What You Don’t Know
I’ve respected Craig Groeschel for several years. His ministry is having a big impact throughout the U.S. and across the globe. When I think of LifeChurch.tv, the first words that pop to mind are “innovation” and “generosity”. Among other things, they’ve completely flipped the model for resourcing other churches. With all that in mind, this story from Craig doesn’t really surprise me:
“It happened again the other day. We had a group of pastors visiting. When they started asking me questions, I deferred often to several trusted staff members.
“After about 30 minutes of looking to my team to answer questions, one pastor said, ‘Craig, there are a lot of things about your church that you don’t know!’
“When I told him ‘thanks,’ he seemed surprised.”
One of the ways I measure great leaders is by what they don’t know. If they know too much about what’s happening in their organization, I know they’re micromanagers. I don’t like working for micromanagers. Not many people do.
If you’re a leader, how much do you know?
Wow, that’s just something great to talk about and hear a pastor like Craig & you, Tony blog about. I can say in my experiences with both High level leaders( one’s I look up to, were attracted to in qualities of leadership) almost all of the time they had a HIGH level of “trust & accountability”, they weren’t concerned about the smaller details or micro managing.
That certainly sounds like his response and style and from what I know of a few campus pastors and worship leaders at Lifechurch.tv, it must be the case most of the time if not all the time.
M_
Have to agree this kind of leadership unleashes the talents, gifts, creativity and energy of everyone on a team. Conversely, those who are micro managed often feel crushed, confined and trust is definitely absent. Funny thing is how often “leaders” miss the cues that they are micro managing and fail to recognize its effect.
This is a driving value for me as I staff our young church plant. Why would I want to have paid staff do work that I constantly had to check up on?
Part of being the ‘employer of choice’ (Ken Blanchard), I think, is to develop an environment where talented people experience trust and excel beyond where they would if I knew everything.
It seems, at least in the church, however, that this is novel – I frequently experience reactions similar to what is in this post and find myself evangelizing for a new model of leadership in the church – leaving micro-management and moving towards empowerment!
Totally disagree. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase, would have to be considered one of the great corporate leaders of our time. Chase is the only major bank to continue to post a profit throughout the entire financial crisis. They managed to pull off two massive acquisitions (Bear Sterns and WaMU) in just 6 months. They mostly avoided the catastrophic losses associated with subprime mortgages, and all of that was largely due to the strength and character of their leader.
It’s pretty well known that if you work at Chase, and walk into a meeting with Dimon, he’s likely to know as much -if not more – about your business area as you do. He’s notorious for digging into the details far more than most CEO’s.
I’m not saying that Craig isn’t modeling effective leadership – but I definitely think that it’s short-sighted to say that “If they know too much about what’s happening in their organization, I know they’re micromanagers.”
There’s a difference between having a deep understanding of your organization, and being a micromanager. You can still be a great leader, know what’s happening, and still empower others with the authority to own their ministry areas.
Micromanaging isn’t the result of “knowing,” its the result of “controlling.” There’s a big difference.
Great post Tony! While I think there is a lot of validity to it, I do think it is dangerous for young leaders to read this post and think they can immediately lead that way without putting the time/development/energy that Craig has put into a staff for many many years. I know that I’ve made that mistake and it came back to bite me. Leaders, be encouraged to pay the price of developing (hands on) those around you and giving time to build trust. Don’t just expect, Inspect. If you already have Rockstar leaders that you have built trust with, by all means, let them fly.