Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and golajieving. 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 fourteen. Today we're going to strip this
Speaker 2: all the way down. No corporate buzzwords, no leadership posters
Speaker 2: on the wall, no motivational quotes that sound good but
Speaker 2: fall apart in real life. We're going to talk about
Speaker 2: the real mechanics of a great boss because most people
Speaker 2: get this wrong. They think being a great boss is
Speaker 2: about being liked. They think it's about being approachable, they
Speaker 2: think it's about keeping everyone happy, and that's not it.
Speaker 2: A great boss is not built on personality. A great
Speaker 2: boss is built on systems, standards in behavior that repeats
Speaker 2: every single day. And let me say that again. A
Speaker 2: great boss is not a vibe. It's a system, and
Speaker 2: if you don't understand the mechanics behind it, you'll spend
Speaker 2: your entire leadership career guessing. So let's break this down
Speaker 2: like we're in a garage working on an engine, because
Speaker 2: that's what this is, mechanics. The first mechanism is consistency,
Speaker 2: not intensity, not occasional greatness. Consistency your team does not
Speaker 2: judge you on your best day. They judge you on
Speaker 2: your average day. If you're calm on Monday, explosive on Tuesday,
Speaker 2: checked out on Wednesday, and trying to make up for
Speaker 2: it on Thursday, your team doesn't trust you. They brace
Speaker 2: for you. A great boss is predictable in behavior. That
Speaker 2: doesn't mean boring, that means stable. When something goes wrong,
Speaker 2: your team already knows how you're going to respond, not
Speaker 2: because you've told them, because you've shown them over and
Speaker 2: over again. Consistency builds psychological safety, and psychological safety is
Speaker 2: what allows people to actually perform. The second mechanism is clarity.
Speaker 2: Most bosses think they're clear, and they're not. They speak
Speaker 2: in assumptions, They speak in half instructions they think people
Speaker 2: should know, and that's how mistakes happen. A great boss
Speaker 2: removes guessing from the job. They define what good looks like,
Speaker 2: They define what done looks like. They define what failure
Speaker 2: looks like, and they do it before the work starts,
Speaker 2: not after it goes wrong. If your team is constantly
Speaker 2: asking questions mid task, that's not a team problem. That's
Speaker 2: a clarity problem, and that falls on you. The third
Speaker 2: mechanism is standards. This is where most leaders fold because
Speaker 2: standards require enforcement, and enforcement requires uncomfortable conversations. So instead,
Speaker 2: bosses let things slide. They tolerate small misses. They ignore
Speaker 2: behavior they don't like. They pick their battles. And here's
Speaker 2: the truth. Every time you tolerate something, you train your
Speaker 2: team on what's acceptable. You're always teaching, even when you
Speaker 2: think you're staying quiet. A great boss does not need
Speaker 2: to be harsh, but they are firm. Standards are not suggestions.
Speaker 2: They are the line, and once your team sees that
Speaker 2: the line doesn't move, something powerful happens. Respect goes up,
Speaker 2: performance goes up, Excuses go down. The fourth mechanism is
Speaker 2: decision ownership, and this is where red key leadership lives.
Speaker 2: Every boss wants the title, every boss wants the authority.
Speaker 2: But when the pressure hits, some disappear. They delay decisions,
Speaker 2: They push things down. They hope problems solve themselves. That's
Speaker 2: not leadership, that's avoidance. A great boss steps into the
Speaker 2: moment when it matters. They don't always have perfect information,
Speaker 2: they don't always get it right. But they decide, and
Speaker 2: more importantly, they own the outcome. No blaming the team,
Speaker 2: no blaming the system, no hiding behind policy. Ownership builds
Speaker 2: credibility faster than anything else. Your team will forgive a
Speaker 2: wrong decision. They will not forgive a leader who disappears
Speaker 2: when it counts. The fifth mechanism is presence, not physical
Speaker 2: presence leadership presence. When you walk into a room, what happens?
Speaker 2: Does tension go up or down? Do people feel like
Speaker 2: they need to perform or pretend? A great boss doesn't
Speaker 2: suck the air out of the room. They stabilize that.
Speaker 2: They make it easier for people to think clearly, not harder.
Speaker 2: That comes from emotional control. If your reactive, your team
Speaker 2: becomes reactive. If you're grounded, your team finds footing. Your
Speaker 2: presence sets the tone long before you say a word.
Speaker 2: The sixth mechanism is feedback. Most bosses either avoid feedback
Speaker 2: or weaponize it. They either say nothing or they dump
Speaker 2: everything all at once. Neither works. A great boss treats
Speaker 2: feedback like course, not punishment. Small adjustments often not big explosions,
Speaker 2: And here's the key most people miss. Feedback is not
Speaker 2: only about fixing problems. It's about reinforcing what's working. If
Speaker 2: someone does something right and you say nothing, you missed
Speaker 2: an opportunity. People repeat what gets recognized, and that's not theory.
Speaker 2: That's human behavior. Now let me tie all of this together,
Speaker 2: because this is where it clicks. A great boss is
Speaker 2: not someone who motivates people. A great boss removes friction
Speaker 2: so people can perform. Think about that. You're not the engine,
Speaker 2: you're the mechanic. Your job is to eliminate the noise,
Speaker 2: the confusion, the inconsistency, and the gaps. When you do that,
Speaker 2: your team doesn't need to be pushed. They move. And
Speaker 2: here's the part that might hit you a little harder.
Speaker 2: You don't become a great boss overnight. You build it
Speaker 2: in small, repeatable actions, seven minutes at a time. Checking
Speaker 2: your tone, clarifying expectations, addressing something you've been avoiding, following
Speaker 2: through on what you said you would do. That's the work.
Speaker 2: That's the mechanics, and it's not flashy, but it works
Speaker 2: every single time. And if you take nothing else from
Speaker 2: this episode, take this. Stop trying to be a great boss,
Speaker 2: start building the system of one. Because once the system
Speaker 2: is in place, the results follow. And that's not theory.
Speaker 2: That's battle tested leadership from the front lines. So here's
Speaker 2: your move before your next shift, your next meeting, your
Speaker 2: next interaction, ask yourself one question. Where is the friction
Speaker 2: coming from right now? Is it your consistency? Is it
Speaker 2: your clarity? Is it your standards? Is it your presence?
Speaker 2: Pick one and fix one. That's how this gets built,
Speaker 2: one adjustment at a time. And this has been the
Speaker 2: seven Minute Leadership Podcast, and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot com.