13 Top Quotes from the Willow Creek Leadership Summit #WLS17

Every year I attend the Willow Creek Leadership Summit at a local video venue with over 50 of our leaders. This year did not disappoint. It was probably the best Summit for my team and me. In this post I list the top 13 quotes from the speakers. If you’ve not been to a Summit, make plans to attend one. It’s a great investment in leaders.

Top GLS quotes:

Andy Stanley:

  • The next generation’s good ideas seldom come from the previous generation.
  • Replace ‘how’ with ‘wow.’ (He’s referring to encouraging people with their ideas rather than discouraging them with, “So how in the world could we do that?”)
  • My greatest contribution to the world may not be what I do but who I raise.

Lazlo Bock, senior advisor Google:

  • Connect work to meaning.

Juliet Funt, CEO Whitespace at Work:

  • We all need white spaces which are strategic pauses between activities
  • The four thieves of productivity are drive that leads to compulsion, excellence that leads to perfection, information overload, and activity that leads to frenzy.
  • 4 crucial whitespace simplification questions:
    • Is there anything I can let go of?
    • Where is good enough, good enough?
    • What do I truly need to know?
    • What deserves my attention?

Markus Buckingham, author and consultant:

  • The two biggest areas that motivate employees:
    • At work I know what is expected of me.
    • At work I have a chance to use my strengths.

Sam Adeyemi, senior pastor Daystar Christian Center, Nigeria

  • Great leaders change other people’s view of themselves.
  • Leaders don’t attract people they want but people like them.

Angela Duckworth, author of GRIT

  • The Definition of GRIT: sustained passion and perseverance for long-term goals.
  • Two key indicators you have grit: you are a hard worker and you finish what you begin.

Gary Haugen, CEO International Justice Mission

  • Be careful of being more impressed with bad men that our good God. (He’s referring to the temptation to get caught up in all the bad things happening around us while forgetting that God is bigger.)

If you went to the summit, what were your biggest take-aways?

4 thoughts on “13 Top Quotes from the Willow Creek Leadership Summit #WLS17”

  1. Agreed it was a great year. Here are some of mine…
    Bill Hybels:
    – Humility is the key to learning from each other.
    Sheryl Sandberg:
    – Men have a critical role to play in creating a more equitable world. There is a small and unconscious bias against women.
    – There is a huge self help section in each bookstore – but not a help others section…
    Bryan Stevenson:
    – In speaking of the “Justice Quotient” To be effective – we need to be proximate.
    – The opposite of poverty is Justice (implied – not wealth)
    Andy Stanley:
    – Listen to and learn from outsiders, outsiders aren’t bound by our assumptions – who is an outsider that you engage with?
    Laszlo Bock:
    – We all think we are good at hiring – but we are not. Don’t let the interviewer make the hiring decision.
    – Have a suggestion box – it is very important.
    Juliet Funt: – Same as Charles comments above
    Markus Buckingham:
    – Make decisions based on good data.
    Immacule´e Ilibagiza:
    – I don’t need to compete with evil.
    – Faith is such a great gift.
    Gary Haugen:
    – Fear destroys the love that inspires the dream and replaces it with a preoccupation of self.
    – Our survival depends on our love for one another.

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