Transcription
This is the Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast. (upbeat music) We're glad to have you back for another episode of Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast. I am really humbled and blessed that you would take time to invest with me once a month. I'm also grateful to those of you that are sharing on social media; it means a lot to help get the word out. Thank you for those of you who are reviewing it on iTunes. You can also get the show notes at craiggroeschelbooks.com or life.church/leadershippodcasts, so if you want these notes, they'll be available to you in those places, and I hope they're helpful to you.
Also, if you live anywhere near Birmingham, Alabama, and you love leadership, on May the 18th I'll be doing an event with Christine Caine at Church of the Highlands. Christine Caine is one of my dearest friends in ministry; I love and respect her like crazy, and she's truly one of the best leaders that I know and can teach on leadership in an incredible way. There's information about that at the Catalyst website, catalystconference.com, and so hopefully we can meet some of you guys there on May 18th.
Let me tell you what we're gonna do today. First of all, I'm going to answer a few questions. If you ever have questions or comments about anything, you can email us at leadership@life.church, and I want to go ahead and talk about a few of the questions that came in from last time. And then we're gonna dive into part two of creating a value-driven culture. Part two will be in a few moments. So let's answer a few questions. I won't say the name if you ever ask one that appears personal; I won't say your name, and this one kind of is personal. This person says, "What advice would you give to someone coming out from under a domineering leader, a secretive leader, or an unpredictable leader?"
That goes back to the teaching we did in the earlier session. This person said, "I've found it's almost like coming out of an abusive relationship." And I want to just pause and say, you know what, that's exactly right. It really is oftentimes like coming out of an abusive relationship, and I'm really sorry that that's the case for you. What I do want to say is that all cultures are not like that, and some people actually have to hear that because a lot of people don't know what it's like to ever be a part of a really good culture. So what do you do? I don't have a lot of advice for you, but I think there might be a time where you almost need to detox, and you might need to just heal and then maybe even mourn the loss, like, "I really was under a really difficult season of life, and I'm putting that behind me; I'm trying to close the chapter on that; I'm mourning what happened at that time, but I'm moving forward."
Then, as you're able to do that, just a big piece of advice is to learn from it. One of the best ways to learn what you do in the future is by learning what you don't want to do from your past. And so if you've been under a domineering or a secretive leader, what that can do is really motivate you as you move forward in your leadership to say, "I'm never gonna treat people like that again." Then as you move into a new culture, I would just really encourage you, don't be afraid to trust, do not be afraid to trust. In fact, whenever we bring people into our culture from the outside, if they've been in a more dysfunctional culture, one of the things that just takes time to do is to help them learn to trust again because they've been trained not to trust leadership. And the reality is, under great leadership, you can trust; you should trust. When you trust, you can move the ball forward. And so don't be afraid to detox, to mourn the loss, to start to heal, to learn from it, and then to trust again.
Tyler asked this question: "I would love to hear a teaching about taking people who struggle with change on your volunteer leadership team through change." He'd love to hear about how do you help people change. In fact, we'll do a whole episode on that in the future one day; it's just way too big of an idea to just spend, you know, three minutes on, but I will just address it briefly. Tyler, first of all, I would encourage you, and almost everybody, and I work on this with myself, is to try to change the way you think about change. Change the way you think about change because here's the assumption: People hate change; everybody hates change; we hate change. And I'm gonna tell you, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. People do not hate change; they hate the way we try to change them, and this is really important. People love to change. People love to change their hairstyle; they love to redo their kitchen; they love to change jobs at times; they love to change and move into a new city; they'll research how to change; they'll hire a trainer to help them change their body. People do not hate change. People hate the way we try to change them.
So four quick thoughts, Tyler. Number one, help them see why change is necessary. In other words, we want to help them understand clearly the why. The why is so important in everything we do in leadership. We often just lead with the what; no, we lead with the why. Why, why, why, why. Why staying here is not acceptable. If we stay here, here's what's gonna happen. If we don't go there, we can never, whatever. So we lead with the why. Number two, this is big. Tyler, allow them as much as possible to create the change. So invite them in, if you can, to help create the change because then you're gonna make them an owner rather than an observer. In other words, we are invested in leading this change. They're gonna be a creator of change rather than a victim of change. So if you can move them over, we're helping lead this; that's massive. You can't always do that, but if you can, it's great. Number three, there will be people who complain; get ready for it, and those who complain are usually the loudest. Just because they're the loudest doesn't mean they're the most. Don't forget that. They may sound loud, loud, loud, loud, so you think everybody's saying it. Everybody's not saying it; it's just a few people. Just because they're the loudest group doesn't mean they're the most, and just remember that; it's important; I always tell myself that. Number four, be prepared for a short-term downturn before a longer-term upswing. In other words, if you change, you may have to take two steps backward before you take three or four or five forward. That's okay; that's a part of leadership. Remember, change is inevitable; progress is optional. There's only two times that people ever change: when they want to, when they have to. When they want to, when they have to. When they choose to or when they have no other choice. In our organizations, we're gonna do it when we choose to. If you want a good book on this subject, Leading Change by Kotter is a really good book, Leading Change.
Lacey said this: "An effective leader must be able to delegate. How do you decide what to delegate and who to delegate to?" Great question, Lacey. John Maxwell said years ago, he said, if someone can do something 80% as well or as effective as you, delegate it to them. I love that, and I agree. I'm gonna take that to a greater extreme. I'm gonna say, if someone can do something 50% as well as you with momentum and upside, give it to them, okay. If someone can do it with 50% or so as well as you, but they've got momentum, in other words, they're getting better, and they've got significant upside, give it to them. Why? Because here's our goal: We as leaders want to give away everything that someone else can do. Every time there's someone else that can do something you're doing, you want to give that to them. And let me say it again; it's really important. We want to give away everything that someone else can do. Why? Because what is our goal? Our goal is to eventually do what only we can do. We're gonna give away as much as we can. If we give something to someone that can only do 50% as well, but they've got upside, they're getting better, their 60% is good, then they're 70, then they're 80, one day they're 120% of you, 200% of you. We're gonna give them feedback along the way; we're gonna give them coaching; it may be a little messy at first; that's a part of leadership. A good resource for you is Andy Stanley has a great leadership podcast; he has two great sessions on delegating; I'd recommend that.
Alright, let's dive into creating a value-driven culture. This is part two. If you have not listened to part one yet, I'd recommend you go back and do so, or this is gonna sound like, what's he talking about? So let's review from last week. Great ministries, brands, restaurants, organizations are full of multiple intangibles. This feels right; I love being here; I wish our place was more like this. What they're really saying is, this place, this store, this team has an amazing culture. What is a culture? It's more than the environment; it's more than the buildings; more than the colors on the wall; it's a bunch of, maybe dozens or hundreds, of intangibles created and guarded by the best leaders. The big thoughts from last week: Healthy cultures never happen by accident. Your culture is a combination of what you create and what you allow. The number one force that shapes your culture is your values because what you value determines what you do. Your values shape your culture. You show me a strong, effective, thriving organization, and I'll show you a group of people unified around strong values. Show me a struggling or mostly ineffective organization, and I'll show you a group of people organized around unclear or unhealthy values. Why? Because your culture is a result of what you value. If you want a different culture, change what you value.
We'll review the three big thoughts from last week, then dive into the two big new ones. How do we allow our values to shape our culture? How do we allow our values to shape our culture? Number one, we're gonna determine honestly what our actions say we value. You did that last week. Number two, we identify the values within our key leaders. What do we love, what do we hate, and then we start to write down, these are the things we value, okay. Then we're gonna narrow down our values to ten or fewer. Why? Because if everything is important to you, nothing is important to you. If you value everything, you don't value anything. New content, number four, okay, this is all new. Number four, once you've clearly defined your values, and hopefully you've done this, once you've clearly defined your values, describe them in short, life-giving statements. Describe them in short, life-giving statements. And I'll talk more about what this looks like. I'm gonna argue this: If you can't tweet your values, they are too long. If your values don't move you emotionally, they're too dry. If your values don't move you to action, get some new values. So when we're describing these in short, life-giving statements, what do we want them to be? How would we describe these values? We want them to be memorable, portable, and emotional. We want them memorable, I can remember that. Portable, I can take that with me. Emotional, it moves me. Emotion moves people to action. Information doesn't move people; emotion moves people.
So let me tell you some of the things we value. I'm actually the leader of a church, and so here's some of our values. We value evangelism, big faith, missional living, generosity, unity, and empowerment. Do you want to quit your job and come move to where I am and be a part of my church? Cause I just gave you our values. Okay, those are just words; that means nothing to you. But what we've done is we've put some short, life-giving statements to those words, and now, I want to tell you with some short, life-giving statements what we value at our church. I just told you what they were with words; now I'm gonna tell you what they are in these statements. Evangelism: At our church, we will do anything short of sin to reach people who don't know Christ. To reach people no one's reaching, we have to do things no one's doing. Evangelism, okay. And I just told you in an emotional way what we believe at our church. Big faith, we say this: We are faith-filled, big-thinking, bet-the-farm risk-takers. We will never insult God with small thinking or safe living. Missional living, what are we? People say, "I don't know; I can't find a church that meets my needs." That's the most un-Biblical statement. We are spiritual contributors, not spiritual consumers. Why? Because the church does not exist for us, but we're the church, and we exist for the world. Generosity, we say it this way: We will lead the way with irrational generosity because we truly believe it is more blessed to give than to receive. Unity, at our church we say this: We are all about the capital C church. Why? Because we believe the local church is the hope of the world, and we can accomplish infinitely more together than we can apart. Empowerment: We love to empower people. We love to empower leaders; we say this: We don't recruit volunteers; we release leaders because volunteers do good things, but leaders change the world. What did we do? We just took our values; we made them memorable, portable, and emotional. We have more, but I just gave you a few of those, and this is really important; it's a massively important exercise to take what you value, put them into life-giving statements, something that's sticky, something that moves you. If you can't tweet them, they're too long. If they don't move your emotions, they're too dry. And this, quite honestly, is something you will not get done in a day; you probably won't get it done in a week; you might not get it done in a month, and that's okay; stick with it. Go back, try again, sleep on it, think about it, ask for advice, put it away for a week, come back to it. If it takes you six months, eight months, nine months, get this right. And they don't have to be constant because your values may evolve over time; they may change over time. Revisit it two years later, three years later. Don't be afraid to kill one or two or rewrite it. These don't have to be constant in the word form, but you want them to be a true reflection of what's in your heart, okay? Number four, once you've clearly defined your values, describe them in short, life-giving statements, okay. And then you're gonna communicate this over and over and over again; every time you're with people, you're gonna communicate them.
Number five, shape your culture and build your people around your values. Shape your culture and build your people around your values. Here's what we're gonna do: We are going to lead toward our values as if everything depends on it. Why? Because it does. We are going to lead everything toward our values as if everything depends on it. Why? Because it really, really does. If you've got a culture that's not great, not healthy, here's what we need to understand is that organizations don't change; people change. People who change change organizations. Let me say it again: Organizations don't change; people change. When people change, people change organizations. So if you want to change the outcome, change the people. If you want to change the culture, change the people. How do you change the people? You drive the values deep into the hearts of the people. So how do we shape our people around the values? Let me give you a few kind of sub-thoughts. What we want to do is we want to hire and recruit for your values. Hire and recruit for your values. People say, "How do you infuse DNA into the people that you hire?" And the answer is just really, really, really difficult. In other words, there are things you can teach and things you cannot teach. In other words, you can teach skills, but it's difficult to teach values. So I want to take people that have the values that are important to us, and then we can teach them to become better in other ways. If they're amazing but have totally different values, then they're not qualified; they're not the right candidate to be on our team. Now, if I can chase a quick rabbit trail, there are gonna be some organizational values, and then you might also want to come up with some behavioral values. I think it was Lynn Cione that at least taught on that; I don't know if you came up with it or not. But you want organizational values, cultural values, and then you also want to talk about some behavioral values. So when you're recruiting or hiring people, you've got a well-documented set of values that you truly believe would be the most important characteristics or qualities you're looking for in your future team members or your volunteers. Now how do you come up with those? I'm chasing a rabbit, but I think it's worth, we're gonna catch this rabbit, okay. Look at the best five volunteers you have right now, or look at the best five staff members you have. Sit around with three or four of you and say, what are the qualities they have in common? And then write them down. Once you find those five, six, seven, whatever values that the best in your organization have, you're gonna determine some behavioral values. For example, on our team, these are our behavioral values: We value work ethic, teachability, humility, resilience, sense of humor—if you're no fun, I don't wanna work with you, okay—cultural relevance, and flexibility. So when we interview, we're interviewing toward these values. If you're talented but lazy, no go. If you're talented but you're not humble, no go. If you're talented but you can't come back after a failure, no go. You're talented, no fun, no go. If you're not flexible, no go. If you know it all, no go. So these are things we're interviewing toward these values, and here's the deal, the bottom line: I'll take a B player with similar values every day over an A player with different values. Values really matter. So we're going to hire and recruit for your values. This is gonna get a little sticky, but stay with me, okay. We're gonna remove people with distinctly different values. If we've got people on our team that their values are really, really different, and we cannot coach them, love them, win them to the right values, we're gonna remove people with distinctly different values. Now let me say this to some of you: If you are serving in an organization and you have really different values and you hate it there, do everybody a favor and go somewhere else. If you hate it, you despise it, your values are really, really different, don't be cancer to your organization. Go find a place where you can serve. Then if we've got people that have different values, different behaviors, there was someone who taught this; they said, don't manage the two percent. Don't create policies for those two percent who's different; fix them. If you can't get them there, remove them because people with different values cannot move consistently over time in the right direction with your organization. Then, third sub-thought is this: If you don't like where you're going, change directions. If you're looking at your culture and you don't like it, change it. Here's the thing: If you want what you've always had, do what you've always done, right? We know that. If you want something that you've never had, you need to do something that you've never done. In other words, we may look and say, we need to change what we truly value. Our actions are inconsistent with what we say we value. We need to do things really, really differently. And don't tell me this, and I'm gonna kind of get in your business for a minute. Don't tell me, "Well, I can't change this culture." If you're a leader, you have the power. You may say, "Well, I'm not the point leader." Well, you can still lead up. You don't have to have a title or the corner office to make a difference in your organization. If you are there, you're there because you're there for a purpose. You have the ability to influence the culture from wherever you sit, especially if you're the point leader. If you're the point leader, don't tell me, "I can't and I don't; my people won't; they never will." That's a cop-out. You're the leader; you do what leaders do. You lead toward the right values. Infuse them into the culture, and you can change your organization.
Now, summary. What are the benefits of a strong, value-driven culture? Once you do this, it takes time. In our organization, when we've got a church, we have 24 churches as of right now; we're a team; when a culture drifts and moves in the wrong direction, quite honestly, it takes us about two years to correct the culture. I wish I could do it in six months; I wish I could've sent a leader in to do it. It takes time to correct a toxic or unhealthy culture. If you can do it faster, do the podcast; I'll be the first one to subscribe. And you may be able to do it faster; I hope you can, but I'm telling you, it takes time to correct a culture. What are the benefits of a strong, value-driven culture? Do everything you can to get the culture moving in the right direction. Benefits, number one, strong values attract the right people and weed out the wrong people. Once you get it right, it just works for you. A strong culture then attracts the right people, and it becomes really obvious when the wrong ones are applying for the job or whatever. Number two, right values result in right actions. What happens is when you have the right values, then this eliminates unnecessary conflict, and your culture kind of self-corrects. Whenever someone else starts getting outside of the values, when the values are strong, other people say, "No, no, no, get back in here; this is how we do it here." It keeps you from doing things you shouldn't do. Number three, clear values reduce the need for policies and procedures. We don't want an organization that's heavy in policies, heavy in procedures; that's low in trust, and it slows things down. We want a culture high in trust, low in policies and procedures, and a strong culture gives us that. Number four, people love to be a part of the place with clear direction and values. That's it. You come onto a team; they don't know what they value; they don't know where they're going; they don't know what they're about. I don't really like it here. You come onto a place where it's almost cult-like, and I don't mean that in the negative religious sense; I mean it like, we love this place; this is who we are; this is what we do; this is how we do it here, and we believe in it. People love to be a part of an organization like that.
So let's review and then dive into the application questions. New content today: Once you've got your values, describe them in short, life-giving statements. If you can't tweet them, they're too long. If they don't move you emotionally, they're too dry. If they don't move you to action, get some new values. They're gonna be memorable, portable, and emotional. Then, we're gonna shape our culture and build our people around our values. We're gonna shape our culture and build our people around our values. We're gonna lead toward our values as if everything depends on it because it does. Remember, organizations don't change; people change. People who have been changed change organizations. So we're gonna hire and recruit for our values. Hopefully I'll do a whole session sometime on interviewing and interviewing toward values. Remember, you can teach skills, but you can't teach values. We're gonna remove people with distinctly different values, and then if we don't like where we're going, we're gonna change directions.
Questions for application. Number one, how can you improve your values to make them memorable, portable, and emotional? And for some of your organizations, that's gonna be your big assignment. You may spend the next month, two months, six months, whatever, working on this. Let's put them in short, life-giving statements. How can you improve your values to make them memorable, portable, and emotional? Number two, do we have people on our team that don't embrace our core values? If the answer is yes, what is the best course of action? And if you don't remember what I said, we remove those people. We're not unloving, but we are dead serious about living according to values. Number three, and this is big: What are three things you can do now to drive your values deeper into your organization? What are three things you can do now to drive your values deeper into your organization? Because this has to be the top of the list of your priorities. Values are what you create or you allow, so you drive them deep into your organization. I look forward to being back with you the first Thursday of next month for a brand-new episode. Again, thank you for sharing on social media.
See yourself as a leader. God created you this way. People would rather follow a leader who's always real than one who's always right.
Thanks for joining us for another episode of the Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast. We've already received tons of stories and questions for Craig, but we never get tired of hearing how you are growing as a leader. If you have a story to share, you can send us an email to leadership@life.church.
If you consider yourself a student of leadership, we have an amazing opportunity for you happening in Birmingham, Alabama on Wednesday, May 18th at the Catalyst One Day. Craig will be alongside Christine Caine, author of the amazing book, Unstoppable, and founder of the A21 campaign. Early bird rates end April 14th, so head on over to catalystconference.com to reserve your spot today.
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