Chick-fil-A Leadercast: Andy Stanley

If you missed the Chick-fil-A Leadercast this past Friday then you missed out on some great content! But no worries you can catch up quick. I’m going to post my notes and thoughts from each of the sessions over the next couple of days! First up was Andy Stanley…enjoy!

• I may be in charge but I don’t always know what to do.
• I’m never the smartest person in the room, I’m just the leader
• Level 5 Leaders have the humility to aspire to be the dumbest person in the room via Jim Collins

When you realize you’re not the smartest person in the room:

1. You learn to surround yourself with people smarter than yourself
2. You’re willing to risk and try new things

• Growth creates complexity | Complexity is unavoidable | Complexity is the enemy of clarity (everything)
• If you have the only hot dog stand in town, your hot dogs don’t have to be that good

Leadership Made Simple:

Question #1: What are we doing?

• There is incredible power when you can reduce what you’re doing right now down to one simple statement – it has to be memorable and portable
• The mist in your mind will eventually become a fog in your organization
• If you don’t know exactly what you’re doing, you’re going to have a difficult time doing it
• If you don’t have a simple answer to the question “What are we doing?” then it’s because you haven’t worked on it long enough

Question #2: Why are we doing it?

• Where there is a compelling answer to the question “why” people will lean in passionately
• If this question isn’t answered then people lose their motivation and it just becomes a job

Question #3: Where do I fit in?

• What’s your critical role?
• What is your unique contribution?
• What is your core responsibility?

Action Step: Create for yourself and your direct reports (and critical players in your organization) a one sentence job description. Examples:

• Andy’s: Inspire our staff and congregations to remain fully engaged in our mission and strategy
• CFO: Create implement and monitor systems that ensure our organization remains fiscally secure
• Andy’s Admin: Keep Andy’s path clear of nonessential tasks and decisions so that he can do what only he can do

• Growth creates complexity which requires simplicity