Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and golajiving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul
Speaker 1: fella Aledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode seven thirty nine. Today I want to talk
Speaker 2: about something fun. Leadership tricks, not hacks, not shortcuts, not
Speaker 2: corporate buzzwords, real little moves that change how people respond
Speaker 2: to you. The problem with most leadership advice is it
Speaker 2: sounds great in a keynote and then disappears by Tuesday morning.
Speaker 2: So today I want to give you five leadership tricks
Speaker 2: that I think you'll actually use. Some of these are strange,
Speaker 2: some feel almost too simple, but they work because they
Speaker 2: with human behavior in ways most leaders never notice. So
Speaker 2: the first one is leadership trick number one. Arrive early
Speaker 2: and do one tiny task nobody asked you to do.
Speaker 2: Not emails, not checking your calendar, Walk around and quietly
Speaker 2: improve something. Straighten chairs, refill paper, wipe the coffee station,
Speaker 2: pick up trash, fix the whiteboard markers, do something that
Speaker 2: nobody assigned. Why Because leaders dramatically underestimate symbolic actions. People
Speaker 2: rarely remember your speech. They remember seeing the chief carrying boxes,
Speaker 2: They remember seeing the CEO move tables. They remember seeing
Speaker 2: you do work beneath your paygrade. When people see leaders
Speaker 2: contribute without ceremony, they unconsciously lower their resistance to contributing themselves.
Speaker 2: You set behavioral weather. Try this tomorrow. Do one visible
Speaker 2: task before anyone arrives. Don't announce it, and just watch
Speaker 2: what happens. Leadership trick number two. Answer the question behind
Speaker 2: the question. Employees ask weird questions. Can I leave early?
Speaker 2: Do I really have to do this training? Why are
Speaker 2: we changing this? Most leaders answer the literal question the
Speaker 2: better move answer the hidden question? Can I leave early?
Speaker 2: The hidden question? Do you trust me? Do I need training?
Speaker 2: The hidden question? Am I failing? Why are we changing?
Speaker 2: The hidden question? Are you making my life harder? If
Speaker 2: you only answer the words, people leave frustrated. If you
Speaker 2: answer the concern underneath, people feel understood. Try saying, tell
Speaker 2: me what's making you ask? That sentence opens doors. Leadership
Speaker 2: becomes easier when you stop arguing with words and start
Speaker 2: listening for motives. Leadership trick number three, create a two
Speaker 2: sentence rule. When emotions go up, shorten leaders often make
Speaker 2: situations worse because they over explain. So try this when
Speaker 2: giving direction. Limit yourself to two sentences. Sentence one, what
Speaker 2: is happening? Sentence two, what happens next? And I'll give
Speaker 2: you the example. We had a scheduling issue this morning.
Speaker 2: We're fixing coverage, and I'll update everyone at noon. That's it.
Speaker 2: Notice what's missing? Defending, rambling, storytelling. People under stress don't
Speaker 2: need a documentary, They need confidence. And this works in meetings.
Speaker 2: This works in family life, This works in emergencies. People
Speaker 2: follow clarity. Leadership trick number four rotate the spotlight weird
Speaker 2: when your team succeeds, intentionally highlight someone unexpected, not always
Speaker 2: your rock star and not always your favorite. Finds somebody
Speaker 2: who usually gets overlooked. Maybe it's dispatch, maybe it's housekeeping,
Speaker 2: maybe the quiet employee, maybe the new person. Then publicly
Speaker 2: connect their action to the result. Yesterday worked because Sarah
Speaker 2: noticed the problem before everyone else. This does something powerful.
Speaker 2: It teaches everyone what matters. Recognition is one of the
Speaker 2: strongest forms of organizational programming. People chase whatever gets noticed.
Speaker 2: Most leaders accidentally create cultures without realizing it, So use
Speaker 2: the spotlight intentionally. Leadership trick number five leave one question behind.
Speaker 2: This might be my favorite. At the end of meetings,
Speaker 2: at the end of one on one, at the end
Speaker 2: of presentations, instead of ending with statements, end with one question.
Speaker 2: What's the one thing we're pretending not to see. What
Speaker 2: would break this plan? What would make this easier? What's
Speaker 2: something nobody has asked yet? Questions linger, statements expire, Questions
Speaker 2: keep working after people leave. People think in loops. A
Speaker 2: great question follows people into traffic, into lunch, into bedtime,
Speaker 2: and eventually they come back with better ideas. That's leadership.
Speaker 2: You didn't force action, you created thought. So let's recap
Speaker 2: five leadership tricks you'll actually use. Number one, arrive early
Speaker 2: and improve one thing. Number two answer the question behind
Speaker 2: the question. Number three use the two sentence rule, Number
Speaker 2: four rotate the spotlight, and number five leave one question behind.
Speaker 2: None of these require budget approval, none require a consultant,
Speaker 2: none require a new title. Small leadership moves create large
Speaker 2: behavioral shifts. That's something I've learned after years in emergency
Speaker 2: services and everyday conversations. People don't always remember your strategy.
Speaker 2: They remember your moments, and moments are smaller than most
Speaker 2: people think, so you're challenge this week, pick one of these,
Speaker 2: only one. Just try it for seven days and ask yourself,
Speaker 2: did people change or did I? Sometimes leadership growth hides
Speaker 2: in places too small to notice until they compound. So
Speaker 2: before we close out today, remember this leadership is not
Speaker 2: one by the biggest speech, the biggest office, or the
Speaker 2: loudest person personality. Sometimes leadership is a cleaned up breakroom,
Speaker 2: a better question, two fewer sentences, one unexpected thank you,
Speaker 2: one moment where someone quietly says I want to work
Speaker 2: harder because of that. That's the game, seven intentional minutes
Speaker 2: at a time. 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
Speaker 1: com