After the obligatory introductions of SLA Board members, Board candidates, and staff, the SLA Leadership Summit got off to an energetic start with a keynote address by Gary Heil of the The Center for Innovative Leadership. He titled the talk

“For the love of the game: the art of leading an inspired team” and discussed how to get your inner leader out. One theme was that those who influence the flow of information can significantly affect the future. He quoted Scandinavian Airlines’CEO

Jan Carlzon, “People without information cannot take responsibility. People with information cannot help but take responsibility.” Hein recommended changing the information that people look at.

He then advised we consider Carl Frost’s questions:

Do you know we would like to be different?

Are there compelling reasons to change?

Are we passionate and optimistic about the cause?

Are there significant, attainable opportunities for improvement?

Is there enough in it for me that am willing to commit to the effort?

All leaders, Hein said, have inspired followers. The question is what are they inspired to do?

Good leaders should have only one priority, one cause, and everyone who works for that leader should believe (and say) that they are that cause, they are the organization, not that they merely work for that organization.

Hein moved on to optimism, saying that it’s a choice. Positive thoughts change brain chemistry and thinking is merely re-arranging your prejudices. You must change the way you think to change the way you lead.

Word travels incredibly quickly these days. You are who you are, not who you say you are.

Particularly for service companies and service departments, Hein claimed we need to determine what value we are willing to deliver that will render the experience remarkable. We should create an environment that encourages motivated employees.

There’s an incongruity between cause and structure. Structure drives behavior. If the structure doesn’t align with our cause, we need a different structure.

I didn’t find any of his insights to be completely novel, but he stated them nicely and had lots of very funny stories to tell that effectively illustrated his points. His delivery style was reminiscent of Tom Peters and I do wish he’d get his grammar correct on his slides and review them for typos.

I know, I’m a picky editor. I apologize. I still enjoyed the talk.