Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building and goala giving.
Speaker 1: This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host
Speaker 1: Paul Fellavaledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode six nineteen. There is a moment that sneaks
Speaker 2: up on leaders. It usually happens quietly. You get promoted,
Speaker 2: you get trusted, People start looking to you for answers,
Speaker 2: and without realizing it, your learning slows down while your
Speaker 2: responsibility speeds up. You go from student to decision maker,
Speaker 2: from asking questions to giving direction, from learning to leading.
Speaker 2: And that's exactly where many leaders stall out. Not because
Speaker 2: they're lazy, not because they think they know everything, but
Speaker 2: because leadership changes how learning fits into your day. When
Speaker 2: you are early in your career, learning is expected. You're trained, coached, corrected.
Speaker 2: You're allowed to ask questions without anyone questioning your credibility.
Speaker 2: When you're leading, learning becomes almost invisible. It has to
Speaker 2: be intentional or it does not happen at all. I
Speaker 2: want to tell you a quick story. Years ago, I
Speaker 2: was flying with an instructor. After being away from aviation
Speaker 2: for a long time, I had experience. I had logged hours.
Speaker 2: I felt confident walking onto the flight line, and within
Speaker 2: minutes I realized something uncomfortable. I was rusty, not unsafe,
Speaker 2: not reckless, but rusty in the small things that matter.
Speaker 2: Checklists felt slower, situational awareness felt heavier. My reaction lagged
Speaker 2: by a second or two. And my instructor said something
Speaker 2: that stuck with me. He said, the moment you stop
Speaker 2: learning is the moment you start relying on memory instead
Speaker 2: of awareness. Leadership works the same way experience keeps you alive.
Speaker 2: Learning keeps you sharp. And here's the trap leaders fall into.
Speaker 2: They confuse being busy with being developed. They confuse responsibility
Speaker 2: with mastery. They confuse position with growth. Leadership piles on meetings, emails, fires, people, problems, decisions, optics,
Speaker 2: and expectations. Learning gets pushed to the edges of the
Speaker 2: day and then off your calendar completely. So how do
Speaker 2: you keep learning when you are leading? Not theoretically practically.
Speaker 2: Let me give you a few field tested approaches that
Speaker 2: work in real leadership roles. First, shift from learning like
Speaker 2: a student to learning like a leader. Students learn to
Speaker 2: acquire knowledge. Leaders learn to refine judgment. You don't need
Speaker 2: more information you need better filters. That means, instead of
Speaker 2: asking what should I learn next, you ask what decisions
Speaker 2: am I making repeatedly? And where do I hesitate? Hesitation
Speaker 2: is a signal, Confusion is a signal, rework is a signal,
Speaker 2: and those signals tell you exactly where your learning needs
Speaker 2: to happen. If you are constantly second guessing people decisions,
Speaker 2: then study people dynamics. If financial conversations drain, you, study
Speaker 2: finance at a practical level. If conflict lingers longer than
Speaker 2: it should, study communication under pressure. Leadership learning should chase friction,
Speaker 2: not curiosity alone. Second, replace long courses with short drills.
Speaker 2: And this is where my seven minute leadership now trademarked matters.
Speaker 2: You don't need long hours, you need consistency. Seven focus
Speaker 2: minutes beats a three hour seminar that you never apply.
Speaker 2: Read one page with intent, listen to one idea, and
Speaker 2: write one takeaway. Ask one better question at your next meeting.
Speaker 2: Learning sticks when it's small enough to survive a busy day.
Speaker 2: Leaders who keep learning build microhabits, not grand plans. Third,
Speaker 2: learn in public and think in private. Many leaders believe
Speaker 2: they need to appear fully formed. They stop asking questions.
Speaker 2: In meetings, they stop saying I do not know yet.
Speaker 2: They stop thinking out loud. Strong leaders do the opposite.
Speaker 2: They learn in public by asking better questions. They say
Speaker 2: things like walk me through your thinking, or what am
Speaker 2: I missing here? Or help me understand the risk. That
Speaker 2: does not weaken authority, it sharpens it. Then they think
Speaker 2: in private, they reflect, They replay conversations. They ask themselves
Speaker 2: what worked, what didn't work, and what would I do
Speaker 2: differently next time. Learning is not loud. Reflection is where
Speaker 2: it locks in. Fourth, build a personal learning perimeter. Every
Speaker 2: leader needs a perimeter, a boundary that protects learning time
Speaker 2: from being eaten alive by chaos. That might be seven
Speaker 2: minutes at the start of your day before email. It
Speaker 2: might be the last seven minutes before you leave work.
Speaker 2: It might be one walk per week with a leadership
Speaker 2: podcast in your ears. If learning does not have a
Speaker 2: protected place, leadership pressure will take it. Your calendar reveals
Speaker 2: your priorities every single day. Fifth, let your team teach you.
Speaker 2: This one requires humility. Your team sees things that you cannot.
Speaker 2: They experience the impact of your decisions downstream. Ask them
Speaker 2: what is slowing us down? What do you wish Leaders
Speaker 2: understood better. Where do we create friction without realizing it?
Speaker 2: That is advanced leadership learning, and it's free. And finally
Speaker 2: understand this truth. Leadership is not the finish line of learning.
Speaker 2: It is the environment that demands it most. The higher
Speaker 2: you go, the fewer people correct you, the fewer people
Speaker 2: challenge you, the fewer people tell you when you're drifting.
Speaker 2: That makes learning a leadership responsibility, not a luxury. If
Speaker 2: you stop learning, you do not stay the same, You
Speaker 2: fall behind quietly. So here is your challenge this week.
Speaker 2: Pick one decision that you make often. Spend seven minutes
Speaker 2: this week learning how to make it better. One article,
Speaker 2: one conversation, one reflection. Leadership does not reward knowing everything.
Speaker 2: It rewards leaders who keep sharpening the blade while carrying
Speaker 2: the weight. And if you want more free leadership resources,
Speaker 2: head on over to Paulfaloalito dot com click on free Stuff.
Speaker 2: I have over twenty five free leadership documents that you
Speaker 2: can download today. This has been the seven minute leadership
Speaker 2: podcast and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul fell of Alito podcasts, visit Paulfelovalito dot
Speaker 1: com