giving back

Today Concordia University Texas will be hosting one of the 600 sites for  Leadercast, a worldwide leadership conference that is simulcast to more than 40 different countries. This leadership event will feature eight different speakers, including Seth Godin, Ed Catmull, Roarke Denver, and Andy Stanley.  Last year over 250 people came to the CTX campus for this event, only a small part of the 100,000 who attended worldwide.  But the purpose of this blog is not to tell you about Leadercast - it is to tell you about the person who brought Leadercast to Concordia, John Griffin.

John is a gradaute of The Concordia MBA, having completed his course work in 2012 (one of the first two cohorts to gradaute).  When he joined the program, he and his wife were running a small business that published a guide for senior living, partnering with multiple companies across the central Texas region to help make life a little better for senior adults - and for those who served as care givers to them.  When I first met John, I quickly become impressed with his need to serve others and give back in whatever capacity that might be, including working with senior adults.

After completing his MBA, he realized that his passion for leadership was something that he wanted to share with others and help others become better leaders themselves.  He found himself drawn to The John Maxwell Team where he received training in presenting about leadership and coaching others in their personal leadership.  When I asked him why he was doing this, he voiced the idea that others had invested in his leadership development (much of it through The Concordia MBA) and now he wanted to give back to others the same type of personal involvement he had received.  

During that year, he approached Concordia as a place to host Leadercast, a win-win for everyone as it brought aspiring leaders into John's sphere of influence as well as into contact with Concordia and its MBA program.  Why wouldn't we partner together for something like this that helped each of us and raised the level of leadership in central Texas?  And so, last May 9, Concordia University Texas hosted its first simulcast of  Leadercast.

What I did not realize at the time was that John had planned on donating all of his profits from the event to Concordia because he wanted to give back to the institution that had done so much for him through The Concordia MBA.  For me, this was yet another example of how John Griffin always looked for ways to give back - whether it be to his church, his community, his family, or his alma mater.

Today John continues to give back to Concordia by teaching in our undergraduate business program.  His ability to work with younger students and help them develop their leadership capacity is another way that John is giving back, by investing in the future of central Texas through Concordia's mission of developing Christian leaders.

I would be remiss if I did not give you, the reader, a chance to learn more about John and what he does, something you can find out by clicking here.  I consider John a friend and colleague, and believe that he brings value to any individual or organization with which he is engaged.  I am thankful for his partnership with Concordia University Texas, and I pray that we will  be able to give back to John just a touch of what he has given back to us.