Listening, Learning, & Leading (Drive takeaways part 2)

Andy's 2nd main session with us @ Drive 09 was awesome. So much great stuff. (You can catch up on part 1 of my raw & unfiltered takeaways HERE.)
Hope you love this stuff...

- "As Leaders, we gravitate toward the voices that tell us what we want to hear." THEREFORE it's just natural for leaders to "become insulated and isolated. And the dirty little secret is that most of us LIKE it that way!" ouch...
- Andy must have said this 10 times in the talk = "Leadership is not about making decisions on your own. It's about OWNING decisions once they're made."
** But I love this one even better & I think every leader needs to live by this! = "The responsibility of the leader is not to make all the decisions, but to ensure that all the decisions made are GOOD ones." oh man, so many implications for so many bad leaders.
& the bottom line for all this = in order to make those GOOD decisions "a leader must be surrounded by and be willing to listen to the right people."

(so, WHY is this important & HOW do I do it?) -> here you go...
*Great Leaders are Great LISTENERS!
- "You are probably NOT the smartest person in your org. You are just the leader." Oh wow... I was lovin' it when he said this. I think I tweeted it! we all need someone to say this to us.
- "What and who you listen to will determine what you do" SO, you MUST create a SYSTEM where you're surrounded by the right peeps! & Andy is a genius at doing this. He has created systems for listening to all the smart peeps in the org. no matter how new, young, or old they are!
- as a young/next generation leader I know this statement by Andy is SO true! = "Leaders are attracted to environments where their ideas & opinions are HEARD." So you gotta create this system. Most lead pastors DON'T do this! & the younger leaders LEAVE & go somewhere where they will be heard & can make a difference. CRAZY thankful to work with an awesome leader/lead pastor where I always feel heard!
1 - leaders wanna know they have a chance to "influence their own destinites."
2 - "Leaders who refuse to listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing important to say." = Because all the GOOD peeps with good stuff to say will LEAVE & only the dumb peeps will come work for you! I'm just sayin... well, actually, Andy said it!

*You gotta read = Proverbs 1:5/ 12:15/ 13:10/ 19:20/ 15:22 = don't be a freakin' fool & not surround yourself with advice & counsel when making your decisions!

OK, I feel like that's overload for now... TOMORROW, you can read about the rest of Andy's talk -> THE PROBLEM with all this & 2 solutions! make sure to check it out!!!

[God, make me a godly & awesome leader like these peeps I'm learning from!]