Bill Hybels opened the 2011 Global Leadership Summit. He talked about five challenging questions. Here are the highlights I grabbed from his talk:

1. What is your current challenge level at work?

• (Are you under challenged, appropriately challenged or dangerously overly challenged?)
• “Research shows you do your best work above the ‘appropriately challenged’ level.”
• “If you are under challenged, step it up… If you don’t challenge yourself, your leadership gifts will atrophy.”
• “Leaders have to take responsibility for replenishing their leadership bucket.”
• “People who are under-challenged will leave.”
• “I think it’s possible to over-rev an organization. And, I think it’s possible to under-challenge an organization.”

2. What is your plan for dealing with challenging people in your organization?

• “Willow’s future is totally tied to the people we can attract and develop.”
• “Our future is also tied to the people who are no longer fantastic.”
• “How long are we going to let ‘Fantastic Fred’ spread his poison in our organization?”
• “C’est la vie…which in in English means, ‘It sucks to be a leader in France.’”
• Willow gives people 30 days to clean up their bad attitudes.
• “How long do you live with someone who is no longer carrying their weight.” (“No longer worth their hire.”)
• Willow gives people 3 months to turn around performance.
• “No one questions a leader when you fire someone for a clear values violation.”
• Willow gives 6 to 12 months when the organization outgrows the capacity of the leader.

3. Are you naming, facing and resolving the problems that exist in your organization?

• “Why can’t we call problems ‘problems’ and turn over Heaven and Earth to resolve them?”
• “Nothing ‘rocks’ or ‘booms’ forever. Everything has a season.”
• Bill talked about a recent consulting process that helped them identify “problems” at Willow. They have built teams around facing and resolving those problems.
• “Part of your job as leaders is to look problems straight in the eye.”