Leadership Mistake You Will REGRET

The picture on the left is me in 2018, getting ready to make one of the biggest mistakes that I've ever made as a leader. That mistake is wanting to be liked more than respected. I'd just taken over a new team, and that team was full of tenured employees. We needed to make changes. It was pretty obvious that we needed to make those changes. The problem is this team didn't want those changes. In order for us to grow and to scale the business, these changes were critical. The idea was to stop operating in silos and start collaborating more as a team, which means start. Some of the roles had to change. I knew deep down that I needed to have some really tough conversations and that some of the team members, especially some of the top producers and the longest tenured, were not going to like those changes. As I started thinking about the changes that we need to make and having those conversations, there was a few things that went through my mind. Somewhat embarrassed to say this, but one of them was, what if they don't like me? Another common thought was, what if they leave? These are top producers. I need to keep them. Well, guess what? I didn't have those conversations. I didn't do what I needed to do best for the team, and they left anyways. Then In March of 2020, our business came to a screeching halt. Everybody remembers the pandemic. No one were hiring. Our clients were putting things on hold. Our business was taking a big hit. And that was the pivot point. That was when we were either going to die or we were going to adapt and grow. So. So we chose to adapt and grow. I realized if we were going to make that happen, we had to make the necessary changes. And if we were going to build a great culture, it had to start with the leader. And that was me. So we got to work first. We defined what do we want our culture to be. And remember, people support what they help create. So it was important that I had the team involved in developing what these core values of our organization look like, started scheduling more one on ones to develop deeper relationships and to share the vision of the company and where we wanted to go. We implemented stay interviews and let me be clear, not exit interviews. Stay interviews. Once you're doing exit interviews, it's too late. They're already gone. It didn't happen overnight, but we did begin to grow something that we're proud of and it's still happening today. We have an organization where culture and connection is at the forefront of everything that we do, where people can speak freely, they can share ideas, struggles, challenges, obstacles without a fear of any retribution. That's called psychological safety. Since 2018, our company has more than doubled in revenue and in the process, I found a new passion of mine, helping leaders transform into culture architects. So that's me on the left. Definitely wasn't in a good place. The guy on the right have it all figured out? Nah, not even close. But I'm certainly on the way. Definitely feeling great. I'm about where we're heading and where we're going and developing a culture with a ton of psychological safety and an organization that not only I can be proud of, but the team, more importantly, can be proud of. So if you're a leader and you feel that your leadership skills or your team's culture isn't exactly where you want to be, go ahead and send me a DM. I'd be happy to talk to you. Schedule a 1520 minute call to figure out where you are on your journey. As usual, like comment and share. Subscribe to the YouTube channel where all things leadership development will be discussed.