018 Leadership Summit – 16 Leadership Quotes from Angela Ahrendts

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Every year, my team and I attend the leadership summit. 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 Angela Ahrendts, who is the Senior V.P. of Retail for Apple. Her talk focused on how empathy is an essential quality for leadership.

The following are some takeaways:

  1. Values are the foundation of everything you are.
  2. Core values that are our strengths make us valuable to others.
  3. The higher you go as a leader, the more important it is to connect and over communicate.
  4. A leader needs to walk slowly through the crowd.
  5. A morning routine is incredibly important in the life of a leader.
  6. In hiring, look for a we kind of person instead of a me kind of person.
  7. It’s not about hiring great individuals but how they fit into the team.
  8. Brands are bigger than cultures.
  9. Simple things about branding: know why you’re doing it (the deeper purpose behind something), that why needs to become a core value of the company.
  10. Every team and organization should always know if they are doing what they set out to do.
  11. Motivating people: to move people you have to be able to understand them.
  12. You can teach people anything but you can’t teach people to care.
  13. Leaders need to focus on what people feel from them.
  14. Look people in the eye.
  15. Talk to people. Celebrate people. Thank people.
  16. Ask: what would I want people to say to me?
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2018 Leadership Summit – 32 Leadership Quotes from Craig Groeschel

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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.