June 8, 2017

By Intrigue

As someone who loves learning about how to grow as a leader, Leadercast is one of my favourite days of the year.

If you’re not familiar with Leadercast, it is a day long simulcast hosted in Atlanta, Georgia, featuring talks on leadership by some of the world’s best authors, athletes, celebrities, politicians, and business executives.

At Intrigue, our purpose is to empower leaders to grow stronger communities. Every year, we do our best to bring our whole team to Leadercast, as some of the best ideas we’ve implemented through years started at this event.

The theme for the event this year was “powered by purpose”. As a group of people who have put a lot of energy into finding our purpose and living it out, this event was one of the best installments of Leadercast that we’ve attended.

With that in mind, I’m delighted to share highlights from three speakers that resonated with our team from Leadercast 2017.

Andy Stanley – What is My Purpose?

Andy is one of my heroes, so I’m biased when I say this. His talks are consistently the best talks every year at Leadercast. Here are some bullet points from his talk:

  • Most people want to be the end, not the means.
  • Finding personal purpose starts with a question: “Who am I here for?”
  • Purpose is always found just across the border from what’s in it for me.
  • Purpose is a path to meaning.
  • Am I willing to be the means to someone else’s end?
  • Cheryl Bachelder – the point of purpose is to determine how you will serve others.
  • Wrap-up
    1. Look at everything you’re doing through the lens of means, as opposed to ends.
    2. Pay attention to what stirs your heart.
    3. Surround yourself with on-purpose people.

Donald Miller – Be the Yoda in Luke’s story

I read Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz in high school, and it blew my mind. At Leadercast this year, I was pleasantly surprised to see him on the speakers list. He shared all about the power of story, and here are some bullet points from his talk:

  • People don’t buy the best products — they purchase products that are the clearest communicated to them.
  • Your customers care about their story, not yours.
  • Every piece of information you give a client is like an eight-pound bowling ball.
  • How many pieces of information can you give them until they drop all the bowling balls?
  • If you confuse, you’ll lose.
  • 7-step Story Framework:
    • A character
    • with a problem
    • meets a guide
    • who gives them a plan
    • calls them to action
    • that results in
    • success or failure.
  • We need to be the guide in our client’s story.
  • We choose guides over heroes to be our leaders.

Daniel Pink – Make sure that your team and clients see each other

Daniel Pink’s To Sell is Human has been a mainstay around our office for the past couple of years, so it was natural for our sales team to be excited to hear him speak. The knowledge he shared was incredible, and here are some bullet points from his talk:

  • Purpose and meaning separate the good from the great.
  • University of Michigan study revealed that phone fundraisers more than doubled their results when they spent five minutes reading personal letters from beneficiaries from donors before their phone shifts.
  • Harvard study of cafeteria workers revealed that customer satisfaction and food quality went up when the cooks and customers could see each other.
  • People leave companies when they feel like they aren’t making a contribution, when what they do doesn’t have meaning.
  • People want to know that they’re missed when they’re not at work.
  • Have two fewer conversations about ‘how’ and two more conversations about ‘why’ this week.

Daniel spoke of the idea that you can summarize the purpose of great people in a sentence. Here’s an example: Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves.

What is your sentence?

Applied Knowledge is Power

Leadercast is one of the most inspirational days of the year for me. It’s in the doing of what I learn there that the value is found.

How are you applying what you learned at Leadercast this year?

Intrigue is a Canadian digital marketing company delivering solutions to help businesses get noticed and found. Guided by a commitment to empower leaders to strengthen communities, Intrigue offers website design and development, branding, online advertising, content marketing, graphic design, video production, SEO, and analytics. Take your marketing to the next level and Get Noticed. Get Found.® intrigueme.ca

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