Transcription
This is the Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast. (upbeat music) Welcome to another episode of the Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast. Thank you so much for spending a little bit of time with me. I love talking about leadership because everyone wins when the leader gets better.
I do want to say thank you to those of you who are sharing about the podcast on social media. Really means a lot to me to get the word out. Also thank you to those of you who reviewed it. If you haven't reviewed this on iTunes, that actually helps some too. You can watch this on YouTube if you like. You can also go to life.church/leadershippodcast; all of the show notes will be there in case you're driving—don't try to write something down. That would be crazy. So the notes are available if that's helpful to you. We will be releasing a new episode the first Thursday of every month. So next month, on the first Thursday, you can look for part two of what we're going to cover today.
As always, you can email me thoughts, questions, or comments at leadership@life.church. Leadership@life.church. And so I want to start today by answering a few of the questions that came in. Then we're going to do a teaching on creating a value-driven culture. Then we'll recap so that when we hear it again, it helps us to remember better. Then I'll bring some application questions. These questions are designed for you to go through yourself or with a group. We like to listen to podcasts with our teams a lot of times; it's really helpful.
So let me dive in with some questions that came through email. Bradford asked this question: He asked, "What are the best leadership books for pastors?" What are the best leadership books for pastors? I just wrote down some books that I think are great for every leader. For pastors, *Deep and Wide* by Andy Stanley is a must-read. *Courageous Leadership* by Bill Hybels is, to me, a classic. *Entrepreneurial Leadership* by Dave Ramsey is really, really good. Some older, kind of classics: *Good to Great*, if you haven't read it by Collins, you have to read that. *The E-Myth Revisited* by Gerber. I've read or listened to this book probably six or seven times. In fact, if you're starting a business or starting a ministry, *The E-Myth Revisited* by Gerber is really good. I like books or articles on organizational life cycles. A couple of good ones: *Predictable Success* was helpful to me. And then *Managing Corporate Life Cycles* by Adizes is really, really good. Recently, I read the book *Taking People with You* by Novak. I enjoyed that. Anything by Seth Godin's great. Patrick Lencioni—all of his books are amazing. *The Advantage*, if you're going to pick one, probably summarizes his work. I feel bad giving you all of these, but you asked. I love reading great books. Henry Cloud's book *Boundaries for Leaders* is really good. We're talking about culture today. *Delivering Happiness* is really good on culture, and then anything by Maxwell.
So one of the things that, if you don't read a lot or don't have a lot of time to read, you can actually listen to books. I know you know that, but that's primarily how I digest content today. I like to listen to books at one and a half speed so I can actually get the big thoughts. If there's a book that's actually in a bridged version, I want to get that because I just want to get the big thoughts. I don't want to spend a lot of time to get the big thoughts. Bobby Grimwald's on my team; he listened to a book on slowing down at twice the speed. For some reason, I thought that was really funny. There's a book on slowing down, and we're going to listen at twice the speed.
Anyway, Sebastian asked this: "How would you find a mentor or someone to answer a question here or there?" I love that question, Sebastian. And we might do a whole podcast on that at some point. But I'll give you three quick thoughts. Number one, don't look for one mentor. There's not one person that fits all of your needs to grow. I would look for multiple mentors. I have a mentor who helps me in parenting. Another person in leadership. Several people in business. One person in finances. Two couples I go to for help in marriage. And several people I talk to about spiritual things. So don't look for one; look for targeted ones in specific areas.
Number two, don't ask someone to mentor you. This is just my thought. Don't do this. Why? If you ask someone, they're likely to say no because it seems like a really big investment of time, and most people don't know how to do it. Just ask them to lunch or breakfast or for 20 minutes of their time. Come in with questions—prepared questions—ask your question and shut up. Let them talk. Take notes and then apply it.
Number three, embrace distant mentors. You don't have to know someone up close. With podcasts, with books, you can learn from some of the best of the best. So those are some thoughts on mentors.
Let's dive into today and talk about creating a value-driven culture. How do we, as leaders, create a value-driven culture? I'm going to spend two episodes on this because it's so, so, so important, and if we don't get this right, then most things aren't going to fall into the right place in our organizations.
Let me start by saying this: Great ministries, great brands, restaurants, organizations—they're full of multiple intangibles. What would that mean? You walk in and you say, "This place just feels good. I love being here; this place feels right. I wish we had such and such, such and such." What they're really saying is this: They're saying, "This place, this store, this team, this church, this whatever, has a great culture." That's what they're saying. They're saying, "When I like it here, this place has a great culture." And we need to recognize that culture is more than the environment. It's more than the building. More than the colors on the wall. More than the signage; it's more than the cleanliness. What it is is it's a bunch of intangibles that are created and guarded by the leaders. Culture is the mixture of the intangibles. It's the things that you can't necessarily put your finger on, but there's dozens or even hundreds of those things that are created and guarded by the leader.
So here are some key thoughts that will be in the show notes. Healthy cultures never happen by accident. Healthy cultures never happen by accident. If you're a leader and you have kind of a hands-off mindset, you're not driving values deep; you're never going to wake up three years into it and go, "Wow, we have an amazing culture; how did that happen? I have no idea." Doesn't happen by accident.
Second thing is this: Your culture is a combination of what you create and what you allow. We could talk for a long time about this. It's a combination of what you create and what you allow. The "allow" is important as well because there are certain behaviors you allow, certain things you tolerate. If you allow them, that ends up inadvertently creating the culture. Your culture is a combination of what you create and what you allow.
Now, the number one force that shapes your culture is your values. Let me say it again: The number one force that shapes your culture is your values. Why? Because what we value determines what we do. So we could say what we believe determines how we behave. Your values shape your culture.
I'll tell you a story. It's a little bit long, but I hope it has value. I grew up going to a restaurant that I absolutely loved. I'm not going to tell you the real name because I'm actually going to say some bad things about this restaurant. I'm going to call it Grandma's Chicken, okay. Grandma's Chicken had amazing chicken-fried steak, free rolls; it was just—I loved this place. I took my kids many years ago to a Grandma's Chicken. The place was so filthy; I could barely stand it. I thought, "Well, maybe this is a bad one," so we went to another one. I'm not going to tell you what I found in my mashed potatoes. Bluh! I just determined they no longer care about quality, excellence. And so a brand that I loved and embraced, I walked away from after two really bad experiences. They lost that something in their culture that made them special.
About that time, Chick-fil-A was a newer restaurant to me in my part of the world. I went to a Chick-fil-A. Came in with all of my kids. We were trying to order; I had six; my kids were much smaller at the time. Trying to order, and the kids were kind of running around. A lady came from behind the counter, picked up one of my kids, gave him a balloon, and said, "Can I go sit your kid down in a high chair for you?" I'm like, "Absolutely. You can take all of them if you want to." And we ended up ordering; they ended up bringing all the stuff out. The customer service was so extraordinary that I was looking up there at the sign of the franchise owner, and I saw the person's face. I actually saw that person sitting down with people at a table. So I just went up to the franchise owner and said, "That employee you have is so amazing. Whatever you pay them, increase it. Their customer service is extraordinary." Well, oddly enough, the franchise owner said, "Uh, are you Craig Groeschel?" She said, "I've actually seen you at a conference teaching on leadership before. And you've impacted our organization. We read one of your books," and she said, "Can I give you free coupons for more sandwiches?" I was so moved by this that I actually went back and blogged about it—the two different customer service experiences.
So my research—I was just curious. We've got Grandma's Family Chicken—very bad culture, bad experience. Used to be good and is no longer good. Chick-fil-A—extraordinary customer service beyond anything that I would ever expect in a fast-food restaurant. So I thought, "Hmm, I wonder what these companies value." So just for fun, I Googled Grandma's Chicken values. And I searched the internet, and guess what I found? Nothing. Now, they may be somewhere, but they're not public, and they certainly aren't visible in the organization. I Googled Chick-fil-A's values, and here's what I saw: "Putting customers first." Wow, that happened. "Drive to continuously improve and excellence." And I'm sitting there going, "Well, that's exactly what I saw." Long story—and what was the point? The point is what you value determines what you do. If you value the right things, drive them deep into the culture; you can create a very special place that people love. If you don't have any values, if you don't communicate them clearly, don't drive them into the culture, then you're going to end up with Grandma's Chicken. What once used to be good is no longer good.
Here's some thoughts: What we value determines what we do. What we value determines what we do. In our organizations, we value certain things. All the values may not be written down or clearly stated, but we all value certain things. If we value survival, that may not be written on a wall, but that's really what we value. If we value survival, we will be inward-looking and risk-averse. That's what we'll do. If we value tradition, we're going to focus more on the past than we do on the future. If we value growth, then we might take risks. Or we might invest outside of our organization. If we value excellence, we'll raise the standards. We'll evaluate everything. We're not afraid to invest money for quality. We give people honest feedback. What we value determines what we do.
Now, you show me a strong, effective, growing organization, and I'll show you a group of people unified around a clearly stated set of values. The opposite is true. You show me a struggling or mostly ineffective organization, and I'll show you an organization with unclear or unhealthy values. Why? Because your culture is a result of what you value. If, and this is really important, if you want a different culture, change what you value. If you want a different culture, change what you value.
So let's get down to the nitty-gritty. How do we allow our values to shape our culture? We're going to talk about five things. We're going to cover three this week and then two big ones next week. How do we allow our values to shape our culture?
Number one, and this is kind of going to be an assignment: Determine honestly what your actions say you value. Determine honestly. What do your actions say you value? Not your words, but your actions. Because every organization values something. And not all values are intentional, spoken, written, or clearly articulated. But all organizations have values. And if you look at what your actions say, you might conclude, "Well, we value making a profit." Or you might say, "We value the past." Or, "We value the status quo." Or some leaders would have to say, "We value being in control." Our reputation, our building. Timeliness, customer service. A quality product, the cheapest product. Whatever it is, determine honestly what your actions say you value. And here's an important thought: There's often a big difference between what you claim to value and how you behave. You have to tell the truth. You may claim to value one thing, but your actions say that you're not telling the truth. Don't be afraid to tell the truth, even if it's painful. You might look at your organization and say, "We value customer service," but we're trying to get high profit margins even if we lose customers—where your actions say something different. You may see, "We value employee satisfaction," and yet your actions say your employees don't have any ability to give you feedback, and you've got high turnover. You may say, "We value excellence," but your organization is sloppy, and no one seems to care. I know churches that say, "We value evangelism," but your actions say you're trying to keep church members happy. Determine honestly what your actions say you value.
Number two, identify the values within you or your key leaders. Whatever you lead. What you want to do is get your key leaders together and say, "What do we truly value?" Put that down on paper. Southwest Airlines value employee satisfaction. And you heard that right; I didn't say customer satisfaction, but employee satisfaction. And they mean it. They feel like if we keep the best employees and keep them happy, they'll do a great job. And that will overflow into customer satisfaction. So you determine honestly what you truly value. And there's two good questions that can help you get there. One is, "What are you passionately love?" And the other one is, "What breaks your heart or makes you righteously angry?" What do you passionately love? And what breaks your heart or makes you righteously angry? You may say, "I love offering the highest quality of shoes, and I'm not afraid to ask for people to pay top price for it." That's what you love. Or you love offering a decent quality shoe that anyone can afford. And you have to narrow that down. What do you love, what makes you crazy? You may say, "I hate when people get average customer service. I want them to have the best." Or you may say, "I hate when people have to wait more than five minutes for casual dining." Whatever it is. But you're going to determine what do we love and what do we hate. For me, I love whenever we connect with people that don't like to go to church. Okay? I lead a spiritual organization, and whenever people say, "I'm not religious," or whatever, and we connect with them and move them toward things that are spiritual, I love that with all my heart. What do I hate? I hate when anyone judges the church from the outside, turns away because they don't feel like we handle things with integrity or whatever. I hate when we waste things. So what we're trying to do is we're trying to reach people that don't go to church, but do it with integrity and do it with efficiency. That kind of sums up quickly what we value.
So we're going to determine honestly what our actions say we value. We're going to identify the values within the key leaders. And number three, and this is what you're going to do, is we're going to narrow down our values to ten or fewer. Ten or fewer. Don't tell me you value 20 things, okay. If everything is important to you, nothing is important to you. If you say you value everything, you don't value anything. What do you value? And next week I'm going to wrap around on some of our values, but this will give you plenty to do before the next episode. I said next week, next month.
So let's review, just big thoughts. 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. Why? Because what we value determines what we do. Your values will shape your culture. Since your culture is a result of what you value, if you want a different culture—and some of you are going to go, "Well, our organization isn't very healthy"—if you want a different culture, change what you value. Or drive the values deep into your culture. We'll talk about more how to do that next week.
So questions for application. And this is where the rubber meets the road. Don't just hear this, but put it into practice. So number one: What do your actions say you value? That's what you try to answer, honestly. Often there's a big difference between what you claim to value and what your actions say you really do value. Number one, what do your actions say you value? And then look at what you do. A church might say, "Our mission is to reach people far from God," but our church service is actually designed for church people. You might say, "We value excellence," but your store is sloppy, and your displays are crowded. You might say, "We value customer service," but you won't even let people return products easily. You've got too much hassle. Make sure you listen truly to what your actions say you value. What do your actions say you value? You don't want inconsistency between your values and your behavior.
And then so the next question is this: Narrow down your values to ten or fewer. And what I want you to do, if you haven't done this in your organization, go ahead and do that this week. Five is probably better than seven. Narrow it down to the things that you really value most and put a name to it. We value excellence, we value integrity, we value stewardship, we value customer service, whatever it is. Next episode we're going to do something with those values that you probably haven't done in your organization that I really believe is going to add texture, strength, emotion, and the ability to drive those values deep into the organization. As a leader, one of the most important things you do is create the right culture and you guard the right culture. You need to clearly understand your values to drive them deep into the culture so you'll have the culture that you want to have. Write down those values, and then we'll do more next month.
Remember, be yourself; don't let anybody pressure you into being somebody else. People would rather follow a leader who's always real than one who is always right. I look forward to our time again next month. Thanks for joining us for episode five of the Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast. To continue to show your support, we'd love to have you subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on iTunes.
If you follow Craig or Life.Church on social media, you've likely heard about our 25th campus location opening on Easter weekend in Overland Park, Kansas. If you have friends or family in the area, this is the perfect time to invite them to be a part of all that God is going to do in this new community. To find out more or to receive ongoing updates, just visit life.church/overlandpark.
If you don't have a church home, we'd love to invite you to join us in celebrating Easter at one of our 25 campus locations or at church online. To find out more, all you have to do is go to life.church/easter.
As Craig mentioned, the next episode will be available on Thursday, April 7th. To be among the first to receive the new episode, simply subscribe to us on iTunes or on YouTube. Thanks again for joining us here at the Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast. We'll see you next time. (upbeat music)