Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and GOLA giving.
Speaker 1: This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host
Speaker 1: Paul Fellavledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode seven point thirty one. Today we're talking about
Speaker 2: two kinds of teams, the kind that rise and the
Speaker 2: kind that wait. And here's the thing. Both types of
Speaker 2: teams can be filled with talented, smart, hardworking people. Both
Speaker 2: can have good intentions. Both might even say the right
Speaker 2: things in a meeting. But when something happens, when a
Speaker 2: challenge shows up, when a decision needs to be made,
Speaker 2: when the ground shifts under their feet, those two teams
Speaker 2: respond in completely different ways. So let's talk about what
Speaker 2: actually separates them. Teams that wait are always looking for permission.
Speaker 2: They're waiting for the leader to tell them what to
Speaker 2: do next. They're waiting for more information before they act.
Speaker 2: They're waiting for the perfect moment, the perfect plan, the
Speaker 2: perfect set of conditions. And I'll tell you what, the
Speaker 2: moment almost never comes, so they wait even more. Now.
Speaker 2: I want to be careful here, because waiting isn't always
Speaker 2: the wrong move. Sometimes patience is exactly what a situation
Speaker 2: calls for. But there's a difference between strategic patience and
Speaker 2: habitual hesitation. Teams that wait have turned hesitation into a
Speaker 2: default setting. It's their first response to almost everything uncertain.
Speaker 2: Teams that rise, their default setting is momentum, not reckless,
Speaker 2: not chaos, but they have a bias towards action. When
Speaker 2: something is unclear, they take one step forward to get
Speaker 2: more clarity. When something breaks, they start solving before they
Speaker 2: finish complaining. When they don't have all the answers, they
Speaker 2: go find some. Now here's a question worth sitting with.
Speaker 2: Is your team waiting because of who they are or
Speaker 2: because of what you've trained them to do. That's not
Speaker 2: a comfortable question, but it's an honest one because a
Speaker 2: lot of leaders, without realizing it, build cultures of waiting.
Speaker 2: They want to be the decision maker, they want to
Speaker 2: be in the loop on everything. They jump in and
Speaker 2: solve problems before the team gets a real chance to
Speaker 2: wrestle with them, and slowly, over time, the team learns
Speaker 2: don't bother figuring it out, the boss will handle it,
Speaker 2: so they stop trying and they wait. If you're the
Speaker 2: kind of leader who wonders why your team isn't more productive,
Speaker 2: more independent, more driven. Take a look at how you
Speaker 2: respond when they take initiative. Do you celebrate it even
Speaker 2: when it's messy, or do you quietly correct it and
Speaker 2: take back control. Teams learn what you reward. Teams become
Speaker 2: what you reinforce. Teams that rise are also built on
Speaker 2: something that doesn't get talked about enough, and that's psychological safety.
Speaker 2: That just means people feel safe enough to speak up,
Speaker 2: take a swing, make a mistake, and not get destroyed
Speaker 2: for it. When people are afraid of being wrong, they
Speaker 2: play it safe. And playing it safe looks an awful
Speaker 2: lot like waiting to me. But when people trust that
Speaker 2: their leader has their back, when they know that a
Speaker 2: failed attempt won't cost them their reputation, they move, They
Speaker 2: try things. They bring ideas to the table instead of
Speaker 2: keeping them to themselves in the parking lot after the meeting. Building.
Speaker 2: That kind of safety isn't complicated, but it does require consistency.
Speaker 2: You have to respond the same way on a bad
Speaker 2: day as you do on a good one. You have
Speaker 2: to say, good, try what did we learn more than
Speaker 2: you say I told you so? And you have to
Speaker 2: model it yourself, be willing to be wrong out loud
Speaker 2: in front of your team. And there's one more thing
Speaker 2: that separates teams that rise from teams that wait in
Speaker 2: its clarity. Teams that wait are often waiting because they
Speaker 2: genuinely don't know what matters most. They have tasks, they
Speaker 2: have meetings, they have a to do list that's a
Speaker 2: mile long, but they don't have a clear picture of
Speaker 2: what success looks like, what the priorities are, or how
Speaker 2: their work connects to anything bigger than the task in
Speaker 2: front of them. Teams that rise know where they're going,
Speaker 2: not because the path is perfectly lit, but because the
Speaker 2: destination is clear enough that they can navigate even when
Speaker 2: conditions change. As a leader, it's your job to provide
Speaker 2: that clarity, not once in an all hands meeting and
Speaker 2: never again, but consistently repeatedly, in different ways at different times.
Speaker 2: People need to hear the vision more than you think
Speaker 2: they do, and when things shift, they need you to
Speaker 2: re anchor them. Clarity gives people the confidence to move.
Speaker 2: Confusion is what makes them freeze. So let me bring
Speaker 2: this together for you. If you want a team that rises,
Speaker 2: you need to stop being the lid on their potential,
Speaker 2: give them room to act. Reward initiative, even imperfect initiative.
Speaker 2: Build an environment where it's safe to try and safe
Speaker 2: to fail, and make sure they know with confidence where
Speaker 2: you're all headed together. The difference between a team that
Speaker 2: rises and a team that waits usually is not talent.
Speaker 2: It isn't resources, it isn't even opportunity. It's leadership. So
Speaker 2: the teams that change industries, that outlast competitors, the people
Speaker 2: genuinely love being part of those teams were not born
Speaker 2: that way. They were led that way, and that leader
Speaker 2: could be you start this week, pick one thing from
Speaker 2: today and put put it into practice, create some clarity,
Speaker 2: give someone room to lead, or simply respond to a
Speaker 2: mistake with curiosity instead of frustration. Small moves done consistently
Speaker 2: build teams that rise. This has been the seven Minute
Speaker 2: Leadership Podcast, and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot
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