Welcome and Introduction

• Leadership is moving people from here to there
• Leadership is all about movement
• we, as leaders are at different points in the journey: - can I do it?
• can I sustain it?
• can I take it across the finish line?
• humility is the highest value at the Summit

The Intangibles of Leadership

• Book: The Intangibles of Leadership (Richard Davis)
• 5 aspects of leadership
• (1) Grit- “passion and perseverance over the long haul”
• unrelenting steely determination over decades
• “gritty people play hurt”
• gritty people believe they can overcome any obstacle that comes there way
• Book: The Little Engine that Could “I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.” & “I thought I could. I thought I could. I thought I could.”
• Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr.
• Do you have grit? www.willowcreek.com/Survey for grit assessment
• Can grit be developed? Yes - “The arch enemy of grit is ease”
• “Grit development demands difficulty.”
• Grit grows every time you prove to yourself that you can overcome an obstacle.
• “Will yourself to task achievement.”
• Elite leaders know that overcoming physical challenges builds grit.
• Over-deliver when asked to do something by supervisor
• When senior leaders demonstrate grit teammates and followers notice and develop more grit in themselves.
• “Gritty organizations are unstoppable.”
• (2) Self-Awareness- leaders have things that happened in the past that impact what they do in the present (tethered to something in the past)
• messes in an organization are often connected to low self-awareness
• blind spots in leaders - “something someone believes they do well but everyone on the team knows it isn’t true.”
• most leaders have 3–4 blind spots
• the danger is that you have no idea the blind spot exists
• once you know a blind spot you can move it into the weakness category for work
• the people around you can help you identify them…especially direct supervisor or spouse
• often requires conversations with co-workers, counselor, or coach
• “Everybody will win when you grow in self-awareness.”
• (3) Resourcefullness- ability to learn
• in the face of difficult problems, people with high learning agility roll up their sleeves and figure out to do
• the Wright Brothers are an example…they figured it out
• “Resourceful people figure it out.”
• Resourcefulness can be developed - need to put yourself in confusing and dysfunctional situations to grow it
• organizations need resourceful people
• (4) Self-Sacrificing Love- story of David and his troops (I Samuel 22:2) and the water they got for him (2 Samuel 23:17)
• “Self-sacrificing love is at the very core of leadership.”
• I Corinthians 13:8 “Love never fails.”
• “Love changes people.”
• Love turns a rag-tag group of people into a family
• we live in a day where many leaders are narcassistic
• the senior leader must demonstrate self-sacrificing love
• organizations perform better when supervisors truly love those they supervise
• don’t hesitate a moment to show love to teammates…get personal
• (5) Create a Sense of Meaning- almost everyone understands the “What” and “How” of the organization. Many don’t know the “Why”
• leaders in tomorrows world must share the why of the organization
• “What is your white hot why?”
• Your “why” will fuel you or will need to be changed to something that will fuel you
• Ephesians 2:8–9
• the message of what Christ does transformed Bill’s life and became his “white hot why” of “Transformed Lives”
• find out your “white hot why”…life is too short to live without one

Originally published on stephen.braunius.org