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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 GOLA GV.

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<v Speaker 1>This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host

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<v Speaker 1>Paul fella Aledo.

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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 seven sixty nine. Today. I want to share

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<v Speaker 2>one of my favorite leadership analogies. It's something I tell managers, supervisors, executives,

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<v Speaker 2>and officers all the time because once you see it

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<v Speaker 2>in your mind, you'll never look at employee behavior the

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<v Speaker 2>same way again. So I want you to picture an

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<v Speaker 2>old Western movie and you know the exact scene I'm

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<v Speaker 2>talking about. There's a dusty street. Horses tied up outside

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<v Speaker 2>in a saloon with those little swinging wooden doors. They're

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<v Speaker 2>not very tall, they don't latch, they don't lock. Someone

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<v Speaker 2>walks up, gives them a gentle push, and they swing open.

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<v Speaker 2>Now here's the interesting part. They swing both ways. You

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<v Speaker 2>can walk in and you can walk right back out.

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<v Speaker 2>That's leadership. And throughout every organization there are invisible saloon

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<v Speaker 2>doors or gates. Employees make the decision to push through

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<v Speaker 2>them every single day. Nobody forces them, nobody locks them inside.

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<v Speaker 2>They simply make one small choice that slowly becomes a habit.

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<v Speaker 2>The first gate is the call off gate, and it

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<v Speaker 2>usually starts with a legitimate reason. Someone gets sick, a

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<v Speaker 2>family emergency happens, life gets in the way. No reasonable

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<v Speaker 2>leader has a problem with any of that, And then

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<v Speaker 2>something changes. One call off becomes two to who becomes four,

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<v Speaker 2>and soon mondays become suspicious, Fridays become convenient. Every holiday

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<v Speaker 2>weekend has a familiar pattern, and before long, the employee

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<v Speaker 2>is standing on the other side of the call off gate.

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<v Speaker 2>Here's the mistake many leaders make. They assume that person

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<v Speaker 2>is now a bad employee. I don't. I believe they're

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<v Speaker 2>simply standing in the wrong place. The gate isn't locked.

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<v Speaker 2>They can walk right back through it if they want.

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<v Speaker 2>Leadership's job isn't to scream across the gate. It's to

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<v Speaker 2>walk over, have the difficult conversation, explain what they're seeing,

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<v Speaker 2>and re mind that employee of their value, and help

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<v Speaker 2>them push back through that gate, because that's where their

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<v Speaker 2>best version still exists. And here's another gate. I call

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<v Speaker 2>it the just enough gate. In this one might be

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<v Speaker 2>the most dangerous because it's quiet. The employee still shows up,

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<v Speaker 2>They still complete enough work to stay off everyone's radar.

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<v Speaker 2>Nothing spectacular, nothing terrible. They're living right in the middle.

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<v Speaker 2>No energy, no initiative, no ownership. They're doing enough to

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<v Speaker 2>collect a paycheck without creating much value. Organizations are full

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<v Speaker 2>of people standing behind this gate. Again, it isn't locked.

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<v Speaker 2>Sometimes one honest conversation changes everything. Sometimes recognizing good work

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<v Speaker 2>wakes someone back up. Sometimes giving them a challenge reminds

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<v Speaker 2>them why they took the job in the first place.

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<v Speaker 2>Sometimes people simply need someone to believe they're capable of

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<v Speaker 2>more than they've been Showing leadership helps people find the

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<v Speaker 2>handle they forgot was there. But let's keep walking. There

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<v Speaker 2>is another gate, the gossip gate. At first, it feels harmless.

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<v Speaker 2>A conversation in the hallway, a complaint in the breakroom,

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<v Speaker 2>a sarcastic comment after the meeting. Soon people aren't solving

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<v Speaker 2>problems anymore. They're collecting complaints. The negativity becomes entertainment, and

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<v Speaker 2>before long they've walked completely through that gate. Notice something interesting.

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<v Speaker 2>Nobody wakes up on a Tuesday morning saying today I'd

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<v Speaker 2>like to become the office gossip. They drift one conversation

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<v Speaker 2>at a time, one complaint at a time, leadership interrupts

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<v Speaker 2>that drift, not with punishment first, with awareness first, because

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<v Speaker 2>people don't always realize which side of the gate they're

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<v Speaker 2>standing on. And then there's the victim gate. Everything becomes

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<v Speaker 2>someone else's fault. Management, scheduling, the economy, the weather, coworkers, policies, technology.

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<v Speaker 2>Every setback has an explanation that points somewhere else. Personal

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<v Speaker 2>responsibility quietly disappears. I've seen incredibly talented employees spend years

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<v Speaker 2>standing behind this gate. Years. One day they finally decide

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<v Speaker 2>they've had enough. They push back through. Suddenly they own

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<v Speaker 2>their decisions again. Their performance improves, their attitude changes, nothing

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<v Speaker 2>magical happened. They simply walk back out. And here's another

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<v Speaker 2>the comfort gate. And this one catches experienced employees. They've

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<v Speaker 2>mastered the job, they know the routine, they're respected. Then

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<v Speaker 2>learning stops, training becomes optional, Innovation becomes annoying, new ideas

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<v Speaker 2>become something to criticize. Comfort slowly replaces curiof That's another

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<v Speaker 2>swinging door. The leader's responsibility is to gently remind people

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<v Speaker 2>that growth never ends. The best employees never stop learning,

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<v Speaker 2>never stop asking questions, never stop improving. The gate swings

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<v Speaker 2>both ways. One of the biggest leadership lessons I've learned

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<v Speaker 2>over nearly three decades is this, don't define people by

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<v Speaker 2>the gate they're standing behind. Today. I've watched employees completely

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<v Speaker 2>turn their careers around. I've watched poor performers become supervisors.

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<v Speaker 2>I've watched difficult employees become outstanding mentors. And I've watched

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<v Speaker 2>burned out people rediscover why they love the profession in

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<v Speaker 2>the first place. Why Because none of those gates had locks.

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<v Speaker 2>Leadership is often guilty of labeling people permanently for temporary behavior,

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<v Speaker 2>and that's dangerous. When you label someone is lazy, toxic,

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<v Speaker 2>unreliable or difficult forever, you're quietly telling them there's no

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<v Speaker 2>point in walking back through the gate. I don't believe that.

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<v Speaker 2>I believe accountability and belief can exist together. You can

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<v Speaker 2>hold someone accountable while still believing they're capable of becoming

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<v Speaker 2>who they used to be, or even better, who they've

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<v Speaker 2>never become yet. And there is one final gait. I

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<v Speaker 2>want to leave you with the leadership gate. One day

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<v Speaker 2>someone decides to step through it. They volunteer for a project,

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<v Speaker 2>they mentor someone new, They solve a problem nobody asks

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<v Speaker 2>them to solve they stop saying that's not my job.

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<v Speaker 2>They start acting like an owner. Leadership begins long before

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<v Speaker 2>someone gives you a title. That gate swings both ways too.

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<v Speaker 2>You can walk through it today. No permission requires no application,

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<v Speaker 2>no promotion, only a decision. The beautiful thing about leadership

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<v Speaker 2>is that every morning, every employee walks past dozens of

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<v Speaker 2>invisible gates. Some lead towards excellence, some lead toward mediocrity,

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<v Speaker 2>some lead toward excuses, some lead toward accountability. The gates

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<v Speaker 2>themselves aren't good or bad. They're simply choices waiting to

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<v Speaker 2>be made. As leaders, don't spend your career trying to

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<v Speaker 2>build bigger fences around people. Spend your career reminding them

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<v Speaker 2>that the gates were never locked. People can change, teams,

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<v Speaker 2>can recover, cultures, can improve, performance can come back. Sometimes

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<v Speaker 2>all it takes is one conversation, one decision, and one

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<v Speaker 2>push in the right direction. This has been the seven

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

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<v Speaker 1>For more Paul fell of Alito Podcasts, visit Paul fellovalito

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<v Speaker 1>dot com