Learning about leadership – what it is and what it is not – is mission critical for businesses in this quickly-changing, highly distracted and complex world we live in. I believe it’s crucial not just for businesses and governments, but for all of us as individuals. Our collective global community is facing so many difficult and new challenges, we all need to put our thinking caps on and take decisive action if we’re going to have any hope of solving dire problems like climate change, social injustice, and armed conflict.

I had the great fortune to graphically record the keynotes from an incredible line-up of speakers at The Art of Leadership in Toronto. This was an inspiring day, with knowledge nuggets being dropped from the stage continuously by world-renowned authors, speakers, and researchers, as well as from executives leading the charge on navigating change in their own organizations. Discovering and developing the kind of leadership we need in this quickly-changing, distracted world is not just for organizations, but for us all as a global community.

Ron Tite, author of Think Do Say

Robert Richman, author of The Culture Blueprint: A Guide to Building the High-Performance Workplace

Dr. Liane Davey – Author of The Good Flight: Use Productive Conflict to Get Your Team and Organization Back on Track

Executive Panel Discussion

Neil Pasricha – Author of The Happiness Equation and The Book of Awesome

Marcus Buckingham – Author of Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World

Here are the top 10 leadership tips I took away from my experience:

1. People need to experience your values, not just read them. – Ron Tite
2. Culture is your #1 differentiator. – Robert Richman
3. Action leads to motivation. Act yourself into a new way of thinking. – Ron Pasricha
4. Conflict is a natural part of healthy relationships, and a critical defense against unhealthy ones. – Dr. Liane Davey
5. Excellence has its own pattern. Strengths are your red thread. – Marcus Buckingham
6. Authenticity is being comfortable with your imperfections. – Ron Tite
7. In any situation, ask yourself “How good can I make this?” – Executive Panel
8. Don’t abdicate your responsibility to set priorities, otherwise someone else needs to pay your conflict debt. – Dr. Liane Davey
9. Leaders need to be humble, not all-knowing. – Executive Panel
10. Love is the pre-cursor to contribution. – Marcus Buckingham