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<v Speaker 1>Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of

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<v Speaker 1>performance through strong human relations, team building, and golajiving. This

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<v Speaker 1>is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul Fellovledo.

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<v Speaker 2>Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.

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<v Speaker 2>It's episode six point thirty three. I want to ask

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<v Speaker 2>you another question. If your top performer quit tomorrow, what

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<v Speaker 2>would you do? If your biggest client pulled their contract?

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<v Speaker 2>What would you do? If you're building flooded, your server crashed,

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<v Speaker 2>your board turned on you, or your name showed up

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<v Speaker 2>in a headline that you didn't ask for. What would

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<v Speaker 2>you do? Most leaders do not think about these questions

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<v Speaker 2>until they are living inside them, and by then it's

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<v Speaker 2>too late to prepare. Today, we're talking about scenario planning

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<v Speaker 2>for the unexpected, not paranoia and not doom scrolling, not

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<v Speaker 2>living in fear. We're talking about disciplined preparation. And I'll

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<v Speaker 2>start with another aviation story. We train for engine failures

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<v Speaker 2>before we ever lose one. As a pilot, I have

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<v Speaker 2>practiced engine out procedures dozens of times. Power to idle,

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<v Speaker 2>pitch for best glide, find a landing spot, run the checklist,

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<v Speaker 2>declare the emergency you do not rise to the occasion.

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<v Speaker 2>In a crisis, you fall back on your training and

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<v Speaker 2>leadership works the same way. Most organizations operate in what

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<v Speaker 2>I call blue sky mode. Revenue is steady, staffing is stable,

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<v Speaker 2>customers are predictable. You feel like you're cruising at five

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<v Speaker 2>thousand feet on a clear day, and then density altitude hits,

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<v Speaker 2>and then weather rolls in, and then in engine coughs,

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<v Speaker 2>and if you have never walked through that scenario before,

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<v Speaker 2>you're now building the parachute on the way down. Scenario

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<v Speaker 2>planning is not about predicting the future. It is about

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<v Speaker 2>rehearsing your response. Here's how you do it. First, identify

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<v Speaker 2>your most dangerous assumptions. What are you assuming will always

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<v Speaker 2>be there? Your top three employees, your largest contract, your

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<v Speaker 2>current funding stream, your reputation, your health, your access to credit,

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<v Speaker 2>your supply chain. Write them down. Now ask the uncomfortable question,

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<v Speaker 2>what if that disappears? Second, run a tabletop exercise. Gather

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<v Speaker 2>your leadership team, close the laptops, put the phone downs,

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<v Speaker 2>Throw a scenario on the table. Your IT system is

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<v Speaker 2>down for seventy two hours. Your organization loses twenty percent

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<v Speaker 2>of its workforce in a month, a law suit hits

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<v Speaker 2>your inbox, your key vendor goes bankrupt. Do not debate

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<v Speaker 2>whether it is likely. Walk through what you would do

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<v Speaker 2>in the first hour, the first day, the first week.

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<v Speaker 2>Who speaks publicly, Who makes financial decisions, Who stabilizes staff morale,

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<v Speaker 2>Who owns the communication if nobody knows you've just found

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<v Speaker 2>a vulnerability. Third, build trigger points. In red key leadership,

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<v Speaker 2>there are moments where the stakes change, routine decisions become

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<v Speaker 2>high consequence decisions. That is a red key moment. Scenario

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<v Speaker 2>planning helps you define those trigger points in advance. For example,

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<v Speaker 2>if revenue drops by ten percent for two consecutive months,

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<v Speaker 2>what happens? Hiring freeze, expense review, emergency board meeting? If

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<v Speaker 2>employee turnover hits a certain threshold? What happens? Do you

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<v Speaker 2>do still? Interviews, retention bonuses, culture audit. When you pre

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<v Speaker 2>define the trigger, you remove emotion from the decision. You're

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<v Speaker 2>not reacting, You're executing. Fourth, document your response playbooks, not

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<v Speaker 2>a two hundred page binder that nobody reads. One page

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<v Speaker 2>response outlines, crisis communication flows, succession plan for key roles,

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<v Speaker 2>cash preservation, strategy, media holding statements, staff reassurance talking points,

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<v Speaker 2>Clarity beats complexity every time. Fifth stress test your ego.

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<v Speaker 2>This one is personal. Scenario planning forces you to confront

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<v Speaker 2>something most leaders avoid. You are not invincible. Your title

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<v Speaker 2>does not protect you. Your past success does not immunize you.

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<v Speaker 2>The market does not care about your history. The storm

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<v Speaker 2>does not check your resume. I've been on FEMA deployments

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<v Speaker 2>where entire communities thought the disaster would hit somewhere else.

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<v Speaker 2>I've been on EMS calls where families believed emergencies happen

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<v Speaker 2>to other people. Denial is not a strategy. Preparedness is. Now.

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<v Speaker 2>Let me shift this from organizational to personal. What is

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<v Speaker 2>your personal scenario plan? If you lost your job tomorrow?

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<v Speaker 2>What would you do in the first twenty four hours?

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<v Speaker 2>If your health forced you to step away for six months,

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<v Speaker 2>who is trained to take your seat? If your reputation

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<v Speaker 2>took a hit, do you have enough trust in the

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<v Speaker 2>bank to survive it. Leadership is not only about protecting

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<v Speaker 2>the organization. It is about protecting your ability to lead.

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<v Speaker 2>And here's the truth. Calm leaders are not born calm.

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<v Speaker 2>They have rehearsed. Confident leaders are not guessing. They have

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<v Speaker 2>thought through all of the angles. Resilient organizations are not lucky.

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<v Speaker 2>They have done the work when things were quiet. The

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<v Speaker 2>best time to run a fire drill is when there

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<v Speaker 2>is no smoke. The best time to talk about succession

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<v Speaker 2>is when everyone is healthy. The best time to discuss

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<v Speaker 2>financial resilience is when revenue is strong. Scenario planning is

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<v Speaker 2>seven intentional minutes a day of asking what if, what

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<v Speaker 2>if this goes wrong? What if this doubles in size?

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<v Speaker 2>What if this disappears, and then writing down your answers.

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<v Speaker 2>Because when the unexpected becomes reality, you will not have

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<v Speaker 2>the luxury of slow thinking. You will need clarity, You

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<v Speaker 2>will need decisiveness, You will need composure. That composure comes

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<v Speaker 2>from preparation. So let me leave you with a challenge

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<v Speaker 2>this week. Sit down with your team and run one

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<v Speaker 2>uncomfortable scenario. Don't overcomplicate it, Just pay one and walk

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<v Speaker 2>through it. Document it, assign ownership. You'll walk out of

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<v Speaker 2>that room stronger then you walked in, not because disaster

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<v Speaker 2>is coming, but because discipline is now present. So leadership

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<v Speaker 2>is not about hoping that the sky stays blue. It's

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<v Speaker 2>about knowing exactly what you will do when it turns gray.

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<v Speaker 2>Spend seven minutes today preparing for something that you pray

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<v Speaker 2>never happens to you or your organization. That quiet preparation

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<v Speaker 2>may be the reason your organization survives its next storm.

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<v Speaker 2>If you want more free leadership resources, head over to

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<v Speaker 2>Paul Falavalito dot com and click on free Stuff. I

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<v Speaker 2>have over twenty five free leadership documents you can download

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<v Speaker 2>and start using today. This has been the seven minute

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<v Speaker 2>Leadership podcast, and I thank you for listening.

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<v Speaker 1>For more Paul fell of Alito podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot

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<v Speaker 1>com