GLN conversation
Every summer an international Leadership event is held at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Chicago, Illinois, and this is called the Global Leadership Summit (GLS). It started in 1995 as an annual training event for leaders to come together to learn from other leaders who are at the top of their game. Some 10,000 plus people are able to attend the summit live and the event is telecast live to many hundreds of satellite sites around the US. In the months following the event, it is then taken as a videocast into many more hundreds of venues in more than 70 countries around the world.
One of those videocast venues is held in Stafford, a few miles from where I live, and I went to my first GLS event there, after an invitation from a good friend who hosts that event, some 15 years ago. I found the event to be a remarkable gathering of local leaders and fabulous speakers, and I revelled in the inspirational teaching coming from the speakers at the Summit. Many of the most used books that I have on my bookshelf come from speakers that I first encountered at the GLS.
Since then I have visited the conference in Stafford many times over the intervening years, and I have taken the opportunity to bring other leaders with me to experience this world-class teaching and to also to work together with them to bring many of these leadership ideas and challenges to life in their local context. Although I have thoroughly enjoyed videocast event in Stafford, ever since that first event it has been on my bucket list to attend the event live in Chicago.
Someyears later I joined the John Maxwell Team (JMT) of speakers, coaches and trainers,and the JMT meet twice a year for a conference in Orlando, Florida. When booking for one of these JMT conferencevisits I noticed that the GLS event in Chicago was immediately after the eventin Orlando, so I booked a plane ticket and a GLS conference ticket along with afriend who was also a JMT coach, and we flew together to attend the GLS inChicago. While we were there, I met withthe team that run the GLS events in the UK, and we formed a friendship that hascontinued from that day.
Muchhas happened since then, including the appointment earlier this year to jointhe board of the Global leadership Network UK (GLN) and I was able to make anothervisit to the GLS this summer, where I met some remarkable people including alovely host family who took me into their home (thank you Rich and Marcie) andmade me feel really welcome, and I was also able to chat with many of this year’sspeakers too.
Earlier this year I was approached tobecome a Director of the Global Leadership Network UK (GLN) and having acceptedthe appointment I had a “conversation by email” where we explored my backgroundand some leadership related topics. Thediscussion that ensued is reproduced here in an unedited format. (Note that the Global Leadership Summit (GLS)is the flagship conference for the GLN which is held in Chicago in August eachyear. This includes talks from Leadersaround the world and is rebroadcast around the UK later in the year.)
