Month: June 2016

A Bar None Audacious Goal to Bring the Summit to Prisons Across the Country

Posted on June 29, 2016 by - Business, Calling, Execution, Government, North America, Prison, Stories

Erin Keating discovered her grander vision after attending the 2015 Summit. Erin’s youngest brother is currently incarcerated, and while seeking to share her newfound faith in God, bring light into her brother’s life and help him find his self-worth and value, she encountered the Global Leadership Summit. After three years of attending, the 2015 Summit brought a profound inspiration to her field of vision to bring the GLS, not just to the prison where her brother is, but to prisons across the country. This is the story of her incredible journey.

 

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Discovering Jesus through pain


Jonny and ErinWhen I was 36, I lost my father to suicide; 17 months later I lost my mother to cancer. These tragic events deeply impacted me and my three brothers, especially my youngest brother Jonny who was incarcerated at the time. While processing their deaths, I took a long hard look at my life and decided I wanted to have a relationship with Jesus. I began attending church at Columbia Baptist in Falls Church, VA and from there my faith blossomed. In 2013, I was baptized. I started to share my faith with Jonny and talk with him about how he could make huge changes in his life if he were to accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior, and spread the word within his prison walls. I wanted him to experience what I had found in Jesus.

God works in mysterious ways

The year I was baptized in 2013, I attended the Summit for the first time and have gone every year since. It was the first time I attended something that provided a different lens through which to look at leadership. At the Summit I discovered that wherever you are, you were born to lead and you were put on this earth to do good things to further God’s Kingdom through leadership whether it be at work, in your home or in your church. The Summit has helped me better understand my impact on others and to focus on using it for good. It is two days of uninterrupted time for me to contemplate my faith and how I can best use it as a leadership tool to make an impact on the world.

The lessons I have learned at the Summit have absolutely impacted the way in which I’ve chosen to be brave about sharing my faith and to look differently at those I lead and serve in the organization. When I began telling people about the new spiritual journey I was on, I started to discover there were a lot of Christians at Audi, where I work. I now participate in a prayer group, and have been hosting monthly brown bag lunches to play Summit sessions from the past. I open it up for discussion afterward and try to use language that allows people to see and hear my faith. It’s been life changing.

I’m very open about most of my life, and to me, my Christianity is a very important part of who I am. Being vulnerable with those in the office can often help people open their hearts and minds to doing better in the world.

Struck with a calling to serve prisoners with the GLS
The Summit has not only impacted my workplace, but last year I was so struck by the story about Angola prison that in that instant I knew what God had been calling me to do.

While I have been doing my best to share my faith with my brother Jonny, who has been in in prison for five years, I realized that bringing the GLS to his prison could have immense impact.

He has started his faith journey, and is beginning to see that his life has meaning because God loves him. If he were to see the Summit, he could be motivated and inspired to realize that he also has a responsibility to live into the Word and take a leadership position. If he could impact those around him with love and kindness, even while taking a risk, God will reward him for living out his faith.

When we begin to work on the hearts and minds of those in the prison system, we give them hope and encouragement to strive for better things, to build themselves up in a positive way and to remember that they were built in God’s image for greater things.

 An opportunity and an audacious goal

Early this year, Audi offered a $10,000 prize for an essay contest for all their employees, for the best story on how they would use the funds. Erin won and is using the funds to bring the GLS to her brother’s prison this year. In addition, she’s taken on an audacious goal to raise $250,000 to fund the GLS in prisons across the country!

“Every day, no matter what it is you do, it’s important to realize those around you are God’s creation and deserve your time, your open heart and your blessing. When we understand that, there is an automatic openness about the way we lead—a positivity that can’t be restrained because you realize you are leading for good.”

 

Please pray for our prison sites in 2016. This year there will be 25 prisons experiencing the GLS teaching.

Imagine what God might do!

4 Ways That Vision Gets Lost (and How To Get It Back)

Posted on June 27, 2016 by - Articles, Change Management, Execution, Leading Organizations, Vision

I wear contacts.  There, I said it.

Listen, vulnerability is not easy for me…so that was tough to admit.

But, seriously, I wear contacts. I’ve been wearing them for a long time now and I love the fact that I don’t have to put on glasses each day. I apologize for my strong views – especially to my glasses-wearing friends out there…but I’m a contacts kind of guy.

A few days ago, I was leaving work and my right contact became extremely blurry.  I’m still not sure why exactly, but I could hardly see out of my right eye. I was confident that I could tolerate a little “blurry vision” since I only have a short drive home…but then my wife texted me and asked me to pick up dinner. So, instead of a 10-minute drive home only being able see out of my left eye, I now had to drive an extra 10 minutes AND interact with other people. It was an experience that I hope I never have to go through again.

I made it home, took out my contact and cleaned it, and then I was able to see clearly again. All was good in the world again. But, I think this happens in our organizations more often than we’re willing to admit.

The vision gets blurry.  We can’t see clearly where we’re going. We can feel our way around and use our instincts to get us where we need to go…but it’s awkward and dysfunctional and we can end up at a place where we never wanted to be.

I’ve found that there are four primary ways vision gets blurry, or lost in an organization. The good news, though, is that here is a way to get your vision back and get on the right track again.

How Vision Gets Blurry

  1. The leader stops talking about it. We think we’ve said it enough…or too much. Or, other issues come up that require our focus. Whatever the rationale or the excuse is, we just simply stop talking about it. It’s our vision and it’s intuitive to us, but for everyone else, it’s not their vision – so they need to hear about it regularly. They need to hear your passion for the vision. They need to understand that the vision is still relevant. No one is going to talk about the vision the same as you do, so it is vitally important that you, as the leader, talk about it regularly and often.
  1. The people get distracted by tasks. There’s a lot to be done, right? There are calls to be made, people to be visited, meetings to be had, and the list goes on and on. The reality is that the tasks that are on the to-do list should be more than just a task…they should be a way to achieve the vision. What happens far too often is that the people we work with exchange the vision for tasks – and the vision gets lost. They begin to lose the understanding of the connection between their tasks and the vision. As leaders, it is key to remind the team regularly of how their tasks move us closer to the goal.
  1. The losses outweigh the wins. On any journey toward a vision, there are going to be losses. These can be temporary setbacks, mistakes, missed opportunities, etc. What can happen is that the losses can begin to outweigh the wins. And, I don’t just mean there are MORE losses than wins. I am also suggesting that the losses can end up getting more focus than the wins. When we lose on the way toward a vision, it means there’s often a problem that needs to be addressed. If we only talk about mistakes and setbacks and we never share the wins, then the team (and the leader, too) can begin to become disillusioned with the vision and lose focus. But, if we are intentional about sharing and talking about wins, then the vision becomes more appealing and attainable in the minds of everyone involved.
  1. Key people on the team change. When a leader casts vision, he/she cannot carry out that vision alone. They need others to help them not only complete the tasks, but also carry forward the passion behind the vision. This is the role of the key leaders on your team—board members, executive leadership, etc. And, when someone on that team changes (or, a lot of people on those teams change), the vision can easily get lost. The important thing to recognize here is that as much energy as you spent on the front end casting the original vision, you must be careful to take just as much energy to onboard new key leaders to that vision. The benefits will be exponential and will increase the likelihood of getting closer to the vision.

When my contact became blurry, I wasn’t at my best. When the vision of your organization becomes blurry, it is not at its best. Take some time today to consider if your vision is lost and which of these four reasons is impacting it the most—and then take action. Get your vision back and lead your team forward!

Making Time to Develop Your Leadership Skills is Good for Business | An Interview with Peter Vardy

Posted on June 27, 2016 by - Business, Europe, Leadership Development, Stories, Western Europe

In a recent article by the Scotsman, Peter Vardy, a successful British businessman and philanthropist, shares his key to success — a motivated staff. He believes that investing in developing the leadership skills of his staff contributes to the growth of his organization, and for the past 14 years, he has been a regular attendee of the Global Leadership Summit. Below are excerpts from the article. To read the entire article, click here.

[…] “We are better,” he says, without a hint of arrogance but simply the assuredness of a man who believes that doing the right thing is also good for business.

Unlike most car dealerships, Peter Vardy is closed on a Sunday, but not in deference to its founder’s Christian faith. The decision to go to six days a week was in response to a staff survey that raised concerns about work-life balance, and on making the switch seven years ago, car sales increased.

The company has a flexible work policy and recently Vardy set up a staff share scheme to hand over as much as 5 per cent of the equity in the next five years.

Vardy says happy and motivated staff are key to success in the modern market, where so much information about trade-in values and financing options are now available online. These days, dealers must rely more than ever on providing excellent service. “Everything is much more transparent now, and there are less cowboys out there,” Vardy says. “Now you actually have to do a good job. We have always tried to do that, so perhaps things are swinging our way.”

The group employs about 800 people in total across three divisions, with its network of 12 franchises representing Vauxhall, Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche, BMW and Mini generating the majority of turnover and revenues.

[…] But Vardy also has his own take on the world, which has been partly shaped by his participation for the past 14 years in the Global Leadership Summit run by the Willow Creek Association in Chicago. Originally developed to help church leaders sharpen their skills, speakers have included a large range of high-profile names from a variety of fields such as Bono, Carly Fiorina, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice.

“I wouldn’t miss it,” says Vardy, who has taken groups of staff from his company to the annual event in August. “Everything moves so fast these days, you have got to try and make some time to develop your leadership skills.

“Probably the most important thing I have learned from it is that when a leader gets better, everybody wins. If you can upskill all the leaders in an organisation, then it can grow.”

Are you registered for The Global Leadership Summit 2016? Register today! 

180’s Are Possible | One Man’s Journey from Homelessness to Leadership

Posted on June 22, 2016 by - Church & Faith-Based, North America, Stories

Have you ever witnessed someone do a complete 180? Go to a hope-of-the-world church.

When a church is strategically planted in an urban area, and sets its sights beyond its walls into a community that desperately needs hope, it opens up a multitude of opportunities for God to touch lives in transformational ways.

f49665_c3b9098f93614400a7cfcbb3ad44fabbLarry Willman has been the pastor of Payne Avenue Evangelical Free Church in the urban center of St. Paul, Minnesota for the past 30 years. With the vision to ‘help people be loved, set free and changed by Jesus on the East Side of St. Paul,’ he has witnessed people completely turn their lives around after being introduced to the God who loves them. This is the story about the 180 that happens in individual lives when by God’s grace, He works through the church and people realize their unique role as a leader within the body of Christ.

“I’m not sure our church is ever ‘working right,’ but somehow with the grace of God, He uses us feeble people to touch others and see Him work miracles,” said Larry. “It’s a never-ending journey with many rough spots, challenges and discouragements—and we are always learning. Every now and then we get to catch a glimpse of God’s grand work!”

Kent first came to Payne Avenue Evangelical Free Church three years ago. “He was waiting across the street for an AA meeting and one of our guys went over to talk with him and invite him to our church,” Larry said. “He had recently moved to St. Paul from Minneapolis because he got new housing over here and was working on his sobriety. He’d been struggling with alcoholism and being homeless. Since that time, God has done a great work in his life. He told me when he came to our church, he found the love of God and a spiritual family where he could belong.”

Each week Kent continues that legacy by inviting people from the community to the church and by being in the welcome ministry. “His goal is to meet all new people and help them find the same love of Christ he met when he first arrived,” said Larry. “He absolutely lights up when a person he invites shows up!”

Recognizing that Kent had a unique untapped leadership gift, Larry invited Kent to attend the Global Leadership Summit in 2014 with one of the three sponsored tickets he received from Eagle Brook Church. “Kent was super inspired. Just being in that setting and hearing and seeing people who wanted to live and lead for God, plus some practical ideas – gave us a kind of spawning ground for future ministry ideas and inspiration to keep plugging along,” Larry shares. “And after the GLS was over, Kent exclaimed, ‘I am a leader!’ Now he’s taken on the leadership of the men’s group, and continues to own the welcome ministry with new vigor. He has a vision for this ministry and for our church to reach our urban neighborhood.”

To help people be loved, set free and changed by Jesus on the East Side of St. Paul.

That is Kent’s story. He found the love of Christ through the love of God’s unique people in the church.  He was taught and encountered the Gospel message that set him free from sin and guilt and shame. He was changed by Jesus’ power – and now has a new purpose for life, which is the same ministry vision and purpose of the church. “He lives and breathes it, even when it is tough,” Larry said. “He wants to help others be loved, set free and changed by Jesus.”

God continues to work through Larry’s church to serve their urban community, and with leaders like Kent, this vision is being leveraged across the congregation. “Kent continues to be an inspiration to me and the church. My goal and prayer is to have more people (Elders and other leaders) attend in 2016, and multiply the energy and solidify and unify the vision God has given us.”

20160503_153847A prayer request for Kent:

Kent has been in and out of the hospital, and has nearly faced death in recent weeks. Larry asks for prayer for his ministry partner. “I would really appreciate your prayers! I can really relate with what Paul said in Phil. 2:27 about his friend and fellow minister who almost died. Losing such a great partner in ministry would truly be sorrow upon sorrow for me. God is merciful and His will is good, no matter what.”

“And he certainly was ill; in fact, he almost died. But God had mercy on him—and also on me, so that I would not have one sorrow after another.”