Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and golachieving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul
Speaker 1: fella Aledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to this seven minute leadership podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode five thirty eight. Today we're talking about one
Speaker 2: of the most important leadership truths that no one likes
Speaker 2: to admit out loud. Every leader has at least one problem,
Speaker 2: one issue, one decision that sits in the back of
Speaker 2: their mind and steals sleep from them. If you lead
Speaker 2: long enough, something will follow you home, sit at your
Speaker 2: dinner table, and then climb into bed with you. The
Speaker 2: question is simple, what are you going to do about it?
Speaker 2: That problem that does not let you sleep at night
Speaker 2: is not a random annoyance, It's a signal. It's your
Speaker 2: mind telling you that you have unfinished business. Leaders lose
Speaker 2: sleep for a reason. The mind is relentless when something
Speaker 2: is unresolved. So the message today is direct, do something
Speaker 2: about the problem that does not let you sleep at night.
Speaker 2: I'm going to break this into a structure you can
Speaker 2: use right now. Grab notes for this one, because this
Speaker 2: is a real world take action today style episode. First
Speaker 2: identify the exact fear. Leaders often tell themselves a story
Speaker 2: about the problem, rather than defining the problem itself. You
Speaker 2: might say you're stressed about your team, but you're actually
Speaker 2: stressed about one employee who's poisoning the culture. Maybe you
Speaker 2: tell yourself you're overwhelmed by finances, but you're actually overwhelmed
Speaker 2: because you've avoided the same budget conversation for six months.
Speaker 2: Until you labeled the problem correctly, you have no chance
Speaker 2: of fixing it, So write this down. Specific problems can
Speaker 2: be solved. Vague problems follow you home and ruin your night. Second,
Speaker 2: break the problem into one small first move. Notice I
Speaker 2: didn't say fix the whole thing tonight. I said take
Speaker 2: a small first move. Send the email, schedule the meeting,
Speaker 2: call the vendor, start the draft, Block the hour on
Speaker 2: your calendar to finally sit with it. The reason leaders
Speaker 2: stay awake all night is because they feel powerless. A
Speaker 2: single action gives you your power back. It signals to
Speaker 2: your brain that the problem is now in motion, and
Speaker 2: that alone lets you sleep better. Third, shrink the timeline.
Speaker 2: Most leaders give big problems big timelines, and that's a mistake.
Speaker 2: The longer you stretch the timeline, the heavy, the weight becomes.
Speaker 2: I teach this to leadership teams all the time. When
Speaker 2: something is keeping you awake at night, the timeline should
Speaker 2: be short. You don't need to finish the whole project
Speaker 2: in a day, but you do need to start the
Speaker 2: fix within twenty four hours. That's how serious leaders operate. Next,
Speaker 2: talk to the right person. Many leaders lose sleep because
Speaker 2: they carry a problem alone that should be shared with
Speaker 2: someone on their team. You're not meant to solve every
Speaker 2: issue yourself. Leadership is not about doing everything it's about
Speaker 2: improving everything. If the problem belongs with a deputy, a supervisor,
Speaker 2: a partner, or a subject matter expert, hand it off
Speaker 2: to them too. The moment you share that load with
Speaker 2: the right person, your brain starts to relax and then
Speaker 2: track your progress. You've heard me talk about this before.
Speaker 2: Leaders do better when they see progress in front one
Speaker 2: of them. Make a simple checklist for this problem. Break
Speaker 2: it into steps, cross things off. Progress lower's anxiety. Completion
Speaker 2: brings clarity, and clarity brings sleep. And here's a tactic
Speaker 2: from the aviation world. Pilots know that when something is
Speaker 2: wrong on the aircraft, you never ignore it, You never
Speaker 2: hope it resolves on its own, you diagnose it, address it,
Speaker 2: or you hand the aircraft off to someone who can.
Speaker 2: You treat every unresolved issue as a potential threat to
Speaker 2: the flight. Leaders should do the same. That problem that
Speaker 2: keeps you awake is not going away on its own.
Speaker 2: It's circling your runway, waiting for your attention. Deal with
Speaker 2: it while you're still in control, and not when you're
Speaker 2: forced to. So. Let me give you an exercise you
Speaker 2: can do today, and it only takes two minutes. Number one,
Speaker 2: write down the problem that is keeping you awake at night.
Speaker 2: Number two write the smallest first action you can take
Speaker 2: to fix it. Number three, put that action on your
Speaker 2: calendar today. Number four, tell one person you trust that
Speaker 2: you're taking ownership of this issue, and finally, do the
Speaker 2: next step tomorrow. This is the playbook. Leaders do not
Speaker 2: get rewarded for worrying. They get rewarded for action. Doing
Speaker 2: something about the problem that keeps you awake is not optional.
Speaker 2: It is part of the job. It's necessary, it's mandatory.
Speaker 2: The message today is simple and powerful. If it keeps
Speaker 2: you awake, it needs your attention. And if it needs
Speaker 2: your attention, you owe it to yourself, Your team and
Speaker 2: your mission to act now, not some day, because some
Speaker 2: day is the reason you're not sleeping in the first place.
Speaker 2: This has been the seven minute Leadership podcast, and I
Speaker 2: thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot com.