Wow, what a great conference experience. I was blessed to be able to attend a conference on servant leadership last week. There was so much good stuff, that I am still working through it all…some tangible things and some inarticulable. Well, in effort to give just a snap shot, here are a few highlights….
Thoughts to ponder that speak to the soul…favorite quotes:
1. “People need to be reminded more than they need to be instructed” – Samuel Johnson
2. Leadership defined – the skill of influencing people to enthusiastically work towards goals for the common good, with character that inspires confidence. (session from Jim Hunter)
3. If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader – John Quincy Adams
4. What is different about being human: we can do what is not natural, until it becomes second nature. (session from Jim Hunter)
5. Authority defined – the skill of getting people to willingly do your will because of your personal influence. (session from Jim Hunter)
6. We can’t control what happens, be in the moment and bring what you can to the moment (session from Vicki Pryor).
7. Find silence daily. (session from Ann Ryder)
8. Empty self of self, to hear opportunity to serve others and be obedient to that voice. (session from Ann Ryder)
9. Servant Leadership – translates the stuff we do everyday in to greater purpose.
10. Change happens when the pain of not changing becomes more than the fear of change. (Leading from the Heart)
11. We design our buildings and there after they design us – Churchill
12. How can we grow to respond to the opportunities to remake the world and bring it more in accord with virtue and justice, more in accord with our own hearts, unless we can have the quiet inward smile called humor – Robert Greenleaf
13. Focus on the process and the outcome will take care of itself.
Ah-Ha Moments and Inspiration into action…the to-do list:
14. One speaker talked about our "stuff" being the gap between where we are in servant leadership and where we want to be. He challenged us to find accountability and "Let’s get after it!" I think there is some potential in that idea for a staff development/training (session from Jim Hunter). For me personally, I’ve identified some of my stuff and am still coming to an awareness of some. I also love that this speaker talked openly about the Carpenter's Son, and you could tell it was real for him.
15. Implement servant leadership qualities into staff evals, for myself and others, in the work that we do.
16. Read Southwest Airlines book, “It’s so simple”
17. Explore the idea of a “Lunch and Learn” series.
18. Read more on the idea of functional atheism (playing God) from Parker Palmer.
19. Read, “Step Back from the Baggage Claim” by Jason Barger
20. Use Barsch Learning Style inventory with new groups.
21. It was great to observing servant leadership in interactions outside the community we were in at Milwaukee…from a lady giving us a coupon for a local store…to the head cook at a restaurant coming out to bus a table…it was everywhere…possibly because that is the lens in which we were present.
22. I loved being near the water, even though we only spent a few minutes by the lake, I had forgotten how much I loved that…need to make time for that more.
Making it personal and a few dream-bigs:
23. The main speaker (also a Hoosier, so of course I loved her) had a unique and peaceful speaking style. It reminded me of a brief-short-lived-dream, I had (maybe about 15 years ago) with the idea of being a motivational speaker. All the speakers that I knew at that point were pretty high voltage, which if you are reading this you know me well enough to know that is not a word which describes me very often, if at all…so I ruled that out. But hearing her simple stories with the powerful interconnection of servant leadership through the lens of her faith lived out…caused me to ponder that thought again. Nothing major at this point, but just the simple goal of making time to journal more, in effort to better articulate things later (again, if you know me, I am a thinker and can ramble myself into circles). I know that I have a story to tell, just not sure what it is yet…but journaling more is the first step, regardless of where that leads.
24. I attended a breakout session on avoiding burnout. The 73 year-old, amazingly youthful and high voltage-in-a-calm-way speaker, challenged us to become more childlike. In the process she challenged us to discover what it was that we missed out on as a child that would be fun and energizing now….thinking on those things…let me know if you have feedback. I’m blessed that my parents had us involved in a lot and trying a lot, but not too much was I good at….so maybe it’s revisiting one of those things, instead of something new….
25. At the mingle event (again, if you know me, not a favorite event. Although, really I’ve decided I just need to psyche myself up for it, because we are created to interact with others and it always ends up being a good thing)….Anyway, at this event, I got to talking with some folks from the Netherlands, ok, they got to talking to me. From the group the challenge from some elders from the Netherlands was that we, folks my age, are the next generation….that was a lot to take in and I hadn’t really thought about it that seriously before. Also, the idea that in the Netherlands their concept of Servant Leadership is so more advanced than in the US. According to their experiences, we are years behind them in the living out of these concepts. Hmm maybe I will travel there for a conference one of these days. Also, great conversation with lady from Netherlands about not being in control and just being and following what we are to do. There was just something unique about that conversation.
