The 3 Leadership Habits That Turn Managers Into Trusted Leaders

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You've heard of the Peter Principle, correct?

Yes.

Promote someone to their level of incompetency. If they're a great salesman, they will probably be a great manager.

Absolutely. The best sales manager ever that you have to hire.

Correct. Because they have. They may be the best salesman. They have all the leadership acumen of maybe this water bottle, the mouse, or that coffee cup you have.

That one might have a little more.

Yeah, I see that. I'm glad you matched the coffee.

I did. I coordinated it.

That's well done. Well done. For those of you that are listening. Yeah. Chrissy always matches. For some odd reason, I just look the same. But nonetheless, we are talking about leadership this week, and we're gonna define it. Which can we do? I think we can stay tuned. She's the CEO.

He's the marketing and operations guy.

If it's broken, you need the business.

F.

What's interesting, Chrissy? I mean, we're October, and we're end of October here.

Yeah.

It's fall.

Yes.

I know. Football's on.

It is. It's so good. I'm so happy.

It's just weird. I. I didn't picture you. I still. I'm having a tough time.

I love football. I do. I, I love that it's on almost every day right now.

Really?

Yeah.

Huh.

Yeah.

I just, I didn't picture that.

Tuesdays and Wednesdays make me sad, but.

I, I, I just think it's funny to our audience. Like, if you would, like, stand us up next to each other and be like, which one of these two is the football fan? I don't think they would point to you in nine times out of ten.

Probably not, but it is. It's me. I even got to do a speaking event at the Football hall of Fame a couple weeks ago. I was so excited. That was. I could have spoken about anything. And they said, do you want to go to Football hall of Fame? I was like, yes, absolutely.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's. It's just crazy to me.

What about for you, anything fun going? I mean, football makes me happy. So what's making you happy right now? Because it's cold.

Yeah, it's cold and miserable. And I'm. I'm getting ready to put motorcycles away. And the problem is, is if not necessarily that I'm putting motorcycles away, it's that all my friends are. And I don't always ride with friends, but, like, I'm. I'll call a friend, like, hey, do you want to go for a ride? They're like, it's 40 and raining. And I'm like, yep, I know.

Don't you want to go?

No.

Right. Fear weather riders. Right.

I'm like, it's 40 and raining. This is great weather to ride. I've got heated vest. I've got heated gloves. What do I need? That's the lack of dignity. I think that helps this week. Leadership. Yeah, we have to define leadership. The cringe on your face. I believe that cringe says it all. And I mean, for so many. Like, I know when I was, like, 17, 18, leadership meant I got the corner office, I got the fancy view, maybe. Maybe a parking spot by the door because, you know, I was, like, 18, 19, and lazy. Over the years, I feel like leadership may be different than that it wasn't just the jerk in the corner that barked orders.

Yeah.

Have you found that to be slightly different?

I have. It's not just about telling people to do the things, and then they do the things. Yeah.

Even though we were told we were supposed to, we. We have come to realize, I think, that you have to do more than just bark orders from your corner office in your cushy leather chair.

Pretty much.

Yeah. I found that too. Also, it's. It's interesting how when you just scream at people, they look at you like, you can go to hell or they leave. Correct. Correct.

Yeah.

They wave at you. They seem to be missing four fingers, but they wave at you as they walk out the door. We both. I mean, we're. We're both about trust. We're building. We're about creating those environments.

What.

First off, I. I guess I would say kind of, what's your definition of leadership? And how does, like, a leader's vision. You have. You. You have the visionary side of things.

Yeah.

How does the. That vision and their ability to. To, like, set the tone for it and talk about it and convey it, how does that impact an organization other than just people aren't as grumpy?

Yeah. So, you know, leadership isn't about having a title. It's about how you show up and what people experience because you're in the room.

I love that. That. That, to me is amazing. Because it's. It's not about you.

No, it's not. It's really never about you. But there are. I would say there's three Cs in leadership that actually build culture. Because if we're going to do things, let's do them in threes and let's have them all be the same, because alliteration is good. You're welcome, audience. I make it easy. So those three things are clarity, consistency, and care. And so clarity. Because clarity is kindness. To be clear is to be kind. So if your team doesn't know where you're headed, why it matters, or how they contribute, they're just showing up and going through the motions. They're not really doing. They're doing the things, but they're not doing the things with intention. And clarity gives you direction. It turns tasks into purpose. So if you want buy in, be clear. If you want trust, be clear. If you want momentum. What do you think it is, Josh?

I would believe be clear.

It's be clear. Yeah.

And I loved what you said about going through the motions there. And I have to add to that, if you. So many people will just treat it like their high school homework.

They love to phone it in. Minimum viable product. In leadership. We don't get to do mvp. No, you don't. You don't. So quick wins with clarity are sharing the why behind you. Make a decision why you're doing it. Defining success. Don't make people guess what the definition of success is for what your expectation is, and then check in, ask them, are we on the same page? Do you understand what I just was explaining? And if they say no, then do it again. Because clearly you are not.

Clearly, I like that.

Clearly you're not clear.

I like that.

Yeah. So the second one then is consistency and culture is what you do every day. We've talked about this. It's not what you put on the wall. It's actually the things.

Say it.

It's not wall art. It's not wall art. You're welcome.

I needed to hear that.

So your mood, your tone, your response under pressure, it's all teaching your team what's okay and what's not okay. And if you can't, you can't expect calm if you're chaotic. So you've got to be consistent. You can't ask for excellence if you're always winging it, because then, I mean, consistency becomes Their confidence. And that enables them to really get to know like, and trust you. And so quick wins for that would be, you know, starting meetings the same way, setting the same tone, having an agenda, following through on the things that you say every time, modeling what you expect.

You know what saying I have to insert there?

Go ahead.

You know what it is?

I'm probably. What is it?

Like your employees.

Yes.

If they're walking into a shitstorm, they need to know.

Yes.

They need to know which way the wind's blowing.

Always.

I mean, and if they know which way the wind's blowing can. If it's consistently out of the west, it's easy.

Yes.

Put your umbrella up to the west.

Yes. So clarity and consistency. And then the last one's care. All right. And it's very simple. People don't quit companies. They quit feeling unseen, right? Yeah, they do. They quit bad people. So they do. People don't. They don't. Yeah, they don't leave companies, they leave bad bosses. So great leaders know that people don't just want a paycheck. Yeah, they, they want to matter and they want to feel like their work means something. So that starts with you as the leader. So your words, your presence, your ability to listen without fixing. I know sometimes we all want to fix, but sometimes we just need to listen. We've talked about this in the past. Count to three before you interrupt anybody. Take notes if you distract yourself. So quick wins for showing care is saying thank you and being specific about it and then asking individuals, you know, how are you? No, really, how are you? This isn't just the, like, how are you? Okay, good, I'm moving on. Like you've got to actually ask, Ask a follow up question.

Don't phone it in.

Don't phone it in. No. And then the other part, with your employees in care is celebrating progress. Not every day is going to be an A plus day. So celebrate the progress. If you have a C player and they do B work, say thank you, I appreciate what you're doing. If you have a C player and they do a work, you better congratulate or praise them effectively. Because if you don't, they're gonna think, oh, I can just go back to sea work. Cause clearly when I go above and beyond, they don't notice it. So again, if you want a strong culture, you don't need a corporate retreat. You don't need a clever slogan. You really don't need wall art. You don't. You don't.

I mean, you have your sayings that I think you need to say in almost every show now I do. And I believe it's the crappy wall art.

Yes.

And the sweaty 10 minute conversation. Those are the two things.

Those are the two things. And eventually everyone's going to say it to me and I'm so excited when a listener actually parrots it back. I will know that I have, I have achieved.

So if you want to make Chrissy's day, put that in the comments below.

Yes.

Or go to the website and just send, send either one of those two things to Chrissy and you will have 100% made her day. People, be nice to Chrissy. I mean, do this thing for her. Give her the win.

I appreciate it. Make me happy. And then I know that I've modeled clarity, consistency and care because now people are following and doing the thing. Ooh, look at that, look at that leadership.

Is that, that's what we're talking about today.

That's what we're talking about today.

You brought that in somehow.

Full circle. So, yeah, good leaders can land the plane and get it back where it needs to go. So. So you're welcome.

I love this.

Yes. So we've talked about visionary stuff. So I want to talk, I want you to talk from an operational perspective. You know, a lot of leaders have that big picture vision. They don't always, they aren't always clear or they pick 5 million things that they want to pursue and don't really like. They struggle to get their team to follow them because they constantly are changing. So I want to know what's some of the things that you've learned or maybe the one thing that has the biggest impact on your ability to lead and what some of those simple actionable steps are. So can you give us some tactics?

For sure. There's, there's two pieces that I usually use with this is the one is, and I mean, I know you've heard me say this before, is it's that servant leader formula. Here's where we're going. And that speaks 100% to your clarity piece. Here is where we are going. This is the goal that is clear. You have to tell people, then follow it up with how can I help? The we are going to do this is the clarity piece. Then the how I can, how can I help piece that shifts the dynamic from do the thing, damn it, yes. To we're working on, we're in this together collaboration. Right. We're now collaborative instead of commanding. The other thing is too is I found in so many cases when you ask how can I help people? People will tell you roadblocks that are easy for you to remove.

Yeah.

That are tough for them to work around. So that is. That is a huge, huge piece to that. And then the other thing is too, is it makes sure that you stay involved in the process. Once again, it's that collaborative piece rather than, guys, go do the thing. Let me know when it's done. I'll be on a beach.

Don't do that. You can, but people won't stay long.

No, no, they definitely won't. The other piece that I like about that too is when you say that is you're allow the people that you've hired to use the skills that you've hired them for to get the thing done the way that they see fit. It may not be the way that I had envisioned it, but it's so funny. Nine times out of 10, when I give it to people and say, do the thing, how can I help? They're like, okay, we've got this, this, and this. They get it done in a way that I was like, oh, that was really good. Yeah, I've got. I've got good people. They're a lot smarter than I am. It doesn't take much, but it's like, they're a lot smarter than I am. So to me, that. That's the big thing, Trust. And it's trust through, follow through. When they ask you for help, do the help thing. I'm going to dive into that more a little bit later. The things that you need to watch out for is don't dilute accountability. When you say, how can I help? Don't let them say, well, you can just do it.

No. Or if they have, if they say, you can just do it, say, you know what? Let's do it together. I mean, because some of it may have been that you didn't train effectively 100%. So you've got to be willing to ask clarifying questions. I mean, if you've got an employee that's completely overwhelmed and that's a little bit different of like, Let me take a couple things off of your plate. But what you don't want to do is say, this is yours, and then you take it back. Because when you take it back, then they never get. They never have the opportunity to truly own it. Same thing. I liked what you said about trusting them to do it. I had a post a couple weeks ago about seagull management. So how people go in, they squawk, they may do some other things, and then they leave and there's just this trail and you're covered in bird doo doo and really annoyed. So don't do that. Like, you've got to be like, don't just jump in and say everything that's critical. If you're. If you're going to allow them to do the work, you can oversee, but don't micromanage.

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I'll give you a few seconds to go to the website while we get ready to get back to the show. Now, I wholeheartedly agree with that. That's. And like I said, nine times out of 10, we both said this, they're going to do it. In a way, you're like, oh, I didn't think of it. That's brilliant.

Yes.

I. There. I have. Good. And it feels so good to be like, I'm smart enough to hire smart people.

It is. Or when they remember all of the steps that you've given that you don't. That's even better. We're onboarding a new person, and my assistant's doing all the work, and I'm like, wow, she did all of the things in the right order. I don't do that.

No.

Why does it like her and not me? Oh, now I understand. She follows the process.

I get it. She knows what the hell she's doing instead of bringing in the amateur, you know, just the person that owns the place. It's so funny. And the other piece with that is, like, you have to make sure it's their core tasks, are their core tasks. Like you said, it's because the other thing you've got to watch out for is. You and I were talking about this earlier. A couple, like, I've had some burnout, like, got to the point where it's like, oh, did a little too much. I'm useless for two or three days. Yeah. So I'm like the pitcher that threw too many pitches, and now I'm out for a week and a half. It's just there. The other thing is too is you need to watch out for from the servant part is misrepresentation of the role. Make sure people know their peace in this. If you just say, hey guys, do the thing. If everyone's responsible, suddenly no one is responsible.

Correct. Yeah.

The other piece in that is you're still the leader. Don't be like, hey guys, get it done however you can. Suddenly they have their own leader and they're no longer talking to you about it. Yeah, you need to be, you're the decisive authority and when they ask you a question, you need to give them an answer about it. Not. Well, what do you guys think? It's great to get their feedback and it's great to get their input, but you shouldn't have them making the decisions. You should make the decision as the. Get this decisive authority. We're doing a lot of like root word things here today. I noticed that.

That's good.

The other thing is decision paralysis. When you, when you're like servant leader and you're like, hey guys, how do you think we should do this? It shouldn't take six meetings, four zoom calls and three emails to get this figured out as to where the hell you're going. Go, just go. And maybe there's one call in there to clarify things. Have we mentioned clarity? Clarification or clarity? I believe we've mentioned, I think we're trying to establish some patterns here. Could be wrong. The other thing that I really want to talk about when it comes to leadership trust and accountability are the, I mean these are non negotiables at like, at any. And I would say at the highest standard. The, the thing that I find in so many cases is when a leader, when you ask a leader to do something and they're like, okay, and two weeks later you ask them, hey, did you get the thing done? Oh, and then you ask him again a week later. I'll get to it. And then you ask him another. You see where I'm going with this? If someone, if you as a leader, if you want first off your people to follow you, if you say you're going to do it, you got to do it. And if you're not going to do it, you have to come back to them and say, look, either I can't do this or I think we're going to do something differently. But something has to be said about it. It has to be addressed.

Yeah. Because if you don't have follow through as the leader, then no one has follow through because there's no account ability 100%.

So that's why when I, like when I'm doing stuff like this, be it Kanban, board, Trello, Asana, Excel, a shared document, whatever, have notes about who's doing what by when. Correct. You take that. I mean on the spot. Because if you don't, something is going to follow, fall through the cracks. And to me, that is, that is where so many leaders lose their leadership.

Yeah.

Is they like they're in a meeting and something fell through the cracks? You can't do that. Once again, if you don't have time for it, if you don't have the capacity for it, you need to address it. But you can't just think, I hope no one noticed because guess what?

They're going to. They always notice when the leader doesn't have their stuff done.

They always notice. No one expects you to be perfect. Everyone expects you to put in the effort. And that is, that is the big thing. On the flip side of that too, it is that define the owner and the due date. Like I said, if it's everyone's responsibility, it's no one's. It's no one's responsibility, no one cares. And there's that. I forget whose philosophy it is, but jobs take as long as you give them. And if you put no due date on it, you have. Yeah, whenever.

Yeah.

And if I have the option of like, I don't need to get this done today or I can scroll Instagram, I'm still probably not going to scroll Instagram, but from an employee perspective.

Right.

The other thing that I, that I personally like to do is I like to make accountability visible. If people can see tasks and where people are at in the system, first off, they can plan ahead. I'm waiting, like, if I'm waiting on you. Well, let's put this, let's put this in more into perspective. If you're waiting on me to set up the, the, the, the initial base show.

Yeah.

For you to go in and put your notes and stuff like that. It, you know, you've, I know you're waiting on me for this, so I should get it done typically sooner than I do. But, but in the same sense that there's that accountability. We know the process.

Yes.

Of what we're doing, between what we're doing and how we're doing it. If, and it's a visible process. When I send you this, you know that, okay. This is the date when it's got to be done. This is the date when we're filming. The other thing is too, is it helps motivate people. I feel, in a way, if I realize that they're waiting on me to get stuff done, I'm going to do my best to make sure it's done at least on time.

Yeah.

If you see someone that's drowning, you have to make sure. I mean, if you leave the. If, if you show up to the office in the morning and they're wearing yesterday's clothes, then you realize that, like, hey, we need. Yeah, this is a little too much pressure for this person and we need to reanalyze this. But once again, when you see that in that accountability stack and when you see who's accountable for what, it brings together a much more teamwork type of vibe. And I'll. I'll make a. I'll make an actual football analogy.

Okay.

I was a goalkeeper. You're thinking the different football, the look of disappointment on Chrissy's face.

Like there is.

Everyone on that team has that job. They have a thing that they are, they specialize in. Now, the other thing that I like with soccer, so to say, is let's say a defender runs up, they've got a great run, they're looking to score. One of the forwards will fill in. Is he as good as at defense as the defender was? No, but he's. Once again, it's this rotation of responsibilities and everyone knows their job and it's this. Everyone can see what's going on and see where everyone else is. The, the other thing that really, to me is the closing. That feedback loop.

Yeah.

It's one of the reasons why I like the programs, you know, like Asana or like calendar invites. I'm a stickler if I don't like, if I send someone a Calendar Calendar invite and the day before, they haven't said yes to it.

Oh, I don't. We don't have a meeting.

Correct.

How that works.

Correct. I'm not showing up unless you've said yes.

Correct.

And to me, projects work the same way. If, if, if. Once again, it's in Asana or something like that. There's the tasks there. They see what's laid out. And I typically send an email or a message and I put it in a way. Hey, I wanted to send this to you. Here's a new project. Let me know what questions you have, or I will say, do you have any questions? Because when you say, do you have any questions? They're going to say yes or no, meaning I read the thing, it's that acknowledgement. It closes that loop. It makes sure that no one is just hanging out in the wind, getting lost and all the other things. I, I, I want to get to a point here that's going to be kind of interesting.

Okay.

How do you see leadership and management different? The smile on your face as I'm starting to say this, because he's like.

I've been waiting for this question.

I've been waiting 27 episodes for this. How do you, how do you see those as different?

So you manage things and you lead people. Manage things. You lead people. Yeah. There's no managing of people. Management keeps the wheels turning. Leadership decides where the bus is going. Yeah.

Ooh. The wheels on the bus go round.

And round and round. That's management. Leadership decides where we're going. And you need both, but you can't confuse them. So management is equal to, you know, tasks, systems, getting it done, the operations of things. Leadership is vision, values, building a culture that lasts.

It's funny, I see the, from my perspective on that, the management side is, I see a back of house. Leadership is front of house or in front of things. Yeah, yeah. Leadership is getting out in front of things. Management is what happens when it's sideways.

Exactly.

Or those issues on the back end of it. Yeah, they are. Once again, you need both. I totally agree. There are, There are things all the time. Even if you are leading correctly, there are still fires to put out.

Absolutely.

And those are the things that you are managing.

Correct.

But if you are just managing and not leading, you are, Congratulations. You are a fireman.

Yeah.

Not a business owner.

And I would say. And leaders do both. I mean, we have. There are things you have to manage, but you are supposed to be. You're the tip of the spear. You're the front of the ship. You're making sure that you're seeing what direction you're going.

Hi, Captain.

Yeah, it's not good to steer from the back.

Exact. Like leading by example.

Yeah.

This is one that I see. Oh, I have so many issues of this being terrible.

Mm.

I, and I. This is like the crudest story on the planet. I was talked to about professionalism on the phone one time when I was a, When I was a phone rep someplace. Three days later, my boss came over and farted in my cube. I mean, these are the things where I'm like, you just yelled at me for not being professional.

Exactly.

No, right, right, right, right. I mean, that is an example of why it's important.

Yeah.

Like the boots on the ground example, what do you feel it's important because I know you're going to have a different perspective.

No, I don't really. I mean your team doesn't follow what you say. They copy what you do.

Yeah.

So I mean if you want accountability, you need to show it. If you want calm and professionalism in the office, you had better model it and be it. I mean you want ownership, you better model it even when it's hard. I mean culture isn't built in a keynote. It's not?

No.

It's built in Tuesday mornings and those, those show ups and how you handle conflict when no one's watching. That is, I think a lot of times leaders think, well, they're only going to pay attention to me when I'm in the meeting. That's the least amount of time they're paying attention to you. They are paying attention to how you're showing up. What does your calendar look like? What does your. I mean there are many times where I'm not in the office for a solid week because I have so many different appointments. But it doesn't mean that I'm unreachable to my team. It doesn't mean that we're still not having touch points and meetings. I just may be doing it from my car, which I hate doing, but sometimes that happens or I may be doing it from a different place. And I think it's important to model the behavior that you want to see. I care about our relationship. I care about connecting with you. I. Even if I'm not going to be able to be present in the office, I can still have my presence known. Not because I'm lording over everybody but because I'm checking in and going, how can I help you? I may not be here physically, but what can I do to help you kind of move the goals forward and move our rocks forward and the things that we're working on within our organization. So I think if you, if you want people to be professional and care about the organization the way that you do, you need to model what you want to see.

100 I, I mean that to me is the. Yeah, people are. Will follow. People will follow your lead.

They will if you're a leader. And I think when we deal with things in clarity, when we have managers that are frustrated or leaders that are frustrated, like people won't listen to me. We're like, well, how are you behaving at work? It all comes back to consistency and how you're showing up and how you want to be perceived and how you are, you know, doing the work. People respect people who, who respect themselves. And if you're not taking care of the business the way that you're supposed to, they're not going to respect you either. If you're a small business owner navigating the world of marketing or looking to establish yourself as an industry expert, you already know the power of a great podcast.

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Back to the show.

Like emotional intelligence, obviously a big part of that is not farting in someone's cube, correct? I don't picture you as doing that.

I am not that person.

Good, good, good. I didn't, I didn't think you would be. I don't think many people in our audience think, feel that way either. How do you feel like, first off, like, emotional intelligence, I feel like is a term that is thrown around kind of willy nilly.

It is now.

Yes. Like, what do you, what do you feel? It is like a rough, like simple. I don't want to say definition, but like the, or what's the aura of emotional intelligence as far as this context? And then how do you feel it impacts, like people on the team?

So I think emotional intelligence in this context is being able to take in information, pause before reacting, and then react in a way that moves the ball forward. I agree. Okay, so newsflash, if you can't manage your own emotions, you can't lead anyone else through theirs. It's not going to happen. And that's, I mean, how you react becomes how your team reacts. And it's really important because, you know, high EQ leaders, since we say eq, they listen first, they pause before responding, they stay curious, they're not defensive. And when you stay grounded, your team feels safe. They feel like they can share things with you. And sometimes that information may be a difficult conversation. It may be, hey, we thought we were going to Go in this direction. We tried this big project and it failed. If they don't feel like they can give you information and you're going to be able to react to it positively, even when it's difficult, then you've created a culture of just, of scare and they're not going to be willing to share. So safe teams, they solve problems instead of running and hiding from them. And if you really want to move forward in your business and grow, you have to be willing to build that safety with your team, which means that you have to be able to control your emotions and manage them effectively. And I think that not 90% of leadership, but a significant amount of true leadership comes from being able to master yourself. When you have self mastery, then you can truly lead other people.

I wholeheartedly agree with that because it's, it's in. I was in a situation where there was someone just screaming at me.

No.

And I just sat there and listened.

It was very nice of you to do that. You should laugh.

No, I, I just sat and listened. And when he was done, when he's, when he's, when he just sat there looking at me puzzled, like, why aren't you yelling back? Because I saw he wanted to escalate. And I'm like, no, we're. We're just not going to do this. The secretary was, was like, after that was all over, and we cleaned up his stuff and escorted him out of the building. Yeah. After that was all over, she looked at me and she goes, that was crazy. And I'm like, what do you mean? She goes, you just sat there?

And I'm like, right, that's what I have to do.

Me getting, like, me getting riled up doesn't help the situation. No, it. When. And I see that, like, as business owners, we're passionate about our business, but we have to make sure we are reacting in a logical way to things instead. And that's what's so difficult in some cases to do is like, pull those things back and be like, okay, relax, cool, calm and collected. What, what about like delegation when it comes to that? I mean, because I know a lot of people hear delegation and they think I'm just pawning my work off.

No, that's not delegation. Delegation isn't dumping. It's empowering. So it's giving people the ability to do things. Yes. Delegation says, I trust you and I see what you're capable of. And I mean, here's the other thing that I will say. And we've talked about this in busyness, that if everything depends on you, you didn't build a team, you built a bottleneck. Congratulations. You are the point of failure. That's why I think oftentimes when, as leaders, when we're like, it didn't work. And it's like, why didn't it work? Well, because they didn't do the things. Did you tell them to do the things? No, I mean. Or did you. Or did you give them all the tools that they needed to do the things? Or is a key decision that they need to be able to get something done? Is that. Does that still fall to you? And you're on a beach because you decided you were going to take a vacation, but you didn't delegate effectively? Well, it's. That's your fault, dummy. Like, you have to be able to move things forward. And don't micromanage, because micromanaging kills initiative. When you empower people, when you delegate effectively, you're really. You're building leaders. I mean, you want to grow your business, Start by growing the people that are in it.

I love that. And that's the piece that I want to add to that is anytime I have had someone leave, even they could be three, four tiers of management below me.

Yeah.

I was like, okay, what did we. What did we do wrong? Any. Anytime something, it drives me nuts when I hear a manager blame an employee for a problem. The way to truly be a leader is to say, we, like, we messed this up.

This.

This didn't work. Now, if a. An employee has a problem, you need to address that. You need to address where it went wrong. Yeah, but don't blame the employee. No, you have to take this on. It's your responsibility as the leader to be like, look, they're. They're my responsibility. That person's output is my responsibility. And if they messed up, well, I guess I gave them something that got messed up. And I need to take that responsibility, too. I have seen so. And you would not. I mean, you do believe. Because you know this. I've seen so many leaders that have said when. As soon as they take that responsibility on for, like, whatever comes through my department is my responsibility. If one of my people screw it up, it's still my responsibility.

Yeah.

When you look at things differently and your team knows you look at it that way.

Yes.

Complete game changer. Complete game changer agreement. What are some actionable steps that you think people can take?

Are you asking me? Are you gonna. You taking this? Because we've got a few on here.

Yeah, we've got quite A few. To me, it's the servant leader. It be like, I am here for my team. I am here because of my team. My team is. It's the people that work around for, for everything. It's because of me. It's for me. So once again, I have to do everything in my power to make them the best that they can possibly be.

Yeah. And then I think it's leading with clarity, consistency and care. Those three Cs. Yeah. I'm going to broken record that. Clarity, consistency and care.

Please make Chrissy a T shirt that says that if we have anyone.

Cs of leadership. Chrissy's. Three Cs of leadership. Clarity, consistency and care.

Yeah. No. 100%. 100%. The other one that I like too is, is office support. Don't take over. When someone has an issue, they don't typically want you to swoop in and be like, I got this.

Yes.

What they do want is they want guidance on how to get through it.

Yes, I like that.

Don't, don't, don't offer to drive the bus for them. Be the gps.

I like that. There's one about accountability, creating accountability, you know, putting things on the list, ensuring that things aren't forgotten. It builds trust. And then the last thing I would say, and this is one that I think some people might be like, really, this is important, is it's to be a good leader, you have to be a good follower, 100%. And this is really important, especially if you're doing, if you're working with a consultant or you're working and doing professional development as a team. This is where your participation as a leader is so important. Because if you don't buy in and you don't participate, you're setting the tone for everybody else in your organization. You want to flush $10,000 of professional development down the toilet, Sit in the zoom room without your camera on and the virtual learning and, and see how everybody else does. And then when you're frustrated because they didn't seem to get it, it's like, well, you set the tone, dummy. You didn't show up. You gotta show up. So be the, be the follower that you want people to follow you as too. So be coachable. Learn to follow. Listen to the people on your team.

This is Chrissy's big on this one too. It's funny. This is why I was looking forward to this episode because I knew this was going to get you amped up.

Well, and these are simple things.

You didn't need that coffee.

I did Not. But I think what frustrates me so much about some of this with leadership is it is not hard. It is not a hard thing to learn. It is a hard thing sometimes to have to do, but it's really not. It's. It's not rocket science. It's really being clear being. Being consistent and being. And showing care. It's. It's not hard. It's not.

Besides that. Besides the difficulty level.

Yes.

What do you feel is the single. Maybe. Maybe you can fill in six of them here. What do you feel is the biggest misconception people have about leadership? Yep.

My job as a leader isn't to solve every problem.

Ooh.

It's to build a team that can solve problems without me in the room. Right. It's not about being in charge. It's about being responsible for the tone, the direction, and the culture that we build together. Because the truth is, leadership is less about what you do and more about how you show up. And that's what people remember is how you show up.

Oh, yeah. No, I agree. Totally agree.

Yeah. What's a simple habit you've adopted to ensure you're consistently supporting your team without accidentally micromanaging them?

Always ask, what. What do you need to get this done? When do you think this will be done? And it's. It's done in an approachable way. It's not, why isn't this done yet? It is, hey, just so I can fill it. Fill in my schedule. Where are we at on this project? It's these simple questions. So it's like, hey, I'm looking to support you. It's. It's. But the other thing is, is like, what do you need? What do you need to get this done? What's hanging you up? What are you seeing that we need to improve on? Because 99% of the solutions to your problems are going to come from the people doing the work.

Yeah. Not you, exactly.

Definitely not me. With all of that. To me, for everyone looking into stepping into a new definition of leadership, or hopefully this is an old definition of leadership that we just beat you over the head with. I believe there was a thing that you alluded to a couple of times. What was that again?

Which one being. Oh, you mean clarity. Yeah. Consistency and. And care.

Yeah, Those. Those three.

The three C's of leadership.

Correct. Correct. I. Once again, we need someone to make a T shirt of this for Chrissy.

I like that.

Lots of homework for everyone to. To make sure Chrissy has a good day. Thank you again, Chrissy. For more episodes and resources. Business fixpodcast.com we love seeing all the people visiting there. Really appreciate it. Also make sure you follow us on all the social medias. The business fix, a review, a subscription, a comment go a long way. Remember, you've got the comment, the comment assignment that you've got to work on. Next week we will be discussing failure. All I can think of is Andy in the office when he made the fail video. That was terrible. But that's not what this is going to be like. No, but we do are going to talk about what your people should expect when the fan needs a pressure washing. That being said, take care of yourself. If you can take care of someone else too, we will see you very, very. Sam.