Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and golajiving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul
Speaker 1: Fello Aledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode four thirty five. This episode is built around
Speaker 2: a powerful message I came across from a guy named
Speaker 2: Dave Klein on LinkedIn, and it stopped me in my tracks.
Speaker 2: Here's what it said. Five signs. You're ready to lead.
Speaker 2: You ask better questions, You fix what bothers you, You
Speaker 2: defend the standard, you share what you learn, You make
Speaker 2: hard things easy. Then he finishes with this line most
Speaker 2: wait for all five. You can start with one. Let
Speaker 2: me tell you the last line might be one of
Speaker 2: the simplest, yet most impactful leadership truths I've seen in
Speaker 2: a long time. Too many people think leadership is something
Speaker 2: you earn after you check a bunch of boxes, after
Speaker 2: you've had the title, after you've been given the keys,
Speaker 2: or after you've mastered every tool. But leadership doesn't wait
Speaker 2: for permission. It starts with action. So today I want
Speaker 2: to walk through each of these five signs and show
Speaker 2: you what they mean. In real life, and how you
Speaker 2: can activate any one of them starting today. Number One,
Speaker 2: you ask better questions. Great leaders ask great questions, not
Speaker 2: just to check boxes or follow a script, but to
Speaker 2: dig deeper, challenge the status quo, and understand people. Better
Speaker 2: questions like why are we doing it this way? What
Speaker 2: outcome are we actually chasing? What's getting in your way
Speaker 2: right now? Better questions lead to better thinking, and better
Speaker 2: thinking leads to better outcomes. If you want to lead,
Speaker 2: start by being the person in the room who asks
Speaker 2: the question nobody else thought to ask. Number two you
Speaker 2: fix what bothers you. This one is big. Most people complain.
Speaker 2: Leaders take action that sticky note that keeps falling off
Speaker 2: the whiteboard, the scheduling issue that keeps coming up, the
Speaker 2: process that nobody questions even though it's broken. If it
Speaker 2: bothers you and you've got the ability to improve it,
Speaker 2: do it, Fix it, even if it's small. That's leadership.
Speaker 2: It's about owning problems instead of waiting for someone else
Speaker 2: to solve them. Number three, you defend the standard. Leadership
Speaker 2: isn't just about raising the bar, it's about keeping it
Speaker 2: from falling. When people start cutting corners are saying close enough.
Speaker 2: Leaders speak up. They remind people what good looks like,
Speaker 2: and more importantly, they live it. You don't need a
Speaker 2: job title to defend the standard. You just need a backbone.
Speaker 2: When you stand up for what matters, you show everyone
Speaker 2: what kind of leader you are. Number four, you share
Speaker 2: what you learn. This is where leadership becomes legacy. It's
Speaker 2: not about being the smartest person in the room. It's
Speaker 2: about being the one who says, hey, here's something I
Speaker 2: found that helped me. It might help you too. That's
Speaker 2: how you raise the collective intelligence of a team. That's
Speaker 2: how you multiply impact, and that's how you build trust.
Speaker 2: People don't follow silent hoarders of knowledge. They follow those
Speaker 2: who openly give. And number five, you make hard things easy.
Speaker 2: This might sound like magic, but it's actually mindset. When
Speaker 2: something complex comes up, leaders simplify. They say, all right,
Speaker 2: here's step one, let's just start there. They remove friction,
Speaker 2: They find the shortest path from stuck to solution, and
Speaker 2: even if it's still hard, they make it feel doable.
Speaker 2: That kind of calm, clear energy. It's magnetic. It changes
Speaker 2: the temperature in a room, and it makes people believe
Speaker 2: that they can handle whatever comes next. Now, here's the kicker.
Speaker 2: You don't need all five. Most people wait until they've
Speaker 2: mastered everything before they think they can lead. But what
Speaker 2: Dave said is true. You can start with just one,
Speaker 2: pick one thing from the list. That's your entry point.
Speaker 2: Maybe you decide to start asking better questions during team meetings.
Speaker 2: Maybe you finally fix that one broken process that's been
Speaker 2: driving everyone crazy. Maybe you speak up when someone tries
Speaker 2: to lower the standard. Maybe you send out an email
Speaker 2: sharing a lesson you just learned. Or maybe you step
Speaker 2: in when the team is overwhelmed and say, hey, here's
Speaker 2: how we break this down. So leadership doesn't need a podium,
Speaker 2: it doesn't require permission. It starts with one move, one shift,
Speaker 2: one choice. The world is full of people waiting to
Speaker 2: be ready. The real leaders are the ones who have
Speaker 2: the courage to get started before they feel fully prepared.
Speaker 2: That's powerful, that's inspiring, and that's real leadership. So here's
Speaker 2: the challenge. Which one are you going to start with? Today?
Speaker 2: This has been the seven minute Leadership Podcast and I
Speaker 2: thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot com.