Shift your leadership focus from control to growth

Scott Cochrane Dec. 12, 2022

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"In leadership, you can have control or you can have growth. But you can't have both."

– Craig Groeschel

Leaders who feel the need to personally involve themselves in the minutia of the team's operation rarely call themselves a "control freak," but without realizing it, their need to control is impeding the very results they want so desperately to see.

Effective leaders know that to maximize growth, it requires being willing to give up a measure of control.

Any leader can succumb to the urge to be a bit of a control freak. But you can overcome this temptation by shifting your focus beyond control and on to these empowering dynamics:

1. Focus on results

When you have assigned the task to the team, come to an agreement on the expected results, and be relentlessly focused on seeing the team achieve those results.

2. Focus on vision

Empowering leaders keep the team on track by ensuring that the big picture is kept in focus at all times. They'll bring their best game when they know how their role matters in the grand scheme.

3. Focus on values

Values define how people are treated. You don't have to control how the team carries out the plan, but you do need to obsess over how they treat people.

4. Focus on coaching

The team needs to know you are there to help them, if and when required. This is more than having an "open door". This is proactively approaching your team and saying, "I am here to help any way I can."

When the urge to control the process becomes almost overwhelming, pause…take stock…and readjust your focus. Lift your gaze off of the operations of the plan and focus instead on the results, on the vision, on the values, and on your role as a coach.

Because, as Craig Groeschel reminds us, you can have growth or you can have control. You can't have both.

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Scott Cochrane serves on the executive team for the Willow Creek Association, as Vice President, International Ministries. He was born and raised in Canada, where he became connected to the Willow Creek Association, first as a marketing director and later as the ministry’s Chief Operating Officer. Following a five-year stint as Executive Pastor of a large church, Scott returned to Willow Creek Canada in 2009 as Executive Director, and in 2012 relocated to Illinois to take up his current post with the Willow Creek Association. Learn More »

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