Bill Gallagher shares how admitting to his team that he had no plan during a business crisis in the early 2000s, when his company faced bank covenants and potential loss of his home, actually motivated them to stay and fight. He argues that vulnerability paired with firm commitment is what turns teams around.
I want to talk to you about the power of vulnerability, about authenticity, but really vulnerability, like being willing to show something that isn't normally thought of as strong. What's useful about that? And how do you do that without appearing like a. Like a weakling, like a loser, like you're unfit to lead. So in the early 2000s, after going through this whole thing and realizing. Realizing that I now had a purpose for my life and starting to work with my wife in a new business, our business bank called me up and said that, hey, we were in violation of our covenants and we need to close out our loan. Anyway, long and short of it, they wanted to shut us down and they wanted to take my house. And I was freaked out, and I didn't really have a plan. I didn't know how to solve the problem. I didn't know how to refinance the business. I hadn't yet figured out how to grow the business. I was still new in this whole thing. I was lit up. I was inspired, but I was failing. So I suffered with this for a while. And mostly I was strategizing, thinking about how to survive it. Like, I didn't have a plan for how to refi the business or how to gross out of it quickly enough. I didn't know what options I had. And so mostly I was thinking about how to survive the bankruptcy and the loss of the house, and that was just miserable. And I was private, and I was withdrawn and. And I was suffering with this thing, mostly alone. My wife knew the deal and what was going on, but not any of my team. And so I suffered with that for a while until she asked me this really important question. She asked me what was the example I wanted to set for our kids, right? Like, we could survive. So I dealt with two things then. One is I realized my worst fear. Like, I'd lose the house, I'd lose the business, and then our family would split up. I'd become a weekend dad. Lori would leave me. That was the thing I feared the most. She's like, oh, relax. Like, if, you know, if we screw this thing up, we'll move on to the next thing. She said, but what's the example to set for the kids? And that hit me. I'm like, I want to teach them to fight, to really, like, not back down from a challenge. And so then I looked at the business, and I realized, okay, I don't have a plan, but if I'm going to fight, I need some people in this battle with me. So I did something that was unusual, um, for me at that point. I went to my team and I said, listen, guys, we have a problem. I've been suffering with something for a little while now. I don't have a plan. I don't know what to do. The bank wants to shut me down. They want to take our house. And, you know, I let all the emotion, and there was more emotion. Sometimes there's a lot when I tell it, but. But I let all that kind of come out. I let him see the struggle and torment. I said, but I'm not gonna back down. I'm not gonna surrender. I'm gonna fight. And I don't have a plan, but I'm not gonna quit. I'm gonna fight them to the very end. And I could use some help. But I understand you all have families and things, needs of your own to deal with, so you might need to move on. And if you need to do that, I totally understand. I wanna level with you, but I could use your help. If you'd like to join me, you're all welcome. I really need some help to figure this out and to fight them. And. And I can promise you I'll be honest and I'll be open and I'll empower you. And here's what we got. And here's the cool thing. Nobody quit. And together we worked it out. We figured out a way to negotiate with the bank to create a turnaround. And over the next year, we created a huge breakthrough and a complete turnaround of the company. But it took a change, so I had to be vulnerable. I had to communicate that I didn't have a plan, that I didn't have a clue. And yet, how did that turn out to be powerful leadership? Right? Inspired by my vulnerability, people were inspired by my stand. And those two things, it turns out, really do need to go together. So if I just said, hey, I'm. If I, you know, collapsed in a crying puddle and said, I don't have a plan, and woe is me, that would be. That would be one level of, you know, take a little courage to do that. But to say, I don't have a plan and I could use your help, and. And I'm not gonna quit, that I'm gonna fight to the very end, that was really inspiring. Right? That's like Braveheart stuff. People dig that. And everybody stuck around and everybody helped us create this incredible turnaround that we had over the next year. So the vulnerability is power, but then you also wanna leave people with something like a commitment, a conviction, your values or something to hang their hat on so that they can see your stand and your conviction in the matter. And, and that is how to use vulnerability powerfully. Let people in, Let them see something weakness. Let them see something unusual. Share with them where you're struggling. Invite their help. Give them a chance to stand up to join you in battle. But leave them also with something like a promise, a commitment, your partnership that lights them up. And people will, you know, they'll go, they'll go to battle with you in that kind of thing. Hope that's helpful. My name is Bill Gallagher. Will bring shows like to like this to you every week and hope it's been helpful for you. We'll talk to you again next time. Keep scaling up.
