Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and golajiving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul Fellavledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode seven sixty eight. I recently came across a
Speaker 2: simple story printed on the side of a Chick fil
Speaker 2: A package, and I couldn't stop thinking about it. It
Speaker 2: said that Truet Kathy perfected the original Chick fil A
Speaker 2: chicken sandwich recipe by asking customers for feedback. He kept
Speaker 2: making adjustments until the customers finally told him, you've got
Speaker 2: it right, and listen to that again. The customers said,
Speaker 2: you've got it right. He didn't perfect the rest in
Speaker 2: a boardroom. He didn't lock himself in a kitchen and
Speaker 2: decide he already knew the answer. He asked the people
Speaker 2: who actually experienced the product. There is one leadership lesson
Speaker 2: hidden inside that story that every leader should hear. Your
Speaker 2: leadership is a recipe and it should never stop being tested.
Speaker 2: Far too many leaders think the day they got promoted
Speaker 2: is the day they become the finished product. I'm the
Speaker 2: boss now, I've been doing this for twenty years. I
Speaker 2: know what I'm doing. Those statements are dangerous. Leadership isn't
Speaker 2: a diploma that hangs on the wall forever. It's more
Speaker 2: like cooking dinner for thousands of people every single day.
Speaker 2: Every shift, every conversation, every decision is another chance to
Speaker 2: improve the recipe. The best leaders stay curious. The average
Speaker 2: leaders become defensive. Think about the organizationations you've worked for.
Speaker 2: Have you ever been asked for feedback? Not the fake
Speaker 2: survey that disappears into cyber space, real feedback, the kind
Speaker 2: where your supervisor sits down and says, tell me one
Speaker 2: thing I could do better. That question takes courage, because
Speaker 2: once you ask it, you have to be prepared to
Speaker 2: hear the answer. Most leaders don't avoid feedback because they
Speaker 2: don't care. They avoid it because feedback is uncomfortable. Sometimes
Speaker 2: it confirms what you already suspected. Sometimes it exposes blind
Speaker 2: spots you never knew existed. Blind spots are expensive. In aviation,
Speaker 2: pilots rely on instruments because they understand they can't see everything.
Speaker 2: In ems, we depend on partners who catch things we
Speaker 2: might miss. In business, your employees become those instruments. If
Speaker 2: you stop listening to them, you're flying without half of
Speaker 2: your day board. And here's another interesting part of that
Speaker 2: Chick fil a story true at Kathy didn't stop after
Speaker 2: one customer. He kept asking. Patterns matter more than opinions.
Speaker 2: One employee made dislike a policy. Five employees describing the
Speaker 2: same frustration probably means there's something worth investigating. One customer
Speaker 2: might have an unusual preference. Five hundred customers asking for
Speaker 2: the same improvement usually means your recipe needs work. Great
Speaker 2: leaders learn to separate noise from signals, and that takes humility.
Speaker 2: And here's something else I find fascinating. Feedback doesn't mean
Speaker 2: surrendering your standard. Sometimes leaders hear the word feedback and
Speaker 2: assume they're supposed to make everyone happy, and that's impossible.
Speaker 2: You aren't collecting votes, you're collecting information. The leader still
Speaker 2: makes the decision. The difference is they're making a better
Speaker 2: informed decision. Think about your own leadership for a moment.
Speaker 2: If your employees had permission to be completely honest today,
Speaker 2: what would they tell you. Would they say you're unapproachable?
Speaker 2: Would they say your communication is clear? Would they say
Speaker 2: meetings are productive? Would they say expectations change every week?
Speaker 2: Would they tell you they feel appreciated, or would they
Speaker 2: quietly admit they're afraid to speak up. Those answers are
Speaker 2: your recipe card. And here's the part that separates exceptional
Speaker 2: leaders from everyone else. Exceptional leaders don't become emotionally attached
Speaker 2: to the first version of themselves. They understand version two
Speaker 2: point zero should be better than version one point zero,
Speaker 2: then version three point zero should improve again. Leadership isn't
Speaker 2: software because technology changes. Leadership is software because people change.
Speaker 2: Generations change, customers change, employees change, organizations change. Your leadership
Speaker 2: should evolve with them. I've seen leaders spend thousands of
Speaker 2: dollars on consultants while ignoring the people working twenty feet away.
Speaker 2: Imagine asking your frontline employees one question every Friday, what's
Speaker 2: one thing making your job harder than it needs to be.
Speaker 2: You might hear something that saves hundreds of hours next year,
Speaker 2: or prevents someone from quitting, or improves customer service or
Speaker 2: eliminates a safety issue. Sometimes the biggest improvements come from
Speaker 2: the smallest conversations. And there is another lesson hidden in
Speaker 2: that Chick fil a story. True at Kathy knew when
Speaker 2: to stop changing the recipe. That's important some leaders never
Speaker 2: stop tweaking. Every Monday, there's a new initiative. Every Tuesday,
Speaker 2: there's a different priority. Every Wednesday, the rules change again,
Speaker 2: and eventually employees stop paying attention because they assume next
Speaker 2: week's recipe will just be different. Anyway, there comes a
Speaker 2: point where consistency builds trust. Once you've gathered feedback made
Speaker 2: through thoughtful improvements, and people consistently tell you the recipe works,
Speaker 2: you have to protect it, refine it when necessary, don't
Speaker 2: reinvent it every month. Stability is a leadership strategy. So
Speaker 2: here's today's challenge. This week. Ask three people for honest
Speaker 2: feedback about your leadership, not compliments feedback. Ask them one
Speaker 2: simple question. If you were coaching me to become a
Speaker 2: better leader, what would you tell them? Then, don't interrupt,
Speaker 2: don't defend yourself, don't explain, listen, take notes, and then
Speaker 2: thank them. You don't have to implement every suggestion. You
Speaker 2: do have to inspect every perspective because leadership isn't perfected
Speaker 2: by titles, It isn't perfected by years of service, It
Speaker 2: isn't perfected by reading another book. Leadership is perfected the
Speaker 2: same way true at Kathy perfected at chicken sandwich, one
Speaker 2: conversation at a time, one adjustment at a time, one
Speaker 2: lesson at a time. So the leaders people remember, aren't
Speaker 2: the ones who believed they had all the answers. They're
Speaker 2: the ones who kept asking better questions. Your team is
Speaker 2: already giving you the ingredients for better leadership. Your job
Speaker 2: is to listen closely enough to improve the recipe. And
Speaker 2: if you want more free leadership resources, head over to
Speaker 2: Paul fallavalito dot com click on free Stuff. I have
Speaker 2: over twenty five free leadership resources 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 fell of Alito podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot
Speaker 1: com