We are continuing with second day’s second session of the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit. I want to once again thank The Rocket Company for allowing me to attend. In an effort to help fulfill our mission of helping churches succeed, I will once again be bringing some of the top leadership lessons from the incredible faculty the WCA has assembled.
Brene Brown was the speaker for the days’s second session. Brene is a groundbreaking researcher into the topics of shame, worthiness, and courage. You can order her book Daring Greatly by clicking here. The following were some of the top leadership quotes from her session:
- I don’t study leaders. I study people.
- Love and belonging are irreplaceable needs in men, women, and children. In the absence of love and belonging is suffering.
- We have three needs. To be seen and loved. To belong. To be brave.
- Love’s messy. Love is hard and love is a struggle…Love is tough. It’s gritty. It’s messy.
- I don’t think love is something we get. I don’t think it’s something we give. It’s cultivated between two people.
- Shame, blame, disrespect, betrayal, and disrespect damage the roots from which love grows.
- Love is not something we do by ourselves.
- What a leader does is model the courage to ask the questions. Not have the answers.
- We can’t give what we do not have. We can’t give courage when we don’t have it…We cannot give help when we can’t ask for it.
- When you judge yourself for asking for help, you, by default, always judge others when you offer help. You have attached judgement to help.
- Love is a practice. Professing love has very little meaning compared to practicing it.
- I’m looking for imperfect people.
- What kills love kills organizations. – Shame, blame, betrayal, disrespect, withholding.
- You have to shine a light in dark places to find shame in an organization.
- Blame is the simple discharging of pain and discomfort. It has no value whatsoever.
- Blame has nothing to do with accountability. It’s toxic.
- Feedback is a function of respect.
- You cannot be good at feedback if you’re not willing to be vulnerable.
- The #1 barrier to belonging is fitting in. You have to create space in your organizations for people to be seen.
- We are so desperate to be seen that we will build relationships around the people we hate.
- We were born to be brave. Never in our lives do we feel more alive than when we are brave.
- There are some things so painful that you may change who you actually are to avoid them.
- It’s not the critic who counts…The credit belongs to man actually in the arena. – Theodore Roosevelt
- I want to be in the arena and I don’t think I have much of a choice.
- You can choose courage or you can choose comfort, but you can’t have both. They are mutually exclusive.
- If you are not in the arena also getting your butt kicked on a regular basis, I am not interested in your opinion or feedback.
- As the world has grown, the number of cheap seats has grown.
Bill Hybels than added the following thoughts:
- How many people live every moment of every day burdened by the sins of the past?
- Those who lead large organizations are quite prone to beating ourselves up because our mistakes have affected hundreds or thousands of people.
- Christianity instructs its followers to forego any self-flagulation.
- Self-condemnation is a totally useless endeavor.
- When you screw up, which you will, honest confession is required.
- When there’s a grace explosion inside of you, you want to forgive somebody else.
- Forgiveness has a side effect. You want to start forgiving people.
- Leaders get hurt far more than most people think they do.
- Leaders get used far more than most people think they do.
- Leaders get criticized and attacked often by leaders in other organizations.
- Holding a grudge is like drinking rat poison and thinking the rat will die.
Click here or the image provided to register for a FREE webinar put on by The Rocket Company on August 20th where we will teach on creating and implementing healthy systems in your church. Healthy systems are the #1 thing needed for your church to grow and reach its full redemptive potential.