Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and goal achieving.
Speaker 1: This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host
Speaker 1: Paul Fellavledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the Seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode five seventy three. This episode sits squarely in
Speaker 2: the leadership reset category, which is exactly where it belongs.
Speaker 2: As we kick off a new year today, we're talking
Speaker 2: about one of the hardest leadership problems to fix. A
Speaker 2: team that is fine, not broken, not toxic, not failing,
Speaker 2: just fine, and that is dangerous territory. A team that
Speaker 2: is fine shows up, hits minimum expectations, avoids major mistakes,
Speaker 2: and keeps the lights on. Are acceptable, complaints are low,
Speaker 2: nobody is quitting in dramatic fashion. On paper, everything looks stable,
Speaker 2: but deep down you know it. This team should be
Speaker 2: better than this. And here's the trap leaders fall into.
Speaker 2: We spend all of our time fixing broken teams and
Speaker 2: saving failing ones. Fine teams get ignored. Fine teams rarely
Speaker 2: trigger alarms. Fine teams slowly drift into complacency while leaders
Speaker 2: are busy elsewhere, and over time, fine becomes the ceiling
Speaker 2: In ems aviation, business, hospitality. It's the same pattern. Accidents, failures,
Speaker 2: and collapses rarely come from chaos alone. They come from
Speaker 2: long periods of comfort, from routines that stop being questioned,
Speaker 2: from standards that softened quickly. And how do you fix
Speaker 2: a team that is fine but not great? First you
Speaker 2: have to name the truth out loud. Great teams know
Speaker 2: what great looks like. Find teams operate on vague language.
Speaker 2: We're doing okay, we're busy, we're understaffed, it's been a
Speaker 2: rough year. Those statements might be true, but they are
Speaker 2: also shields. They protect mediocrity. A leadership reset starts when
Speaker 2: you clearly define the gap between where the team is
Speaker 2: and where it should be, not in a dramatic speech,
Speaker 2: not in a punishment memo, in calm, direct language. Here's
Speaker 2: where we are, here's where we should be. Here is
Speaker 2: the distance between the two. If you cannot articulate that
Speaker 2: gap clearly, neither can your team. Second, inspect what has
Speaker 2: become automatic. Find teams run on autopilot, same meetings, same schedules,
Speaker 2: same assumptions, same performers carrying the load while others unnoticed.
Speaker 2: In aviation, autopilot is useful until conditions change, then situational
Speaker 2: awareness matters again. Look at what nobody questions anymore? Who
Speaker 2: always steps up, who never gets pushed? Which standards are
Speaker 2: enforced selectively? Which habits exist because that's how we've always
Speaker 2: done it. Greatness does not come from doing more. It
Speaker 2: comes from tightening what already exists. Third, stop rewarding effort
Speaker 2: and start rewarding ownership. Find teams are full of people
Speaker 2: who are busy. Busy does not equal effective. Busy does
Speaker 2: not equal accountable ownership sounds like this, this is mine.
Speaker 2: I own the outcome. I fix it if it breaks.
Speaker 2: When leaders praise effort alone, teams learn that motion is enough.
Speaker 2: When leaders praise ownership, teams step up differently. This is
Speaker 2: one of those red key leadership moments. High consequence leadership
Speaker 2: is about identifying where ownership has gone soft and resetting
Speaker 2: expectations without apology. Fourth, reintroduce healthy discomfort. Fine teams are
Speaker 2: comfortable teams. Comfort feels good, but it dulls the edge.
Speaker 2: Great teams live in a zone of professional tension, not stress,
Speaker 2: not fear. Tension tension that comes from clear standards, tension
Speaker 2: that comes from being seen, tension that comes from knowing
Speaker 2: your work matters, ask better questions, rotate responsibility, expose blind
Speaker 2: spots gently but clearly. Set goals that require coordination, not
Speaker 2: solo heroics. Growth always introduces friction. Leaders who avoid friction
Speaker 2: guarantee stagnation. Fifth, look in the mirror. This part matters
Speaker 2: more than most leaders want to admit. Fine teams often
Speaker 2: reflect find leadership habits. Leaders who stopped pushing, leaders who
Speaker 2: avoid uncomfortable conversations, leaders who accepted good enough because it
Speaker 2: felt safer. Your team takes its cues from you. Energy, standards, urgency, curiosity,
Speaker 2: all of it. If you want a great team, your
Speaker 2: leadership cannot operate on cruise control. But here's the good news.
Speaker 2: Fine teams are usually one or two intentional shifts away
Speaker 2: from being great. The talent is there, the systems are there,
Speaker 2: the trust is there. What is missing is clarity, pressure,
Speaker 2: and renewed ownership. A leadership reset does not require blowing
Speaker 2: everything up. It requires paying attention again, And as you
Speaker 2: start this new year, ask yourself one honest question, where
Speaker 2: have I allowed fund to become the standard fixing? That
Speaker 2: is how great teams are built. So if this episode
Speaker 2: hit close to home, that's a signal, not a failure.
Speaker 2: Leadership resets are not admissions of weakness. They are signs
Speaker 2: of awareness. So make sure you take seven intentional minutes
Speaker 2: this week and identify one area where your team deserves
Speaker 2: better than fine. Say it, clearly, act on it, and
Speaker 2: follow through. That is how momentum returns. This has been
Speaker 2: the seven Minute Leadership Podcast and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot
Speaker 1: com