Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and golajiving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul Fellavoldo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode five ninety nine. Let's talk about something that
Speaker 2: quietly wrecks good leaders every single day, and that is
Speaker 2: self doubt. Not the dramatic kind, the quiet kind, the
Speaker 2: kind that creeps in during meetings, decisions, emails, and moments
Speaker 2: when you hesitate instead of lead. Here's the problem. Self
Speaker 2: doubt feels personal, but it's usually structural. Shows up when
Speaker 2: leaders rely on feelings instead of facts. Most leaders do
Speaker 2: not lack ability, they lack evidence, and when evidence is missing,
Speaker 2: your brain fills the gap with noise. Today we are
Speaker 2: replacing self doubt with data driven confidence, and we are
Speaker 2: also talking about the culture divide that shows up when
Speaker 2: leaders guess instead of measure. Confidence is not personality based,
Speaker 2: it's proof based. Real confidence comes from knowing, not hoping.
Speaker 2: Self doubt loves ambiguity. It thrives when leaders say things
Speaker 2: like I think, or I feel, or I'm not sure
Speaker 2: how this will land. Data shuts that down. Let me
Speaker 2: be clear, data is not spreadsheets and corporate dashboards. Data
Speaker 2: is evidence. You can point to data answers questions like
Speaker 2: what happened last time? What changed? What worked? What failed?
Speaker 1: What?
Speaker 2: Patterns keep repeating. When leaders stop collecting proof, they start
Speaker 2: inventing stories, and those stories usually blame themselves or assume
Speaker 2: resistance that doesn't exist. This is where the culture divide starts.
Speaker 2: One side of the organization lives in reality, the other
Speaker 2: side lives in perception. Leaders sit in meetings talking about morale, performance, engagement,
Speaker 2: and trust, but they cannot show where those beliefs come from.
Speaker 2: Teams notice that gap immediately. When leaders speak without data,
Speaker 2: people stop listening, not out of respect, but out of confusion.
Speaker 2: Confidence without data feels loud. Data with confidence feels calm. Strong.
Speaker 2: Leaders do not sound rushed. They sound grounded. And here's
Speaker 2: the shift that matters. Stop asking yourself, am I good
Speaker 2: enough to make this call? Start asking what evidence? Do
Speaker 2: I already have? Evidence changes everything. So let's break this
Speaker 2: down into real leadership moves. First, replace opinions with patterns.
Speaker 2: One complaint does not equal a trend. One bad week
Speaker 2: does not equal failure. One loud voice does not equal consensus.
Speaker 2: Track patterns, not moments. When leaders react to moments, culture
Speaker 2: becomes chaotic. When leaders respond to patterns, culture become stable. Second,
Speaker 2: document your wins. Most leaders forget their own track record.
Speaker 2: They remember mistakes in discount progress. Write down decisions that worked,
Speaker 2: projects that landed, conflicts that resolved, people who grew under
Speaker 2: your leadership. That list is data. Confidence grows when you
Speaker 2: stop letting your brain erase the proof. Third, bring data
Speaker 2: into conversations that usually run on emotion, performance review, team meetings,
Speaker 2: conflict resolution, change announcements. When you say here's what we're
Speaker 2: seeing instead of here's how I feel, tension drops. People
Speaker 2: trust leaders who can show their work. Fourth, measure what
Speaker 2: you tolerate. Culture is not what you say. Culture is
Speaker 2: what repeats, track call offs, track late starts, track miss deadlines,
Speaker 2: track follow through, not to punish, but to clarify. When
Speaker 2: leaders tolerate without measuring, resentment builds on both sides. Data
Speaker 2: removes guesswork and drama. Now let's talk about the culture
Speaker 2: divide piece. Self Doubt at the top creates confusion at
Speaker 2: the bottom. When leaders hesitate, teams fill the silence with assumptions.
Speaker 2: Some assume weakness, some assume politics, some assume favoritism, some
Speaker 2: assume nobody is steering the ship. None of that is
Speaker 2: true most of the time, but perception becomes reality When
Speaker 2: leaders do not anchor decisions in data. Data driven confidence
Speaker 2: closes that gap. It tells the team this decision is
Speaker 2: not personal. It's informed. It tells the organization we are
Speaker 2: paying attention. It tells you, as a leader, you are
Speaker 2: not guessing. And here's the hard part. Data sometimes confirms
Speaker 2: uncomfortable truths. It may show a process is broken. It
Speaker 2: may show a leaders avoiding a tough call. It may
Speaker 2: show standards slipped quietly. That is not failure. That is clarity.
Speaker 2: Clarity is a leadership advantage. Self doubt fades when leaders
Speaker 2: face facts instead of avoiding them. And one more thing.
Speaker 2: Data does not remove humanity, it protects it. When leaders
Speaker 2: rely only on feelings, they burn out faster. When leaders
Speaker 2: rely on evidence, they last longer. Confidence is not about
Speaker 2: being loud or certain. It's about being prepared. If you
Speaker 2: want to lead without second guessing yourself, stop waiting to
Speaker 2: feel confident. Build confidence the same way pilots build trust
Speaker 2: and instruments by checking them consistently. Seven intentional minutes a day.
Speaker 2: Reviewing facts, patterns, outcomes, in signals will change how you lead.
Speaker 2: Self doubt loses power when evidence shows up. So here's
Speaker 2: your final takeaway. Confidence is not something that you summon.
Speaker 2: It's something that you assemble by peace, decision by decision,
Speaker 2: and fact by fact. Replace self doubt with data and
Speaker 2: you do more than strengthen yourself, you stabilize your entire culture.
Speaker 2: And if you want more free leadership resources, head over
Speaker 2: to Paulfalovalito dot com click on free Stuff. I have
Speaker 2: over twenty five free documents that you can download today.
Speaker 2: This has been the seven minute Leadership podcast and I
Speaker 2: thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul Fello Alito podcasts, visit Paulfellowalito dot com