Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and golajving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul
Speaker 1: fella Aledo. Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute
Speaker 1: Leadership Podcast. It's episode four seventy three, and today I
Speaker 1: want to share with you a story that's been floating
Speaker 1: around classrooms, boardrooms, coffee shops and social media. It's simple,
Speaker 1: it's powerful, and it will change how you think about leadership.
Speaker 1: A professor once asked his student a question. He said,
Speaker 1: if you're walking into school with a cup of coffee
Speaker 1: and someone bumps into you, what happens? And the student said, well,
Speaker 1: I'd spill my coffee. The professor nodded and asked, why
Speaker 1: did you spill the coffee. The student replied, because someone
Speaker 1: bumped into me. The professor shook his head. No, you
Speaker 1: spilled coffee because coffee was what was in your cup.
Speaker 1: If your cup had been full of water, you would
Speaker 1: have spilled water. If it had been full of orange juice,
Speaker 1: you would have spilled orange juice. What's inside of you
Speaker 1: always spills out when life shakes you, and there it
Speaker 1: is the leadership lesson every one of us is carrying
Speaker 1: a cup. Most of the time we can control it,
Speaker 1: but life has a way of bumping into us. An
Speaker 1: angry customer amidst deadline, a staffing shortage, a board member
Speaker 1: who blindsides you in a meeting, or even something as
Speaker 1: small as traffic on the way to work. The bump
Speaker 1: isn't the real issue. The real question is what's in
Speaker 1: your cup. Because when life shakes you, whatever you're carrying
Speaker 1: inside is going to spill out onto your people. If
Speaker 1: you're carrying anger, anger spills. If you're carrying stress, stress spills.
Speaker 1: If you're carrying insecurity, then insecurity will spill. But if
Speaker 1: you're carrying patients calm, gratitude, or confidence, then that's what spills.
Speaker 1: Leaders often make the mistake of blaming the bump. I
Speaker 1: snapped at my team because they dropped the ball. I
Speaker 1: yelled in the meeting because they weren't prepared. But just
Speaker 1: like the coffee example of the truth is you didn't
Speaker 1: spill because of the bump. You spilled what was already
Speaker 1: inside of you. Now here's the hard truth. You don't
Speaker 1: get to choose when you get bumped, but you do
Speaker 1: get to choose what fills your cup. This is why
Speaker 1: emotional control and self awareness are not optional skills in leadership,
Speaker 1: their survival skills. If you want to know the real
Speaker 1: health of your leadership, don't look at how you behave
Speaker 1: when everything is smooth. Look at what spills out whenever
Speaker 1: you get shaken. So how do you change what's inside
Speaker 1: of your cup? There's three quick moves that I want
Speaker 1: you to remember. Number One, start every day by filling
Speaker 1: it intentionally. Don't just wake up and let the world
Speaker 1: decide your mood. Put gratitude, patience, in perspective in your
Speaker 1: cup before you even walk into the office. That means
Speaker 1: your morning routine matters more than you think. Number two,
Speaker 1: check your cup throughout the day. Ask yourself, am I
Speaker 1: running on empty? Am I filling up with stress or
Speaker 1: even negativity? If you don't check, you'll miss the slow
Speaker 1: leaks that drain you. And number three, take responsibility for
Speaker 1: your spills when you mess up, and you will own it.
Speaker 1: Tell your team that was me spilling the wrong thing.
Speaker 1: I'll do better. This honesty doesn't weaken your leadership and
Speaker 1: actually strengthens it. Because here's the deal. Leadership isn't about
Speaker 1: avoiding bumps It's about making sure that when you do
Speaker 1: get bumped, what spills out helps your people instead of
Speaker 1: hurting them. So I'll leave you with this challenge today,
Speaker 1: before the world bumps into you, ask yourself, what's in
Speaker 1: my cup? And if the answer isn't something you'd want
Speaker 1: to spill on the people you lead, then it's time
Speaker 1: to pour it out and refill. This story might seem simple,
Speaker 1: but it's one of the most viral leadership lessons I've
Speaker 1: ever come across. Share it with your team, share it
Speaker 1: with your family, Share it with anyone who needs to
Speaker 1: understand that what's inside them is what the world sees
Speaker 1: when things get tough. This has been the seven Minute
Speaker 1: Leadership Podcast, and I thank you for listening. For more
Speaker 1: Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot com.