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At the 2011 WCA Global Leadership Summit I was privileged to hear Nobel Peace Prize Nominee, Mama Maggie Gobran, speak on silence and demonstrate humility. Mama Maggie, often referred to as "the Mother Teresa of Cairo", is founder of Stephen's Children Ministry which serves children in the neighborhoods of the garbage collectors and urban poor in the Zabbaleen slums of Cairo.
Here are some notable quotes from her on silence and humility:
"True elegance comes from the inside."
“Silence is the secret, in it we discover the taste of eternity”
- Silence your body to listen to your words
- Silence your tongue to listen to your thoughts
- Silence your thoughts to listen to your heart beat
- Silence your heart beat to listen to your spirit
- Silence your spirit to listen to His spirit
From the Global Leadership Summit:
5 Critical Challenge Questions for Leaders (Bill Hybels, Senior Pastor, Willow Creek Community Church)
1. What is your current challenge level at work?
All people fall into one of the three categories above. The under challenged do not have enough interesting work to keep them engaged. They are not provided with enough work to do. The under challenged usually leave organizations for a more challenging position. The appropriately challenged usually have just the right amount of work and task to accomplish. However, they are not being stretched and are only maintaining, not creating. The dangerously over-challenged are working themselves to death, often at a high cost to themselves and those around them.
Most employees fall into the upper under challenged/lower appropriately challenged area (see yellow box). People's best work is accomplished when they are working/functioning in the lower third of the dangerously over-challenged level (see red box).
As leaders - are those who work under you being challenged enough? What can you do to bring them up (or down) to the appropriate challenge level?
As employees - what are you doing for yourself? It is your responsibility to get yourself to the appropriate challenge level. If under challenged, create something new, start an initiative, launch a new venture, etc. If over-challenged, get help.
2. What is your plan for dealing with challenging people?
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| The Line Exercise |
As a leader, how long do you tolerate bad attitudes?
As a leader, how long do you tolerate poor performance?
As a leader, how do you tolerate a good/loyal/hardworking employee when the organization outgrows the employees capacity?
Your organization should have a plan, and the plan should be followed, in order to effectively deal with these challenging people.
3. Are you naming, facing, and resolving problems in the organization?
When issues and problems arise, are you identifying them as such, or are you calling them something else besides problems? Call the issue/problem what it is, do not try to run or hide from it, face the problem and resolve it.
4. When was the last time you re-examined the core of your organizations purpose?
Do you remember why you do the work you do? Do you know what your organization exists for?
List five things that your organization is about (without using terms associated with your industry). Working through this exercise, will help bring you back to the core purpose of your organization.
5. When was the last time your leadership bell was rung?
What was the last book you read, or conference that you attended, or interaction with other leaders that you had that made you see something new, or gain a new view of your leadership? If your leadership is lagging, perhaps it is time to seek out a "bell ringing" opportunity.
This past week I had the opportunity to take part in the Willow Creek Association's Global Leadership Summit. Each year the GLS brings together an amazing faculty of spiritual, business, and political leaders to share what they have learned about leadership with others. This years Summit featured:
- Bill Hybels, Founding/Senior Pastor, Willow Creek Community Church
- Len Schlessinger, President, Babson College; Action Trumps Everything
- Hon. Cory A. Booker, Mayor of Newark, New Jersey
- Rev. Dr. Brenda Salter Mcneil, Speaker, Thought leader
- Seth Godin, Author, Marketing Blogger, Poke the Box
- Steven Furtick, Lead Pastor, Elevation Church
- Mama Maggie Gobran, Nobel Peace Prize Nominee, Founder of Stephen's Children Ministry
- Michelle Rhee, Fmr. Chancellor of D.C. Public Schools, Founder of studentsfirst.org
- Dr. Henry Cloud, Psychologist, Author, Necessary Endings
- John Dickson, Director at the Centre for Public Christianity, Humilitas
- Patrick Lencioni, The Table Group, Getting Naked
- Erwin McManus, Activist, Filmmaker, Founder of Mosaic, Chasing Daylight
This was an amazing experience, and an awesome opportunity to hear from these leading experts on thought and leadership!
One of my passions is to equip other people to be great; I love to pass on valuable information that more than just me can benefit from, to that end, the next few blog posts will feature some of my Evernote notes from this event.
If you attended, what are some things that you took away from this event?
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