5 Secrets of Superior Decision Makers - Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast

this is the Craig Groeschel leadership podcast hey welcome to another episode of the Craig Groeschel leadership podcast I'm super thankful that you spend some time with me every single month thank you for investing in your leadership when the leader gets better everyone gets better if you're brand new I want to tell you that we actually do this one time every month we'll release a new teaching the first Thursday of every single month a big and special thank you to those of you that are sharing on social media it means so much to me to get the word out also thank you for rating this or leaving a review on iTunes that makes a really really big difference what we do each month is we dive into a very quick and specific teaching also if you have questions comments ideas I'd love to hear from you could email me anytime at leadership at Life Church also if you'd like to receive the notes from these teachings you can go to Life Church slash leadership podcast send us your email and we'll be happy to send you the notes every single month what I want to do is answer a couple of the questions that came in from the last episode and then we'll dive into some teaching today on decision making when we make decisions that will determine what we're able to do in our organizations decision makings are so so so important then we're going to review I'll ask you some questions and then we will lead as we're empowered to lead let's dive in Jimmy asked this question Jimmy asked how do you encourage creativity in your organization how do you help your team to become more creative and innovative fantastic question because an innovative culture never happens by accident you actually create a creative culture I'd give you a few quick thoughts Jimmy number one embrace your limitations embrace your limitations most people think that to be more creative we need more this is simply not true we need more people we need more money more time or energy more resources whatever I would argue that limitations breed innovation limitations breed innovation a lot of times when someone doesn't have something they're gonna say I cannot because I don't instead we're gonna train our leaders to say this I can because I don't I can do more even though I do not have more the challenge is and you'll find Jimmy as organizations age they often become resource rich and you actually find that resource rich organizations are generally less innovative less creative than those that don't have as much see limitations as a breeding ground for image for innovation the second thing number one is embrace your limitations number to allow for failure many things you try will not work not only is that okay but that's actually really really good in fact I always teach our leaders that if you're not failing every now and then you're playing it way too safe most of the innovative things that we do as an organization were actually born out of something we tried that didn't work in fact we do multiple site ministry in cities and states across the United States the first time we tried this out of our state we failed miserably what we learned from that failure actually helped us to become more creative and effective in other places also the YouVersion Bible app with over a quarter of a billion downloads this was born out of a failure we created a website to help engage people in the Bible the website failed and that one failure led to something that was very very innovative embrace your limitations allow for failure and the number three very simply decide you can do something about the problem when there is a challenge determine we can do something about this we have to remind ourselves whenever there's a problem we can make progress or we can make excuses that we cannot make both I try to remind myself that within every problem there's a hidden opportunity if you can tell yourself that again and again within every problem there is a hidden opportunity you can be innovative in the middle of great problems I try to get away from the office whenever I'm working on a breakthrough idea I'll often even leave town a change of environment leads to a change of perspective if you need to get innovative get out of the normal workplace see things differently believe you can do something about the problem and you can make a really big difference limitations there's a breeding ground for image for innovation have a can-do mindset we can do something even though we don't have everything we think we need and we're gonna make adjustments and grow and have some breakthrough ideas let's deal with another question this is from Chris and he said I just finished reading the e-myth revisited on your recommendation I'm wondering how you have a highly orchestrated culture that's also empowering what is the line between excellent orchestration and systems and micromanagement Chris said I want to avoid being a micromanager but make sure the systems are orchestrated well that is a fantastic question and I love the way you phrased it Chris you said where is the line and I would say that there needs to be a line but that line should never ever be fixed the line should be floating because we don't always put the line in the right place the first time and if the line is pretty much in the right place over time your organization is going to change therefore the line needs to change as well the way we phrase it behind the scenes in my organization is we say where is the balance between flexibility and control what are we going to be flexible on and what are we going to try to control and in this balance here is our goal the problem is whenever systems are too strong whenever too strong on systems and controls our leaders start to think more like managers and that's not good we don't want managers we want leaders whenever we're too light on systems then we drift from the culture and we lose efficiencies and effectiveness so the goal is this we want the right systems to eliminate problems and to elevate efficiency we want the right amount of systems that will eliminate problems and elevate efficiency but we don't want so many systems that have slows the process duplicates efforts or stifles leaders let me say this again because it's a little bit complicated but really important we want the right systems to eliminate problems and elevate efficiency but not so many systems that you slow the process duplicate efforts and stifle your leaders now a side note when it comes to your team leaders you can play favors there are some people in your organization that you want to give more flexibility others you want to have a little more control if you've got a rookie that's just learning you may want to control that rookie if you've got a seven-year veteran you might want to say you know what you're a seasoned leader I'm gonna give you more flexibility so the line could actually be in different places for different people's if that fits your situation bottom line is draw a line evaluate the placement of that line change it whenever the needs of the organization changes let's dive into the core teaching for today we're going to talk about decision making in fact I have a brand new book out called divine direction seven decisions that will change your life seven decisions that will change your life if you're interested in getting a copy of this book you can get it at Amazon at Barnes and Nobles Mardel anywhere books are sold and a key line from the book is this the decisions that we make today determine the stories that we tell tomorrow the decisions that we make today determine the stories that we tell tomorrow if you're going to be successful in your business in your ministry in your career a lot of people will look on and think well you must have made a few really big great decisions and you're gonna know the truth that no no you made hundreds of smaller faithful behind the scenes daily decisions consistently making wise decisions over time the problem is many of us as leaders we are not the best decision makers so many of us we end up making permanent decisions based on temporary emotions we have to get above our emotions disconnect our emotion to make wise decisions in fact I've done some research that's really fascinating it to me I'll share with you a little side note and then we'll get into how to make wise decisions Millennials they in kind of emerging generation they're having a little bit more challenge making decisions than some previous generations they're more indecisive I asked one of our younger team members are you indecisive true story and he looked back at me and said well yes and no hey no joke at all are you indecisive I'm not sure yes and no and the research shows three big reasons why it's a little bit or a lot more difficult for the emerging generation to make such decisions one is because of all of the options for example if I'm on an international flight and I've got five comedies to choose from and I want to watch a movie I can choose one of those if I'm on Netflix and there's an unlimited number of movies to choose from I can't make a choice and the emerging generation has had so many options it looks like options are a blessing but it ends up being a curse it's more difficult to make decisions second problem is this is the first generation this had what we call the illusion of perfection the illusion of perfection when you look at social media what do you see you see someone else's highlight reels and think wow their life looks perfect you compare that with your behind the scenes you see their perfect body their perfect vacation their perfect relationship their perfect meal you compare that with your Pinterest fail and you think my life is not any good so what happens is we want to make the perfect decision but when we fear that we might make an imperfect decision many people end up making no decision which ends up becoming a really poor decision the illusion of perfection leads to a fear of failure not wanting to miss was perfect and thirdly a lot of people just haven't developed the skill of decision-making because as parents my generation would have been known as the helicopter parents when I was growing up my parents said go outside and play and so all day long we had to decide what we're gonna do now my generation over programmed the next generation you're going here you're going here you're going here and took away the freedom to make decisions we said here's what you're going to do and they didn't have the option to decide and so they didn't develop the skill of decision-making all that as a foundation how do we as leaders make better decisions just like we can get better at casting vision leading meetings strategizing delegating we can improve as decision-makers let me give you five big thoughts number one when you're making decisions avoid either-or scenarios as often as you can avoid either-or scenarios what do we want to do anytime we're thinking should I do this or that we want to try to expand the options I want to encourage you anytime you're trying to decide between one thing or the other ask yourself is there a third thing a fourth thing a fifth thing for example should I fire this staff member or not should we add a new campus to our church or not should I hire this person or not expand the options should I fire this person or should we try to get them coaching or should we move them to another department where they might be more successful or should we put them on probation with some goals or should we send them to a conference expand the options should we add another campus or not how about this should we add another service before we add another campus should we add three staff members and some programming before we add another campus or instead of saying should we add one more campus maybe we say should we add three more campuses expand the options should I hire this person or not how about should I add three part-time people instead of one full-time person or should we utilize volunteers or should be contract this out expand the options one of my favorite breakthrough ideas came in our organization when we expanded the options I was asking either/or question should I have Sam preach for me when I'm off this weekend or Chris preach for me Sam or Chris and someone said what if we had a bunch of different people speak at the different locations and we ended up having 86 different speakers on one weekend when what happened we got out of the either-or mindset breakthrough idea when we expanded the options avoid either-or scenarios as much as possible number to avoid decision fatigue like the play avoid decision fatigue like the play we talked about all the options that people have when you're trying to wade through so many options we actually get tired when we consistently make decisions in fact the New York Times did a fascinating study on 1,100 decisions that a small panel made on whether to give people parole or not there were 1,100 decisions this panel of three judge all 1,100 decisions and they gave 1/3 of the prisoners parole now I want to show you what happened the prisoners who appeared before this panel early in the morning got parole 70% of the time so if you were on at 8:30 and the panel's very likely to say yes you can have parole those who appeared late in the day got parole only 10% of the time I want you to think about this 70% were paroled early in the day only 10% late in the day why because the panel got tired tired of making decisions tired of hearing excuses they were worn out and it was so much easier to say no than it was yes because they had decision fatigue I am crazy passionate about avoiding decision fatigue every time you make a decision it takes mental energy and effort so what I want to do is I want to delegate as many decisions as possible one of the best leadership ideas you can have is to delegate decision-making every time you can your goals the leader is going to be this to make only the decisions that you can make make only the decisions that you can make and delegate the rest so I delegate things that would even make you laugh for example I'm colorblind and so picking out an outfit that matches for the weekend is very stressful for me so I've just delegated it when I show up for the weekend a team of people that love this kind of stuff will have three outfits and say you can choose from any of these and I've delegated that if there were such thing as Garanimals back when I was growing the tiger on a shirt match the tiger on the pants I'd be in business but instead I delegate that it takes stress off me because I can't tell if things match as simple as what are you gonna have for lunch today in my office I don't go out for lunch we always bring lunch and saves a lot of time every day someone would come in and say what do you want us to order for lunch today and I have to stop and think hmm what am I in the mood for so what did I do I said hey here are my five favorite things every day you pick just bring me one of the five and here's what's so fun every day something comes in they put it in front go wow it's one of my favorites okay so simple so small but what anything that we can delegate anything at all we're empowering other people we're freeing up mental energy in our own minds the strength of your organization is often reflected by how deep into your organization people have the power and the freedom to make decisions you want to strengthen your leaders delegate decisions and you free up middle and emotional capacity to do more number three become your own personal adviser you want to become better at decision-making become your own personal adviser ask yourself what would I tell myself if I was giving myself advice about this situation what you're doing here is you're separating emotion from the decision-making process because when we're involved we get too emotionally connected for example I had a team member that was not successful in one role so I helped move him to another role he wasn't successful there so he moved him again it wasn't successful their story moved him the third time we all liked this guy and we were saying what what should we do now I asked myself Craig if you were advising yourself what would you do and it was really really clear if I was advising myself I'd say we have a common problem this guy doesn't work anywhere he's not the right guy should remove him when I whenever I advise myself it separated the emotion that I like this person and suddenly I could see it's very very clear but this is not the right person for our organization I would say you could ask these two questions ask what would a great leader do you're trying to make a decision what would a great leader do if you're parenting it might be what great mom dude what what a great dad do what what what a great leader do and then ask yourself this ask yourself what would my successor do if someone replaced me what would they do years ago my church is based in Oklahoma we launched in Phoenix and it just wasn't working and we knew us probably the right thing to go ahead and close it down but we just couldn't do it I set around the table with a group of our executive leaders and decision makers and we said if someone replaced us what would they do and all of a sudden it was very clear if someone replaces the first thing they would do is they would shut that down hands down no question to ask it was the right thing to do separating ourselves becoming the adviser gave us the wisdom and the the emotional altitude to make the right decision become your own adviser number four decide when you're going to decide if you want to become a better decision maker decide when you're going to decide why because procrastination is the number one enemy of progress and what do we do so often we procrastinate we put it off we put it off so on my list of things that I'm going to do my priorities for the day I have a to-do list and I have a to decide list these are two separate lists these are the things to do here's a whole nother separate category to decide and I don't want to mix those because they're actually different one takes action the others gonna take even more emotional energy I would recommend that you both the decisions that you need to make and then have a specific time during the week when you're making decisions for me it's Thursday I try to make very few decisions before Thursday because by Thursday my message preparation is finished I've done all the things that I need to do suddenly the weight and the pressure is lifted off and I've got the emotional clarity to tackle decisions put them into a certain time I know we're gonna do them then we're gonna get to them both them and then if you still can't make a decision remind yourself of the cost of no decision remind yourself of the cost of no decision when you can't make a decision you lose leadership credibility people around you will not trust you or follow you and you also lose Trinity I always teach leaders this if you wait until you're 100% sure about a decision you're probably too late make the decision put it in the category we're gonna come together make it at this time become your own adviser decide when you're gonna decide and then number five and let me give you a little preface for this one I understand that many who listened are not Christians like I am and I am totally thankful that you're listing I completely respect your beliefs and I hope you respect the fact that I am a Christian pastor and so I believe that there is a spiritual edge to decision making you don't have to agree but number five I would say this is listen for spiritual Direction listen for spiritual direction in fact that's the name of my book divine direction I love a verse of scripture and I'll try not to get preachy but this is what scripture says that we can make our plans but the Lord determines our steps if you are a spiritual person if you're a Jesus follower like I am here's something you can do you can very simply keep a list of every time you feel prompted during the day and chances are you'll think oh I should reach out to this person oh I should send a thank-you note to this person I should send an encouraging note to this person on my team I should call this person and say man you knocked out that presentation was amazing oh I need to have a difficult conversation with this person if you start to write down whenever you believe you might be prompted suddenly you're gonna recognize perhaps God is actually directing my steps and when you recognize that there is a power beyond this world that actually cares about what you're doing step by step you can say you know what I believe you're leading me in this direction and you can have confidence to move forward and make decisions not just with your own power but with faith you're actually doing something that God wants you to do to summarize here's a couple of big thoughts if you don't want to develop leaders make all the decisions let me say it again if you do not want to develop leaders make all the decisions if you want your organization to reflect your weakness to make all the decisions if you want to develop leaders give decisions away delegate as many as possible make only the decisions that you can make make as few as decisions as possible and whenever you make them make them wise a quick review how do we become better at decision-making number one avoid either-or scenarios as often as you can expand the options number to avoid decision fatigue like the plague delegate as many decisions as possible number three become your own personal adviser ask yourself what would a great leader do what would my successor do number four decide when you're going to decide procrastination is the number one enemy of progress have a to-do list and a to decide list remind yourself of the cost of no decision you lose leadership credibility you might lose opportunity if you wait until you're 100% sure you're often too late and number five listen for spiritual direction keep a list of every time you feel prompted if you don't want to develop leaders you make all of the decisions if you want your organization to reflect your weaknesses make all of the decisions don't make many as often as you can delegate them a couple of application questions number one if you're trying to make an either-or decision what is a third or fourth option you can add to the mix remember every time you're trying to make an either/or decision expand the options number one if you're trying to make an either/or decision what is a third or fourth option you can add to the list number two what three decisions are you making that you can delegate what three decisions are you making that you can delegate empower someone else they'll get better and they'll free your energy to focus on other things now in the next episode we're gonna talk about recruiting and hiring onto your team and this is so important why because the potential of your organization rests in the strength of its people if you want to be great at something what do you want to be great as a leader you want to be great and identifying developing and empowering the right people and we're gonna talk about that in the next episode again thank you so much for sharing this on social media thank you for being a part of our community the new book is called divine direction seven decisions that will change your life you can get it anywhere books are sold remember as a leader you're called to make a difference in people's lives be yourself why because people would rather follow a leader who is always real and one who is always right thanks again for tuning in for another episode of the Craig Groeschel leadership podcast if you enjoyed this episode you are in luck because Craig Rochelle's latest book divine direction 7 decisions that will change your life is available today wherever books are sold or at divine direction book.com plus you can go deeper with additional resources and show notes at Life Church slash leadership podcast you can also sign up there to have those notes delivered to your inbox each and every week plus you can do us a huge huge favor you can rate review and share this podcast on iTunes it's a great way to get the word out to help others grow in their leadership as well again thanks for joining us here today we've got new episodes dropping the first Thursday of each and every month and we'll see you back here next time for another episode of the Craig Groeschel leadership podcast

Channel: Craig Groeschel

Views: 29,372

Keywords: Craig Groeschel, Leadership Podcast, Life.Church, Life, Church, leader, personal growth, influence, how do i be a better leader, be the leader, be a leader, leadership, leading, lead, decision-making, dicisiveness

Id: PMEMwK9QcYE

Length: 26min 3sec (1563 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 01 2018