LITS employees at Leadercast 2016 (L to R): Celeste Hermida, James Sawyer, Tommy Barwick, Tillie Loza, Jesse Sehorn and Felecia Chaney.

On Friday, May 6, a group of team members from LITS, along with other Emory employees from Oxford, the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing, attended the Leadercast Leadership event at the Infinite Energy Center (Gwinnett Arena) in Duluth, GA. This is an annual, all-day leadership conference that brings together some of the best leaders in the country. This year’s speakers included Andy Stanley, James Brown, Nick Saban and Steve Wozniak.

The theme for this year’s event was “The Architects of Tomorrow.” We learned how visionary leaders have the ability to see a preferred future, operate in the present and utilize the resources around them to architect a clear path to a new destination. These leaders work tirelessly to empower those around them to bring a vision to life.

Additional LITSers: (Front row L to R) Kavan Moodley, Tom Vincent, Daniel Palmer, and Trish Wilson. (Second row L to R) Tommy Barwick (looking at phone) and Jamal Lagrone.

A key element from the speeches was the importance of getting clarity in one’s vision. Clarity results in influence, which is the essence of leadership. As leaders, we should stay close to the action and try to know what our people know. We should prioritize items small enough to change, but big enough to matter. We should be ourselves and quit hiding ourselves from others.

Other suggestions were to set solid foundations, attain the right mind set, focus on process, work ethic and discipline, try new things, foster creativity and, above all, have fun.

This inspiring conference never fails to jump start my enthusiasm for leadership as we move forward for the rest of the year. In all, we had 31 Emory people at the event and we all returned to work with new ideas and increased motivation.

Next year’s event will be on May 5, 2017 with a theme of “Powered by Purpose – Creating a culture for teams to thrive.” If you are interested in attending, please contact me for more information at jflanag [at] emory [dot] edu.