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 Fellavaledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode seven twenty three. Today. I want to talk
Speaker 2: about something that I think changes careers, organizations and changes
Speaker 2: how people remember you long after you leave. The difference
Speaker 2: between routine leadership and red key leadership. This idea sits
Speaker 2: at the center of one of my teaching frameworks, and
Speaker 2: it comes from something I've observed over decades in emergency services,
Speaker 2: coaching leaders and watching people succeed and fail under pressure.
Speaker 2: Most leadership happens in routine. Very little leadership happens in
Speaker 2: red key moments. But red key moments are the ones
Speaker 2: people remember. Routine leadership is your everyday operating environment, checking emails,
Speaker 2: running meetings, improving PTO truck checks, staffing decisions, quarterly reports,
Speaker 2: performance reviews, returning calls, walking the office. Routine leadership keeps
Speaker 2: the machine moving. Routine matters. I want to be clear
Speaker 2: about that. Routine builds consistency, it builds reliability, and routine
Speaker 2: creates trust. You cannot become an excellent leader if your
Speaker 2: routine is chaos. Routine leadership is the runway, but routine
Speaker 2: leadership rarely defines your legacy. Red key leadership does. Red
Speaker 2: key leadership happens when something changes, pressure rises, risk increases,
Speaker 2: the consequences become visible. People stop asking what does this
Speaker 2: policy say and start asking what is the leader going
Speaker 2: to do? Those moments are rare, but they count more.
Speaker 2: Think about aviation as a pilot. Ninety nine percent of
Speaker 2: flight is routine checklists, taxi communications, takeoff crews, monitoring small corrections,
Speaker 2: all routine. Nobody remembers the routine flights. Then one day
Speaker 2: a warning light appears, weather changes, an abnormal indication shows up.
Speaker 2: Fuel becomes a factor. That's not routine anymore. That is
Speaker 2: red key flying. Now your preparation gets tested. Leadership works
Speaker 2: the same way. Most people think great leaders are people
Speaker 2: who perform differently every day. I disagree. Great leaders perform
Speaker 2: routinely every day, so they are available for red key moments.
Speaker 2: That distinction matters because I see leaders confuse activity with
Speaker 2: significance all the time. You answered one hundred and forty
Speaker 2: seven emails today. Cool, You attended six meetings fine, you
Speaker 2: updated spreadsheets, Okay, but did you lead? Because sometimes one
Speaker 2: difficult conversation matters more than two hundred routine interactions. I
Speaker 2: remember watching leaders during difficult moments budget cuts, public criticism,
Speaker 2: employee injuries, critical incidents, media pressure. Those moments reveal something.
Speaker 2: Routine leaders manage the process. Red key leaders manage the moment.
Speaker 2: Routine leaders ask what usually happens. Red key leaders ask
Speaker 2: what does this moment require. Routine leaders seek comfort, red
Speaker 2: key leaders seek responsibility. Routine leaders protect normal, red key
Speaker 2: leaders protect outcomes. And here's where this gets dangerous. Routine
Speaker 2: leadership creates a false sense of excellence. You can become
Speaker 2: incredibly efficient at things that do not matter. You can
Speaker 2: become the fastest email sender, the most organized scheduler, the
Speaker 2: best calendar manager. Meanwhile, your team quietly asks, will this
Speaker 2: person show up when it actually matters. That question is
Speaker 2: uncomfortable because people remember your red key moments forever. Employees
Speaker 2: remember who stood up for them. Organizations remember who took ownership.
Speaker 2: Customers remember who called them, teams, remember who stayed Families
Speaker 2: remember who showed up. Those moments become stories, not routines.
Speaker 2: Think about your own career. You probably do not remember
Speaker 2: every boss. You remember the one who defended you, the
Speaker 2: one who disappeared, the one who made the hard call,
Speaker 2: the one who told the truth. That was red key leadership.
Speaker 2: So how do you become better at it? Three things? First,
Speaker 2: identify red key moments faster. Most leaders miss them. They
Speaker 2: treat high consequence moments like normal tuesdays. Ask yourself, if
Speaker 2: this situation ended up on the front page tomorrow, would
Speaker 2: I handle it differently? If yes, you're probably in red
Speaker 2: key territory. Second, slow down, pressure, create speed. Leadership requires clarity.
Speaker 2: Pilots have a phrase slow as smooth, smooth as fast.
Speaker 2: Red key moments often punish emotional reactions. Pause, assess, and
Speaker 2: then decide. Third, build routine so strong that it frees
Speaker 2: your attention. Routine should support leadership, not consume leadership. Your checklists, systems, processes, communications,
Speaker 2: Those things exist to protect your energy from moments that
Speaker 2: require judgment. Because here's the truth, nobody, because a red
Speaker 2: key leader accidentally you prepare in routine, you perform in
Speaker 2: red key. That's why I teach intentional leadership. That's why
Speaker 2: I believe leadership can be practiced in moments. You do
Speaker 2: not become excellent because of one giant event. You become
Speaker 2: excellent because your daily habits prepared you for one defining
Speaker 2: moment and maybe the biggest realization of all You rarely
Speaker 2: know in advance. When a red key moment arrives, there
Speaker 2: is no alert, no siren, no email. It often looks
Speaker 2: like an ordinary day until it isn't that conversation, that
Speaker 2: hiring decision, that employee issue, that customer complaint, that opportunity,
Speaker 2: that crisis. That may be the moment somebody tells a
Speaker 2: story about you ten years from now. So tomorrow morning,
Speaker 2: when you start your day, ask yourself one question. Am
Speaker 2: I performing routine leadership today? Or am I prepared if
Speaker 2: today turns into a red key day? Because routine keeps
Speaker 2: the lights on, red key leadership defines who gets remembered.
Speaker 2: So thank you for spending these minutes with me today.
Speaker 2: Routine leadership pays the bills. Red key leadership builds the legacy.
Speaker 2: Do your routine well, build systems, stay disciplined, show up consistently,
Speaker 2: but never forget that somewhere ahead is a moment that
Speaker 2: will ask more of you. When that moment comes, I
Speaker 2: hope you recognize it. I hope you lean into it,
Speaker 2: and I hope you lead in a way people never forget.
Speaker 2: This has been the seven minute leadership podcast, and I
Speaker 2: thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot com.