By: Duane Donner

Founders Advisors was privileged to be the title sponsor of this years Impact Leadership Conference presented by Highlands College.  The topic of the conference was “Resilience”.  The event had an amazing line up of world class speakers, which featured John Maxwell, Alan Mullaly, Bonnie St. John and Chris Hodges.  Each of these speakers shared valuable wisdom on the topic of Resilience from their own life experiences. Given the times we are living in, along with the many challenges faced in 2020 as a result of COVID and national political disunity, the principles shared at the conference were enormously relevant, encouraging, and timely. 

The following are a few nuggets from each of the 4 primary speakers that I wanted to share with you.  As a gift from me and our team at Founders Advisors, you can click on the following link to get the full content of each speaker from the Impact Conference On-Demand Content, which will be available until Friday, December 18, at 11:59 PM CST.

Principles of Resilience:

• Bonnie St. John – How to build a community of Champions within our organization by putting the team above self with an attitude of Resilience.  “We must get up and not give up”.  This is the true mark of a champion.  Bonnie shared an amazing life story from her years training for the para Olympics as the first black woman to win a metal at these events.  She also shared the nugget of having a psychological “first aid” kit prepared for the days when you don’t feel it and need encouragement to overcome and walk with Resilience.
• Alan Mullaly – How to build world class sustainable organizations by having the right processes in place and working the processes daily within a culture of transparency and accountability.  Our people must know that they matter most and that they are loved and valued.  Look for places you can include people and their perspectives to accelerate your business?  Focus on PGA – Profitable Growth for All.  Make it very clear on how everyone wins.  Leaders must lead by example, walk the walk.  “Expect the unexpected and trust the process” this gives us daily Resilience in the midst of the daily challenges we face.
• Chris Hodges – Pastor Chris gave us a framework for staying healthy and being Resilient and used the analogy of a building structure.
  • The foundation is relationships and your connectedness to key relationships. Consider your top three relationships, do these people really know what is going on with you?  Your challenges and the issues you are facing?  Are you emotionally transparent?
  • The framing of our lives is about having purpose and routines/rhythms.  “We reboot our emotions by establishing new routines”.  How do we spend the first part of our day?  Are we intentional about how we spend our time, and do we have healthy and productive daily routines that are aligned with our purpose?
  • The finishes are related to trust and self-control.  Do we trust God and others or are we trying to control everything in our own strength?  Do we pray and believe the serenity prayer?
• John Maxwell – “Take the tour of the detour because success is about how we overcome adversity”.  John shared 5 values of Resilience to include:
  • Life is difficult and was never meant to be easy.  Leaders are made for hard and we are made complete in the process of hard.  Success is made through the day to day of gritting and grinding over time. 
  • Resilience provides opportunity for us to become better.  Get through the problem to see the opportunity. 
  • Resilience is about keeping focused on what we can do today and showing up each day with a can-do attitude. Stay in the moment.
  • Resilience demands creativity and pushes us to find new ways of doing things, which is the blessing that comes through the pain of challenge. 
  • Resilience highlights our values and character. Values are revealed and tested during hard times.  This is our opportunity to shine and show our true colors, the mark of a true leader.

I would encourage you to take time to view the Impact Conference to hear each of the speakers by clicking this On-Demand Content link. You can visit on the conference Discussion Guide for more detailed information from each of the talks and can also Sign up to receive additional leadership content from Highlands College.