Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building and golachieving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul Fellavalito.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode five eighteen. Today's episode is titled rules or
Speaker 2: Rules Even when no One is looking. Let's talk about integrity,
Speaker 2: that invisible line that separates real leaders from people who
Speaker 2: just hold titles. I once heard someone say character is
Speaker 2: what you do when no one's watching. It's one of
Speaker 2: those phrases that's easy to no along with, but hard
Speaker 2: to live by, especially in leadership, because when you're at
Speaker 2: the top, there are moments where the cameras aren't rolling,
Speaker 2: the emails aren't being read, and the people who report
Speaker 2: to you aren't paying attention. And that's where the real
Speaker 2: test begins. You see, following the rules when everyone's looking
Speaker 2: doesn't make you special. That's compliance. But following the rules
Speaker 2: when no one is looking that's leadership. Think about this.
Speaker 2: Every organization has policies, standards, and codes of conduct. Most
Speaker 2: of them exist because at some point someone broke the
Speaker 2: unwritten ones. But leadership integrity isn't about checking boxes or
Speaker 2: memorizing policy. It's about discipline and consistency. It's about saying
Speaker 2: I will do what's right, even when it's not easy, convenient,
Speaker 2: or visible. And let me give you a quick example.
Speaker 2: A few years ago, a company I was consulting with
Speaker 2: had a small but important rule vehicles couldn't idle unattended.
Speaker 2: It wasn't a big deal to most people. It was
Speaker 2: written for fuel efficiency, safety, and insurance compliance. Yet every morning,
Speaker 2: one of their supervisors started his car, left it running,
Speaker 2: and went back inside for fifteen minutes. Nobody said anything
Speaker 2: until one day an employee saw it, took a picture
Speaker 2: and sent it to HR and suddenly that supervisor wasn't
Speaker 2: just breaking a rule, he was breaking trust. That's how
Speaker 2: leadership credibility erodes, not through the big scandals or the
Speaker 2: public mistakes, but through small cracks that happened behind the scenes.
Speaker 2: When you choose to cut corners, ignore a policy, or
Speaker 2: act like the rules don't apply to you, you're sending
Speaker 2: a message to your team, and that message is louder
Speaker 2: than any speech you'll ever give. Leaders set the tone
Speaker 2: not with slogans, but with behavior. And here's a quick
Speaker 2: question to ask yourself if someone followed me around for
Speaker 2: a day, would they see a leader who follows the
Speaker 2: rules or one who bends them because no one will notice.
Speaker 2: Because I'll tell you something, someone always notices. Maybe not today,
Speaker 2: maybe not even tomorrow, but someone's watching how you operate.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's the new employee trying to figure out what's acceptable.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's a peer deciding if you can be trusted.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's your boss quietly observing if you're ready for
Speaker 2: the next promote. Leadership is a stage you don't realize
Speaker 2: you're standing on. And here's the reality. Rules aren't there
Speaker 2: to control you. They're there to protect the integrity of
Speaker 2: the mission. They create consistency, fairness, and safety. They prevent chaos.
Speaker 2: But what makes rules powerful is when leaders believe in them,
Speaker 2: not just enforce them. Now I get it, there are
Speaker 2: some rules that are outdated or inefficient, or maybe even
Speaker 2: a little ridiculous. That's fine. Great leaders don't blindly obey.
Speaker 2: They question, they analyze, they propose change, but they don't
Speaker 2: quietly rebel. There's a difference between improving a rule and
Speaker 2: ignoring it. If something doesn't make sense, fix it through
Speaker 2: the right channels. Don't become the exception that weakens the
Speaker 2: standard for everyone else. I'll give you another example. Pilots
Speaker 2: live by checklists every flight, no matter how experienced they are.
Speaker 2: They run the checklist. Why because it keeps everyone honest,
Speaker 2: It keeps the plane and the people safe. The rule
Speaker 2: is not optional just because you've done it a thousand times,
Speaker 2: and leadership is no Different rules exist so we don't
Speaker 2: have to rely on memory, mood, or ego. So here's
Speaker 2: the leadership challenge this week. Pick one rule, just one
Speaker 2: in your organization that you know gets ignored or brushed off.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's small, maybe it's cultural. Maybe it's something like
Speaker 2: wearing ID badges or signing off reports properly, or to
Speaker 2: meetings on time. And then model it, follow it, and
Speaker 2: force it, and explain why it matters. When your team
Speaker 2: sees that you're consistent even when it's inconvenient, you'll learn
Speaker 2: something that's more valuable than authority. You'll learn respect. In
Speaker 2: the end, leadership isn't about being watched. It's about being
Speaker 2: worthy of trust even when you're not. So the next
Speaker 2: time you're tempted to say it's fine, no one will notice.
Speaker 2: Remember this, rules are rules, even when no one is
Speaker 2: looking that's how you build a culture that stands tall
Speaker 2: even when no one's around to see it. And if
Speaker 2: you haven't done so, please five start review the show
Speaker 2: on your favorite podcasting platform. This has been the seven
Speaker 2: Minute Leadership Podcast and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot
Speaker 1: com