Yesterday I attended the Chick-Fil-A Leadercast along with the entire Rocket Company team. The following series of posts will be the leadership learnings from the day.
My favorite session of the day was when former Secretary Of State Condoleezza Rice was interviewed by John Maxwell. I would vote for Dr. Rice as president today if I could. Few people have her grace, dignity, statesmanship, and intelligence.
The following are her thoughts that all leaders should be know:
- Leading in a complex world means recognizing the simple things you can do to make things better.
- What is the one thing I can do in this environment to change the direction of this conversation.
- When you see complexity all you see if complexity. You need to look past that to simplicity.
- We need to look for the enabling condition.
- The first thing you can do is be right with yourself. For me, that means spiritually and being right with God.
- You have to be an optimist. Nobody wants to follow a sour puss.
- You must be able to motivate people to a common goal. Sometimes that means accomplishing something impossible that now seems inevitable.
- He was President of the United States. The people elected him, not me.
- Everyday after September 11th was about keeping America than being attacked again.
- Having people who work for you who are really good is important. I put a lot of time into putting my team together.
- I had the confidence of the president.
- When you are negotiating, it is important that they know you represent the president.
- I tried to take care of myself personally. I exercise everyday and get plenty of sleep.
- I would take Sunday afternoons off.
- I learned the hard way the importance of taking breaks.
- The most important thing in finding balance is to schedule it in.
- Work is fulfilling for me but there is a different kind of fulfillment in playing the piano.
- The key has been to have time for the more contemplative side of life.
- You have to have a moment when you say, “What I am seeing and how am I going to attack it.”
- Being a good communicator is being a good teacher.
- I can’t start at the end of where I am.
- You have to find a way that people see the logic in where you got to where you are.
- What I love about teaching is when you see that in your students’ eyes when they see something in a way they’ve never saw it before.
- You can lead and make a difference in your community, or school board.
- We really do believe you can come from humble circumstances and do great things.
- It’s a combination of great parents, hard work, and because I am a person of great faith, this is what I was supposed to do.
- Life is a series of events that seem quite serendipitous. And you need to put yourself in position for serendipity to happen.
Would you like to hear how Andy Stanley, Steven Furtick, Louie Giglio, and Mark Driscoll prepare their messages?
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