Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and goal achieving.
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 six sixty. Let's get right into it. Every
Speaker 2: leader I talk to once the same thing. A unified team,
Speaker 2: a team that works together, backs each other up, communicates clearly,
Speaker 2: and actually moves in the same direction. But most teams
Speaker 2: don't look like that. They look fractured, they look political.
Speaker 2: They look like small groups competing under the same roof
Speaker 2: instead of one team pushing forward. And here's why leaders
Speaker 2: over complicate unity. They think it takes retreats, slogans, mission statements,
Speaker 2: and a bunch of corporate buzzwords to fix it, and
Speaker 2: it doesn't. There's one rule, one rule that will unify
Speaker 2: your team faster than anything else you can do. And
Speaker 2: here it is. The standard applies to everyone. That's it.
Speaker 2: That's the rule. If you want to unify team, there
Speaker 2: cannot be two sets of rules. There cannot be favorites.
Speaker 2: There cannot be exceptions based on rank, tenure, or personality.
Speaker 2: The moment your team sees that the standard is flexible
Speaker 2: for some people and rigid for others. Unity is gone,
Speaker 2: and once it's gone, it's almost impossible to get back.
Speaker 2: Let me paint the picture for you. You've got one employee
Speaker 2: who shows up late and nothing happens. You've got another
Speaker 2: employee who shows up late and gets written up. What
Speaker 2: just happened. You didn't create accountability, You created division. Now
Speaker 2: your team isn't focused on the mission. They're focused on fairness.
Speaker 2: And when people start watching how others are treated more
Speaker 2: than they're watching the work, your culture is already slipping.
Speaker 2: Unity does not come from everyone liking each other. That's
Speaker 2: a myth. Unity comes from everyone knowing the rules, trusting
Speaker 2: the rules, and seeing the rules applied the same way
Speaker 2: every single time. Let's go deeper. When the standard applies
Speaker 2: to everyone, a few things happen immediately. First, trust goes up.
Speaker 2: People may not love every decision you make, but they
Speaker 2: respect consistency. They know where they stand, they know what's expected,
Speaker 2: they know what happens if they cross the line. That
Speaker 2: clarity builds trust. Second, accountability becomes normal. You don't have
Speaker 2: to chase people down or have long emotional conversations. The
Speaker 2: standard does the work for you, You simply point back
Speaker 2: to it. This is what we agreed to. This is
Speaker 2: where you missed it. No drama, no confusion. Third, pure
Speaker 2: accountability starts to take over. This is where it gets powerful.
Speaker 2: When the team sees that the rules are real and consistent,
Speaker 2: they start holding each other to that level. Now it's
Speaker 2: not only coming from you, it's coming from within the team,
Speaker 2: and that's when you know you're building something strong. But
Speaker 2: let's talk about where leaders mess this up, because this
Speaker 2: is where most teams fall apart. Leaders bend the rules
Speaker 2: to avoid discomfort. They don't want to deal with the
Speaker 2: veteran employee who pushes back. They don't want to upset
Speaker 2: the high performer who breaks the rules. They don't want
Speaker 2: to have the hard conversation, so they look the other way.
Speaker 2: And every time they do that, they send a message
Speaker 2: to the rest of the team the rules don't really matter.
Speaker 2: Once that message is out there, it spreads fast. Now
Speaker 2: your team starts testing boundaries. Now people start asking why
Speaker 2: do I have to follow this if they don't. And
Speaker 2: now you're not leading a unified team. You're managing a
Speaker 2: group of individuals who are all playing by their own
Speaker 2: version of the rules, and that's exhausting and it's completely preventable.
Speaker 2: Let me give you a simple way to fix this,
Speaker 2: starting today, write down your top five standards, not twenty,
Speaker 2: not fifty, just five things like showing up on time,
Speaker 2: respecting each other, doing your job, completely, owning your mistakes,
Speaker 2: communicating clearly. Then ask yourself one question, am I applying
Speaker 2: these the same way to everyone? If the answer is no,
Speaker 2: that's your starting point. Because unity is not built in meetings,
Speaker 2: it's built in moments. It's built in how you respond
Speaker 2: when someone tests the standard. Do you enforce it or
Speaker 2: do you excuse it? That one decision is shaping your
Speaker 2: entire culture. Now let's take it one step further. If
Speaker 2: you really want a unified team, you have to live
Speaker 2: the standard too. You don't get a pass because you're
Speaker 2: the leader. In fact, the standard applies to you more
Speaker 2: than anyone else. Your team is watching everything you do.
Speaker 2: If you're late, if you cut corners, if you ignore
Speaker 2: the rules you set, you've already lost credibility. And without credibility,
Speaker 2: there is no unity. There's only compliance, and compliance is temporary.
Speaker 2: Unity is earned through consistency, day after day, decision after decision,
Speaker 2: no shortcuts. So here's your takeaway. If your team feels divided,
Speaker 2: stop looking for complicated solutions. Go back to the one rule.
Speaker 2: The standard applies to everyone, no exceptions, no favorites, no shortcuts.
Speaker 2: You hold the line. And when you do that long enough,
Speaker 2: something shifts. The noise quiets down, the politics fade, the
Speaker 2: team starts to move together, not because you force them to,
Speaker 2: but because they trust the system you built. And that's
Speaker 2: what real leadership looks like. So as you move through
Speaker 2: your day, I want you to pay attention to one thing.
Speaker 2: The next time someone tests the standard. Don't hesitate, don't
Speaker 2: negotiate with it, don't make excuses for it. Hold the
Speaker 2: line because every time you do, you're not only enforcing
Speaker 2: a role, you're building a unified team and that is
Speaker 2: worth everything. And if you want more free leadership resources,
Speaker 2: head over to paulfalloalito dot com and click on free Stuff.
Speaker 2: I have over twenty five free leadership resources that you
Speaker 2: can download and start using today. 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
Speaker 1: com