Chick-fil-A Leadercast 2012: Soledad O’ Brien

• Dig into tough conversations, this is leadership, dig into the stories

• Once you realize what you were called to do do it as if God himself ordained it for you to do!

• Dr. King was a regular man doing what he saw needed to be done.

• When you examine the writings and speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. you get to see what words he chose, he was a man who chose his words very carefully.

• He was a regular man who was present when called to duty.

• He was inspired by a moment and stepped up.

• He wanted to know how men raise up after being knocked down

• He decided to lead, to take a stand, to take a position others might now agree with and yet he decides to stand up anyway.

• Leadership is about justice, to stand up for others for whose voices are not heard

• Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a message that made others uncomfortable

• True leadership is about departing from the script as you know it. Leadership is about going off script, taking a different path.

• True leadership requires blunt conversations.

• True leadership takes time, it does not come in a moment. History making changes takes time but it will come!

• Dr. King’s speech that is most popularly know as the “I have a Dream” was instead titled “Normalcy Never Again”

• The speech was about standing up for marginalized people.

• When Dr. King used the words “I have a Dream” it was a result of an ad lib after hearing comments from the crowd shouting for him to tell them about his dream, he then turned over his written speech and went off script speaking from his heart.

• When you tell stories about people who are marginalized they often become defacto leaders.

• We are obligated to listen to others.

• We can’t shut out the people we disagree with, that is not leadership, that is being an obstacle.

• We must come together with those who we might disagree with.

• Dr. King stated, “that a leader is not a searcher of conscious, but instead a molder of it, conscious ask the question is it right?”

• You can become leaders by sticking to those tough questions.

• Some leaders struggle to lead and motivate a team because they are stuck in what people think about them.

• True leadership is getting people to talk about uncomfortable situations and having those blunt conversations