I saw a blog post today about criticism and cynicism and loved the distinction that it made. Anybody who creates anything knows the vulnerability and sensitivity that comes from the reactions to what they create. The tough question is what should we do with the feedback? Should we listen to every critic or ignore them all? The answer is found somewhere in between.
There are two kinds of doubt you’ll encounter in any new venture – criticism and cynicism.
There is an interesting dilemma that most of us wrestle with on a regular basis (without realizing it). We want to lead and be exceptional at what we are doing, but we often don’t like the initial feeling of standing out from the crowd. By definition, leaders set themselves apart from others and give people something to follow. The flip side of this is that it can be incredibly lonely at the onset. This is especially true of a creative person.
Consider the following video:
This video is hysterical. It’s beyond creative and makes me laugh every time I see it. But how many of us would be willing to do the same thing (especially when you see how it ends). This is a simple example of a very true reality.
This is part of a series of top posts from 2011.
#6: My Top 20 Quotes from the Leadership Summit
Last week Central hosted the Leadership Summit again. It is a great conference with a variety of speakers that challenges your faith, your leadership, and your thinking in general. I’ve now had a few days to process through the fire-hose of content and I wanted to share the top 20 quotes that most stood out to me…
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I recently read Howard Shultz’s latest book, Onward. While some of it was overlap from another book I read of his back in 2007, this book focused on the last few years of Starbucks’ journey through the down economy. I’m not a die hard coffee fan but I enjoyed the journey he described in coming back as the CEO after the company found itself backed up against a wall. A giant company as big as Starbucks often brings the appearance that it is too big to fail, but Howard acknowledges how this doesn’t compute.
“How could one imperfect cup of coffee, one unqualified manager, or one poorly located store matter when millions of cups of coffee were being served in tens of thousands of stores? We forgot that ‘ones’ add up.”
“Ones” add up for all of us regardless of the size of the organization you are a part of. This is especially true when viewed as the church and the fact that we must focus on God transforming one person at a time. Admittedly, I’m not a Starbucks fanatic, but hearing Howard’s insights into running a company with excellence are easy to apply to whatever it is that you find yourself involved with.
Today was spent “drinking from the fire hose” at the NewSpring Leadership Conference in South Carolina. It was a phenomenal lineup of guys for a one day conference on leadership, preaching, and all things Jesus. Here are a highlight of the key ideas I took from each speaker:
Perry Noble5 things we need in the church (based on John 2):
Life is a gift // Eternity is reality
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