Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and golachieving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul
Speaker 1: Fello Aledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode two oh four and today I have a
Speaker 2: short leadership story for you. Let me tell you about
Speaker 2: a leader named Ellen. She was the kind of boss
Speaker 2: people either loved or feared. There was no in between.
Speaker 2: Ellen prided herself on keeping everything under control at Horizon Tech,
Speaker 2: a bustling company in the middle of a high stakes merger.
Speaker 2: Her motto no surprises. That's why it rattled her when
Speaker 2: her assistant Tom slipped the cryptic sticky note onto her
Speaker 2: desk one Thursday afternoon. It read, you need to check
Speaker 2: your office after hours alone. Ellen frowned. Tom wasn't the
Speaker 2: type for jokes. In his expression when he handed it
Speaker 2: to her, a mix of guilt and urgency was unsettling.
Speaker 2: At seven pm, after everyone had gone home, Ellen walked
Speaker 2: into her office. It was eerily quiet, except for the
Speaker 2: faint hum of the HVAC system. Her office looked just
Speaker 2: as it always did, immaculate, organized and utterly ordinary. She sighed,
Speaker 2: maybe Tom was losing it. Then she noticed something odd.
Speaker 2: Her leadership binder, where she meticulously tracked every team member's progress, meetings,
Speaker 2: and goals, was slightly ajar. Ellen never left it like that.
Speaker 2: She opened it and there it was a note in
Speaker 2: handwriting that wasn't hers. It simply said, leadership isn't about control,
Speaker 2: It's about trust. Ask yourself who you're really leading. Ellen
Speaker 2: felt her pulse quicken. She flipped through the pages. Whoever
Speaker 2: had written the note had left comments throughout the barn.
Speaker 2: On the page detailing her latest feedback to her team,
Speaker 2: someone had scrawled this isn't coaching, its criticism, and under
Speaker 2: her notes from a recent one on one with a
Speaker 2: struggling team member, did you really listen? And next to
Speaker 2: her plan for the upcoming merger, are you leading them
Speaker 2: or managing them? Her mind raised? Who could have done this? Tom?
Speaker 2: Another employee? Worse were these anonymous criticisms true? The following morning,
Speaker 2: Ellen called Tom into her office. Before she could say
Speaker 2: a word, he blurted out, I didn't write the notes,
Speaker 2: but I left the binder open. He paused, then added,
Speaker 2: I thought you needed to see it. Ellen stared at him, unsure,
Speaker 2: whether to be angry or grateful. That's all I know,
Speaker 2: Tom said, But maybe it's worth thinking about. Ellen spent
Speaker 2: the weekend reflecting. She realized that while she believed she
Speaker 2: was leading her team to success, she had focused so
Speaker 2: much on controlling outcomes that she had lost sight of
Speaker 2: the people the notes who ever wrote them, We're right,
Speaker 2: leadership wasn't about micromanaging. It was about building trust, empowering others,
Speaker 2: and creating space for them to grow. On Monday, Ellen
Speaker 2: called a team meeting. She didn't mention the notes, but
Speaker 2: she addressed the elephant in the room. I've been holding
Speaker 2: the reins too tightly, she admitted, and that's not fair
Speaker 2: to you or me. Starting today, I want us to
Speaker 2: rebuild trust. If I've missed the mark and how I've
Speaker 2: led you, I want to hear about it. The team
Speaker 2: was stunned, but the change was real. Over time, Ellen's
Speaker 2: office no longer felt like a place where people whispered
Speaker 2: in avoided eye contact. It became a hub of ideas, collaboration,
Speaker 2: and growth. In that mysterious note, Ellen never found out
Speaker 2: who wrote it, but in the end she realized it
Speaker 2: didn't matter. What mattered was it woke her up before
Speaker 2: it was too late. So, leaders, here's the question for you.
Speaker 2: Are you too focused on control to true lead? Are
Speaker 2: you too consumed that you criticize instead of Coach Ellen
Speaker 2: learned the hard way that leadership isn't about micromanaging, It's
Speaker 2: about trust, and in that she learned a very hard
Speaker 2: lesson from her team, one that gave her the wake
Speaker 2: up call she so desperately needed. So let me ask
Speaker 2: you this, what would your team write in your leadership
Speaker 2: binder if they had the chance. 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 com.