Month: February 2018

5 Steps on the Journey to Developing Leaders

Posted on February 7, 2018 by - Articles, Leadership Development, Leading Others, Team Building

Leaders aren’t meant to be alone.

Leadership is about influencing others toward a common mission together. It requires more than simply working together toward a common goal—a common purpose. Rather, great leaders align people and resources in order to accomplish these goals.

Many leaders mistakenly believe financial resources are the most critical tool required to achieve their vision.

However, a leader’s greatest asset is people.

Their value does not lie in their number or their current capabilities. The value of your people lies in the capacity of their leadership potential. In order to leverage your greatest resource, you must help them grow this leadership capacity from burgeoning potential to high effectiveness.

John Maxwell wrote, Leaders create and inspire new leaders by instilling faith in their leadership ability and helping them develop and hone leadership skills they don’t know they possess.

Who was a leader who took an interest in you and helped inspire you to grow and develop as a leader?

What were some of the things they did to bring out your leadership potential?

Each of us can look at those who influenced and inspired us to grow in our leadership, to identify the ways they invested that most helped us improve and develop. Growing leaders is not achieved by infusing them with a checklist of leadership qualities. Rather, leadership is developed when we provide environments and experiences that cultivate and nurture leadership potential.

When organizations embrace the following propositions, they experience significant impact from their investment in new and emerging leaders:

1) Leadership development is a journey.

It is not a single event. Leaders are not developed in a day, but daily. Growth strategies for emerging leaders are being planned with a longer view and time frame that goes beyond a singular event. The Global Leadership Summit is a catalyst for year-round growth experiences designed to help leaders increase their influence and effectiveness. Some of the year-round growth resource tools we provide include GLSnext, the GLS Podcast and GrowthTracks.

2) Leadership skills can be taught.

Many people are intimidated by leadership, viewing those who lead as, “born leaders.” Giving emerging leaders skills for vision casting, team building, conflict resolution and more can help build leadership confidence and increase the leadership impact in your organization. Identifying and cultivating skill development in new and emerging leaders can help transform your organization into a greater leadership-learning environment.

3) Emerging leaders need a safe place for change.

Providing a safe place that allows leaders the opportunity to test and experiment in leadership roles, offers space for learning and trust-building. It also helps emerging leaders to make the internal and external changes necessary in order to grow their influence.

4) Leadership learning provides both engagement and experience.

Effective learning environments must include information, action and evaluation. Emerging leaders need the benefit of knowledge acquisition, application through action and evaluation through honest, constructive and positive feedback. Both knowing and doing produce greater understanding and impact.

5) Character counts.

Leadership is more than knowing and doing. Rather, it flows out of our being; out of who we are. Leadership-equipping systems must care as much about the heart and integrity of a leader as the actions of a leader. It is out of the leader’s inner life that they influence and interact with employees, make consistent and honorable decisions on behalf of a company or organization and have relational interaction with clients, customers and colleagues.

The key to greater effectiveness and success as a business or organization, as a leader over a small team or as a CEO of a multi-billion-dollar company comes through your investment in the people capital you have been entrusted with.

Increasing the capacity of those you work and journey with will multiply your collective impact and bring greater joy and fulfillment.

Don’t lead alone.

Remember those who invested in you and pass it on.

50 Widows Can Send Their Children Back to School Because of One Pastor’s Vision

Posted on February 7, 2018 by - Africa, Because of the GLS, Business, Calling, Stories

Julius Msheliza is a pastor from northern Nigeria, where he also serves as the GLS coordinator for both the event, and year-round initiatives in that part of the country. After attending the GLS in 2016, he was inspired to start a ministry to serve widows and their children who’ve been affected by the insurgency of Boko Haram. (NOTE: Boko Haram is a Suni Islamist militant organization based in Nigeria.) Julius’ influence is lifting women and children out of hopelessness, and giving them opportunities to thrive.

The Bible says, in this world we will have many tribulations. But Jesus says, be of good cheer for I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

We take encouragement from God’s word knowing that He will be with us when we pass through the water, when we go through fire.

For the past six years in northern Nigeria, we’ve been grappling with the Boko Haram insurgency, which has claimed over 20,000 lives and rendered so many women widows and so many children orphans. We have 36 states in Nigeria. Six states are now under the insurgency. It’s a really bad situation.

I made up my mind that for the rest of my life, I would look for ways to add value to people.

Because of the Summit, my life changed in so many ways. However, it was a watershed moment in my life in 2016.

From that Summit I made up my mind that for the rest of my life, I would look for ways to add value to people.

After the event a few friends and I decided to raise money to assist the widows and give them capital to engage in business so they could put food on their table. So far we have been able to empower about 50 widows. We haven’t solved the problem there, but we are touching their lives in small ways.

The joy and celebration we saw that day on the faces of the widows we helped was a life-changing experience for me. We have now decided to expand the program to bring in more widows and to start forms of skill acquisition that will further help them out of hopelessness and misery. We know God will help us.

One woman’s story in particular especially touches my heart. Her husband was a pastor, and the Boko Haram killed her husband and burned down their church. She became more destitute because there was no breadwinner in her family.

By giving her capital so she could to start a business, she has been able to send her children back to school.

This is very, very important to us because in order to break the cycle of poverty, you need to educate the children. For her to be able to send her children back to school is a big deal.

Every time I get messages from the women, they tell me they are praying for me, for God to keep me so I can live longer and help more women.

We’ve also seen other pastors coming on board trying to help people around them who are also in poverty, inspiring more people to do something for their community.

Thank you for making the GLS available in my country!

Nigeria, like any other African country, has a leadership problem. Corruption is one of the major challenges we have in Nigeria. It is one of the reasons we have so much poverty. The quality of our nation depends on the quality of the leaders we are raising.

To raise and multiply leaders will bring about a change in my community, my society and my country at large. The GLS has given us that platform and the resources to do that. This is the biggest desire of my heart.

I appreciate you for creating this platform that empowers leaders in churches and in businesses. I want to ask them to continue to do the good work. I believe the good Lord will reward you for the good work you are doing. I’m eternally grateful to Willow Creek Association and The Global Leadership Summit for giving me the tools and resources to become a change agent in my community and the world. Mega blessings to you.

 

Three Leaders Who Prove God’s Presence in Vietnam

Posted on February 5, 2018 by - Asia, Because of the GLS, Stories

Most people are surprised to find out that an event like The Global Leadership Summit is growing in places like Vietnam—a country some have called “a Godless nation.” But what we’ve seen in the relatively small community of Christians in Vietnam, are churches passionate about growing, hungry to bring the Gospel to their communities and transform their country.

Through the GLS and the support of generous donors, thousands of Christians are being trained and equipped in their leadership in Vietnam.

Here is just a small sampling of some of the impact the GLS is having in Vietnam:

“I used to be a policeman. I worked as a policeman for four years, and then did something wrong, so I had to find another field of work. But I became a rebel who did anything I could to protect myself, which included harming others. I also became addicted to drugs. It took 16 years for me to get clean. It was a miracle. Thanks to the unconditional love of God, I became a totally different person. No one believed that I could become a person who helps others, but I decided I wanted to help other drug addicts. I understand their pain and struggle, so I started overseeing a rehab center. As a leader for these people, I want to become a role model, and build into each one of them so they can become good men. Melinda Gates’ session at the GLS really inspired me in this endeavor. She helps millions of people who are less fortunate. She showed me that leadership is about influence, not power over people. I was inspired to leave a legacy. Because of the GLS, I’m opening up a church in my home, and I’m praying for wisdom, taking everything I learned from the GLS with sincerity and using it to fulfill this dream.” – Tran Thanh Ha, Bac Giang province, Vietnam

“I met God four years ago in Malaysia. When I returned to Vietnam, I got involved in a lot of activities in hopes of spreading the Word of God as much as I could. So I started forming small churches of 15 members. Attending the GLS has been so helpful. This year, they talked about legacy, and it’s changed my view of the future about building into the next generation. I want to build into these leaders, focusing on their strengths, so they can continue to develop these small churches in Vietnam.” – Hoang Khai Huyen, Ha Noi, Vietnam

 

“I was a drug addict for 20 years. I was in a gang, living on debt collection, and inciting terrible violence. In 2011, I was released from prison. Thanks to God’s grace, I met my current wife, and received help from my mother who introduced me to God’s love and grace. Under God’s guidance, I was able to escape both my physical and mental pain. God guided me out of darkness. I gave up opium, and found honorable work. I attended the GLS for the first time, and listened to Melinda Gates talk about true influence. In this modern time, it’s easy for the rich to find ways to get richer, but Melinda is different. She has a servant’s heart. She is humble, and cares about the suffering of others. Even though I’m not well off enough to do big things like Melinda, I want to help people in need in small ways. I started leading a group of drug addicts in hopes of sharing my experience with them, delivering hope that they too can overcome difficulties and start a new life. In the future, I’d like to expand to have more support groups like this.” – Do Van Nam, Ha Noi, Vietnam

Thank you for praying for and supporting the growth of the GLS in Vietnam!

To learn more about how the GLS came to be in Vietnam, watch this video.