Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and goalajiving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul Felloaledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode seven eighty eight. Today's episode is called holding
Speaker 2: standards Quietly. Some leaders think leadership is loud. They think
Speaker 2: leadership is standing in front of the room, giving speeches,
Speaker 2: sending company wide emails, or making dramatic announcements every Monday morning.
Speaker 2: Real leadership rarely looks like that. Some of the strongest
Speaker 2: leaders I have ever known were surprisingly quiet. They didn't
Speaker 2: need applause, They didn't need everyone to know they were
Speaker 2: in charge. They simply held the standard every single day.
Speaker 2: There is a phrase I hear often if I don't
Speaker 2: make an example out of someone, nobody will take me seriously.
Speaker 2: And I disagree with that. Fear creates temporary compliance. Standards
Speaker 2: create lasting culture. Those two things are very different. When
Speaker 2: you quietly hold standards, people begin to notice something very important.
Speaker 2: The standard applies to everyone, not when you're angry, not
Speaker 2: when you're watching, not when you're having a good day.
Speaker 2: Every day. That consistency becomes predictable. Predictability builds trust, Trust
Speaker 2: builds culture. Think about a great referee in sports. When
Speaker 2: was the last time you remembered the referee's name after
Speaker 2: an incredible game? Probably never Why? Because the referee wasn't
Speaker 2: trying to become the story. They quietly enforce the rules.
Speaker 2: The players understood the boundaries, the game flowed, the focus
Speaker 2: stayed where it belonged. Leadership works the same way. The
Speaker 2: best leaders rarely become the center of attention because their
Speaker 2: standards already are. I've watched this play out in emergency
Speaker 2: services countless times. The best officers don't spend their shifts
Speaker 2: reminding everyone they're in charge. They don't constantly tell people
Speaker 2: to wear their seatbelts. They don't lecture about checking equipment.
Speaker 2: They don't threaten discipline every five minutes. Instead, they quietly inspect,
Speaker 2: They quietly correct, They quietly coach. When something isn't right,
Speaker 2: they handle it professionally, respectfully, consistently, and over time, something
Speaker 2: interesting happens. People begin correcting themselves. The leader's voice slowly
Speaker 2: becomes the employee's internal voice. That is, when culture starts
Speaker 2: working for you in that of against you, holding standards
Speaker 2: Quietly doesn't mean avoiding difficult conversations. It's quite the opposite.
Speaker 2: It means you don't perform those conversations for an audience.
Speaker 2: Some leaders enjoy making corrections publicly because it demonstrates authority.
Speaker 2: The problem is it also demonstrates insecurity. Confident leaders don't
Speaker 2: need witnesses. If an employee needs coaching, close the door,
Speaker 2: have the conversation, be direct, be respectful, and then move on.
Speaker 2: The goal is an embarrassment. The goal is improvement. One
Speaker 2: of the greatest leadership mistakes happens when standards become emotional.
Speaker 2: One employee gets corrected because the leader happens to notice.
Speaker 2: Another employee gets away with the same behavior because the
Speaker 2: leader is tired. A third employee gets yelled at because
Speaker 2: the leader had a rough mourning. Employees notice these inconsistencies.
Speaker 2: Almost immediately, they stop respecting the standard. Instead, they begin
Speaker 2: managing the leader's mood. Think about that. They're no longer
Speaker 2: asking what's expected, They're asking what kind of mood is
Speaker 2: the boss in today? And that's a dangerous place for
Speaker 2: any organization. Quiet standards remove emotion from accountability. The expectation
Speaker 2: is already known. The correction becomes routine, there are no surprises.
Speaker 2: I also think quiet leadership requires tremendous patience. There are
Speaker 2: days when you'll wonder whether anyone is paying attention. You
Speaker 2: might feel like nobody notices that you're showing up early.
Speaker 2: Nobody notices your following policy, Nobody notices you're treating everyone fairly.
Speaker 2: They notice they may not say anything today, They may
Speaker 2: not even say anything this year. People always notice consistency,
Speaker 2: and eventually they begin copying it. Culture spreads through observation
Speaker 2: much faster than instruction. This is one reason I believe
Speaker 2: leaders should never lower standards simply because they're tired. Leadership
Speaker 2: fatigue is real. Every leader experiences it. There are days
Speaker 2: when ignoring the shortcut feels easier. There are days when
Speaker 2: overlooking poor performance seems harmless. The problem is every exception
Speaker 2: teaches something. Every ignored shortcut quietly becomes tomorrow's expectation, Every
Speaker 2: overlooked behavior becomes permission. Standards don't disappear overnight. They slowly
Speaker 2: erode through hundreds of tiny decisions. That's why leadership lives
Speaker 2: in the small moments. One conversation, one correction, one follow through,
Speaker 2: one promise kept, one short cut. Most employees aren't looking
Speaker 2: for perfection, They're looking for fairness. They're asking one question,
Speaker 2: will this leader do tomorrow what they did today? If
Speaker 2: the answer is yes, people relax. They know where the
Speaker 2: boundaries are, they know what's expected. They know excellence isn't
Speaker 2: based on personality, it's based on principle. That's the environment
Speaker 2: where great teams grow. There's another piece to quiet leadership
Speaker 2: that often gets overlooked. You don't need to announce every
Speaker 2: good decision that you make. You don't need to remind
Speaker 2: people how much you've sacrificed. You don't need to advertise
Speaker 2: every difficult choice. Leadership isn't a marketing campaign. The people
Speaker 2: around you will eventually recognize your consistency if they don't
Speaker 2: keep leading anyway, because standards aren't held for recognition. They're
Speaker 2: held because someone else has to protect the future of
Speaker 2: the organization. And one of my favorite thoughts about leadership
Speaker 2: is this. The loudest thing a leader can do is
Speaker 2: quietly become predictable. Predictability and integrity predictable, and fairness predictable,
Speaker 2: and accountability predictable in professionalism, when people know exactly where
Speaker 2: you stand, they stop wasting energy trying to figure you
Speaker 2: out they spend that energy doing great work instead. That
Speaker 2: is one of the greatest gifts a leader can give
Speaker 2: to a team. So as you go through your day today,
Speaker 2: ask yourself one simple question. Are my standards driven by
Speaker 2: my emotions or are they being driven by my principles?
Speaker 2: Because the strongest leaders rarely need to raise their voices.
Speaker 2: They raise the standard, they protect the standard, and they
Speaker 2: live the standard quietly. This has been the seven Minute
Speaker 2: Leadership Podcast and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul fell of Alito podcasts, visit paulfelloalito dot com.