Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and GOLAJV. This
Speaker 1: is the Seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul Fellavaliedo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the Seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode six point thirty five. This one's going to
Speaker 2: be a little fun but serious. I get asked this
Speaker 2: question all the time. Why do you mention red key
Speaker 2: leadership and aviation so much? I never heard red key
Speaker 2: leadership until I started listening to you, And that's a
Speaker 2: fair question, so let me answer it directly. Red Key
Speaker 2: Leadership and seven minute Leadership are not random phrases that
Speaker 2: I toss into a microphone. They are my two proprietary
Speaker 2: leadership teaching method all geez. Seven minute leadership is now trademarked.
Speaker 2: Red Key Leadership is pending trademark approval. I believe in
Speaker 2: these frameworks so much that I've invested thousands of dollars
Speaker 2: to legally protect them. Why Because they work, because they
Speaker 2: are battle tested. Because they were not created in a classroom.
Speaker 2: They were built in ambulances, in FEMA deployments, in boardrooms,
Speaker 2: and in the cockpit of a single engine airplane. So
Speaker 2: let me break this down. Seven minute leadership is built
Speaker 2: on a simple discipline. Leadership does not require an all
Speaker 2: day seminar. It requires seven intentional minutes a day, seven
Speaker 2: minutes to sharpen your awareness, seven minutes to improve your communication,
Speaker 2: seven minutes to evaluate a decision you made yesterday and
Speaker 2: tighten it up tomorrow. That is daily leadership discipline, small
Speaker 2: focused reps over time that compound. Red Key leadership is different.
Speaker 2: Red Key leadership is about performance under pressure. It teaches
Speaker 2: leaders to recognize when a moment is routine and when
Speaker 2: a moment is defining. It forces you to ask, is
Speaker 2: this a black Key moment or is this a red
Speaker 2: Key moment. Black Key moments are routine, They matter, but
Speaker 2: they're predictable. Red Key moments are high consequence. They define
Speaker 2: your credibility, They test your integrity. They are the moments
Speaker 2: where passive leadership destroys trust. If you've listened to this
Speaker 2: podcast long enough, you know I do not tolerate passive leadership. Now,
Speaker 2: let's talk about aviation, because this is where it becomes clear.
Speaker 2: When you sit in the cockpit of a CESSNA, you
Speaker 2: have dozens of switches and instruments in front of you.
Speaker 2: Most of them are routine fuel selector trimwheel radios. Those
Speaker 2: are your black keys. They matter, you use them every flight.
Speaker 2: Then there are red key moments. The engine sputters on takeoff,
Speaker 2: an unexpressed, unexpected crosswind, a warning light that you've never
Speaker 2: seen before. Those are not routine. Those are defining your training,
Speaker 2: your discipline, your awareness all converge in that moment. There
Speaker 2: is no room for corporate buzzwords. At three thousand feet.
Speaker 2: You either know what to do or you do not,
Speaker 2: and leadership is the same. Most days are black key days. Meetings, emails,
Speaker 2: budget reviews, performance conversations important, yes, high consequence, usually not.
Speaker 2: Then a red key moment hits a public relations crisis,
Speaker 2: a major financial decision, a safety issue, a termination that
Speaker 2: will ripple through your culture. That is not routine, that
Speaker 2: is defining. If you treat red key moments like black
Speaker 2: key movement moments, you lose credibility fast. That's why I
Speaker 2: talk about it so much, because most leaders do not
Speaker 2: know when the stakes changed. Now let me answer the
Speaker 2: second part of the question. Why aviation. Because aviation is unforgiving.
Speaker 2: It is a performance environment where small errors compound. One
Speaker 2: degree off course becomes miles off target over distance. That's leadership.
Speaker 2: If you're one degree off in your culture, one degree
Speaker 2: off in accountability, one degree off, and how you handle
Speaker 2: conflict over time, you're nowhere near where you thought you
Speaker 2: were headed. Aviation gives us clean analogies, checklists, pre flight disciplines,
Speaker 2: situational awareness, decision making under pressure. There is no fluff
Speaker 2: at seven thousand feet. And here's the deeper reason. I
Speaker 2: do not teach leadership from theory. I teach it from
Speaker 2: lived experiences. I've spent nearly three decades in emergency services.
Speaker 2: I've deployed with FEMA, I've responded to national incidents. I've
Speaker 2: sat in command posts where decisions carried weight. I also
Speaker 2: walked back into flight school after twenty five years after
Speaker 2: I left it and finished what I started. That process
Speaker 2: humbled me. It reminded me what it feels like to
Speaker 2: be a student again, to be evaluated, to be one
Speaker 2: mistake away from failure. That is leadership growth. When I
Speaker 2: reference red key leadership and aviation, I'm not trying to
Speaker 2: sound different. I'm trying to make leadership simple and real.
Speaker 2: You don't need one hundred theories. You need awareness of
Speaker 2: your moments. You need seven intentional minutes a day to
Speaker 2: improve your discipline. You need to recognize when the stakes
Speaker 2: have shifted from routine to defining. That's it. Red key
Speaker 2: leadership exists because too many leaders drift through high consequence
Speaker 2: moments as if their routine. Seven minute leadership exists because
Speaker 2: too many leaders wait for a seminar instead of building
Speaker 2: daily leadership discipline. Both frameworks are central to everything that
Speaker 2: I teach. They are not trends, they're not marketing lines.
Speaker 2: They are permanent parts of my leadership ecosystem. They are
Speaker 2: protected because they matter, And if you listen carefully, you'll
Speaker 2: realize something. Aviation and leadership are not separate subjects in
Speaker 2: my world. They are the same conversation. Check your instruments,
Speaker 2: know your altitude, Know when you're in smooth are and
Speaker 2: when you're in turbulence. Know when a moment is routine
Speaker 2: and when it is defining. That is red key leadership.
Speaker 2: That is seven minute leadership. So if you ever wondered
Speaker 2: why I keep coming back to these ideas, now you
Speaker 2: know they are not stories. They are systems. And systems
Speaker 2: keep you alive in the cockpit, incredible in the boardroom,
Speaker 2: invest in your seven minutes today, watch for your red
Speaker 2: key moments and lead like the stakes actually matter. And
Speaker 2: if you want more free leadership resources, head over to
Speaker 2: Paulfalovaledo dot com and click on free Stuff. I have
Speaker 2: over twenty five free leadership documents that you can download
Speaker 2: and start using today. This has been the seven Minute
Speaker 2: Leadership Podcast and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul Fello Alito podcasts, visit Paulfellowalito dot com