Leadership Summit Session 3

Floyd Flake is senior pastor of the Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathredal of New York in Queens, NY. He is also the president of Wilberforce University in Wilberforce, Ohio (That's about 15 miles from where I grew up!) Dr. Flake was a US Congressman for 1986 - 1997.

I think Dr. Flake had much good to say, but he struggled with his presentation. He obviously had too much content for his alloted time. I found him difficult to follow. The notes below are from Scot McKnight, posted at the Summit blog.

Floyd Flake’s talk deals with five models of leadership.

#1: Transitional Leadership:

No matter what kind of leader you are, there is always a need for transition and transformation to achieve our goals and make the needed changes. But it is difficult to “sell” new ideas, to get folks to leave their comfort zone. Getting people involved in this change, getting them to see their own essence needs the change, is the secret of leadership. Leaders need to be selfless and know where they are going. This means they need to have a design for change, identifying needs and expecting opposition.

Identifying needs is crucial: whatever needs one finds in the community is for the “ecclesia.” Flake saw home ownership in trouble, education in decline, and the need for solid institutional support systems to sustain a community and pave the way for the future. They saw a future in Acts 2:1-4, 42-47: they built community by staying where the community was!

Opposition may occur. They built a school, and some didn’t think was a good idea. Elaine, an educator, took the responsibility and the congregation raised $1.5 million to build a $4 million school. Leadership doesn’t mean everyone will agree with you. They’ve continued to develop in the community. They’ve developed equity in people and empowered them.

#2: Transactional Leadership:

Committee work, persuasion, listen to the voices. Flake has worked as a pastor, as a politician, and as a college president; each involves transactional leadership. Delegation matters.

#3: Transparent Leadership:

Moral leadership and integrity. Information to the people and back to the leaders, communication. Get your finances in order and let the folks know what’s going on. Have competent co-leaders.

#4: Transcendent Leadership

Pastor Floyd cut back on this due to time constraints. He returned to this idea to emphasize that leaders prepare for leaders beyond the current leader’s lifetime. He’s developed a “transcendency plan” for the next 20 years. He wants to leave something for the next generation.

#5: Transformational Leadership
Is aggressive and confident. Sometimes the people bring a vision to the leadership, asking “What are we going to do next?” You may never have unanimous support, but you do need a majority. Transforming leaders are not intimidated. Pastor Flake expects opposition in NYC; he’s under the microscope. His life was threatened once; had he buckled, then the rest may not have happened. The senior citizen building is testimony of courage. Evangelism is about changing people, not denominations and buildings.

Leadership Summit Session 2

Carly Fiorina was named "The Most Powerful Woman in Business" by Fortune Magazine when she was 45 years old. She became CEO of Hewlett-Packard which ranked her as the first female CEO of a Fortune 20 company.

Her highlight statements:

• Educate yourself widely. Learn about the things that fascinate you.
• It is more important to ask the right question than to know the right answer.
• Every time you overcome something that you are afraid of you become stronger.
• I won't let other people's smaller ideas about who I am define me.
• Leadership is about moving people in a new direction. Management is about producing within defined parameters.
• Give people a vision that is more compelling than what they are afraid of.
• Leadership is about seeing and unlocking potential in others.
• You have to be learning all the time. You learn when you are outside your comfort zone. Create experiences that put people outside their comfort zone.
• In order to see truth, you need passion and dispassion.
• At it's core, leadership is about character.
  
• When fired from HP, she learned that there is a gift in everything.
  

Leadership Summit Session 1

Bill Hybels is founding pastor of Willow Creek Community Church. His talks are always outstanding. He has taught me as much about pastoral leadership as anyone. His talk is titled "A Vision to Die For".

Main points of his talk:

• Create a prayer mantra as you approach big events. His mantra for this year's summit is "Record Registrations, Record Impact."
• Nothing matters more than the vision. It must be held by significant numbers of leaders within the organization.
• You motivate people to own a vision to die for through process.
• Stages of Vision Development:
• Vision Formation - In the Sinai approach, senior leaders get a vision from God and deliver it to others. It worked for Moses, but it is not likely to work today. A team approach works better. Gather leaders and ask "What does God want our church to look like 5 years from now?
• Vision Refinement - Develop a first draft of the vision and take it to many groups for input, refinement, questions, etc.
• Vision Declaration - Give your talk to a test group to try to refine it. Get feedback. Vision declaration is a team activity rather than a solo activity.
• Remember that vision leaks. Use any and all resources to fill vision buckets back up. Celebrate along the way to accomplishment.
  
• Be willing to die for the mission God has given you. The choice is between being an owner or a hireling. The owner will pay any price. The hireling is interested in fame, career, how high the price might be.
  

Leadership Summit

The summit has been awesome, as usual. I will post some things in the next few days. In the interim, enjoy this guitar player I heard at the beginning of one of the sessions. He was wonderful.

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Happy Birthday!

Today is my best friend's birthday. Happy birthday, Linda. I love you.

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