Lead where you are. That was the theme of the 2023 Global Leadership Summit (GLS), held in South Barrington, Illinois, in early August. How would I know such a thing? Thanks to the internet and the Ohio Reformatory for Women (ORW), I was one of 50 inmates who attended the summit online.
I was selected due to my leadership roles in the Church – as music director and a Stephen Minister. This was my first online experience; I've never shopped online, scanned a QR code or even been on Facebook, so I was very excited about the opportunity.
The GLS was a two-day conference where some of the country’s biggest and brightest leaders in business, religion and communities shared their expertise and their faith. The purpose was to inspire and equip other leaders to build lives of purpose, passion and positive impact.
The most succinct way I can describe it would be a Christian business leadership and faith conference. I'd never heard of anything like this, yet I knew I needed to be there. It was as if Jesus was inviting me to sit down, be still and listen to these people because He was talking and working through them.
On the morning of the first day, we received notebooks that were the same as those given to the audience in the conference center. It surprised me and made us feel intentionally included; we were intended to be part of this.
There was a page of interesting directions that set the tone for beginning our summit journey: “Take a deep breath and set aside the weight of leadership. Be open; you may learn the most from someone very different from you. Reflect on ideas that challenge you – the ones you agree with and the ones you don't; they both hold value. Tell yourself the truth, the hard and honest truth; it’s the only way to get better. Identify who is on the journey with you; don’t go it alone.”
These were so simple, yet so profound, that I wrote them on Post-it notes and stuck them to the walls of my cell as daily reminders.
As I was thumbing through the rest of the notebook, I recognized only one name out of the 20 presenters. Incarceration has unfortunately kept me out of the business and leadership world for three decades. Nonetheless, my interest was piqued with every bio I read: pastors from national churches, authors, professors, CEOs from major corporations. I couldn’t wait to hear from them.
What were they going to teach us about becoming better leaders? How could I apply the lessons to prison life and beyond? I was open and ready to absorb everything, especially after a moving opening prayer by the Global Leadership Network president who thanked God first, then asked Him to bless the day’s speakers, messages and attendees, both in person and online throughout the world.
The first speaker was Craig Groeschel, founder and senior pastor of Life.Church, which was instrumental in providing free tools to churches implementing virtual services during COVID. His topic was trust. In the world today, people don’t naturally trust; they need evidence. Leaders build trust by being transparent and honest, with regard to their successes and failures, in both their professional and personal lives.
He said, “People may be impressed with your strengths, but they connect by your weaknesses.” When leaders take a risk and share their truth, trust grows. Jesus was the ultimate leader, and His followers still trust Him today.
His other major point was how important empathy is in leadership. People won’t care about your mission if you don’t care about your people. His philosophy – “You matter. I notice” – really resonated with me. Many times, I have felt like I don’t matter one bit, I’m just a numbered inmate, lost in the sea of blue uniforms. So, I make an effort toward the people I live, work, run and worship with to let them know they matter, and I notice!
Another speaker, Dallas Jenkins, created and directs the TV series The Chosen (my favorite!), which is about the life of Jesus and His disciples. Jenkins shared his most enlightening moment – his movie directorial debut with Warner Bros.
He’d made what they all thought was going to be a heartwarming, feel-good blockbuster. According to the focus groups and prereleases, it was a sure thing. Shockingly, it was a box office disaster, and the other companies who’d lined up for future movies backed out quickly.
He was devastated, confused and felt utterly responsible for such a failure. A friend told him, “It’s not your job to feed the 5,000. It’s your job to provide the loaves and fish. God will do the rest.” That changed his life and perspective completely. He kept it in mind as he began creating The Chosen, which is now a global phenomenon and is the largest crowd-funded media project of all time.
Listening to his story, told with such humility and gratitude, affected me deeply. God did something incredible though his failure; He used it as a stepping stone to better leadership and service. It let me know God can do something with my failure as long as I keep trying my best to provide the loaves and fish and trust Him with the miracle.
My favorite speaker emerged on the afternoon of the second day. Jamie Kern Lima created a cosmetics company (IT Cosmetics) in her living room and grew it into a huge luxury brand. Eventually she sold it to L'Oreal for $1 billion and became CEO of the brand. She is very active in prison and shelter ministry and leadership programs.
What she spoke about was the difference between self-confidence and self-worth. I had thought they were the same but learned they're not. Self-confidence is about keeping promises to ourselves, sticking to plans, achieving goals. It has externally motivated beginnings and endings such as getting a promotion or a raise, losing 10 pounds, publishing a successful book.
Self-worth is a deep knowing of being acceptable, lovable and enough, exactly as we are, exactly as God made us, no matter what we’ve done, not done or where we are. When I came to prison, I had no self-confidence or self-worth. They had been eclipsed by guilt, shame, PTSD, depression, fear and confusion. It took years to develop self-confidence and even longer to believe I had self-worth.
She also talked about changing our relationship with rejection. She offered this advice: View rejection as God’s way of saying, “I just hid your value from them because they are not assigned to your destiny.”
Inherently part of incarceration is rejection, and, at first, it stings, then becomes a dull ache. Some people from my former life have since rejected our relationship, and, in a few cases, my entire existence. It hurt me deeply. However, looking back over the arc of time, I see that those who are supposed to be part of my future have remained steadfast and hopeful, and I thank God for them.
I could summarize all 20 speakers, but suffice it to say, each one had a different, incredible, God-given message of courage, wisdom, leadership and inspiration. They stoked the fires of motivation and faith, and I felt empowered and better equipped to lead where I am for as long as I am here.
Then one day, I’ll carry those lessons out of prison and into my community where I will create a positive and meaningful impact.
Michele Williams is an inmate at the Ohio Reformatory for Women.
