A business coach with 15+ years of leadership experience explains why teams don't respect their leaders: guilt-based management instead of clear standards. Late arrivals, minimal effort, and back-channel complaints signal a low-standard culture. Leaders must enforce expectations consistently and confront issues directly rather than preserve superficial peace.
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Your team does not respect you, and deep down you have known it for years. Heck, you walk into your business, half the people don't even say hello to you. Maybe you don't even know half of your team. Here's what's actually happening in your business. Your team arrives late, there's no standards, they do the minimum, no one's there to check on them, they smile to your face and complain behind your back. And something I know about teams is that you need to constantly be on their back about certain things. They're like a sieve, I always say it. You teach them one thing, it's like something they've been doing for a long time, has completely disappeared. It's the weirdest thing, but everyone needs repetition. You need to show up as the leader. And the thing that peeves me off is they smile to your face and then complain or say worse behind your back, and you absorb it because you want to keep the peace every single time because you think, oh, it's only a little, it'll go away. But let me tell you, it accumulates and it becomes a snowball. You just feel so uncomfortable facing the reality. 'cause you feel that confrontation feels unkind. Let me tell you, your business is your space and you set the standards. Because you'd rather carry the cost than have the conversation, let me tell you, problems are getting bigger and bigger. Here is the truth that changes everything for you. I've led teams for over 15 years. People who don't follow things and follow rules, they're not bad people. They've got shit going on in their life. They're not disrespecting you because they are wanting to disrespect you. But there's certain things going on that you haven't seen, you haven't actually observed. They're disrespecting you because you taught them there's no cost to doing so. You lead from guilt, not standards, and a team never rises above the leader who refuses to hold one. You need to lead. You're not too harsh, you're not harsh enough actually. The most successful people who are in business, entrepreneurs that I know, are not the most technically gifted. They are the ones who decided that mediocrity stops here. Are you ready to make that decision? Comment reset and we can have a chat, business owner to business owner.
