Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and goalachieving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul Fellavaledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode six seventy nine. Today, I want to talk
Speaker 2: about a quote that if you truly understand, it will
Speaker 2: change the way you lead, the way you think, in
Speaker 2: the way you respond to pressure. What stands in the
Speaker 2: way becomes the way. Just let that sit with you
Speaker 2: for a second, because most leaders spend their entire career
Speaker 2: trying to avoid what stands in their way. They dodge it,
Speaker 2: they delay it, they delegate it, they complain about it,
Speaker 2: and in doing that they miss the entire point. The
Speaker 2: obstacle is not in your way. The obstacle is your way.
Speaker 2: Every single leadership problem you're dealing with right now, the
Speaker 2: difficult employee, the budget issue, the broken culture, that failed plan,
Speaker 2: that tension in your team, that is not something to
Speaker 2: work around. That is your assignment. That is your leadership moment.
Speaker 2: That is your red key moment. And most leaders never
Speaker 2: flip that key. They stay in what's comfortable, they operate
Speaker 2: in what they already know. They repeat what worked before
Speaker 2: and hope it works again. But leadership does not grow
Speaker 2: in comfort, It grows in friction. Think about your best leaders,
Speaker 2: the ones you respect, the ones people would follow anywhere.
Speaker 2: They were not built in easy moments. They were built
Speaker 2: in the moments where something stood in their way and
Speaker 2: they decided to go straight through it, not around it,
Speaker 2: through it. And here's where this gets real. For you
Speaker 2: walk into work tomorrow and there's a problem waiting for you.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's a conversation you've been avoiding. Maybe it's a
Speaker 2: performance issue you have let slide. Maybe it's a culture
Speaker 2: problem that has been building under the surface. Most leaders
Speaker 2: will say I will get to that later. Strong leaders
Speaker 2: say that is exactly where I'm going first, because what
Speaker 2: stands in the way becomes the way. That problem is
Speaker 2: not blocking your leadership, it is revealing it. You do
Speaker 2: not prove you're a leader when things are smooth. You
Speaker 2: prove it when things are messy. You prove it when
Speaker 2: there's tension in the room. You prove it when people
Speaker 2: are watching to see if you are going to step
Speaker 2: up or step back. And here's the part nobody tells you.
Speaker 2: The obstacle will not move until you do. It doesn't shrink,
Speaker 2: it doesn't disappear, It does not solve itself. It waits.
Speaker 2: It waits for you to either face it or avoid it,
Speaker 2: And every time you avoid it, it grows. Every time
Speaker 2: you face it, you grow. So let's make this practical.
Speaker 2: Here are three ways to start living this out today. First,
Speaker 2: identify your obstacle right now. What is the one thing
Speaker 2: you know you need to address but have been putting off.
Speaker 2: Not five things, not a whole list, just one. Name it,
Speaker 2: because clarity is power. Second, move toward it fast, not recklessly,
Speaker 2: not emotionally, but intentionally. Schedule the conversation, address the issue,
Speaker 2: step into the tension. Speed matters here. The longer you wait,
Speaker 2: the more your team starts to read your silence as acceptance,
Speaker 2: and that's how culture starts to slip. Third, extract the lesson.
Speaker 2: Every obstacle has some thing to teach you about your team,
Speaker 2: about your systems, about yourself. If you walk through it
Speaker 2: and learn nothing, you wasted the opportunity. If you walk
Speaker 2: through it and grow, you just leveled up your leadership. Now,
Speaker 2: let me take this one step deeper. What stands in
Speaker 2: the way does not only apply to problems. It applies
Speaker 2: to fear, it applies to doubt, It applies to the
Speaker 2: voice in your head that says you're not ready for this.
Speaker 2: That voice is not your enemy. That voice is pointing
Speaker 2: directly at your next level. Because the things that scare
Speaker 2: you are usually the things that will grow you. The
Speaker 2: presentation you're nervous about, the decision you're hesitant to make,
Speaker 2: the change you're afraid to lead. That is the way,
Speaker 2: not the safe option, not the easy path, the thing
Speaker 2: you're avoiding. That is where your leadership is waiting. And
Speaker 2: here is the final true I want you to walk
Speaker 2: away with. You cannot build a strong team by avoiding
Speaker 2: hard things. You cannot build trust by ignoring problems. You
Speaker 2: cannot build credibility by playing it safe. Your team is
Speaker 2: watching how you respond when something stands in your way.
Speaker 2: They're watching to see if you step forward or step back,
Speaker 2: and in those moments, you are teaching them what leadership
Speaker 2: looks like. So the next time something stands in your way,
Speaker 2: I want you to pause for a second and say
Speaker 2: this to yourself, good, this is it. This is the moment,
Speaker 2: because what stands in the way becomes the way. And
Speaker 2: if you start leading like that, you stop avoiding leadership
Speaker 2: and you start owning it. So here is your challenge
Speaker 2: for today. Find the one thing that you have been avoiding,
Speaker 2: step into it, handle it with clarity, with confidence, and
Speaker 2: with purpose. Because on the other side of that obstacle
Speaker 2: is not just a solution, it is a stronger version
Speaker 2: of you as a leader. And that is what this
Speaker 2: is all about. Seven minutes a day, making you sharper, stronger,
Speaker 2: and more intentional. This has been the seven Minute Leadership Podcast,
Speaker 2: and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot com.