The first speaker of the afternoon was First Lady Laura Bush. Theses are my notes and take-aways from her conversation.
“Nothing prepares you for leadership as much as experience”
- The people you’re leading can teach you
- Having a clear objective or opponent helps teams focus on the real opponent instead of making each other the opponent
- Wise team members offer input when it is invited, they don’t feel the need to overly insert themselves
- Normal life together in the mundane moments provides a depth and framework to lead from as a team is in the difficult moments
- In stressful leadership times having a routine provides strength, calmness, and stability
- Leadership is not about popularity…popularity is fleeting…the role of the leader is to lead in the correct direction regardless of popularity
- Calm is contagious…everyone takes their cues from the leader
- Leaders speak for those who cannot speak for themselves
- Leaders have a bias to turn and face challenges, especially unexpected challenges
- Treat people with respect, don’t be demeaning or sarcastic towards the people you work with
- Leaders set the example: Children aren’t very good at listening to their elders but they’re very quick to imitate
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