Barnabas File

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have talked and written a lot about what characteristics are needed to lead in a crisis.    Our present situation has called forth the best in leaders but also has identified gaps that might not have been apparent or crucial before.   As I listened to one of the speakers at the 2020 Global Leadership Conference, I realized that the characteristics for successful leadership in a crisis are the same that are needed for leadership at any time.     Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic teaches at University College London and Columbia University and is also the Chief Talent Scientist at ManPowerGroup.  He and his team have done extensive research on resilience during the pandemic, but their findings are applicable at any time.  Here are the characteristics or traits they identified of a successful leader.   Intelligence--the ability to learn quickly. Curiosity--knowing what you don’t know. Humility--willing to listen,...

I will be very transparent that I attend these meetings more for information than inspiration, but I came away wi th b oth.     Craig Groeschel, pastor of Life.Church, and Albert Tate, pastor of Fellowship Church, were the bookend preachers.     Both were inspiring and competent. Like most large events, the Global Leadership Summit went virtual this year. Although there were still some large group viewings across the country, the event was produced as an online event that could also be viewed by small groups and individuals across the country.     The production was well done, and I only experienced one brief service outage during the conference.  This is unusual for an event this large.  Of course, viewing from home is convenient and it is nice to be able to go back or pause as you wish, but there are a lot more distractions. Groeschel is an effective communicator who is informative and encouraging, but he goes more for the head than th...

Although I never heard it mentioned from the platform this year, the Global Leadership Summit continues to rebuild its credibility after the sexual harassment charges against Bill Hybels, former pastor of Willow Creek Community Church and former leader of the Willow Creek Association (now Global Leadership Network).     Allegations about Hybels’ inappropriate relationships with female staff members, church members, and business associates have negatively impacted the church, the association, and this event. Even though this history was not on the printed agenda at the Summit, planners chose several speakers who addressed the issue of harassment and power in very clear ways. In an interview with Paula Faris, guest Bozoma Saint John talked about her work as Chief Brand Officer at Uber, a corporation whose culture of discrimination and misogyny is well known. She discussed the challenges of working in that situation and seemed relieved that she no longer has a con...

As is my annual custom, I attended a satellite presentation of the Global Leadership Summit last week.   My primary reason to attend is to be introduced to new speakers in the field of leadership development and be exposed to some cutting-edge ideas in the field.    About a third of the participants are church leaders, one-third business leaders, and the rest are not-for-profit leaders, educators, and others.  The mix is ministry meets marketplace, and it is done well. The Summit still originates in South Barrington, Illinois, from the facilities of Willow Creek Church, but there is a bit of distance between the church and the Network since accusations arose about former church pastor Bill Hybels who was also a key player in the Willow Creek Association, now rebranded as the Global Leadership Network. Although the Summit was broadcast to hundreds of sites across the United States with about 135,000 participants (and will be re-packaged and translate...

As usual, I attended a satellite location of the Global Leadership Summit this year.   I heard some great speakers and will share more about them and the Summit in a subsequent post.     In this session, I want to share the books that I bought as a result of hearing several speakers and why I purchased them. The first is Never Split the Difference:  Negotiating as If Your Life Depended on It by Chris Voss, former FBI hostage negotiator and CEO of the Black Swan Group.   After serving with the Kansas City, Missouri, police department, Chris Voss joined the FBI where he moved from SWAT team member to hostage. Negotiator.  He eventually became the FBI’s lead international kidnapping negotiator.  What caught my attention in Voss’s interview was the intersection of negotiating and coaching.  He talked about actions such as being genuinely curious, asking “how” not “why” questions, using open-ended questions, and “mirrori...

Craig Groeschel, the founder and senior pastor of Life.Church. The Global Leadership Summit which began as a project of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, and its founding pastor, Bill Hybels, over 25 years ago was held this week without Hybels. For several years, the GLS has been now produced by the Willow Creek Association, a spin-off organization and a loose network of churches but Hybels has been its driving force. Attended by thousands at the church facility in South Barrington and broadcast to thousands more at satellite locations, the annual meeting brings together not only evangelical leaders but outstanding speakers from business, charitable organizations, politics, and business.  For the first time, Hybels did not appear due to allegations of sexual impropriety brought against him over the past year by former employees, staff members, and business associates.  He has already left the church and resigned from the board of t...

The Willow Creek Association’s Global Leadership Summit brings together not only faith leaders but leaders in all types of organizations.   The slate of speakers intentionally includes not only those from churches and faith-based organizations, but corporate executives, consultants, and researchers who deal with people development. Speakers this year included Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, and author of Lean In and Option B (with Adam Grant); Marcus Lemonis, CEO of Camping World and Good Sam, and host of the TV show, The Profit; Laszlo Bock, Senior Advisor at Google  and author of Work Rules ; Marcus Buckingham, consultant/researcher and author of StandOut 2.0 ; Sam Adeyemi, pastor of Daystar Christian Centre in Nigeria; and Angela Duckworth, professor at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Grit:  The Power of Passion and Perservance. A common theme among these speakers was that people basically want to do good work and...