Craig Groeschel - Think Investment Not Spending
For years, people thought that our minds were fixed, that they couldn't change but we discovered that nothing is further from the truth. In fact, our minds were elastic. Our minds can grow and they can change and they can evolve. In fact, neuroscience shows us that the more we think a thought, the more we create neural pathways. So once we think a specific thought, it's easier to think that same thought again. So I'm hoping what we can do is if we can create some new leadership pathways in our thinking because we know that your leadership is always moving in the direction of your strongest thoughts. In other words, how you think will always determine how you lead. And we know that the best leaders think differently than others in tons of different areas. In fact, one of the most significant areas that we think differently about is always about resources. Leaders think differently about resources.
Now, what is a resource? The dictionary defines a resource as a source or supply of support. It's a source or supply of support. A resource is what you have that you can leverage to accomplish your goal. It's what you have that you can use to drive your mission. What are your resources? Well, your resources would include the people or your staff, your volunteers, your money, your ability to borrow, your time, your energy, the buildings, the supplies that you have, your credibility, your influence and on and on. As a leader, one of your top goals is to direct your resources strategically to accomplish your goals. Let me say it again. What you wanna do is you wanna move your resources in the right direction, one of your top goals is to direct your resources strategically to accomplish your goals. We could call that resource allocation.
What is resource allocation? Resource allocation is investing your available resources in the present to accomplish your goals in the future. You do this every day. In your normal life, you realize, I only have so much time and so much money and so much energy and so you're trying to balance competing needs and priorities. You might say should I pay off my student loan debt or should I get my kids braces? Get your kids braces, okay? You might say should I take the weekend off to spend with family or should I work overtime to make more money? You're trying to decide. When it comes to your resources in every area, including your leadership, most people think about spending resources. But we're gonna think differently, as a leader, we're gonna think investing, not spending. We're gonna think investing, not spending.
Now, it's common to try to think about we're gonna spend our money but the best leaders are gonna agonize how do we invest it? Most leaders want to use people to get results but the best leaders are gonna invest in leaders, helping them get better and strengthen their whole organization. Most leaders are gonna spend their time doing tasks but not the best leaders. The best leaders aren't gonna spend their time, the best leaders are gonna intentionally invest their time to achieve the desired results.
What is spending? Well, spending is just a trade. It's something fair in return for what I give. But investing is not just a trade, investing is expecting an exponential return. Let me explain it this way. Let's say you're in ministry. Change the way you see your leadership. What are you? We might say you're a spiritual investor. In other words, you're investing what God has entrusted to you and you're expecting a kingdom return. If you're in human resources, you can change the way you see your leadership. You can say you know what? I'm a talent investor. I'm gonna create a culture that sees potential in others and I'm gonna develop that. This is leadership. It's a mind shift where we're empowering others and when we start to think in a different way what it does is it empowers us and frees us to ask better questions. What I wanna do is I wanna give you three questions that could help you change your mindset and bring about better results.
The first question is this. Number one, we're gonna ask how do I best invest my time? How do I best invest my time? It's not how do I spend my time but it's how do I invest my time? Because when I invest my time, I'm expecting a return for my investment and it changes how we think. What do we know? Time is most likely your most important asset. It's the only one that's really limited. So with our time, we're going to invest it very, very carefully and what that does is it makes us really selective on what we say yes to and we become really strategic in our nos. Suddenly we're gonna realize we're not just investing our time but we're also investing our energy.
In fact, I talk a lot about energy management in podcast episode 55, if you'd like more information on that but as much as possible, what we're gonna do is we're gonna direct our best windows of time toward whatever brings the highest return. We're not just managing and investing our time but we're also investing our energy. Now, you may say as a leader but I just don't have time to do so many important things. And what I wanna do is I wanna encourage you. You have time for what you choose to have time for. We're not gonna spend it responding to what everyone else requests, instead we're going to initiate and we're gonna invest our time in the most strategic places to bring about the desired result as a leader. If you want a different result, we're gonna change how you invest your time.
Question number one, how should I invest my time? Number two, we're gonna ask this about investing. Who should we be investing in? Who should we be investing in? Because we know one of the best investments of our time is always developing the right people because your most valuable resource is always people, people, people, people, people. I always tell our team that the potential of your organization rests on the strength of its people. Now, you might ask, "Well, where do we find these great people? Where do we find great leaders"? Listen, we don't find them, we develop them. That's why I'm gonna ask myself who should I be investing in? I'm investing in leaders. We see potential in leaders and when we invest our time in leaders, we expect an exponential return. I'm not spending my time, I'm investing in people and people multiply and do more than you could ever imagine.
The third question we're gonna ask is this: where do I get my best return? Where do I get my best return? Where am I gonna invest my time? Who am I gonna invest in? And where am I gonna get my best return? For example, if you're talking finances and you're talking about investing, when it comes to investing my own money, I've got the most experience in real estate. Oddly enough, I bought my first rent house when I was 19 years old and then I had four rent houses when I graduated from college. So my best financial returns reflect what I understand the most. I understand real estate. I wanna ask you this. As a leader, what do you know? Where's your area of expertise? Where does your knowledge flow freely? Where do your gifts express themselves completely?
You might say, "Well I'm pretty good at developing systems. Or I'm pretty good at empowering people. Or I'm really creative or I'm good at content". Or you might say, "Well, I kinda obsess about brilliant customer service. I know how to create a good culture". For me in my leadership, my best return is in people. I develop leaders. I'm surrounded by world-class leaders who love our mission and give their lives to it. Honestly, as a pastor, I can't shy away from the spiritual side of this.
When you look at what scripture teaches, God kind of likes a return and he says, "If you're faithful with a little, I'll trust you with even more". And so if you're good at business or you're good at leadership or if you're good at getting any kind of returns, this isn't just practical, I'd say it's spiritual, and the great news is that God tends to reward and applaud it. Whenever you multiply something or whenever you're faithful, God says this, he says, "Well done, my good and faithful servant".
So I would encourage you maybe to change your thinking. This isn't like selfish to expect a return. This isn't greedy. This is actually adding value, creating jobs, creating a profit, creating value in someone's life and perhaps changing life through your mission or your ministry. It's not just practical, it's not just wise, it's also spiritual. If you change your thinking, that can change your leadership because your life and your leadership is always moving in the direction of your strongest thoughts. If you're simply spending your time, spending your money, you will never become a world-class leader because the best leaders, we're not making a trade, what are we doing? We're making an investment. And we're expecting an exponential return.
Hey, if this content is helpful to you, I really would encourage you to hit Subscribe wherever you consume the content. You also may wanna go to life.church/leadershippodcast and get the leader guide so you can review this content with the leaders on your team. It also means the world to me whenever you invite others to be a part of our leadership community. I see you out there posting on social media and I will repost some of yours just to invite others to grow in their leadership because we know that everyone wins when the leader gets better.
Now, on Thursday of next week, we're gonna drop another episode on how the best leaders think. Remember, you can grab a copy of the book "Winning The War In Your Mind" in all formats anywhere books are sold. It's worth the investment in the way we think because how we think determines how we lead. How we're gonna think about ourselves. You have everything you need to do everything that you're called to do. So show up with confidence and be yourself. Why? Because people would rather follower a leader who's always real than one who's always right.