← Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast
Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast
Winning as a Rising Leader
00:27:54
Whether you’re stepping into a new role or facing a new leadership challenge, you need a plan for thriving as a leader in today’s world. In this episode, Craig shares the skills you’ll need to lead well in this next season.
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The reality is you do not want to be well rounded. Well rounded people are not highly successful people. You want to be, you want to specialize. So if there's some weakness holding you back, you got to develop it, even if you don't like it. But there are some things that you don't ever need to be good at. So don't try to develop all your weaknesses, just the ones that are holding you back, just the ones that are essential for your role. Hey, shout out to our leadership community. We're going to dive into another episode of the Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast. We are doing a series of episodes right now, dropping one a week and I want to talk about what you want to talk about. I'm answering your questions. If you have questions at any time, comments you want to give feedback, you can email us at leadershipife Church. My goal is to give you the best value per minute of your podcast. So let's dive in. We're going to answer questions today from some of our emerging leaders, some of the younger leaders in our leadership community. And Lizzie asks this question. Lizzie asks, what are your top pieces of advice for Gen Z leaders just entering the workplace? What advice do we have for Gen Z leaders entering the workplace? If you're not familiar with Gen Z, they were born between 1997 and 2012, so they're going to be somewhere between the ages of 12ish and and 27 or so. And we're talking about those who are now entering the workforce and there's a bunch of them and they are important to us. So I don't wanna overgeneralize my answers because all Gen Z leaders are different. But it's not uncommon for any generation to have some more generally common traits. And so we're gonna talk about some of those. As I said as of this recording, we're talking about ages 12 or so to 27. And again, these are not absolute qualities when we talk about, but they're often true amongst the emerging leaders. So if you are a Gen Z leader, you are generally more innovative and more creative in your thinking, which is great for organizations. You bring fresh perspective and can often be really creative at problem solving mindsets. Those who are my age, we are often kind of more systematic in the way we think, but you kind of look holistically and you come in with really great problem solving skills that are different from the way older leaders think. If you're a Gen Z leader, you generally believe that a lot is possible, that you can be successful fast. That can be a great Trait or it can be a downside. You've seen a lot of people go viral and become famous or blow up overnight. And so you tend to believe that you have the capacity to start a business to be creative. You can be very entrepreneurial. A lot of Gen Z leaders are proactive. They're hey, we're gonna start a business, we're gonna have a T shirt business. And you know, they're 14 and they do it. You know, we're gonna start a YouTube channel and you do it. A lot of you are interested in freelancing. Some say, you know, kind of this is the generation that's perfected the side hustle or so. And so you bring a self starter mindset. Those are all good qualities. Also you value purpose and impact. You, many of you will value purpose over profit and you want a work that matters. I would say you want to make sure you are profitable. Just from someone who knows that you have to be profitable to continue doing work that matters. But nevertheless you value purpose over profit and more likely you're going to engage in roles as often as you can that align with your personal values. Those are really good things. Those are the strengths and there are many. I'll talk about the areas to develop and again, these are not for all 23 year olds. Everyone's different, but these are common amongst the emerging generation. Many people would say, and I would agree, that a lot of Gen Z leaders lack what some people call the soft skills. For example, you grew up communicating and relating over devices and so sometimes just interpersonal communication skills could be an area for development. Same with conflict resolution, that sometimes giving and receiving feedback is more difficult for it's difficult for every age but it is very visibly different. Oftentimes in the younger generation Gen Z can be overly sensitive to receiving feedback and sometimes conflict avoidant or not always handle difficult conversations well. For example, I've seen it many times someone says hey, you can do that better and like screw this place, I'm out of here. They quit and it's like no, someone was actually trying to help you. And sometimes a young leader will take it personally and fall apart again. Like I said earlier, you've seen influencers go viral. And so because you know someone can blow up, you have high expectations which can be good. But at times a Gen Z leader will actually be less patient and that, that can be kind of a limiting thing and you might get frustrated whenever you feel limited. Like, you know, I've been stuck in this dead end job for four months and the reality is that's kind of just life sometimes. And so if you find yourself seeking instant gratification, developing a little patience in your leadership development, patience in the process, we're going to be patient in the process. That can be a good thing. We do see a lot of Gen Z leaders, like other generations, but especially true to Gen Z, facing work life balance conflicts. Some struggle to be resilient, meaning like a longer work week can be hard on some people. And there's a tendency because of a lot of reasons, many reasons that are not the fault of Gen Z, but they're real that there's a tendency toward anxiety and burnout and just a sense of like this is too much, I'm overwhelmed. And so that's something that we all need to work together on, helping you become more resilient, more tenacious, more durable. And I have studied this like crazy and so I actually have compassion for it a little more understanding why it's there and there's not judgment. So those of you who are my age, the moment you speak down to kind of have a condemning better than attitude, we're all gonna lose. We all have our areas to develop and so some of those are areas that Jen needs to develop. Another thing I don't wanna forget to mention is that some Gen Z leaders can be more resistant to traditional leadership structures. They may be uncomfortable with traditional hierarchies or authoritative management styles and I may not prefer them but you know, sometimes you're gonna work in an environment where those things are there. And so you might need to get a little more tolerant or adapt to some situations that may be different than your expectations. So the question was, and spent a long time getting to the answer, but what advice do you have for Gen Z? And I always say this, my advice is honestly similar to any other generation in leadership. But I'd say since you're emerging, I'm going to give it to you this way. Three things. One is fight for authentic and unfiltered self awareness. Number two, you're gonna wanna leverage your unique strengths that you have both generationally and personally and then develop the weaknesses that are holding you back. Again, this would be my advice to pretty much everyone. But let's start with the first one. I wanna encourage you. You're a 21 year old leader in your first job, you're 27 year old, you're two years into a career, fight for authentic unfiltered self awareness. And the reason I say this is, and this is true for everybody, but it's especially true when you're starting out is you don't know what you don't know. Like, you really don't. And I cannot overstate how important it is to understand this. And it is true for every single one of us. In my 20s and my, I look back when I'm 35, what I thought was true, and, you know, I thought I knew so much. And I go, I had no idea so much that I hadn't been exposed to that. You do not know what you don't know. And so when I say fight for self awareness, like, you have to fight for it. You have to, like, welcome feedback. The moment you push it away, people are going to be hesitant to give it to you again. You have to listen to feedback, you have to seek feedback. The natural reaction is, if someone says, you could do this better, you're not doing a great job, does it get your feelings hurt? Like, try not to. When someone says you could do this better, say, thank you, tell me more. And because that's, that's really the only way you learn what you don't know. And the reality is you can't fix something if you don't know it's broken. And there are parts of all of us that are broken. And so you want to work for that. Ask for feedback. Listen, when someone tells you something, ask for clarifying feedback. You might say, well, can you give me an example of when I didn't do it right? Or can you give me an example of someone who did it this way? And so you're really trying to clarify and drive into it. And it's so important because if you're not open to feedback, you're not open to growth. If you're not open to feedback, you're going to be limited in your growth. And again, I want to say watch for wherever you push back the most. When someone says, hey, you know, you're not doing this, or you could do this better, and you're like, no, that's wrong. Watch where you push back the most. Because where you push back the most often reveals where you have the most to learn. Wherever we get, like violently resistant to a suggestion, it often shows some area, a blind spot, something that we haven't developed. So we're going to, like, help me grow, tell me what I need to. Tell me what I don't know. And we're going to seek to really get an understanding of who we are, where we are, and where we need to go as a leader. Second thing you're going to want to do is leverage your unique Strengths and you're going to have like unique personal strengths. And then you're also going to have more unique generational strengths. So both, you know, you're wired different than other 23 year olds. That's personal. And then there's generational strength. So kind of think about both those. But when I'm, I often meet with younger leaders because they are so important to our mission. Like ridiculously important. Meaning if we're not pushing younger in the church, we're just getting older and dying out. And so I'll meet with younger leaders because they matter so much in our organization. So to those of you that are older, if you don't see the value of those that are younger, you're not, I mean, you're missing out. So I meet with younger leaders and I ask them questions like, what do you see that I don't see in our church? Because they have a whole different mindset. They see things I don't see. I'll ask them like, what advice do you have for me to be more effective reaching your friends? And then they'll tell me things like I never thought of before. I'll ask them like, what questions are you asking that I'm not answering, I'm not talking about? Or what question am I not asking that I should be asking? So what I wanna do is I wanna, I know we have a younger generation that has unique strengths. I want to tap into it and I want you to know if you're a younger person, you bring valuable insight. Like valuable insight. We want a variety of people at the table. We want different genders, we want different ages, we want different perspectives, we want different mindsets. And your younger mindset is very, very, very important and essential for almost every type of organization. I know how my peers think, but I need wisdom for the emerging generation. Then what you want to do is so you're going to kind of understand where you are and you want a real understanding and then you want to leverage your strengths, both your personal ones. Meaning, like you're really good with numbers, like you're really good with people. Like you're really good programming, you're a really good singer. Whatever it is, you're going to leverage those strengths or generationally, you're coming in with a different mindset, you're more creative, you understand how to use AI and you can program your mom's phone and she can't. Whatever it is you can, you're gonna bring your unique strengths and then you're gonna wanna develop the weaknesses that are holding you Back. This is important. You're not gonna develop all your weaknesses. There are some weaknesses you're just gonna live with. There are some things you're not good at, you don't have to be good at, you're never gonna be good at. Don't develop all of your weaknesses. The reality is you do not wanna be well rounded. Well rounded people are not highly successful people. You wanna specialize. So if there's some weakness holding you back, you gotta develop it, even if you don't like it. But there's some things that you don't ever need to be good at. So don't try to develop all your weaknesses, just the ones that are holding you back, just the ones that are essential for your role. There are some people that are Gen Z on our team that here's what I've noticed is they really need to develop the weakness because they don't understand organizational communication. For example, my kids, most of them are in ministry or their spouses are in ministry. And when my kids came on at the age of 20, whatever, they didn't really care about email because in the homeschool world that wasn't a big thing and they didn't know email. Well, on our team, a lot of communication takes place on email. True story. We had a younger staff member, Gen Z, that got on the team. They emailed him some information he had to fill out, didn't fill it out, they emailed him again. He didn't fill it out, emailed him again, emailed and copied his supervisor teams him. He never responded. They finally discovered the young person on the team had 645 unopened emails because he said he didn't know he needed to check email. He didn't know. And the bottom line is like you don't know what you don't know. And someone older may laugh, well, that's stupid. Well, we all don't know what we don't know. And then I've heard other people say, well, I don't like email. And I kind of just like say if your organization uses email, it doesn't matter what you like. Like you literally have to adapt to whatever style of communication your organization is. And there will be things about every organization, every style of work that you don't like. That's a part of it. My broad piece of advice, and I'm going to say this, and some of you won't like it, but it's really special that you want to do work that matters, that's important. But sometimes you just have to do Work you do. Like, I want to do something that makes a difference. Well, when you can, you do, but you can't always do that. Well, I want to. This doesn't align with my passions. Like, yeah, you hope it does. But the bottom line is it doesn't matter what you do. Even if it aligns with your passions, there's going to be 80% of your job that's just mundane, like stuff that you don't enjoy. And I've seen sadly, some young leaders just like quit with nothing else to do because, well, it didn't align with my passions. Like, yeah, ultimately, hopefully your passions and your work can align, but sometimes your work is your work. Meaning, like you just gotta get in there and you gotta get it done. And I found that we often grow by doing things that we don't enjoy. And I just want to say that a big percentage of whatever job you have, you will not enjoy. That is a part of life. You will never find the perfect job ever, ever, ever, ever, ever. And sometimes you just put your roots down and you learn to like it. And then you start to learn to like the people around you. The teamwork, the mission, and then what you're creating together matters so much more than the little parts that you don't like. I will say to the younger leaders that sometimes you feel nervous being younger. Like, you know, I'm 23 and I'm working with a really old person, like a 48 year old, right? And what I want to say is that 48 year old wants to be liked too. Like they genuinely do. And what's interesting is just for you to know is that 48 year old may feel a little bit insecure around you because you're young and you're cool and you know, you got the TikTok, you know, and they don't understand, you know, they're like going, I don't know what to say, I don't know what a TikTok is. And so they feel more vulnerable. Everybody wants to be liked, everybody wants to be needed. Everybody matters. And so if you come in there and realize that they want you to like them just as much as you want them to like you, you can actually really get close to people and it's really powerful when different generations complement each other, learn from each other, and they're all necessary in a viable, strong organization. What I wanna say to you is like, you're valuable. You really are. If you're a Gen Z leader, you're valuable. I tell our leaders all the time, our young leaders you are not the leaders of the future. You are the leaders of today. You have a lot to offer and you don't know it all. And so show up, work hard, have a good attitude, add value, be yourself, bring your best. And I always say people would rather follow a leader who's always real than always. 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 help 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 books 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 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. Right, let's talk about Matthew's question. Matthew asked this. What advice would you give to those who've been in the workplace for a while but are new to a senior leadership position? So congratulations if you got promoted. I'm gonna tell you this, that if you got promoted, there are some people on your team that are excited during your role, and some are skeptical. There might even be one or two that are disappointed that they didn't get the promotion you got. And so there's a lot of emotion when someone new steps into a role. Everyone is interested and they're curious. Harvard Business Review has an article by David Sluice, and he asked people, what do you want to hear from a new boss? So let's say you're promoted now, you're over your department. What do people want to hear? The survey revealed two clear categories. One that he called warriors and another one he called warriors. What's the difference between warriors and warriors? Warriors. They evaluate your knowledge, your competencies, and your experience. They're looking at it going, can we fight with this person? Are they worthy to be in battle? Do they have the skill? Are they competitive? Do I trust them? The warriors. Then there's the warriors. And the warriors. They're like, how's this going to go? How's it going to impact Me, are you safe as a leader? And so when you step into a new leadership role, you want to kind of develop a little bit of a pitch that you're going to say over and over and over again. You're going to say it in meetings and you're going to tell them why the mission matters, why the people matter, why you took this. And, and at the lead of everything you say, most leaders want to start by talking about themselves, but you're not going to do that. Why? Because you're a better leader. You're going to start with a you Y o u a you focused approach to your leadership. You're going to do a little pitch, you're going to talk to people, you're going to be in a meeting the first time they're going to see you in that role and you're going to do a you focused pitch. And I suggest you go something like this. You're going to start and say, you know, hey, welcome, you know, hey, I'm guessing all of you may be a little nervous about the new guy or the new, the new gal, right? You've got lots of questions and you're wondering how is this going to impact you now that I'm in the role? Well, we got a lot to learn and so I want to start by getting to know you. I want to find out more about what you value. I'm going to tell you a little bit about me and I'm going to share my 30 day plan with you. Okay, so let me just slow that down for a minute. And what are you going to do? You're going to start in and you're going to acknowledge they got a new boss and they're going, how in the world is this going to impact me? Is my new boss competent? Is my new boss safe? And so you're going to come in and say something like hey, you're probably a little uncomfortable or you might be curious or you get lots of questions. How's it going to impact you? You're leading with a you focus and then you're going to go, well no, let me tell you about me. No, I want to get to know you and I want to give you the chance to hear a little bit of my story. But you start with them and then you're going to say something like and here's the seven day plan, the 30 day plan or whatever. You're not going to come and say here's our five year goal and here's how everything's going to change. What you're going to do is you're going to present a little plan and it's going to be short and loose. But you want to have some sort of a plan. 30 day plan, seven day plan. It's a short term plan and you're not over promising because you don't really know that much. But what you are doing is you're communicating, we've got some direction and you're starting to build trust. Your plan might just be, I'm gonna interview everybody and find out where they are. Your plan might to be to meet with the person who before you, you know, to meet with your supervisors. Your plan might be to go and investigate the culture, whatever it is. It's just a real loose, hey, here's the first few things we're gonna do together. And remember, you're talking to two groups. You got warriors and you got warriors. And you're helping them see both that you are competent and you're easing their fears. You're doing it at the same time. And before you formulate a strategy, don't come in thinking you know a lot. You want to, you want to, you want to come in and observe and listen and assimilate everything. Then I'm going to give you a real short masterclass on the basics of leadership. I normally add maybe two things to this, but I'm going to keep it real simple. What are you? You're going to lead with the basics. You're new to a role and what are you going to do? You're going to think vision, values, people, culture, systems and accountability. You're going to walk in, you're going to think value, vision and values. You're going to think people, leaders, who's in the role. You're going to think culture. You can think systems. You're going to think accountability. You're going to think vision. Because where there is no vision, the people perish. Every organization ends up somewhere. If you end up somewhere on purpose, we're going to end up somewhere on purpose. Here's the vision, here's where we're going. You're going to think values. Why? Because what you value determines how you behave. What you believe determines what you do. When? What are our cultural values? You're gonna think people. Why? Because the potential of your organization rests on the strength of its people. Do you have the right people in the right seats on the bus? The people matter. The people matter. The people matter. The people create the culture, the system, the accountability. So your people, people, people, vision, values, people, culture. Someone said culture eats strategy for Breakfast. Okay. Culture. When you have the right culture, it corrects the wrong behaviors. When you have the wrong corrections, anything goes. And so we're gonna create the culture. They're the parameters that are built on the values. You're going to create the right systems. A system is how we accomplish the what. That's what it is, how we accomplish the what. To quote James Clear, you don't rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems, and then you're going to have accountability. That's who does what and by. When accountability closes the gap between intentions and action, you got vision, values, people, culture, systems, and accountability. And that's how you lead. You're new, you're getting to know people. You have a you focused attitude and you're focused on the basics, and that's how you approach a new job. Let's do one more. Adam asked this question. He said in your interview with Sint Marshall, if you missed that episode, sint is the CEO of the Dallas Mavericks. You can pick it up on episode 136. When you interviewed Sint, Adam said she noted that her first step in a new role was to interview every employee. Can you share what questions you would ask in that same situation? I like this. Cynt is brilliant. She was successful at AT&T and rose to high in leadership. And she would come in anytime she's in a new role and go on a Q and A tour. And she would start with saying, tell me your story. And people would say, I started working here four years ago in the such and such department. She said, no, no, no, no, no, now, not your work story. Like, are you a person? Tell me your story. Where were you born? Tell me about your childhood. And she got to know the people and heard their story. Super, super important. We put together 20 questions you can ask on a tour like this for the sake of time. I'm going to give you five if you want all 20, we will put that in the Leader Guide. Go to Life Church, LeaderShapePodcast. If you don't subscribe to the Leader Guide, we'll send that to you. I'll give you five. And I want you to see why we're asking this type of questions. Not the normal questions. I would ask something like this, hey, what's something unique about you that most people don't know that shaped you to become who you are? We're hearing their story. What have they overcome? What shaped you? What made you who you are? And they might talk about, I was an alcoholic or my mom and dad got divorced or, you know, I was broke when I was a kid or whatever, and you're. They're going to open up to you. Number two, I'd ask what's something you're most proud of that you've done in the last year? What are you doing there? You're helping to. You're helping them tell you what you value, what they value. Like, this is something I'm proud of. And they might say, you know, my kid did something or another, or that I made it to 10 years of marriage or, you know, or whatever. It might be a work accomplishment that I did this project, but you're tapping into what matters to them. Number three, I'd ask this, what's the best compliment you've ever received at work? Now, what you're doing there is you're finding out what's really important to them. They'll say, like someone said, you're always on time. Okay, they value timeliness. You're the most encouraging person. Okay. They value encouragement. So what you're doing is you're finding out what's important to them. And then when you want to compliment them, you might compliment them in the spirit of what they said. If that's true. But that's really important, you're learning about them. Number four, ask what's something that your previous boss never asked you, that you wish he or she'd ask you? It's a real wide open question that gives them plenty of room to really say kind of whatever was on their heart, and they'll tell you the question. Then, of course, you ask it to them. And that's getting into the really intimate, more important things that can help you lead well. And then you might ask this, what's the best way for me to earn your trust? And then again, you're gonna see what's really important to them and they're gonna open up and they will know that you genuinely care about them. If you want the whole list of questions, go to Life Church LeaderShipPodcast. We'll send you the whole list. And these are great questions. Don't ask them all, make them your own. Be sincere, be genuine, and you can make a difference. I'm gonna say this before we wrap up, and then I'm gonna wrap up, we wanna give away some books. And a book that I read that was really helpful to the emerging generation is called the Anxious Generation by Jonathan Hite. It helped me understand why the emerging generation battles with anxiety, tension and such. It's great for parents and it's great for those who are leading the next generation at this point, I want to say to those of you that are leading, no matter what, you want to show value to the people that you lead. You do this because you care about them. And when you start with a you focused attitude, that's one of the reasons I want to give you a chance to win the book. Just go to the if you want to win one of the copies, go to YouTube and type in, I don't want to be anxious. Let's do that. I don't want to be anxious. We'll draw five winners. And then whenever you're leading at any age, you're young in leadership, you're leading the younger generation again. What you want to do is you want to say, I genuinely care about you. Why is this so important? Because we see so many leaders try to help you see that they're important. Like, look at me, look how good I am. I'm a good leader, right? Many leaders try to help you see that they're important. But the best leaders try to help you see that you are important. And I want to say that to you, you are important. God made you in a very unique way. Embrace your extremes. Step into them. Be the unique that you were created to be. And you can make a big difference. If you haven't rated or reviewed the content, please do that. Hit subscribe, Share on social media. Please do that like I'm asking you, please do it. It'll make a big difference to me. And then I'm going to work hard to bring you new content, different content that speaks directly to your leadership. Because what you do matters. You matter. You have greatness in you. And I believe you can do more than you can ever ask, think or imagine. But the power is greater than you have is one that God does through you. Get better. We know everyone wins when the leader gets better.