Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building and GOLA GV.
Speaker 1: This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host
Speaker 1: Paul fella Aledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to this seven minute leadership podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode seven eighty six. Today's episode is called doing
Speaker 2: the work nobody celebrates. If you've been in leadership for
Speaker 2: any length of time, you've probably noticed something. The work
Speaker 2: that gets applause usually isn't the work that makes an
Speaker 2: organization successful. People celebrate the big contract, They celebrate the award.
Speaker 2: They celebrate the ribbon cutting, the promotion, the viral social
Speaker 2: media post, the million dollar milestone, or the championship trophy.
Speaker 2: Very few people celebrate the person who quietly prevented a
Speaker 2: disaster from happening in the first place. Leadership is full
Speaker 2: of invisible victories. Nobody applauds the leader who updates a
Speaker 2: policy before someone gets hurt. Nobody throws a party because
Speaker 2: payroll went out accurately for the three hundred and twenty
Speaker 2: seventh consecutive pay period. Nobody writes an article because the
Speaker 2: ambulance was stocked correctly. Nobody notices that the backup generator
Speaker 2: started exactly the way it was supposed to during a
Speaker 2: power outage. Nobody claps because your onboarding program prevented a
Speaker 2: new employee from quitting after the first week. Yet these
Speaker 2: are the moments that determine whether organizations survive. And here's
Speaker 2: the uncomfortable truth. If people notice you doing your job
Speaker 2: every day, something is probably broken. Think about your own life.
Speaker 2: Do you notice electricity every morning? Probably not. You notice
Speaker 2: it when it goes out. Do you think about your
Speaker 2: breaks every time you drive? No, you think about them
Speaker 2: the first time they don't stop the car. Leadership works
Speaker 2: exactly the same way. The greatest compliment a leader often
Speaker 2: receives is silence, not because people don't appreciate the work,
Speaker 2: because everything is functioning exactly the way it should. And
Speaker 2: if you listen to this show a lot, you know
Speaker 2: that I think about aviation quite often. Before every flight,
Speaker 2: pilots perform a pre flight inspection. They inspect fuel, they
Speaker 2: inspect flight controls, they inspect oil, tires, the lights. Every
Speaker 2: single flight, nobody congratulates a pilot because the wings were
Speaker 2: still attached before takeoff. Nobody posts on social media saying
Speaker 2: congratulations on checking the fuel caps because that's the expectation.
Speaker 2: Yet skipping one of those boring, repetitive tasks can change
Speaker 2: lives forever. Leadership has its own version of a pre
Speaker 2: flight inspection, checking in with employees, reviewing finances, maintaining equipment,
Speaker 2: updating emergency plans, having difficult conversations before they become impossible conversations,
Speaker 2: following through when everyone else forgot. Most of that work
Speaker 2: is painfully ordinary. That's why many leaders slowly stop doing it.
Speaker 2: They're chasing the exciting work, the visible work, the work
Speaker 2: that gets recognition. Meanwhile, the invisible work quietly disappears. And
Speaker 2: then one day the organization experiences a crisis, and everyone asks,
Speaker 2: how did this happen? It usually didn't happen overnight. It
Speaker 2: happened one unchecked detail at a time, one ignored conversation
Speaker 2: at a time, one delayed decision at a time, one
Speaker 2: skipped inspection at a time, one forgotten employee at a time.
Speaker 2: Leadership doesn't usually collapse because of one giant mistake. It
Speaker 2: slowly erodes because nobody wanted to keep doing the work.
Speaker 2: Nobody celebrates. I learned this lesson in ems years ago.
Speaker 2: Every morning, cruise check their ambulance oxygen medications, defibrillator, airway equipment, suction,
Speaker 2: hundreds of individual items. Most mornings, nothing is missing. Most mornings,
Speaker 2: every battery works. Most mornings, nothing exciting happens. It's easy
Speaker 2: to think, why are we checking all this again? And
Speaker 2: then one patient needs something immediately. Suddenly the least exciting
Speaker 2: part of your day becomes the most important. Operation never
Speaker 2: feels exciting until it's priceless. The same is true in business.
Speaker 2: Your employees are watching something you may not realize they're
Speaker 2: watching consistency. Anybody can be an inspiring leader on Monday
Speaker 2: mornings after a successful quarter. The real question is who
Speaker 2: are you on a random Wednesday afternoon when nobody is watching.
Speaker 2: Do you still return calls? Do you still encourage people?
Speaker 2: Do you still keep your promises? Do you still walk
Speaker 2: through the building? Do you still notice the quiet employee?
Speaker 2: Do you still pick up the piece of trash on
Speaker 2: the floor? Do you still do the little things? Because
Speaker 2: culture isn't built during keynote speeches. Culture is built during
Speaker 2: ordinary Tuesdays. And I've said for years that leadership is
Speaker 2: measured in minutes, not moments. Small actions, repeated thousands of
Speaker 2: times eventually become someone's workplace experience. That's why I challenge
Speaker 2: leaders to stop asking what can I do today that
Speaker 2: people will remember? Instead ask what quiet responsibility deserves my
Speaker 2: attention today. Those questions produce very different leaders. One is
Speaker 2: chasing applause, the other is protecting the future. There's another
Speaker 2: reason this matters. Your team is learning what excellence looks
Speaker 2: like by watching you. If you ignore the small things,
Speaker 2: they will too. If you cut corners, they will too.
Speaker 2: If you believe preparation matters, eventually they will believe it matters.
Speaker 2: Leadership is contagious, so is complacency. People often ask me
Speaker 2: what separates great organizations from average ones. It's rarely talent,
Speaker 2: it's rarely money. It's usually discipline. Great organizations continue doing
Speaker 2: the boring wor long after everyone else becomes tired of it.
Speaker 2: That's why championship sports teams still practice fundamentals. That's why
Speaker 2: elite military units rehearse simple tasks thousands of times. That's
Speaker 2: why great restaurants still clean the kitchen every night, and
Speaker 2: that's why outstanding EMS crews still check every compartment before
Speaker 2: every shift. Excellence isn't exciting, it's dependable. Dependability isn't flashy.
Speaker 2: It's repeatable. Repeatable behaviors become trusted organizations, and trusted organizations
Speaker 2: outlast organizations that are built on hype. And here's something
Speaker 2: worth thinking about today. Imagine if someone followed you around
Speaker 2: for an entire week. They wouldn't watch your presentations, they
Speaker 2: wouldn't watch your annual meeting, they wouldn't watch your biggest success.
Speaker 2: They would watch your ordinary habits. With those habits to
Speaker 2: convince them that you're an exceptional leader. Because leadership is
Speaker 2: rarely judged by your biggest day, it's judged by your
Speaker 2: average day. The average day is where organizations quietly become extraordinary.
Speaker 2: So this week, embrace the work nobody celebrates. Make the
Speaker 2: phone call, check the equipment, coach the struggling employee, fix
Speaker 2: the spreadsheet, update the checklist, review the policy, and walk
Speaker 2: through the building thank someone who deserves it. Nobody may
Speaker 2: applaud you, nobody may even notice you. And that's okay
Speaker 2: because the strongest organizations in the world are built by
Speaker 2: leaders who understand something incredibly, incredibly important. The work that
Speaker 2: earns the least recognition often creates the greatest results. So
Speaker 2: as you head into your week, remember this leadership isn't
Speaker 2: about chasing applause. It's about earning trust, one quiet decision
Speaker 2: at a time. The leader who consistently handles the ordinary
Speaker 2: eventually becomes the leader everyone depends on during the extraordinary.
Speaker 2: So keep showing up, keep doing the work that nobody celebrates.
Speaker 2: Someone's future may absolutely depend on it. This has been
Speaker 2: the 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