Leading Your Team (From Any Level) AI transcript and summary - episode of podcast Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast

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Episode: Leading Your Team (From Any Level)

Author: Life.Church
Duration: 00:19:28

Episode Shownotes

No matter your role, you’ll eventually need to influence someone higher up in the organization. When you do, your posture, timing, and intentions have to be in check. In this episode, Craig shares five steps to follow when leading up to your boss. Watch video and download the leader guide:

https://www.life.church/leadershippodcast/leading-your-team-from-any-level/

Summary

In this episode of the Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast, Craig Groeschel discusses the importance of leading up within an organization by effectively influencing one's superiors. He emphasizes adopting a genuine approach without ulterior motives, focusing on serving and supporting leaders to foster improvement. Key strategies discussed include building trust, adding value without increasing workload, understanding leaders' challenges, offering solutions, and ensuring clear communication. Groeschel highlights the significance of timing and clarity in interactions, asserting that true leadership comes from the influence exerted rather than from formal titles.

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Full Transcript

00:00:00 Speaker_00
If you have any kind of ulterior motives, like you just want to get noticed, you want to get attention, you want to get promoted, you want to make more money, you want to outshine your leader, he or she's going to sniff that out and take you out.

00:00:11 Speaker_00
You got to come with a real sincere attitude and your motives must be to genuinely help them, serve them, move the mission forward. You want to serve your leader and help the organization get better.

00:00:28 Speaker_00
Hey, welcome to another episode of the Craig Rochelle Leadership Podcast. I am very passionate about helping you grow in your leadership. And so what I wanna do is I wanna talk about whatever you wanna talk about.

00:00:38 Speaker_00
We're doing a multiple weekly series, answering your questions. Normally we do an episode on the first Thursday of each month. We're dropping them one a week. So get ready to go on a journey with me.

00:00:52 Speaker_00
Before we tackle the questions, I want to tell you that we do have a leader guide that I want you to get. If you're not getting the leader guide, you need to get the leader guide.

00:00:59 Speaker_00
Go to life.church slash leadership podcast, and we're going to give you additional content, sometimes questions to go over with your team. And I'm going to work really, really hard to give you helpful content, to help you grow in your leadership.

00:01:11 Speaker_00
Your time is valuable. So I'm gonna tell you, we're not gonna bring any paid ads. This is gonna be packed with practical ideas. My goal is to give you the highest value per minute of any podcast you listen to. So with that, let's go.

00:01:24 Speaker_00
We're gonna answer two questions today, and they're both about leading up. So I'm gonna give you a resource that you may wanna look at. If you'd like to get a free copy of this book, the book is How to Lead When You're Not in Charge by Clay Scroggins.

00:01:39 Speaker_00
Comment on the YouTube page, say, I want to lead up. We'll give away five copies of his book. The questions today are all about leading up. If you want the chance to win a copy of Clay's book, How to Lead When You're Not in Charge,

00:01:52 Speaker_00
type of the comment section I want to lead up. Two questions on that subject today. First, Rebecca asks, how do you get a strong leader to listen to you? So you got a boss and she's strong or he's strong.

00:02:05 Speaker_00
How do you lead up and get a boss to listen to you? Or Michael asks this, how do you lead up well? How do you lead when you're not in charge? This is a very, very common question. We got dozens of variations of the question.

00:02:19 Speaker_00
Essentially, how do you lead up? And first, let's start with the big picture. To lead up well, to influence a strong leader, you need, what I say, three things. You need a very genuine, thoughtful, yet nuanced approach.

00:02:34 Speaker_00
You wanna be genuine, you wanna be thoughtful in how you do it, and yet you wanna be really careful and have kind of a nuanced approach to lead up. Well, let's start with genuine. If you're gonna lead up and influence your boss, your direct report,

00:02:47 Speaker_00
You genuinely need to care about that person. You have to care about them.

00:02:52 Speaker_00
If you have any kind of ulterior motives, like you just want to get noticed, you want to get attention, you want to get promoted, you want to make more money, you want to outshine your leader, he or she's going to sniff that out and take you out.

00:03:04 Speaker_00
You got to come with a real sincere attitude and your motives must be to genuinely help them, serve them, move the mission forward. You want to serve your leader and help the organization get better.

00:03:17 Speaker_00
Then you want to be thoughtful and nuanced in your approach. If you come in too hot, you'll be the one to get burned. You wanna play the long game. You wanna take your time. You wanna be prayerful, strategic, thoughtful, caring.

00:03:32 Speaker_00
If you do that, you can make a big difference. And so I'll give you five big ideas to think about. I'll cover them, all five, and then we'll talk about them one by one.

00:03:41 Speaker_00
The first thing you wanna do is if you wanna lead up well, you wanna create a climate of unmistakable trust. Number two, you want to add value without adding pressure.

00:03:53 Speaker_00
Number three, you want to learn to sincerely empathize with your leader's challenges. Number four, don't just point out problems, offer solutions. And number five, you want to communicate clearly, concisely, and strategically.

00:04:08 Speaker_00
Let's talk about them one by one. Number one, you want to lead up well. You're going to want to cultivate a climate of unmistakable trust. And I'll state something that's pretty obvious, but I wanna say it anyway, and that's this.

00:04:22 Speaker_00
Your leader won't listen to you if he or she doesn't trust you. They are not gonna listen if they don't know and believe that you have their best interest at heart. And so when you're gonna approach a leader, I want you to think about this.

00:04:37 Speaker_00
Have you ever been hurt or burned by someone? Of course you have, right? Someone betrayed you, talked behind your back, didn't have your best interest in mind. I want you to think about your boss because your boss has been hurt as well.

00:04:51 Speaker_00
And so when you show up, you want to lead in such a way that you're actually building trust. How fast can you build trust? And the answer is, I'm not sure. You do not want to rush it. If you come in too strong, too fast, most people tend to push back.

00:05:09 Speaker_00
So how do you build trust? The basics. Trust is built with consistency over time. Trust is built with consistency over time. So you're just gonna start with the basics. You're gonna do your job well. You're gonna do it with excellence.

00:05:24 Speaker_00
You're gonna show up with passion. You're gonna have intentionality. You're gonna bring your best every single day. And as often as possible, you don't wanna just meet expectations. You want to exceed expectations.

00:05:36 Speaker_00
So you're not just gonna do what they ask you, but you're gonna do a little bit more. And what you're doing is you're demonstrating that you're reliable. You're a valuable team player. You care about the mission. You have integrity.

00:05:47 Speaker_00
You've got a real work ethic. You're building trust. You're building trust. So the first thing, with a heart to serve, with just good performance and a total buy-in to the mission, you're creating a climate of unmistakable trust.

00:06:04 Speaker_00
The second thing you want to do is you want to add value. without adding pressure. Add value without adding pressure. Like, what do you mean, Craig?

00:06:12 Speaker_00
Okay, if you wanna lead up, you wanna ask yourself, how can I add value to my leader without adding work to their plate? How can I add value to them without giving them something more to do?

00:06:25 Speaker_00
And honestly, this is a very common problem we see in overly enthusiastic leaders. Like, I wanna lead up, you know, whatever. It's like, hey boss, hey boss, hey boss, hey, how can I help you?

00:06:35 Speaker_00
Give me three things I can do to make your life easier, okay? You didn't take anything off their plate at that point. What you did is you gave them an assignment. You came in and said, give me three things to do.

00:06:45 Speaker_00
And then I'd have to stop and go, okay, let me think for a little while. And you do that with a good heart, but honestly, it's not helpful. And that's a very common approach. And I wanna beg you, don't approach that way.

00:06:58 Speaker_00
What you wanna do is you wanna kind of ask yourself, How can I add value? Where can I add value? What can I do? And so how are you going to discern where you can add value? You're going to watch and listen, watch and listen, watch and listen.

00:07:11 Speaker_00
You're going to watch for anything that frustrates your leader, anything that's weighing them down. You're gonna listen to anything that you could look at and think, well, I think I could do that for them, or I could take that off of them.

00:07:24 Speaker_00
And you're gonna watch and listen, you're gonna watch and listen. You're gonna look for anything that you could take off of them to ease their load. And here's a little secret I want you to know about leaders, even the great ones.

00:07:36 Speaker_00
And I would say maybe even especially the great ones. And I want you to hear this. Many leaders struggle with asking others for help. Literally, like you want to help them, but they don't want to put something more on you.

00:07:49 Speaker_00
And they don't want to burden you. They don't want to appear weak. And it's an insecurity, but all of us have it. Many of us struggle with asking for help. So what do you do? Well, if you see a need that you can meet, don't wait for them to ask you.

00:08:02 Speaker_00
Just say, hey, would you mind if I did that for you? That's a good way to ask it. Would you mind if I did that for you? Not, let me take it. That's a command. Would you mind if I did that for you? And they may say, no, no, no, really, I've got it.

00:08:16 Speaker_00
And oftentimes that's how they're gonna come back. What you wanna do is you wanna just show appropriately, not weird person, but appropriately that you're really eager to help. Adrian on my team does this with me.

00:08:29 Speaker_00
She'll say, hey, you mind if I take that off of you? Like, ah, no, I got this. She's like, hey, I'm kind of weird this way, but I love that kind of thing. It would mean a lot to me if I could do it for you. Like, oh, she loves that kind of thing.

00:08:42 Speaker_00
And so she like literally will talk me into trusting her with it. And she's convincing me that she's genuinely happy to do it. And so you wanna do something like that.

00:08:52 Speaker_00
Now, if you can take something off your leader, that's a great place to start, but don't stop there.

00:08:57 Speaker_00
Once you've done it, whatever it is, the project, you made the call, you handle it, you got the files organized, whatever it is, what I want you to do is I want you to let them know that you did it.

00:09:08 Speaker_00
At least do it all the time at first, because what you're gonna do is it's actually still on their mind, even though it's in your hands, it's still on their mind. And so you're doing what I call wrap-back communication.

00:09:19 Speaker_00
You've done it, now I'm wrapping back, I'm coming back, I'm wrapping back. The difference between a pretty good leader you can trust and a great leader you can trust is often just wrap back communication.

00:09:29 Speaker_00
It's just, hey, you can check this off your list, it's handled. And you don't have to be annoying. You don't have to burst into their office going, I got it done. Aren't I great? You don't have to do that.

00:09:40 Speaker_00
And oftentimes it's just a text or an email or a note on the desk. You're not interrupting their flow. You're just saying, hey, check this off your list, got it done. And it eases their mind.

00:09:51 Speaker_00
Once you've built trust, and you've done that for a while, three months later, six months later, whatever, you may taper off communication because they know when they give it to you it's done, but early on, they don't know.

00:10:02 Speaker_00
So when you do it, tell them it's done. And when you commit to something, oh my goodness, Deliver. Don't ever say I got this and don't have it. Deliver. And again, as often as you can not just deliver, but do even more, that's even better.

00:10:16 Speaker_00
So, if you want to effectively lead up, be a leader your boss can trust every single time. Now, Let's say you do three things for your boss and she doesn't say thank you. Don't get your feelings hurt. She's probably got something else on her mind.

00:10:34 Speaker_00
She's focused somewhere else. Just remember this. You're not serving to get noticed. You're serving because you care. Keep your heart pure. If you serve consistently with the right motives, you will earn influence over time. You're just serving.

00:10:50 Speaker_00
So what are we gonna do? You wanna lead up. First of all, you're gonna create a climate of unmistakable trust. You are dependable, you're trustworthy, you care, you show up, you have integrity, you get things done.

00:11:02 Speaker_00
Number two is you're gonna add value without adding pressure. You're not coming and saying, give me five things I can do. No, hey, do you mind if I take that off of you? Number three is this, number three, important.

00:11:13 Speaker_00
You're gonna learn to sincerely empathize with their challenges. You're gonna learn to, as best you can, to feel what they feel and understand what weighs on them. And this is not easy, and I wanna promise you.

00:11:29 Speaker_00
Years ago, my pastor used to say, Craig, you'll never, well, he said, Craiger, he called me, Craiger, you'll never understand the weight I'm under until you're under it yourself.

00:11:39 Speaker_00
Craiger, you're never gonna understand the burden of this job until you have it yourself. I hated when he said that, and it was so true. I had no idea all of the pressure that he felt until I was in a similar role.

00:11:53 Speaker_00
So you want to learn to empathize with what they feel. And this is going to be a little bit tricky. And I want to say it this way, you want to try to understand. Don't ever assume you do. Because the moment you assume you do, you don't.

00:12:08 Speaker_00
I promise you, you wanna try, you wanna work hard, you wanna get as close as you can to understanding, but never assume you're completely there because you don't fully understand. So what are you gonna do?

00:12:17 Speaker_00
Again, you're gonna watch and you're gonna listen, and this is really important, like don't judge. Like sometimes your boss is gonna be overreacting over something that's not that big of a deal. You're like, oh, he's just overreacting.

00:12:29 Speaker_00
Listen, one day when you're in his shoes, you're gonna do the same thing over something else. So you're not gonna judge your boss as human just like you. Your goal is not to judge, not to condemn, not to criticize.

00:12:41 Speaker_00
Your goal is to encourage, to support, and to assist. You're asking yourself, okay, what's keeping him up at night? What pressure does she feel? And when you start to empathize, what it does is it will change your approach.

00:12:55 Speaker_00
So important, it'll change how you approach your supervisor. When you start to truly feel some of what they feel, you'll serve with a heart of compassion rather than an attitude of arrogance. It's a game changer.

00:13:10 Speaker_00
The reality is for all of us, when I was under somebody, I'd always think, well, I could probably do that thing a little better than them. If I were in their roles, I'd do this a little different. That's natural.

00:13:21 Speaker_00
But instead, if we come in and say, their job's probably pretty hard. There's some details about it that I don't know. There's some weight they're carrying that I wouldn't fully understand.

00:13:28 Speaker_00
So all I wanna do is add value, take something off, serve them, help our organization get better.

00:13:35 Speaker_00
If you come in with that attitude and you start to feel what they're going through, they're actually gonna know you genuinely care, and then you can really, really make a difference. Number four, important.

00:13:46 Speaker_00
Don't just point out problems, offer solutions. Don't just point out problems. Again, this sounds obvious, but we wanna lead up. And so what do we think? Well, I'm gonna lead up because my dumb boss doesn't see what I see. That's a bad attitude, okay?

00:13:59 Speaker_00
I'm gonna tell them what's wrong with our organization. This is our problem, okay? True, but... So much of what many people think is leading up is really just complaining up. That's all it is.

00:14:09 Speaker_00
It's not really leading up, it's like just griping and complaining up.

00:14:12 Speaker_00
And so whenever you see something that you know, hey, this isn't great and this needs to change, or we could really get better here or we could be different here, try not to just point out the problem without having a potential solution.

00:14:27 Speaker_00
Before you say this is wrong, as often as possible say, I wonder what we could do to make this right. Why is this so important? Any leader can point out a problem, but a great leader brings a solution.

00:14:39 Speaker_00
And honestly, it's frustrating to me when some team member comes in and says, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong. I always feel like saying,

00:14:46 Speaker_00
Well, I knew that, I didn't know that, I didn't know that, I knew that, and here's 15 more problems I'm trying to solve, and all you're doing is pointing out problems. It is exhilarating to me.

00:14:55 Speaker_00
I'm thrilled, I'm thankful beyond measure when someone takes initiative and says, hey, I saw this thing not working well, but I think here's how we can fix what's broken.

00:15:04 Speaker_00
Or they say, hey, I saw something that's pretty good, let's take something good and make it great. It's a totally different posture when you're not complaining up, but you're leading up.

00:15:13 Speaker_00
You're coming in, not just saying, this is wrong, and this is a problem, but I've been thinking about it, been working on it for a while, and here's how I think we can make it better. Number five, communicate clearly, concisely, and strategically.

00:15:26 Speaker_00
Okay, you work for somebody, they're your supervisor, they're your boss. You know they're busy, time's important to them. I cannot overstate how important this is. You've got an audience with them. Communicate clearly.

00:15:40 Speaker_00
Clarity is kindness and timing is everything. Remember, you're going to approach your boss. Clarity is kindness and timing is everything. One more time. Clarity is kindness and timing is everything. You want to be really, really clear.

00:15:54 Speaker_00
You want to have thought through what you're going to say, and you want to be really respectful as to when you approach. What you're gonna know if you're observant is your leader has rhythms, and some times are better to approach them.

00:16:07 Speaker_00
Some days are better than other days. In my world, Mondays, I'm kind of recovering from the weekend. I'm planning out the week. I'm starting on the message. Tuesday's a study day.

00:16:17 Speaker_00
If someone comes and brings me a suggestion on a Tuesday, it's not that I don't wanna hear it, it's like I can't hear it. My mind is locked, I am not ready to hear it. Wednesday by noon, the message is done.

00:16:28 Speaker_00
I kinda come out of hibernation and be in lockdown study. I can hear on a Wednesday afternoon. Thursday, I'm in creative mode, I'm doing meetings, I'm planning on the future. Thursday's a great day. And so you kinda wanna know the rhythms.

00:16:40 Speaker_00
Like honest to goodness, one time I was going in the men's room and a guy came in and said, Pastor, Pastor, got an idea for you. Pastor, that's not the best time, okay? Clarity is kindness. Timing is everything. Learn their rhythms.

00:16:54 Speaker_00
Communicate clearly, concisely, strategically. Be kind, be trustworthy, care about your leader. And guess what? Guess what? you can help your leader get better.

00:17:05 Speaker_00
It's indescribable what a gift it is to have a leader with people that work for the leader, serve with the leader, serve by the leader, that will tell the leader the truth, will make suggestions, will help make things better.

00:17:20 Speaker_00
If you start to do that, you do it well, together you can do something really, really special. If you want more insight on this subject, I have a whole episode devoted to leading up, episode 81 on the podcast.

00:17:33 Speaker_00
It's called Leading Up When You're Not In Charge. There's also the book that Clay wrote as well. And I wanna just tell you this for a minute, speak to you from my heart. I want you to remember, that you can lead from where you are.

00:17:46 Speaker_00
You don't have to be the boss. You don't have to have a title. You don't need to have the office or whatever, the degree. You can lead from where you are. Why? Because what is leadership? Leadership is influence, and you have influence.

00:17:58 Speaker_00
You don't need a title to lead, you just need to care.

00:18:02 Speaker_00
And when you really care about your boss, your supervisor, your peers, those people that report to you, when you really care about them and you show it, that you love your team, that you believe in them, it builds a trust and a chemistry that is really hard to describe.

00:18:19 Speaker_00
I've often said it this way, people'd rather follow a leader with a heart than a leader with a title. People would rather follow a leader who's always real than one who's always right. So believe in what you have in you. It's special.

00:18:34 Speaker_00
You're where you are for a purpose. You're not there by accident, and you do have more to offer. If you take it slow, take your time, lead with integrity, have a real sincere heart, and serve, serve people.

00:18:46 Speaker_00
And when you're the boss of everybody, serve people. Serve, serve, serve, because the greatest are those who serve. And when you serve others, and they serve you, and you serve people together, you all get better. And what happens when you get better?

00:18:59 Speaker_00
Well, everyone wins when the leader gets better. I will see you next Thursday, same time, for more Questions Get the Leader Guide. Share on social media, please. And if you'd like a chance to win the book, type in there. I wanna lead up.

00:19:15 Speaker_00
And in the meantime, Believe it when you hear it. There is more in you. You are getting better. Go out and make a difference.