Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and Goala giving.
Speaker 1: This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host
Speaker 1: Paul Fellovledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the Seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode seven twenty four. Today we're talking about a
Speaker 2: question that quietly destroys careers, organizations, teams and opportunities. Who
Speaker 2: freezes when the stakes go up, Because if we're honest,
Speaker 2: we all know someone. Maybe they're brilliant in meetings, maybe
Speaker 2: they have the certifications, maybe they have the years of experience.
Speaker 2: Maybe they're funny at lunch and confident when nothing important
Speaker 2: is happening. Then the pressure shows up. The major customer
Speaker 2: threatens to leave, the employee files, the complet the media calls,
Speaker 2: the team meeting gets emotional, the equipment fails, the project
Speaker 2: missus deadline, the emergency happens, and suddenly the person everybody
Speaker 2: thought was a leader becomes a spectator. They freeze. You
Speaker 2: know what fascinates me. Freezing rarely looks dramatic. Hollywood taught
Speaker 2: us freezing means standing still with your eyes wide open.
Speaker 2: Leadership freezing is usually much quieter. Leadership freezing sounds like
Speaker 2: let's gather more information. Maybe we should wait. I need
Speaker 2: another week. What do you think Let's revisit this next month.
Speaker 2: I don't want to upset anybody, or I'm sure it
Speaker 2: will work itself out. That is often freeze behavior dressed
Speaker 2: up as professionalism. I learned something years ago in emergency services.
Speaker 2: People do not rise to the occasion. People fall to
Speaker 2: their level of preparation. That sentence changed my life because
Speaker 2: I stopped expecting courage to magically appear. Courage is usually
Speaker 2: a prepared response. When pressure arrives, your habits show up
Speaker 2: before your intentions do. Think about an airplane. You don't
Speaker 2: want your pilot learning under pressure. You want checklists, training,
Speaker 2: repetition procedures. You want thousands of tiny, calm decisions before
Speaker 2: the one big decision. Leadership is no different. I want
Speaker 2: to tell you about something I've observed over years of leading.
Speaker 2: There are people who perform amazingly when stakes are low.
Speaker 2: They volunteer opinions, they challenge ideas, they contribute, But when
Speaker 2: consequences become attached to the decision, they disappear. Suddenly, they
Speaker 2: become invisible, and it's not because they're bad people. Usually
Speaker 2: it comes from one of four places. First is the
Speaker 2: fear of being wrong. Some leaders would rather be safely
Speaker 2: in visible then visibly incorrect. Second, fear of judgment. People
Speaker 2: think if they make the wrong decision, everyone will remember
Speaker 2: that forever. Third is lack of experience. Pressure exposes weak reps. Fourth,
Speaker 2: identify protection. They built a reputation around appearing smart instead
Speaker 2: of becoming capable. And here's the difficult part. Leadership eventually
Speaker 2: puts you in moments where somebody has to own the decision.
Speaker 2: In Silence becomes a decision. Waiting becomes a decision. Avoiding
Speaker 2: becomes a decision. I remember hearing a story about a
Speaker 2: business executive years ago. His company had a major operational issue.
Speaker 2: Everybody sat around the table, analyzing two hours past charts, debates, questions,
Speaker 2: and finally one person stood up and said, are we
Speaker 2: solving this or documenting our fear? That room changed instantly.
Speaker 2: Sometimes leadership is not finding the perfect answer. Sometimes leadership
Speaker 2: is interrupting paralysis. Now, before you misunderstand me, this is
Speaker 2: not about recklessness. I'm not telling you to become loud
Speaker 2: and pulsive. For dramatic good leaders slow down. Frozen leaders stop.
Speaker 2: There is a difference One of the most powerful questions
Speaker 2: you can ask yourself is what gets smaller when pressure
Speaker 2: gets bigger? Does your communication get smaller? Does your confidence
Speaker 2: get smaller? Does your decision speed get smaller? Does your
Speaker 2: ownership get smaller? Because those patterns tell you exactly where
Speaker 2: your leadership work is. And here's an exercise I want
Speaker 2: you to try. Think of the last three moments where
Speaker 2: stakes increased, Write them down. Now answer these questions. What
Speaker 2: did I feel? What did I avoid? What did I delay?
Speaker 2: What would be the best verse version that myself would
Speaker 2: have done? That gap is your next leadership lesson. And
Speaker 2: if you lead people, pay attention to something else. Watch
Speaker 2: who changes under pressure? Do not judge your team by
Speaker 2: routine days. Watch deadline days, Watch conflict, watch uncertainty, watch setbacks.
Speaker 2: Pressure reveals operating systems. I've seen quiet employees become giants.
Speaker 2: I've seen loud leaders disappear. I've seen new people step
Speaker 2: into moments that experienced leaders walked away from. Pressure has
Speaker 2: a funny way of introducing people. This is one reason
Speaker 2: I talk so much about intentional leadership. You cannot build
Speaker 2: courage during the storm. You build it during ordinary days.
Speaker 2: Every difficult conversation every uncomfortable decision, every promise kept, every
Speaker 2: moment you say what needs said, every time you act
Speaker 2: before confidence arrives. Those are deposits. Then one day the
Speaker 2: stakes go up and you realize you're not freezing anymore.
Speaker 2: You're functioning, not because you became fearless, because you became practiced.
Speaker 2: So here's your challenge this week. Find one thing you've
Speaker 2: been avoiding because the stakes feel high. Make the call,
Speaker 2: schedule the meeting, give the feedback, send the email, make
Speaker 2: the decision. Because leadership is not measured by how you
Speaker 2: operate when everything feels safe. Leadership gets measured in the
Speaker 2: moments where your heart rate goes up and people start
Speaker 2: looking at you. And when that moment arrives, do not
Speaker 2: ask yourself if you feel ready, ask yourself whether you've
Speaker 2: prepared enough to move. So, if you take nothing else
Speaker 2: from today, remember this pressure does not create leaders Pressure
Speaker 2: reveals them. When the stakes go up. Your routines, your habits,
Speaker 2: and your preparation walk into the room before you do.
Speaker 2: Build those now, seven intentional minutes at a time. And
Speaker 2: if you want more free leadership resources, head over to
Speaker 2: Paulflovalito dot com and click on free stuff. I have
Speaker 2: over twenty five free leadership documents you can download and
Speaker 2: start using today. This has been the seven minute leadership podcast,
Speaker 2: and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul Fello Alito podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot com