Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building and GOLA GV.
Speaker 1: This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host
Speaker 1: Paul fella Aledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode seven eighty Today. I want to talk about
Speaker 2: something that has quietly disappeared from a lot of workplaces. Pride.
Speaker 2: Not pride in the ego sense. I'm talking about taking
Speaker 2: genuine satisfaction and doing a job well, looking at your
Speaker 2: work at the end of the day and saying that
Speaker 2: represents me. Somewhere along the way, many organizations stopped talking
Speaker 2: about pride. They replaced it with metrics, dashboards, productivity reports
Speaker 2: in corporate bs that looks press if in meetings but
Speaker 2: means very little on the front lines. And the result
Speaker 2: people started doing enough instead of doing their best. You
Speaker 2: can walk into almost any organization and tell within five
Speaker 2: minutes whether people are proud of where they work. Look
Speaker 2: around as the building clean, is the equipment cared for?
Speaker 2: Do employees smile when someone walks in? Do people pick
Speaker 2: up trash that isn't theirs? Do they wear the uniform
Speaker 2: like it means something? None of those things require a policy,
Speaker 2: They require pride. And here's something I've learned after nearly
Speaker 2: three decades in emergency services. I've seen ambulances that were
Speaker 2: mechanically identical. Same manufacture, same equipment, same medical supplies. One
Speaker 2: crew treated their ambulance like it was an extension of themselves.
Speaker 2: It was spotless, everything was organized, Every compartment had a purpose.
Speaker 2: The truck was ready for whatever came next. Another crew
Speaker 2: had the same ambulance. It looked completely different. Coffee cups, wrappers,
Speaker 2: equipment tossed wherever it fit, Supplies running low because nobody
Speaker 2: checked them. Same organization, same expectations, completely different level of pride.
Speaker 2: The difference wasn't training. The difference was ownership. Pride is
Speaker 2: what makes someone straighten the picture on the wall. Pride
Speaker 2: is what makes someone restock a shelf before they're asked.
Speaker 2: Pride is what causes an employee to say, I can
Speaker 2: do better than this. The scary part is that pride
Speaker 2: rarely disappears overnight. It fades. One shortcut becomes acceptable, one
Speaker 2: miss detail doesn't get addressed, one poor performance review gets ignored.
Speaker 2: One leader walks past something that should have been corrected.
Speaker 2: People notice employees are always watching what leadership walks past.
Speaker 2: Every time you ignore something, you're quietly teaching your standards. Eventually,
Speaker 2: employees stop asking themselves is this excellent? They start asking
Speaker 2: will anyone care? Those are two completely different organizations. One
Speaker 2: question builds excellence, the other builds mediocrity. Leaders sometimes think
Speaker 2: they need expensive engagement programs to improve morale. Many times
Speaker 2: they need something much simpler. Reconnect people with the importance
Speaker 2: of their work. Tell stories, share customer feedback, Celebrate craftsmanship.
Speaker 2: Recognize the employee who quietly gets things right every single day.
Speaker 2: Not every hero is lowed. Some heroes simply refuse to
Speaker 2: lower their standards. Here's an exercise I challenge all leaders
Speaker 2: to try this week. Walk through your organization. Don't look
Speaker 2: for what's broken. Look for signs of pride. Who keeps
Speaker 2: their workspace organized, who pays attention to details, who consistently
Speaker 2: produces work that says this matters to me? Those people
Speaker 2: aren't simply performing well, They're protecting your culture. And then
Speaker 2: ask yourself a harder question. Where have you allowed pride
Speaker 2: to fade? Have you accepted good enough because confronting it
Speaker 2: felt uncomfortable? Have you stopped recognizing great work because you
Speaker 2: assume people already knew they were appreciated. Have you become
Speaker 2: so focused on solving problems that you've forgotten to celebrate excellence.
Speaker 2: Leadership isn't only about fixing what's wrong. It's also about
Speaker 2: protecting what's right. And one of my favorite questions to
Speaker 2: ask is this. If your name was permanently attached to
Speaker 2: everything you produced today, would you be proud of it?
Speaker 2: Think about that, your emails, your conversations, your reports, your
Speaker 2: customer service, your leadership. Would you proudly sign your name
Speaker 2: across all of it? Because in many ways you already have.
Speaker 2: Your reputation is built one decision at a time, one
Speaker 2: interaction at a time, one ordinary day at a time.
Speaker 2: People remember the feeling your work created. That's your signature.
Speaker 2: If you've lost pride in your work, don't wait for
Speaker 2: a new job, a new boss, or a new opportunity.
Speaker 2: Start with the next task, Do it exceptionally well, then
Speaker 2: do the one after that. Pride has a funny way
Speaker 2: of returning the same way it disappeared. One decision at
Speaker 2: a time, one standard at a time, one day at
Speaker 2: a time. Your leadership challenge this week is simple. Find
Speaker 2: one area where your standards have quietly slipped and store
Speaker 2: them not because someone is watching, because that's who you
Speaker 2: choose to be. Your work is a reflection of your
Speaker 2: character long before it's a reflection of your talent. People
Speaker 2: may forget what you've accomplished, they rarely forget the standard
Speaker 2: you represented. The organizations people talk about with admiration aren't
Speaker 2: always the biggest or the wealthiest. They're the ones where
Speaker 2: people genuinely care about the quality of their work. Reclaim
Speaker 2: that mindset, raise your standards, help others raise theirs. Pride
Speaker 2: is an old fashioned It's a competitive advantage that never
Speaker 2: goes out of style. And if you want more free
Speaker 2: leadership resources, head over to Paul fallavalito dot com and
Speaker 2: click on free Stuff. I have over twenty five free
Speaker 2: leadership documents you can download and start using today. This
Speaker 2: has been the seven minute leadership podcast and I thank
Speaker 2: you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul fell of Aledo Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot com.