Leadership Training for the AI Revolution: A 2013 Commencement Speech Revisited

Leadership Training for the AI Revolution: A 2013 Commencement Speech Revisited

This is graduation season, and I’m reminded of the deep honor to be the Commencement speaker for the University of Sioux Falls.  As I review, the comments seem just as appropriate today, in the midst of this AI Revolution, as they did on May 19, 2013!

What are your thoughts?  What’s your encouragement to graduates in the Age of AI?

Many business leaders are concerned about the gap they see in the character, emotional maturity, interpersonal skills, and communication competencies in next-gen leaders. Some are asking, “How might higher education contribute in closing the gap?”

A few years ago, I gave the com­mencement speech for my alma mater, the University of Sioux Falls, in South Dakota.

Afterwards, Dr. Mark Benedetto, then president of the University of Sioux Falls, told me that I had nailed it! I had cast a compelling vision for the value of a private Christian university – to train young leaders to live their faith practically 24/7 in the everyday world, in their chosen profession. (Dr. Mark Benedetto was the president at USF for 20 years. He retired in 2017.)

We are not only preparing our emerging leaders for their future jobs. We are also preparing them to for their future life as strong, character-based leaders and citizens who will:

• Know how to make ethical decisions – doing the right thing even when nobody is looking. Now it’s in the classroom while writing an exam, tomorrow it’s in the boardroom;
• Choose to be accountable – accepting responsibility for their actions and choices. Now it’s in the way they study, tomorrow it’s whether they reach their targets and goals; and,
• Treat others respectfully – even when encountering people with a different belief or opinion. Today it’s fellow students and college professors, tomorrow it’s colleagues, clients and the competition.

I believe this message from 2013 is still relevant today in our ever changing world.

Dr Brett Bradfield has been president since 2017 to date.

Commencement Speech at the University of Sioux Falls

32 Years ago, I was sitting in your seat, and I was ecstatic to be done with classes! What do you think?  Shall we give ourselves a hand?  I was ecstatic! And I was also excited to pursue my dream to be a medical missionary, a surgeon, in Africa.

Reality:  I was going to need to work a couple of years in order to earn enough money to go to medical school.  I took an inventory of my skill sets, because I haven’t really decided what to do with Biology and Psychology, if I weren’t going to medical school.

I decided that my main skill is that I can talk. So I went on campus and signed up for all the ‘talking’ interviews that I could find – there were 10. I walked out of the first 9 interviews convinced that I was a misfit – that there was no job on earth for me. And so, needless to say, I was not excited to go to my 10th interview.

• First of all, I was a misfit.
• Secondly, it was with a little company I had not heard of, and I was breeding fruit flies in the genetics lab!
• Thirdly, in the job description, it had SALES, and I KNEW that there was no connection whatsoever between Sales and my dream to be a medical missionary.

We’re about 10 minutes into a pretty standard interview, and I turn the tables on Frank, the hiring manager, and I said, “Frank, why don’t you tell me what you’re looking for, and I’ll tell you if I’m a fit.” Well, after he gasped at the audacity of someone to do that, he began to list the characteristics. And every single time he said the word ‘sales’, I had this mental picture of a middle-aged man with a green-clad jacket, an orange polka-dot tie, and white patent-leather shoes. I stood up in the middle of the interview! I reached out my hand to shake Frank’s and I naively declared, “Frank, I am not a fit for sales.”  I turned and walked out the door.

Well, amazingly, Frank came after me and invited me to sit down. And for some odd reason, Frank became insistent to hire me that day – and I became equally persistent and determined to say no. I saw no connection between sales and business, and my dream. Well, Frank was persistent. He eventually invited me to a final meeting on the 7^th floor of what was then the Norwest Bank building.

At the end of this meeting, I remained unpersuaded. I said, “Frank, I am not coming to work with you.” I stood up, shook his hand, walked over to the waiting, empty elevator, pressed the button for the ground floor. And as the doors closed, I heard this voice! It was that voice that goes to the core of your being, and I had come to recognize it as the voice of the Holy Spirit.

The voice said, “Danita, I need you to say yes.” And I said, “You gotta be kidding! I have my plans!! I’m going to be a medical missionary; I’m going to medical school; become a surgeon; I’m going to Africa – I’ve got my plans laid out!” And this voice, that was so calm and patient, that went right to the core of my being, and said, “I’m calling you to be a missionary to the business world.”

I literally dropped to my knees in the middle of the elevator, sobbing, because that was so counter to what I wanted to do. As I drove  back to my apartment, I kept hearing in my mind, “I’m calling you to be a missionary to the business world; I’m calling you to be a minister in the marketplace.” By the time I got back to my apartment, I knew the answer. I phoned Frank and I said, “Frank, I guess I’m coming to work with you.”

What do you do? What do you do when you hear a voice that shifts and changes your whole perspective of everything?

What would YOU do?

What WILL you do?

Here’s how the elevator encounter shifted me:

One of the first ways was that I was convinced that my greatest impact and influence on the world was everywhere, but God was most concerned about right here. We think the Great Commission means that we have to go to the furthest reaches of the earth. And for some, that is exactly where they’re going. But the literal translation is: As you’re going.

As you’re going to the movies, as you’re going to the mall, as you’re going into the marketplace—whatever your career, whatever you profession is—as you are going, ministry moments await you, await us, 24/7.

A couple of weeks ago, I was working with the president to get his sales team back on track. I noticed he was a little nervous – he kept checking his phone. Eventually, I asked him, “What’s going on?” He then told me that his 13-year-old girl was being cyber-bullied by the in-group of girls at the school; they had a parent meeting that night, and his daughter was scared spitless, his wife was nervous, and he, in the midst of all this, was trying to be strong.

And as he’s telling his story, I hear this still, small voice say, “Ask if you can pray with him.” And I said, “You gotta be kidding, right here? This is a boardroom, this isn’t church!” But what do you do when you hear that voice?

What would YOU do?

What WILL you do when you hear the voice?

I prayed for him, and at the end, this dad had tears streaming down his face. See, God is most concerned about right here; and the opportunities that he gives us right here, right now. The opportunity for all of us is to take our technology, set it aside, and actually talk to the people that are around us and to connect with them. God is most concerned about right here.

Here’s another way that I was challenged: I believed that my most influential impact on the world was going to be in a paid, full-time, sacred position in the church world. And that was why a medical missionary…I actually felt that I was kind of double holy – it had medical and missionary in there! But God has shown me that every position is sacred. All of life is sacred. And no matter where we’re at, we have an opportunity to serve him and to minister.

Romans 12:1 in the Message reads, “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work life, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.” Our work becomes worship.

I got involved in the hearing healthcare industry for about twenty years. About three or four months ago, I was riding in a car with a friend who said, “Danita, did you read the Wall Street Journal recently, about the connection between dementia and hearing loss?” For those who are prone to dementia and who actually get their hearing loss fixed, they can delay the effects of dementia by up to 3 years. And I did not have to do a “you’ve gotta be kidding” there, because I knew, I felt it, that this indeed was God’s work.

Through this work, we had an opportunity to bring dignity to people’s lives, and we had an opportunity to build relationships and community. Isn’t that what your work also has the opportunity to do?

When that still, small voice speaks to you about the long-term impact of your work, will you be listening? Our world officially divides the sacred and secular, and as you go out, you will begin to feel that. But the truth of it is that ALL of life is sacred when you put it as service to the King.

So here is what I believe:  I believe that each and every one of you is being strategically called to people and places to do work that no one else can do. And I believe that you have been given all the emotional and mental capacity to accomplish all the purposes and plans that God has for you. I believe that you are being called to participate in the Kingdom 24/7. I don’t know when you are going to hear that still, small voice; hopefully not in an elevator – but it’s hard to know.

But, when you do – what will you do?

In my most recent book, Letters From the King, I write some words of encouragement to all of us. And the words come from the Most High King, the Great I am. And so I close with this: it’s called:

The Anointing.

I am calling you,

I am anointing you,

I am setting you apart for a divine purpose.

Rise up and walk in it.

Turn your back on how you’ve done it before.

Behold, I am making all things new.

I am opening new vistas and opportunities.

Walk in confidence.