Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and Goala giving.
Speaker 1: This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host
Speaker 1: Paul Fellavaledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode six point ninety one. Today we're getting into
Speaker 2: something that separates average leaders from high performers. And it's
Speaker 2: not mindset. It's not motivation, it's not even experience. It's
Speaker 2: how fast someone can learn a hard skill, not talk
Speaker 2: about it, not plan it, not sit in a meeting
Speaker 2: about it, learn it, apply it, and get results from it.
Speaker 2: Because here's the reality in leadership. Hard skills are leverage.
Speaker 2: The faster you can acquire them, the faster you can
Speaker 2: solve problems, make decisions, and build credibility. And most people
Speaker 2: are slow, not because they lack intelligence, but because they
Speaker 2: approach learning completely wrong. Let's fix that today. First, understand
Speaker 2: what a hard skill actually is. A hard skill is measurable, repeatable,
Speaker 2: and visible. It's something like reading a financial statement, running
Speaker 2: a meeting, using a piece of software, writing a policy,
Speaker 2: negotiating a contract, or building a schedule that actually works
Speaker 2: in environments like ems, aviation or emergency management. Hard skills
Speaker 2: are survival tools. They're not optional, they're expected. So the
Speaker 2: question becomes, how do you compress the learning curve. Here's
Speaker 2: the first move. Stop learning broadly, start learning specifically. Most
Speaker 2: people say I want to get better at leadership or
Speaker 2: I want to understand finance, and I think that's wrong.
Speaker 2: Instead define the exact output. Not learn finance, but understand
Speaker 2: how to read a profit and lost statement in thirty
Speaker 2: minutes and explain it to someone else. Not get better
Speaker 2: at communication, but run a fifteen minute meeting with a
Speaker 2: clear agenda, decisions made, and no wasted time. Specificity speeds
Speaker 2: everything up. Second, learn through constraint, and this is where
Speaker 2: most people fall apart. They give themselves unlimited time. If
Speaker 2: you give yourself a week to learn something, it will
Speaker 2: take a week. If you give yourself an hour, your
Speaker 2: brain starts prioritizing what actually matters. Set aggressive time limits
Speaker 2: thirty minutes to understand the basics, one hour to apply it,
Speaker 2: one day to use it in a real situation. That
Speaker 2: rushure forces clarity. It's the same reason pilots train under
Speaker 2: time constraints and simulated stress. You don't get unlimited time
Speaker 2: in the cockpit when something goes wrong, You act with
Speaker 2: what you know right now. Third, skip the theory overload.
Speaker 2: This is where people get trapped in corporate buzzwords and
Speaker 2: never actually improve. You don't need ten books to learn
Speaker 2: a skill. You need one, clear explanation and immediate application.
Speaker 2: Find the shortest path to understanding. Then get your hands dirty.
Speaker 2: If you're learning scheduling, build a schedule. If you're learning budgeting,
Speaker 2: create a mock budget. If you're learning conflict resolution, have
Speaker 2: the conversation. Action is where the learning locks in. Fourth,
Speaker 2: compress feedback. Most people wait too long to find out
Speaker 2: if they're doing something right. You need fast feedback loops.
Speaker 2: Do the skill, get input, adjust, and repeat. This is
Speaker 2: how paramedics stay sharp. It's how pilots stay proficient. It's
Speaker 2: how elite teams operate. You don't practice once a year
Speaker 2: and call yourself good. You stay in it, and that
Speaker 2: brings up something important. There's a difference between being current
Speaker 2: and being proficient. You can technically know how to do
Speaker 2: something and still be terrible at it. If you want
Speaker 2: to master a hard skill in record time, you need
Speaker 2: repetition with correction, not repetition with bad habits. In fifth stack,
Speaker 2: skills together This is where leaders separate themselves. Don't learn
Speaker 2: skills and isolation. If you learn how to run a meeting,
Speaker 2: stack it with decision making, stack it with community, stack
Speaker 2: it with accountability. Now that one skill becomes a multiplier.
Speaker 2: You're not running a meeting, you're driving outcomes. You're not
Speaker 2: writing a report, You're influencing decisions. This is how leaders
Speaker 2: move faster than everyone else. Sixth, Teach it immediately. Nothing
Speaker 2: forces clarity like teaching. If you can't explain a skill
Speaker 2: in simple terms, you don't understand it yet. Teach your team,
Speaker 2: teach a peer, even explain it out loud to yourself.
Speaker 2: That process exposes gaps fast, and when you fix those gaps,
Speaker 2: your understanding becomes solid. Seventh, eliminate passive learning. Watching videos,
Speaker 2: reading articles, sitting in seminars. Those are all starting points.
Speaker 2: They are not the work. The work is execution. You
Speaker 2: don't become skilled by consuming information. You become skilled by
Speaker 2: doing something with it. That's a principle that has shown
Speaker 2: up in every high performance environment, whether it's a MS
Speaker 2: aviation or even business leadership. So now let's tie this
Speaker 2: back to leadership, because this isn't about learning for the
Speaker 2: sake of learning. This is about speed, the speed at
Speaker 2: which you can solve problems, the speed at which you
Speaker 2: can adapt, the speed at which you can step into
Speaker 2: something new and not hesitate. Leaders who can learn fast
Speaker 2: become dangerous in the best possible way. They don't wait
Speaker 2: for training, they don't wait for permission, They don't wait
Speaker 2: until they feel ready. They identify the skill, break it down,
Speaker 2: apply pressure, get feedback, and move. And here's the final piece.
Speaker 2: Consistency beats intensity. You don't need eight hours to learn
Speaker 2: something you need focused intentional time. Seven minutes a day
Speaker 2: of deliberate effort adds up. That's the entire foundation of
Speaker 2: this podcast. Leadership is built in moments, not marathons. When
Speaker 2: you stack those moments day after day, your skill set
Speaker 2: compounds and suddenly you're the person everyone turns to, not
Speaker 2: because of your title, because you can do things others can't,
Speaker 2: and you can do them fast. So if there's one
Speaker 2: move to make after listening to this episode, pick one
Speaker 2: hard skill that you have been avoiding, define it clearly,
Speaker 2: give yourself a tight deadline, and apply it today, not
Speaker 2: next week, not when things slow down, Just do it today.
Speaker 2: That's how leaders build real capability and that's how confidence
Speaker 2: is earned. This has been the seven minute Leadership podcast,
Speaker 2: and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot
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