78: Defeating the Four Enemies of Growth, Part 2

Thank you for joining the Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast! In Part 1 of “Defeating the Four Enemies of Growth” we learned that growth is never automatic or guaranteed. Organizations don’t naturally drift toward growth. They drift toward complacency, complexity, and decline. The Four Enemies of Growth:

1. The first enemy of growth is unnecessary complexity. Organizational simplicity is the antidote for complexity. Go to Part 1 to catch up on how to defeat that enemy.

2. Unscalable Processes. Picture a three-legged stool. For the stool to grow taller, each of the three

legs needs to grow equally or the stool won’t be steady. If one or more elements that drive growth in your organization can’t scale to match your growth, the growth will stall out. To be clear: growing is different than scaling. Growing increases revenue or results at a consistent pace. Scaling increases revenue or results at an exponential rate. To defeat the enemy of unscalable processes, create a defined, reproducible path to growth—a definable growth flow. A definable growth flow identifies the specific drivers that contribute to the growth of your unique team or organization. You may accidentally grow, but you’re never going to scale without identifying your definable growth drivers. If you can’t define it, you can’t accomplish it.

For example, at Life.Church, the definable growth drivers are:

1. A place to meet 2. Funds to pay for costs 3. Pastors and leaders 4. Church attenders 5. Support systems

Your core growth drivers will often revolve around the people, processes, and economic engine of your organization. Growth drivers must be active and maturing at the same pace; if any one lags behind you won’t be able to scale.

3. Unhealthy Mindsets. Unhealthy mindsets create unhealthy organizations. A few examples of unhealthy mindsets are complacency, pride, risk-aversion, stagnancy, misinformation and misjudging of reality, competition, disinterest, distraction, apathy, greed, and on and on.

To defeat unhealthy mindsets, cultivate a growth mindset.

“If you can’t define it, you can’t accomplish it.” —Craig Groeschel

Two books that talk about this subject are The Founder’s Mentality: How to Overcome the Predictable Crises of Growth by Chris Zook and James Allen and Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck. What do we know about mindset? Mindset determines direction. Dweck outlines two kinds of mindsets: a fixed mindset that is unwilling to more or change and a growth mindset that is flexible and adaptable. A growth mindset says, “I can get better” or “I am not good at this…yet.”

Just as individuals have self-esteem—low or healthy—organizations also have an identity called organizational esteem. It’s how we see ourselves as a team or company. If you want to change your organization, change how people think.

Based on the work of Zook and Allen, there are five mindsets of leaders and teams with healthy, successful esteem:

1. A bias for action 2. Bold leadership 3. Defiant stubbornness 4. Leaders who think like owners 5. Obsessive focus

4. Underdeveloped Leaders. Underdeveloped or incapable leaders will eventually hold your team or group back from growth, or they’ll be outpaced by the growth around them and be left behind.

The potential of your organization rests on the strength of its leaders. For more on developing leaders, listen to episode #24 “How to Develop Leaders.” Look around at your team. Are you giving them adequate, important, and necessary feedback? Are you giving them permission to fail? Growth always involves the risk of failure, so we need to give our teams room to fail. Remember, people grow best “in the game.” Don’t create a separate “growth track” or “growth course” for some leaders; your whole organization should be on a “growth track.” Growing leaders is not a program. It’s part of our culture. The strategy for defeating the enemy of underdeveloped leaders: don’t just see people as the means to get something done. See getting things done as a tool for developing people. As Andy Stanley says, two of the greatest words you can say to people are “you decide.” And what happens if people fail? It’s okay. We’re not seeking perfection; we’re seeking growth.

“If you want to change your organization, change how people think.” —Craig Groeschel

“You never become great by playing it safe.” —Craig Groeschel

“Growth and comfort never coexist.” —Craig Groeschel

The Developmental Dip. Any time you trust people as they’re developing, you’ll likely see a short-term dip in quality. Perhaps you could have done a certain task in one hour, and it takes the new leader two hours. That’s the dip. It’s expected and it’s worth it as you’re allowing leaders to grow. If you only focus on one thing, focus on making your leaders great. Great leaders grow great organizations.

ACTIVITY—Define Your Growth Flow

Identify the growth drivers unique to your industry and organization. What are the specific things that propel you forward? Most organizations have somewhere between three and seven core growth drivers. More than seven, and you may be overcomplicating the assignment. Your core growth drivers will often revolve around the people, processes, and economic engine of your organization. Look at these areas and determine if they’re all growing and maturing at the same rate. If any are lagging behind or have grown dormant or stale, create a plan to invigorate that area so that all the growth drivers are working in unison.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. What mindset needs to change organizationally? What will you do to drive a growth mindset? 2. On a scale of 1-10, how strong is your leadership development culture?

If it’s lower than a 9, what are you going to do about it?

“Leadership is leadership wherever you are.” —Craig Groeschel

PODCAST RESOURCES

• More from Craig: www.craiggroeschel.com • Download Leader Guides: www.life.church/leadershippodcast • Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: www.go2.lc/cglpitunes • Free Church Resources & Tools: www.life.church/churches • Suggested Resources:

o The Founder’s Mentality: How to Overcome the Predictable Crises of Growth by Chris Zook and James Allen

o Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck. o The Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast: https://go2.lc/ASLP

• Related episodes of the Leadership Podcast: “How to Develop Leaders:” https://go2.lc/howtodevelopleaders

CONNECT WITH CRAIG • Ask questions: www.craiggroeschel.com/connect • Facebook: www.facebook.com/craiggroeschel • Twitter: @craiggroeschel • Instagram: @craiggroeschel

THREE KEYS TO SHARPEN YOUR LEADERSHIP Craig hand-picked three episodes designed to help you build a strong leadership foundation. You'll learn practical ways to influence your leaders, manage your time wisely, and improve how you communicate. Head to www.go2.lc/threekeys to get the episodes and leader guides sent right to your inbox. LEAVE A REVIEW If this podcast has made you a better leader, you can help share it by leaving quick review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you tune in. You can visit Apple Podcasts (www.go2.lc/itunes-cglp) or on your iOS device and then go to the “Reviews” section. There, you can leave a star rating or click on “Write a review” to share something you’ve gotten out of this podcast. Thank you for sharing!