148: SOLVING PROBLEMS YOU DIDN’T CREATE | DR.

JON CHASTEEN

EPISODE NOTES
Thank you for joining the Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast! If you’ve ever inherited a struggling project,
team, or organization, you know how hard it can be to fix something you didn’t break. Today’s episode with
Dr. Jon Chasteen will give you practical leadership tools for rebuilding what’s been broken.

Match Your Skillset With Your Assignment

Not all leadership assignments require the same skillset.

For years, Craig thought “good leadership is good leadership.” But over time he learned some leaders are
great at starting organizations, while others are great at maintaining, and others are great at rebuilding.

When you get hired into a new role as a leader, you’ll often be hired to “rebuild” something. Jon calls this
“ReLeading.” And to do it, you need a different set of skills than other leaders.

Example: You need to be strategic with how and when you initiate change. Entrepreneurs can change on a
dime, but a ReLeader often has to lead through change in a way that their new team hardly even notices a
change is happening.

Build Your Leadership Team Early

When you step in to lead an organization, there will be a lot of slow changes you need to make over time.

One change that can’t be done slowly is building your leadership team. You need a rock-solid team dodging
bullets in the trenches with you.

Jon recommends moving quickly when hiring (and firing) your lead team.

Don’t Waste Early Negotiations

If you’re being recruited somewhere, negotiate exactly what authority you’re going to have if you take the
position.

Negotiate things like …

- Name changes,
- Freedom to hire your leadership team, and
- Support from the board

… ahead of time.

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Steps to Leading Through Change

Whenever you want to lead through a change, start by getting buy-in from as many leaders as possible
before you roll out the change.

To do this, start by meeting with your top layer of leaders and then work your way down as far as you can
into the organization.

Get so much buy-in that you already have buy-in everywhere when you make the announcement.

The tension you’re balancing with this is between moving fast or moving slower and getting more buy-in.

As a leader, you have to decide how long to wait and how much buy-in to build.

Give Your Team Time to Acclimate to Change

People need time to heal when they go through a difficult season of change. You as their leader need to
give them time to digest the new vision you’re casting.

You can’t stop all forward movement though. Keep the team moving slowly while they heal.

You Might Have to Add a New Cultural Value

When you have to lead an organization through a deep change, you might have to add one or two strategic
values that lead the organization in a new direction.

You might even have to unmake a promise you’ve made in the past and remove old values or systems.

As a ReLeader, you have the authority to do this. When you do, clearly communicate the change ahead of
time and repeat yourself often.

Expose Your Team to New Ideas

One of the best ways to lead change in your organization is to expose your entire team to a new idea. This
could be through a book, podcast, or event.

Whatever it is, go through that content together and then talk about how to implement it.

Your team will often be more receptive to a new idea if comes from someone else, rather than you.

“One of the most underutilized leadership tools is reading a book with

your team.” —Craig Groeschel

Stay Connected to Your Why

It’s so easy to get hyper-focused on your day-to-day work and become disconnected from those you’re
working to serve.

As a leader, make it a habit to go walk the halls of your organization and regularly connect with those you’re
serving on the front lines. When you do this, It’s much easier to stay connected to your why.

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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Here are exercises you can do to grow as a leader—ask yourself and your team these questions:

1. What’s a problem you didn’t create, but need to solve right now? What information do you need to
gather to have a clear understanding of that problem?

_________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

2. Think about your current leadership team. Do you have the right leaders on your team? Are they in
the right roles? Which leader should you intentionally invest more time with this week?

_________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

3. As a leader, what’s your “why?” What motivates you to keep going on the hard days? How can you
stay better connected to your “why?”

_________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

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THINK AHEAD

People often ask how I consistently make disciplined decisions. The answer? I make as many decisions as
possible ahead of time. By doing this, I save time and decision-making energy.

There’s an entire framework behind how I do it and I outline it in my latest book, Think Ahead. The book
releases on February 20, but I’d love to invite you to preorder it today and get access to exclusive bonuses
here: https://go2.lc/LGTA

PODCAST RESOURCES
• More from Craig: www.craiggroeschel.com
• Download Leader Guides: www.life.church/leadershippodcast
• Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: www.go2.lc/cglpitunes
• Subscribe on YouTube: www.go2.lc/cglpyoutube
• Free Church Resources & Tools: www.life.church/churches
• More from Dr. Jon Chasteen:
o Get his book ReLeader here: https://go2.lc/LGReLeaderBook
o Get all of Jon’s content here: https://go2.lc/LGReLeader

CONNECT WITH CRAIG

• Ask questions: www.craiggroeschel.com/connect
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/craiggroeschel/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/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.

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