Brief Wrap-Up Summary of #GLS15

Another Global Leadership Summit has come and gone. What sticks in my mind after the two days? What were the highs and what were some of the lows?

The broad theme that sticks in my mind is that leadership is about helping transform the people you lead into better people. It isn’t primarily about managing tasks and finances, delegating, vision, or most of those things that is often seen as “leading.” Rather, it is about creating and maintaining relationships based on trust – not power, position, title, authority, etc. – that allow both the leader and those who follow to have positive interactions that mutually help to transform and grow themselves and the groups and organizations to which they belong.

As seems to be the pattern, the first day is relatively low-key when it comes to topics of religion and spirituality and inclusion of them in the talks and program. The two exceptions were at the beginning when Bill Hybels explains that GLS assumes a Christian worldview, and that in the same way the Summit respects people of other faiths and of no faith, he would like those who do not share the Christian faith to respect inclusion of Christianity in the Summit. The second exception was the last talk by Albert Tate which was the most “evangelistic” session of the entire Summit.

The second day included more “Christian” themes, but overall I don’t think it felt that “preachy.” In the same way people of other faiths or of no faith obtain their leadership values and principles from their authoritative sources, Christian leaders find principles in the text of the Bible and in the lives of those found within its pages, and in particular, Jesus. To use these should be no more or less offensive than invoking other religious figures and texts, or secular authorities. That said, the Summit includes speakers from various backgrounds. Many are Christian but from various expressions of it. The rest may practice other faiths or not profess any at all. The point of all this is that Bill Hybels practices what he preaches: we can all learn from one another and that religion should not be a barrier.

All the speakers come from large organizations and have accomplished some large things, even world-changing ones. Can what it said apply to small, even tiny, organizations? I think that for the most part, the information scales down. What was said isn’t about managing large organizations. Most of it really is about building and maintaining one-on-one relationships with other people. The application goes beyond merely global businesses and megachurches. Useful advice is found to apply to any unit that involves more than one person – families, small churches, workgroups, government offices, etc.

A few sessions that I appreciated above others.

• Session 2B with Ed Catmull of Pixar where he discussed how stories are the way we understand the world around us and how we communicate with one another. Life is more than just processing information.
• Session 3B with Dr. Brene’ Brown whose discussion also involved stories and narratives. She discussed how our brains are wired to make sense of all the bits of information that we receive by crafting narratives. Where there are holes, we make up things – and frequently they aren’t true. She discussed the “middle space” of our stories where we are too far in to back out, but not far enough to see the light at the end, and what we do in that middle space is vital. We need to understand and identify our emotions in that space, to have the courage and vulnerability to face the discomfort and discover what is true so that we can write the ending of the story that we want.
• Session 4A with Sallie Krawcheck in which she discussed the value and necessity of diversity (primarily gender diversity) in groups and teams. She discussed some of the challenges faced in promoting greater diversity.
• In response to the previous (Session 4A, diversity) as Bill Hybels came on stage and talked, he became quite passionate about the church and its lack of gender diversity. He specifically noted regrettably that in recent years churches have gone backwards when it came to women in church leadership. He sounded a call that churches ought to be leading culture when it comes to leadership equality among men and women.
• Session 5B with Sheila Heen in how to improve the feedback process by learning how to better receive feedback. Feedback is often dreaded or ignored and she discusses how this critical piece of developing individual and team effectiveness can be improved.
• Session 7A with Sam Adeyemi who uses the Feeding the Five-Thousand story to develop the concept that Jesus came to crush the power gaps between men and women, adults and children, and leaders and their followers. He discusses how Jesus confronts the traditional power structures of his day (which continue to exist in our modern cultures in our institutions) and turns them upside down. Jesus came to empower people to be more fully human.

There were a few lows as well.

• Foremost in my mind was Session 6 with Brian Houston of Hillsong. Bill Hybels asked Brian about his experience when it was learned that Brian’s father had abused a minor (which eventually turned out to be many more, and so much that Brian admits he really doesn’t know how many). The discussion on this question became all about Brian and how he suffered through the process, but has managed to work through it and continue to lead a successful church. Almost nothing was mentioned about any of the victims and their violations and suffering. What I heard in the discussion was that Brian was the victim of his father’s crime. The only thing really mentioned about the victim was that he didn’t want to cause any more trouble so asked that the police not be contacted, and then Brian says that later he learned that in that particular province the statute of limitations on sexual crimes never expires. Brian asked for continued prayer on this “issue” with the implication that this prayer was for the church and for his family. Again, nothing about the victims. Unlike the previous day’s gender equality issue in which Bill Hybels rose to take a stand, in this instance I thought it was abject failure. Here was an opportunity to use this huge Summit, seen globally, to take a strong stand against abuse, especially by religious figures, and to come to the victims’ sides. But there was nothing of the sort. I was terribly disappointed. This entire session with Brian Houston lost any credibility for me with this total and catastrophic failure.
• The other low in my mind was the final session with Craig Groeschel. The main content of his session was fine, but it was the “stuff” (or fluff) around it that I was unimpressed by. His illustrations struck of egotism and excessive machismo. And his manner of presentation reminded me, at best, of a hyped-up motivational speaker, and at worst, a less-than-honest salesperson.

On the balance, I do continue to believe the GLS is worth the time and cost to attend and will probably do so next year.