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Talent alone does not make you a great leader. You've seen lots of talented and smart people who don't know what they don't know. And that's why we want to remember, to be a great leader, you must first be a great servant. If you're too big to serve, you're too small to lead. Hey, welcome back to another episode of the Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast. I feel sincerely called to invest in you to help you get better in your leadership, because we know that everyone wins when the leader gets better. And right now, we're in a series of episodes. We're dropping one a week, which is more than normal for us. We're doing that for the next few weeks. And what I'm doing is I want to talk about what you want to talk about. I'm answering your questions. If you have more questions, if you have feedback, if you have comments, if you have encouragement, you can email us anytime. At leadershipife Church, our team loves hearing from you. In the last episode, we talked about having developmental conversations. Today, what I want to do is I want to answer questions from younger leaders about how do you lead when you're younger, how do you succeed when you're younger or when you're new in leadership? And so we'll start with Christian, I think K R Y S T I A N Christian emailed in and said, I'm a young professional with few leadership opportunities. I'm struggling with tension between waiting for an opportunity and creating my own opportunity. How do you balance those? So Christian is a new leader and wanting to know, do I create a way or do I kind of wait for someone to give me an opportunity? Very fair, very sincere question. And so, Christian, I wish I could ask you questions personally before answering it because that would change how I answer it. But I appreciate the fact that you don't wanna overstep appropriate boundaries. If you're a part of a team, it sounds like you want to have a posture of humility. You're not assuming that they're just going to give you responsibility and you don't want to come in prideful, but you do want to make a difference. So I respect your question. I would say this if you're choosing between being overly proactive or overly passive, I suggest proactive every single time. As leaders, we always say that we'd rather a team member that we have to say whoa to instead of giddy up. Right? We'd rather slow someone down that's got passion than try to jumpstart someone who's hesitant and so let's say that you are gonna be proactive and you wanna kind of create some opportunities to make a difference. I would suggest that you start by leading where you are. Like, literally, even if you don't have a job yet, you're gonna start influencing your friends in the right direction. You know, if you're a Christian, you're say, hey, you know, let's go to church tonight, let's go to youth group tonight, let's go, let's go to this type of a concert or whatever. And so you're gonna be a good example wherever you are. If you're in any type of organization, I would suggest you look for three things. You wanna lead where you are. Number one, look for needs that you can meet, look for problems that you can solve, and look for opportunities that you can seize. You're gonna be proactive. So we're looking for any kind of need that you can meet, any kind of problem you can bring a solution to, any kind of opportunity you can step in and take. So we'll start with the first one, needs that you can meet. This is such a good opportunity. If you wanna make a real difference in the world, don't focus on what you want, but on what others need. This applies to every area of life. In leadership, don't just think about, this is what I wanna do in life. But look at what other people need and be you focused, be loving to others and try to meet needs. If you see a need, you can meet it the same with any kind of problems. What are the best businesses? What are the best ministries? What are they? Essentially, they are solutions to problems. They are groups of people who are solving problems. That's what a business is. They're meeting needs. That's what a ministry is. You see a need and you're meeting it. So if you're gonna look for a need to meet or a problem you can solve or an opportunity you can seize, you're gonna be proactive and patient, not proactive and passive that there's a difference. You're. You're gonna be proactive and a little bit patient. In other words, you're gonna get in there and you're gonna mix it up and you're gonna look for needs that you can meet and you're gonna create some opportunities, but don't rush the results. You wanna be proactive and also you wanna be patient. And if you're faithful in the small things, Scripture teaches us that you can be trusted with more. And so wherever you are, you're gonna lead where you are. And then I'd say this, Christian, I'd say, no matter what, like, invest in yourself. Invest in your own leadership. Don't wait for permission from someone else to get better today. A lot of times you want someone to notice you. You wanna get promoted, you wanna be hired into a job. I mean, no matter where you are, no matter what you're doing, you can invest in yourself today. So seek mentors, read books, listen to podcasts, attend conferences, ask questions. And what you're doing is you're getting better. You're developing your own leadership. And why does this matter? Because leadership isn't just a position to hold. It's a disposition to develop. I want you to remember that. It's not just a position you hold. It's a disposition you develop. You don't need a job or a title to get a better mindset. You're changing your mindset. You're developing your leadership. And so, Christian, I am sincerely praying that God opens the doors for you or he shows you which ones to nudge open. Because I believe there's nothing wrong with being proactive. And then if you have time, why don't you email us and tell us how you're growing and progressing? Because we care and we wanna celebrate with you. Hey, Craig here. We'll get back to the episode in just a minute, but I wanted to first of all share a resource that I think you'll find helpful to your leadership. There's a secret that I've learned about leadership, and we know it. The best leaders are almost always the best readers. Why? Because your influence and impact are in many ways a result of the and ideas that you take in. So as I look back over my years of leadership, there are 44 books that rise to the top as books that I believe that every leader should read. So our team has curated the list and organized it into the areas that you'll want to grow in. To get this free list, go to Life Church. 44 books. That's the number four and four. Life Church 44. 44 books. And I hope this will be a gift to you to dig into a list of great books, get reading, and keep leading. Now back to the episode. You. Let's answer another question. This is From Rebecca on YouTube and she asked this question. She asked, what are some of the best practices for emerging leaders who have the talent but now need to gain credibility? Okay, so they have the talent but need to gain credibility. I'm going to focus on these words for a minute. They have the talent, but they need to gain the credibility. In other words, they're good at what they do, but someone hasn't recognized it yet. They have the talent, but they need to gain the credibility. Okay, Rebecca, thank you for your question. And since we've never met and I just have your question to go on, I don't know anything about you. Based on what you've asked, I would say what I read into it and based on just your question. You have the talent, but you need the credibility. When I hear a question like that, I just want to say I am really glad you're confident. You're assuming that you have talent, not credibility, and that's a good thing. Like having. I really, really hope you have confidence. But again, and I'm reading into this question and I hope you don't hate me even if I knew you or if you said more. And it's not just written question, but I see your body language and your spirit. I may read it differently, but just as one who's helped a lot of young leaders grow, has a real heart for young leaders, believe in young leaders, care about them. As one who's helped a lot of younger leaders grow and develop, I would suggest you reframe your question a bit and let's look at it again. You ask what are some of the best practices for emerging leaders who have the talent but need to gain the credibility? Probably not your heart, but it sounds like you do have talent and you just need someone to recognize your talent. And that may be totally true. Like you may be ridiculously talented and you need someone to recognize your talent. But that's actually not the way I want to hear that question from a new team member. And so I kind of give you the heart behind it. If someone says to me, I've got the talent, but I need the credibility, what I hear is someone who might be overly confident. And the reason I hear that is because that was me in my 20s. I remember thinking, like, I got the talent to preach and someone needs to give me a place to preach when I didn't. I mean, I was 23. I didn't know what I didn't know. And you probably do have talent. You probably really do. But you may not know what you don't know. And that's why I always say, don't let what you know distract you from what you need to learn. Don't let what you know distract you from what you need to learn. Don't let your talent distract you from what you need to develop. You may be talent, but you've got some places to develop. And if you're saying, I just need a place for credibility, it doesn't sound like you're ready to develop. And again, I don't know your heart and you probably are very talented. And so it's really, really important to come in with the right posture. Instead of assuming that you're already talented and others need to recognize your talent, I suggest you posture yourself as someone who has the potential and needs mentoring and experience. So I'd reframe the question this way, and then I think it's going to take you a lot further. Ask it this way. What are some best practices for emerging leaders who have the potential but need to gain experience? Same idea, but the way you ask, it's totally different. Hey, I think I've got potential, but I need experience. I need a mentor. I need someone to help me learn. And to some of you right now, you might think, okay, now you're just the old guy being nitpicky. I might be. I promise you, I might be. But if you come to me and you say, I'm just talented and I need someone to recognize the talent, what I feel is like, well, I don't have anything to offer you because you're already good. And it doesn't sound like you have much to learn. You just need a chance. And I'm almost certain that wasn't your heart, but that's what someone like me is going to hear. So what we want to do, no matter where we are, is we always want to lead with humility. Why? Because humility is the soil from which great leaders grow. Humility is the soil from which great leadership grows. And so, Rebecca, I'd say this. You probably have real potential and you want experience. So what do you do? How do you build credibility? Well, you build credibility this way. Credibility is built over time through consistency, character, and competency. That's how you do it. It's consistency, character, and competency. So you're going to want to be consistent in everything you do. I would suggest you want to be consistently a little early to your work. Maybe if you can stay consistently a little later than other people, consistently ask good questions, consistently add value, consistently be a student who's wanting to get better and working to consistently exceed expectations. And then you're going to consistently lead with integrity. That's your character. And you're going to deliver on results consistently. That's your competency. Why? Because consistency matters so much. It's not what you do occasionally that makes the difference. It's what you do consistently one more time as leaders, it's not what we do every now and then. It's not what we do occasionally that brings about greatness. It's what you do consistently. And I always try to examine my heart. I want to say, is my motive to add value or gain credibility? Is my motive to make a difference or to make a point? Is my motive to get noticed or to really push our organization forward? Because I want to come in with a servant's heart. And when you come in with a servant's heart, it changes everything, because talent alone does not make you a great leader. You've seen lots of talented and smart people who don't know what they don't know. And that's why we want to remember, to be a great leader, you must first be a great servant. If you're too big to serve, you're too small to lead. And Rebecca, I know I kind of messed with your question a little bit, and my heart is for you to take the talent that you have, develop it, grow. Let God open doors and make a really, really, really big difference. And I have a feeling that there's greatness inside of you. Let others develop, and over time, you can make a big, big difference. I'll start wrapping it up this way. I had a mentor tell me this in my mid-20s, maybe even late 20s, right before starting life church. He said, I have a promise for you. And I thought he was gonna say, you're gonna do great things. He said, first thing he says, I promise you're gonna be broken. Which I'll save that for another day. Which I didn't like, but it was true. The second thing he said, he said is, hey, you'll very likely overestimate what you can do in the short run, and you'll very likely underestimate what you can do through a lifetime of faithfulness. And we were at Denny's, 6:30am Breakfast. He's telling me this, you're gonna overestimate what you're gonna do in the short run. And I remember thinking, hey, I'm gonna start this church, and I'm gonna prove everybody wrong. We're gonna reach a ton of people. It's gonna be amazing. We're gonna blow it up. It's gonna be fantastic. And we started it and didn't go real well for a while. And it's kind of small and. And we're six months in. There's 106 people coming. Anyway. He was right that in the short run, I had higher expectations than the results that I had and such good advice, and I want to say, especially to the emerging and younger generation, is you may very likely overestimate what you can do in the short run. And the reason is because you've seen viral fame, you see people blow up fast, and so you think that you can, too, and you might. But most things that are worth building, most things take time. Those things that are sustained are generally led by someone that has ongoing character and talent. And so you may overestimate what you can do in the short run. But this is so, so, so, so true. You'll vastly underestimate what you can do through a lifetime of faithfulness. So when are you successful? You're not successful 10 years from now, when you get the title, you get the bigger salary, when you get the contract, when you get verified you're not successful, then you're actually successful. When you're faithful. And when can you be faithful? The only time you can really be faithful is today. And so if you show up today and you're faithful, you do a good job, you lead with integrity, you love well, you serve well, you care about people, you're faithful today. Then if you're faithful a little, you can be trusted with more. So take the talent that you have and be faithful with it. Don't rush it. Take your time. Lead with consistency, with character, with competency. And over time, you will have the honor to serve many as a leader. And I'll also say this because I care about you. You'll also have the burden and the responsibility because it's not all fun and it's not all easy, but it is all important. It's a gift to be stewarded. It is not easy. Be ready for another episode to drop next week. Get the Leader Guide. Go to Life Church. If you have not rated or reviewed this content, would you do that for me? I'm just going to, like I always say, hey, if you haven't asked, would you do that for me, please? It'll help bring more people into the community. And when you share on social media, if we see you, we may tag us, we may repost you as well. And I'm going to work hard to bring you good content. Episodes will be short and I value your time. Your time is important. So I'm going to work to bring you the highest content value per minute. That's my goal. No fluff, just content that helps you grow in your leadership because I care about you. And guess what? You got a little bit better today, right? Good news. We know that everyone wins when the leader gets better.