Global Leadership Summit

I've been fortunate to be able to attend a satellite broadcast of Willow Creek's Global Leadership Summit at Cherry Hills Church in Denver.  We're into the second day of the summit, and we're in a session that I'm not so interested in (one of the only ones so far) which is why I'm writing this blog entry.


Couple of thoughts from yesterday's sessions:


From Bill Hybels: I am very impressed with Hybels.  His session was the most practical and down-to-earth of all the sessions yesterday.  His first question to the conference was this: "What is your current leadership challenge level?"  He explained that all leaders are either under-challenged, appropriately-challenged or dangerously over-challenged.  His main point was that effective leaders probably live just above the line between appropriately challenged and over challenged.  This is where they are stretched, but not overwhelmed.  I've seen this to be true in my own life; I tend to be most productive in any endeavor when I am very busy and very challenged, but not to the point of being overwhelmed  - which is where I got to in my former role in the Namestan office in France.  


His second question was: "What is your plan for dealing with challenging people in your church?"  This question could be asked not only of churches, but organizations and businesses as well.  In every sphere of life we will run up against challenging people - or perhaps we ARE some of those challenging people.  I thought Hybels did a good job of describing the three most common types of challenging people:  1. Those with attitude issues (negative, critical)  2. Those who are not performing well in their roles  3.  Those who are good people, but who for whatever reason no longer have what it takes to fulfill their particular roles.  The last group are the hardest to deal with, simply because they are good, faithful, loyal people, but the business or organization has surpassed their abilities.  The first group are no fun to handle, but at least the problems are clear and the consequences for leaving them in their roles are unacceptable (mainly, their negativity is contagious and will infect many people around them).  I recently heard a statement about local churches that also applies to the organizations I've been a part of :  Churches tend to hire too quickly, and fire too slowly.  This is really true.  I can think of several personnel issues I've had to deal with in the past, where I took someone on too quickly because of the NEED we were facing, and the PRESSURE to get someone in the role quickly.  In almost every situation, I regretted hiring or recruiting someone too hastily - without going through the necessary process of getting references from previous employers or supervisors.  In one case I accepted a couple onto my team who'd been rejected by every other department.  I naively thought that I could love them enough to work through their issues (particularly the wife, in this case) - but I was wrong.  I kept them as long as I did because the husband was a great team player and I needed his help ... but I realize now that I was being unfair and (ironically) unloving towards his wife to keep them on the mission field for as long as I did.  I ended up having to "help" this couple to return to their home country where the wife could get the help and counseling that she desperately needed.  The last I heard, she was doing really well, and I regret having taken so long (and suffered needlessly in the process) to make the hard decision.  Hindsight is always 20/20.


More thoughts to come.