Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and GOLAJV. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul
Speaker 1: fella Aledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the Seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode seven eighteen, and today we're talking about one
Speaker 2: of the most dangerous behaviors in any organization, the silent nod,
Speaker 2: the fake agreement, the moment where leaders know the truth,
Speaker 2: feel the truth, but refuse to say the truth. And so,
Speaker 2: let me paint a picture for you. An employee is
Speaker 2: supposed to be at work at eight am. They stroll
Speaker 2: in at eight twenty one. Leader says, hey, you never
Speaker 2: told anyone you were going to be late. Now everybody
Speaker 2: else standing there knows that's true. They never got a text,
Speaker 2: never got a call, nobody was informed. Then the employee
Speaker 2: quickly says, no, remember I told so and so I
Speaker 2: was going to be late. And suddenly the room changes.
Speaker 2: A few leaders awkwardly gnad, some look at the floor.
Speaker 2: Others shrug their shoulders like maybe it happened, even though
Speaker 2: they know it didn't. That moment, right there is leadership failure.
Speaker 2: Not because the employee was late, because the leaders abandoned
Speaker 2: accountability in real time. And this happens everywhere corporate offices,
Speaker 2: fire stations, hospitals, police departments, construction sites, restaurants, boardrooms, everywhere.
Speaker 2: Leaders convince themselves that avoiding confrontation is easier than protecting standards.
Speaker 2: But what they don't realize is every silent nod becomes
Speaker 2: a brick in the foundation of a broken and culture
Speaker 2: because now the employee learned something dangerous. They learn the
Speaker 2: truth is negotiable, they learn confidence beats facts. They learn
Speaker 2: if they create enough social pressure, leaders will back down,
Speaker 2: and maybe worst of all, every other employee standing nearby
Speaker 2: learns the rules are soft. And let me tell you
Speaker 2: something most organizations never recover from. It's not toxic employees.
Speaker 2: It's weak accountability. That is what kills culture. Because employees
Speaker 2: can handle strict standards. Employees can handle hard conversations. Employees
Speaker 2: can even handle discipline when it's fair. What destroys morale
Speaker 2: is inconsistency watching leaders privately complain about behaviors they publicly tolerate.
Speaker 2: That is where trust dies. I saw this years ago
Speaker 2: in emergency service as a crew member kept arriving late
Speaker 2: for a shift, not dramatically late. Ten minutes here, fifteen
Speaker 2: minutes there, enough to irritate everyone. The supervisors would complain
Speaker 2: about it NonStop behind closed doors. Oh, this is getting ridiculous.
Speaker 2: Someone needs to deal with this. We can't keep allowing this.
Speaker 2: Then the employee would show up smiling, crack a joke,
Speaker 2: and suddenly everyone got soft. Nobody wanted the awkward moment,
Speaker 2: nobody wanted the tension. Nobody wanted to be the bad guy.
Speaker 2: So the late arrivals continued. Now here's what happened. Next.
Speaker 2: Another employee started showing up late, then another. Then truck
Speaker 2: checks started getting delayed. Then crews stopped trusting each other
Speaker 2: during shift change, and eventually the culture shifted from accountability
Speaker 2: to negotiation, all because leadership refused to hold the line early.
Speaker 2: Accountability problems rarely explode overnight. They drift like an airplane
Speaker 2: one degree off course, and leaders who avoid confrontation create
Speaker 2: drift everywhere they go. Now, let's talk about why this happens.
Speaker 2: Most leaders are not afraid of confrontation itself. They're afraid
Speaker 2: of emotional discomfort. They want harmony. They want people to
Speaker 2: like them. They want the room to stay smooth and pleasant.
Speaker 2: So Instead of correcting behavior, they manage optics. They nod,
Speaker 2: they half agree, They soften language, They rewrite history in
Speaker 2: real time to avoid tension. But leadership is not about
Speaker 2: managing comfort. Leadership is about managing standards. And standards only
Speaker 2: exist when someone practices them. And here's the scary part.
Speaker 2: The employee who lies or manipulates in those moments is
Speaker 2: not always the big problem. Sometimes the bigger problem is
Speaker 2: the room full of leaders who silently allow it. Because
Speaker 2: passive leadership spreads faster than active leadership. One week moment
Speaker 2: teaches everyone what the real standard is. Not the handbook,
Speaker 2: not the policy, not the mission statement hanging on the wall.
Speaker 2: The real standard becomes whatever leadership tolerates under pressure. That's
Speaker 2: why culture is never built during speech is culture is
Speaker 2: built during uncomfortable moments. The employee says I told someone,
Speaker 2: and the leader calmly replies, no, you didn't. Nobody here
Speaker 2: was informed. Next time, communicate properly. That's leadership, professional, direct, clear,
Speaker 2: no screaming, no humiliation, no drama, no corporate bs, simply
Speaker 2: protecting the standard. And here's something leaders need to understand.
Speaker 2: Avoid what in confrontation does not eliminate conflict? It delays it,
Speaker 2: and delayed conflict grows teeth. The five second uncomfortable conversation
Speaker 2: you avoided today becomes a five month culture problem tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Now people start asking questions, why does that employee get
Speaker 2: away with things? Why are standards different for different people?
Speaker 2: Why should I care? If leadership doesn't? And once employees
Speaker 2: stop believing leadership means what it says, rebuilding credibility becomes
Speaker 2: almost impossible. Trust takes years to build in about thirty
Speaker 2: seconds to destroy. This also creates another dangerous issue. Good
Speaker 2: employees start emotionally checking out. Because high performers hate inconsistent leadership.
Speaker 2: They can tolerate strict bosses, they struggle to tolerate fake leadership,
Speaker 2: especially when they watch leaders privately vent frustrations while publicly
Speaker 2: doing nothing. That behavior destroys respect fast. I want you
Speaker 2: to remember something important from this episode. Leadership accountability is
Speaker 2: not about punishment. It is about clarity. Healthy organizations have
Speaker 2: clear expectations, clear communication, and clear ownership. Weak organizations survive
Speaker 2: on assumptions, emotional guessing, and selective enforcement. And every time
Speaker 2: a leader silently nods at something they know is false,
Speaker 2: they weaken the culture a little more so If you
Speaker 2: are a leader listening to this today, I want you
Speaker 2: to ask yourself one difficult question. Where in your organization
Speaker 2: are you silently agreeing with things you know that are
Speaker 2: not true? Where are you avoiding tension to protect temporary comfort?
Speaker 2: Because leadership is not tested when everything feels easy. Leadership
Speaker 2: is tested in those awkward moments where honesty costs something.
Speaker 2: That's where culture gets built, that's where credibility gets protected.
Speaker 2: This has been the seven Minute Leadership Podcast, and I
Speaker 2: thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot
Speaker 1: com