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Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of performance through strong
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human relations, team building, and goal achieving.
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This is the Seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host, Paul Felle Valido.
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Hello everyone and welcome to the Seven Minute Leadership Podcast, it's episode 688.
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Today I'm going to walk you through something that sounds incredibly simple on the surface,
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but it's one of the most powerful leadership decisions I've ever made.
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I send one email a week, that's it.
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One email every Thursday and it's a financial report.
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Everything else, every conversation, every correction, every recognition, every tough
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moment, every important decision happens in person.
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And before you brush that off as old school or unrealistic, I want you to hear this out
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because this philosophy will completely change how you lead, how your team communicates
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and how your culture feels every single day.
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Let's start with the problem most leaders are living in right now.
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Your inbox is running your organization, not your vision, not your standards, not your
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leadership presence, your inbox, you wake up, you check email, you respond to email, you
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manage problems through email, you argue through email, and you lead through email.
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And then you wonder why your team feels disconnected, confused, and disengaged.
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Email is efficient, but it is also the fastest way to remove humanity from leadership.
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There's no tone, there's no presence, there's no accountability in that moment.
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And most importantly, there's no leadership happening, it's just communication happening.
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And those are not the same thing, leadership is a contact sport, it requires presence.
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It requires eye contact, it requires reading the room, it requires the ability to adjust
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in real time, you cannot do that through a keyboard.
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So I made a decision, one email per week, every Thursday, financial report, it's clean,
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it's direct, it's transparent because numbers matter, people deserve to know where the organization
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stands, leaders need to understand the business side, not just the operational side.
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That weekly email becomes a rhythm, it creates consistency, it builds trust, it eliminates
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confusion, and most importantly, it removes the excuse of, I didn't know, everything
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else, it happens, face to face.
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If there's a problem, I find you, if there's a win, I tell you directly.
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If there's feedback, we talk about it in real time because leadership is not about sending
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messages, it's about creating moments and moments don't happen in inboxes, they happen
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in hallways, they happen in offices, they happen next to the truck, next to the desk,
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next to the job being done, this aligns directly with the belief that leadership is built
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in short, intentional moments, not long drawn out communication chains.
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Now here's where it gets uncomfortable for a lot of leaders, this approach forces you
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to show up, you can't hide behind your screen, you can't delay a difficult conversation,
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you can't carefully wordsmith your way out of accountability, you have to walk into
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When you walk into the room, everything changes, your team sees you, they feel you, they understand
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you, and more importantly, they trust you because you're not managing them from a distance,
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you're leading them up close.
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So let me give you something real, if you've ever received a long, passive, aggressive email,
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you know exactly how it feels, you read it two or three times, you try to figure out
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the tone, you start building a defense in your head, and now what should have been done
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a two minute conversation turns into a two hour mental battle, that's what email does,
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it creates distance, creates confusion and unnecessary tension, now flip that same issue
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handled in person, direct, clear, respectful, you can see the reaction, you can clarify instantly
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you can resolve it right there, no guessing, no escalation, no damage to the relationship,
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And here's the business side of this because this is not just about culture, it's about
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performance, when communication is handled in person, speed increases, decisions happen
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faster, mistakes get corrected quicker, alignment becomes immediate, you eliminate the lag time
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of email chains, missed messages, and delayed responses, you create a real time organization,
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and in today's world, speed matters.
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Now I'm not saying email has no place, it does documentation reporting formal communication,
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those things all matter, that's why the weekly financial report stays, it's structured,
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it's consistent, it's necessary, but it does not replace leadership.
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Too many leaders confuse communication volume, with leadership effectiveness, sending
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more email does not make you a better leader, being present does.
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And here's where this ties into something deeper, when you choose in person communication,
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you're sending a message without saying a word, you're saying you matter enough for me
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to show up, you're saying this conversation matters enough to have it face to face, you're
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saying I'm not hiding from this, that builds credibility, and credibility is everything
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Once you have it, your words carry weight, once you lose it, no email in the world will
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So here's the challenge, audit your communication this week, how many emails did you
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send that should have been a conversation, how many issues did you prolong because you
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didn't want to walk down the hall, how many opportunities did you miss to connect with
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your team because it was easier to just hit send, leadership is not about convenience,
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it's about impact, an impact happens when you show up, not when you hit send.
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So if there's one thing to take from this episode, it's this, reduce the noise, increase
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the presence, one email a week can run your information flow, your leadership has to run
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through you in person in real time, because at the end of the day, people don't follow emails,
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they follow leaders, they can see, hear, and trust.
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This has been the seven minute leadership podcast, and I thank you for listening for more
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Paul Felle Valito podcasts, visit PaulFelleValito.com.