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Three things I got out of Bill George's General Session that you had to be listening closely to catch. His big four leadership qualities are align, empower, serve, collaborate. And, on crisis, the topic of his talk, he had a great line: "At Medtronic, we had plenty of crises, but we never had one that was covered in the crises management plan."

But these were the three semi-hidden things that struck me:

1. Power is not a finite commodity. Too often leaders horde power, feeling like to empower someone else means their own bank of power is somehow lessened. Now, no one would admit doing that, but I know I've seen it. A lot. George's point: empowering others enhances your own power influence rather than diminishing it.

2. Society will hold us accountable for our actions. George didn't spend a sentence on social media. But I read social media into everything about this statement. Of course, society has always held companies accountable, but social media is a game changer. Associations, you are no different. If your members are on the wrong side of an argument, shouldn't part of your job be getting them on the right side of it, rather than try to convince the rest of society that they are wrong?

3. Failing early is important. What a great message for any young professionals reading this. I know I never wanted to admit failure when I was starting out--not even to myself. But understanding that failure is critical to your career development, embracing it, finding the lessons, taking responsibility--if these things don't make you more attractive to a future employer, then you should consider whether or not you actually want to work there.