I spent the better part of two days watching the Global Leadership Summit at a satellite location. I have three reflections.
My best thoughts after the summit circle around values. I think I am merging thoughts from Jim Collins and Patrick Lencioni. I have spent a lot of time reflecting on what simply stated core values inform all our decisions. I have spent more time thinking about how we communicate them to the community. We have core values that guide most of our decisions, but they could be clearer. I also woud like to see us empower more people to use simply stated core values to make decisions. I have also been noodling around about my own simply stated personal core values.
- I am not sure that we should abstract leadership as something to study. Everyone that spoke had a different measure of what made great leaders. No theme became evident. Having been to the summit before and read several books and articles in the last couple of years on leadership, to me no unifying theme has emerged. One feeling has emerged. I am less and less confident of my leadership ability the more I hear about leadership. I should probably stop learning about leading.
- Emerging from the mire is this:
- Leaders learn. Mostly by listening and other less important means.
- Leaders do something. The something is probably new in their environment and based on their learning. There are not certain outcomes.
I am ready for there to be more people around so I can listen to them. Then I can do something.