245: Terry A. Smith: Becoming A Hospitable Leader

35 years ago, Terry A. Smith was the stereotypical dominating leader. Today he shares how he transformed in order to become a hospitable leader that attracts high capacity leaders from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, who support each other in living life more abundantly.

For the past 27 years, Terry has served as lead pastor of The Life Christian Church (TLCC), a non-denominational faith community in West Orange, NJ, serving the New York City metro area. TLCC is known for its welcoming environment and for being one of the most diverse and inclusive churches in the country, currently with over 2000 regular attendees.

Terry is also the co-founder of Movement.org (formerly the New York City Leadership Center) and has previously served as an instructor in its Leadership Fellows program. He is passionate about challenging, developing, and encouraging leaders, whether they know they are leaders or not. He holds a bachelor of science in organizational management and a master of arts in organizational leadership.

In our conversation, Terry shares his insight on leveraging the power of hospitality to be an effective leader – as described in his book, The Hospitable Leader. Using Jesus as an example, we explore each of the five Welcomes of a hospitable leader and how to apply these principles in the workplace as well as at home and in the community.

Key Takeaways

1. A Hospitable Leader creates environments of welcome where moral leadership can more effectively influence an ever-expanding diversity of people.
2. Soft leadership brings hard results.
3. Jesus came eating and drinking. Many of the stories of Jesus teaching and healing were set in an environment of hospitality.
4. You can’t influence someone who isn’t there.
5. We need to move from simply loving those like us to loving those who are strangers and are strange to us.
6. “Employers should treat their employees as if they were guests in their home” – Ken Gosnell
7. In a meeting, don’t try to share a lot of information with cold hearts. Engage the heart and then the information can be received and acted upon.
8. We are so blessed when we surround ourselves with people who are not like us.
9. When you have people at the table that have never had a seat there before, it expands whatever enterprise you are leading in multiple ways.
10. A hospitable leader is hospitable to people and their dreams. This is also the key to attracting high-capacity people.

Episode Show Notes: https://leadersoftransformation.com/podcast/leadership/245-terry-a-smith-hospitable-leader 

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