Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and golajving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul
Speaker 1: fella Aledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode seven eighty seven. Today's episode is called the
Speaker 2: Unseen Work of Real leaders Leadership has a public side.
Speaker 2: People see the speeches, the awards, the promotions, the ribbon cuttings,
Speaker 2: the successful projects, and the celebrations. Those moments are visible.
Speaker 2: They're photograph posted online and talked about around the office.
Speaker 2: Then there's another side of leadership, the side that almost
Speaker 2: nobody sees. It's the work that happens before sunrise, after
Speaker 2: everyone has gone home, during sleepless nights, and inside conversations
Speaker 2: that never leave the room. That is where real leadership lives.
Speaker 2: The greatest leaders I've known rarely received applause for their
Speaker 2: most important work. I've watched leaders stay late to make
Speaker 2: sure that payroll was correct because they knew one miss
Speaker 2: paycheck could create hardship for an employee's family. Nobody thank them.
Speaker 2: I've seen leaders rewrite a disciplinary conversation ten times because
Speaker 2: they wanted to hold someone accountable while protecting their dignity.
Speaker 2: Nobody saw that effort. I've watched leaders quietly remove obstacles
Speaker 2: before their team ever realized there was a problem. Nobody
Speaker 2: knew there had ever been a crisis. That is leadership
Speaker 2: the unseen work. Think about in Iceberg. Everyone sees the
Speaker 2: small piece above the water, very few things about the
Speaker 2: enormous structure hidden underneath. Leadership works the same way the
Speaker 2: visible success is supported by thousands of invisible decisions, preparation, planning, thinking, listening, learning,
Speaker 2: recovering from mistakes, having difficult conversations, taking responsibility when things
Speaker 2: fall apart. People often say they want to become leaders.
Speaker 2: What many really want is the recognition that sometimes comes
Speaker 2: with leadership. Very few volunteer for the invisible work that
Speaker 2: earns that recognition. Real leaders spend enormous amounts of time
Speaker 2: thinking about tomorrow while everyone else is focused on today.
Speaker 2: They ask questions nobody else is asking. What could go wrong?
Speaker 2: Who needs encouragement, what skill is missing, who is quietly struggling?
Speaker 2: What happens six months from now if we ignore this
Speaker 2: problem today. Those questions rarely appear on a performance evaluation.
Speaker 2: They don't produce immediate praise, they do produce stronger organizations.
Speaker 2: One of the biggest myths in leadership is that hard
Speaker 2: work is always visible. It isn't. Some of your most
Speaker 2: valuable contributions may never get recognized. You may spend weeks
Speaker 2: coaching someone who eventually succeeds. Everyone congratulates the employee. Nobody
Speaker 2: knows about the coaching sessions. You may spend months building
Speaker 2: relationships between departments, and eventually collaboration improves. People assume it
Speaker 2: happened naturally. You may make hundreds of tiny improvements that
Speaker 2: prevent future failures because nothing went wrong. Nobody realizes what
Speaker 2: you prevented. The absence of disaster often go unnoticed. That's
Speaker 2: the challenge. Leadership requires you to find satisfaction in work
Speaker 2: that may never receive recognition. If your motivation depends on applause,
Speaker 2: leadership becomes exhausting. If your motivation comes from seeing other
Speaker 2: people succeed, the unseen work becomes meaningful. I've learned this
Speaker 2: throughout my career in emergency services. When an ambulance arrives
Speaker 2: at a difficult scene and everything runs smoothly, people often
Speaker 2: believe it simply happened. They don't see the years of training.
Speaker 2: They don't see the equipment inspections. They don't see the
Speaker 2: policy reviews. They don't see the drills. They don't see
Speaker 2: the uncomfortable conversations after previous mistakes. They only see the result.
Speaker 2: Leadership is no different. Every call organization has leaders doing
Speaker 2: invisible work behind the scenes. And here's something else worth
Speaker 2: thinking about. The unseen work also shapes your credibility. Your
Speaker 2: employees may never know every decision you make. They always
Speaker 2: notice patterns. They notice consistency, They notice fairness. They notice
Speaker 2: whether you keep your promises. They notice whether you prepare
Speaker 2: before meetings. They notice whether you stay calm when pressure arrives.
Speaker 2: They notice whether you own your mistakes. Those are invisible
Speaker 2: habits that become visible reputations. That's why I often say
Speaker 2: your reputation is built in the margins, not during the keynote,
Speaker 2: not during the company picnic, not during the annual meeting.
Speaker 2: It's built in the ordinary Tuesday afternoon, when nobody else
Speaker 2: is paying attention. It's built in the decision you make
Speaker 2: when taking the easy path would be invisible. It's built
Speaker 2: when nobody is watching. And one of my favorite question
Speaker 2: essians for leaders, is this what leadership work are you
Speaker 2: doing today that nobody will ever know about. Maybe you're
Speaker 2: mentoring someone quietly. Maybe you're reading a leadership book instead
Speaker 2: of watching another television show. Maybe you're improving a policy
Speaker 2: before it creates confusion. Maybe you're calling an employee who's
Speaker 2: having a difficult week. Maybe you're apologizing for a mistake
Speaker 2: before someone asks you to. Those moments rarely become LinkedIn posts.
Speaker 2: They are the foundation of exceptional leadership. And here's the irony.
Speaker 2: The leaders who chase visibility often lose credibility. The leaders
Speaker 2: who chase excellence eventually become visible, not because they were
Speaker 2: looking for attention, because their results became impossible to ignore.
Speaker 2: Leadership has never been about collecting compliment. It's about creating
Speaker 2: conditions where other people can perform at their very best.
Speaker 2: That requires invisible effort, patient effort, consistent effort, daily effort,
Speaker 2: seven minutes at a time. So today I'd encourage you
Speaker 2: to embrace the unseen work. Prepare when nobody asks you
Speaker 2: to study, when nobody expects you to coach people without
Speaker 2: expecting recognition. Fix problems before they become headlines. Protect your
Speaker 2: culture when nobody realizes it's under attack. Because one day
Speaker 2: someone will say something remarkable about your organization. They'll tell
Speaker 2: you how professional your team was, how calm they are
Speaker 2: under pressure, how well everyone works together. They'll complement your culture,
Speaker 2: they'll praise your people, they'll admire your results, and they'll
Speaker 2: never fully understand the thing thousands of invisible leadership decisions
Speaker 2: that made all of it possible. And that's okay. Real
Speaker 2: leaders were never working for the applause. They were working
Speaker 2: for the outcome. So as you go through your week,
Speaker 2: ask yourself one simple question, what unseen leadership work can
Speaker 2: I do today that makes tomorrow better for someone else.
Speaker 2: You may never receive credit for it, you may never
Speaker 2: hear a thank you. That doesn't make the work any
Speaker 2: less important. In fact, it probably means you're doing exactly
Speaker 2: what real leaders do. And if you want more free
Speaker 2: leadership resources, head over to Paulfelovalito dot com and click
Speaker 2: on free Stuff. I have over twenty five free leadership
Speaker 2: documents you can download and start using today. This has
Speaker 2: been the seven minute leadership podcast, and I thank you
Speaker 2: for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul fell of Alito podcasts, visit Paul fell
Speaker 1: of Alito dot com