Drew's Thoughts on the Chick-fil-a Leadercast
Recently, I had the pleasure of being able to attend Chick-fil-a's 2013 Leadercast. Even better was that I was working for a sponsor of the Leadercast, Gainesville Marketing.
I really enjoyed this event so I'm sharing some of my most favorite parts and also some of the key takeaways that stuck with me.
Favorites
The Food.
Shocker, I know, but it deserves a spot on this list. The bonus points here are for not only having great breakfast and lunch available, but also an afternoon cookie snack and drinks throughout. I half expected a mid-morning Chick-fimosa, but no such luck.
The Logistics.
I know that sounds a bit vague, but it's a real pleasure when you can tell that the day's plans were really thought through and planned well. For instance, on a tight schedule keeping with the broadcast, long lunch lines could quickly turn the midday break into a clustercuss. But they were lightning-fast at delivering an enjoyable lunch to each one of us, right to the tables we were already seated at. They had even prepared an entertaining speaker to wow us with motivational stunt work on stage while we ate. We stayed very close to on-schedule, which a pretty great feat considering the event's nature. I was impressed.
The Speakers
Did you really not expect this to come up? So many good ideas from all the great minds that spoke. I've always been a huge fan of David Allen, so I loved loved his "mind like water" idea. It's true that "simply leading" doesn't happen by itself. You have to prepare and work hard to stay in that mode.
Other favorites of mine included John Maxwell, Coach K, and of course, Jack Welch. And I was really lucky to have my pastor Andy Stanley open up the day with a great speech.
In addition to the presenters, the hosts were also engaging and entertaining. Tripp and Tyler's videos had me cracking up time and again, which is a necessary brain-break in-between receiving some stunning teaching.
Takeaways
I'll try to keep this to a short and potent list of only the choice cuts.
I used to play a game with friends, where we would just sit around and make up titles for John Maxwell books.
- Leading Leaders with Leadership
- How to Lead Leaders Better
- I'm a Leader of Leading
- Leaders are born, not lead
- Get the Lead out!
- Leadering
- Letters from Leading Leaders on Leading Leaders
- Leadershipping Laws for Leaders
- From Leads to Leaders
- But What about Leadership?
Anyway, I thought I'd heard everything from him I would ever need, but man I was wrong. He really got to me with the simplest advice:
Add Value in Every Relationship. Always ask yourself, "How can I add value to this?"
Relationships, Clients, Friends, Bosses. Just always ask yourself that. And work on giving a great answer.
Another favorite takeaway was from Andy Stanley. Mostly this quick exercise of answering 3 questions in order to refocus and simplify goals:
- What are we doing?
- Why are we doing it?
- Where do I fit in?
In almost every meeting I have with coworkers and sometimes clients, these 3 questions are in my mind as we're planning and clarifying. Excellent practice.
Lastly I will mention David Allen. His "mind like water" thinking is a huge goal of mine. I am far too scatterbrained to be there now, but I'm working toward it. It's hard to encapsulate his lesson in a particular catchphrase, but if there was one, it'd e the relatively unsexy,
Be Appropriately Engaged with Here and Now.
It's a slight paraphrase, but I think it works.
You don't make yourself remember your meetings. You put them in a calendar so you don't have to. Why wouldn't you expand that paradigm to the other responsibilities in life? Think about how much mental RAM you waste on trying to remember phone calls, ideas, blog posts, and other responsibilities. No wonder you feel frazzled and out of touch at meetings. Your brain is barely present under the weight of all this other stuff. Get it out of your head and into an external system you can trust, and then start being appropriately engaged in your every day.
Overall, this post took me far too long to complete (evidence that I need to start taking this advice I'm praising), but I hope that you learned a little something, or just remembered your own experience at Leadercast, or maybe have become more hopeful and determined to attend the next one.
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