December 2, 2025 • 38 mins
In this Mike on the Mic episode, I unpack the five biggest blind spots that cause leaders to unintentionally create the very problems they complain about.
From blaming others and silencing honest feedback to confusing activity for results, I reveal how these hidden habits quietly undermine trust, accountability, and culture. You’ll learn how to recognize these patterns, model ownership, and transform your leadership approach to build a stronger, more aligned team.
If you’ve ever wondered why your team isn’t taking more ownership or why the same issues keep showing up again and again—this episode might hit close to home.
Thanks for listening! Connect with us at mike-goldman.com/blog and on Instagram@mikegoldmancoach and on YouTube @Mikegoldmancoach
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mike (00:02):
Stop making excuses yourself and your team will stop
making excuses.
Now, that doesn't mean you'renot gonna miss a deadline every
once in a while.
That doesn't mean you're notgonna screw up on something you
committed to, but own ityourself and you will see your
team start to take ownership.
Mike Goldman (00:28):
You made it to the better leadership team show, the
place where you learn how tosurround yourself with the right
people, doing the right things.
So you can grow your businesswithout losing your mind.
I'm your host and leadershipteam coach, Mike Goldman.
I'm going to show you how toimprove top and bottom line
growth, fulfillment, and thevalue your company adds to the
(00:48):
world by building a betterleadership team.
All right, let's go.
Mike (01:00):
I see this recurring pattern with CEOs, gonna say
CEOs.
It could be leaders if you'renot a CEO, but I see this
recurring pattern that many ofthe problems, these CEOs, these
leaders have that, that we have,I'll count myself in there.
(01:21):
is kind of like the very thingwe are fighting is the thing
we're modeling.
Leaders tend to create the veryproblems that they complain
about.
Mike, my team won't takeownership, or, you know, I wish
(01:42):
people would speak their mindsmore around here.
Why?
Why do people wait for me tosolve the problem?
You know, why can't my leaders.
Figure out how to, pullthemselves out of the business
so they could spend more timeworking on the business than in
the business.
Many times these problems arecaused by blind spots that CEOs
(02:09):
and leaders have.
These blind spots are kind ofthe hidden ways that leaders
unintentionally create the veryissues.
That frustrate them most.
So in this episode, I'm gonnashare five of those blind spots
that I tend to see.
It doesn't mean those are theonly ones, but I share five of
(02:32):
those blind spots.
And if you are a leader, ifthese issues sound familiar to
you, it may.
Sting a little.
Even if they don't, you know theissues may sound familiar, but
you might say, I don't have thatblind spot.
Well, you may wanna dig in alittle deeper.
(02:53):
You may want to ask some of thepeople around you because
understanding that you may haveone or more of these blind spots
just might save your team orjust might be the thing to.
Help you get more sleep at nightand have less frustration and,
and just have a better team anda better company.
(03:13):
So it may get a littleuncomfortable, but let's kind of
get uncomfortable together here.
Blind spot number one.
Let's dig right in.
Blind spot number one is theBlame Game leaders complain
about victim culture, but victimculture starts from the top.
(03:34):
So the definition of this.
Blame game, blind spot is theidea that people on your team
are not taking ownership.
They're blaming the market,they're blaming other people on
the team.
They're blaming the client,blaming the vendor.
So a number of years ago Iworked with the CEO of a, a
(03:56):
flooring retailer, and.
Started them off with a two daystrategic planning session.
just a great two days.
they had some difficultdiscussions.
they made some importantdecisions.
They created a plan for how theywere going to move forward.
(04:21):
One of the things they.
Agreed to do one of the thingsthe CEO agreed to do, within two
weeks after that meeting.
And that meeting was just theCEO and the leadership team.
The CEO, agreed that they would,have an all hands meeting and
communicate the new vision, thenew plan, the new priorities.
(04:45):
To the rest of the organizationbecause one of the things that
came out of the meeting is, thatpeople don't really always
understand what's going onthroughout the company.
Well, for the next two, maybe itwas three months in my coaching
calls with the CEO, when I domonthly coaching calls with most
(05:08):
of my CEOs, the CEO would spend.
The first 10 minutes of everycall complaining about the rest
of the team.
We have this plan.
Why are people not doing whatthey say they're gonna do?
They have every excuse in thebook.
How do I hold peopleaccountable?
What do I need to do?
(05:28):
Fire everybody.
He was frustrated and I get it,but I asked him on each of those
calls.
Hey, one of the things you wereaccountable for was to schedule
the all hands meeting schedule,the all hands meeting, where you
(05:51):
are going to communicate thevision, the plan, the priorities
to the rest of the organization.
And by the way, I knew he was,for a number of reasons, sort of
uncomfortable.
Doing that.
He had never had an all handsmeeting before.
He wasn't sure how theorganization would, you know,
(06:12):
rally around or would they rallyaround this new vision they had
created as a leadership team.
It also took some convincingduring the meeting that he even
had to do that, but hisleadership team convinced him
that he needed to communicatethis vision, this plan, that
these priorities to the rest ofthe organization.
(06:32):
Well anyway.
Right after he would get donecomplaining about everybody
else, I'd say, Hey, you know, Iknow you told me you were
scheduled last Wednesday to dothat all hands meeting.
How did that go?
Oh, a big fire drill lastWednesday.
(06:53):
you know, we rescheduled it.
I'm gonna be doing it nextThursday.
That happened once.
That happened twice.
The third time that happened,and it's now I said two to three
months.
Pretty sure it was three monthslater.
Three months after he said hewas going to do this.
He had yet another excuse as towhy he didn't do this all hands
(07:18):
when he said he was going to,and my challenge to him was.
You are gonna have a bitch of atime holding your team
accountable, getting your teamto stop playing the blame game.
If you are doing that, they'remodeling it from you.
(07:41):
They're seeing from you.
It's okay to say, oh, there wasa fire drill.
I didn't get that done.
You are modeling the very thingyou don't wanna see in others.
So I will not help you fix theproblem in others until you fix
it in yourself.
Teams follow the leader.
That blame becomes contagious.
(08:05):
So what are some tacticalactions you can take if you find
yourself or your team blaming?
And not really taking ownership,letting things slide, but always
have an excuse first.
Own your own issues first, andown them out loud and start
(08:30):
problem solving with not who'sat fault for yourself, for
others.
Start problem solving with, youknow what did I miss here?
Or what did we miss here?
Ban the word they, each timethey is used, clarify exactly
(08:52):
who they is.
Is it really we, the team, thevendor gets specific, you know
who is, they don't let peoplesay they.
Publicly, own yourself a recentmisstep.
Show a little vulnerability.
(09:13):
Let them know you screwed up andwhat you're gonna do to fix it.
And when you do that, I promiseyou your team's language will
shift.
Reward, root cause honesty.
Praise people who raise systemmisses, process misses, and make
(09:41):
kind of ownership moments aritual.
Spotlight the team and personalexamples of where folks have
taken ownership.
Model ownership, demandownership of your team.
Stop making excuses yourself andyour team will stop making
(10:05):
excuses.
Now, that doesn't mean you'renot gonna miss a deadline every
once in a while.
That doesn't mean you're notgonna screw up on something you
committed to, but own ityourself and you will see your
team start to take ownership.
Let's go to blind spot numbertwo, muzzling the messenger.
(10:26):
Let's talk a little bit abouthow we as leaders might kill
that candor that we say we wantso much.
You know, CEOs complained, youknow, why don't people tell me
the truth?
But meanwhile, when they hearthe truth, they react.
Defensively, they dismissquestions.
(10:50):
They almost punish honesty.
So I worked with a C-E-O for anumber of years, a super smart
guy, super talented, CEO, whohad one major issue, well
probably had more than one, butone major issue relative to this
(11:12):
podcast, and that's, he was.
A little too smart for his owngood, and when he was with his
leadership team, he would tendto state his opinion pretty
strongly.
Then if someone challenged him,and I remember one specific
(11:35):
instance that he had a verystrong opinion and he was
challenged on that opinion by amember of the team, and he
treated this poor guy like ahostile witness on the stand.
So are you telling me that if wedo that, it's gonna result?
You know we're gonna get theresult we want.
Tell me one other time.
(11:55):
You give me one example and justwent at this guy.
Now people quickly decidedaround that table, it's not
worth arguing with the CEO.
Now, he did two things wrong.
Number one, he spoke first.
And very often as a leader, whenwe state our opinion first, it
(12:20):
shuts people up.
People don't take it as a softopinion, which may be the way we
mean it.
They take it as a, as an order,as a dictate.
Second thing, obviously he didwrong, was got really defensive
and whether he was right orwrong doesn't matter.
When you push back and try towin the argument in that way,
(12:47):
people are just again gonna sayit's not worth it and they're
not gonna open their mouth nexttime, which means candor,
starves issues tend to fester.
People don't tell you the truthand don't challenge you.
So number one, don't talk first.
Wait to hear other opinionsfirst.
(13:08):
You don't have to agree witheveryone.
You are allowed to getpassionate and emotional about
things because you're a humanbeing.
Of course, you're allowed that,but try not to state your
opinion first, or that in, inand of itself may shut others
people up when you arechallenged or when you're given
bad news.
(13:30):
Thank people first and reactSecond.
Thank you for telling me, andthen figure out what to do about
it.
Number one, that's just theright thing to do even if you
don't agree with someone.
Thank them for being honest.
Thank people for modeling thebehavior you want.
It also allows you to take abreath.
(13:52):
If you're feeling kind ofemotional and passionate about
it, you're about to go back atthat other person.
Thanking someone first allowsyou to take a breath and think
about it.
Model a no retribution culture,kind of like I said before in
the first blind spot.
Share publicly about a time youwere wrong or what changed
(14:15):
because you were corrected bysomebody else.
Ask for dissent regularly.
Ask, you know who disagrees withme on this?
And I'd love to hear why.
Now you could say that with thewrong attitude, right?
Who?
Who disagrees with me?
I'd love to hear.
Why?
is another way of saying if youdisagree, you're a moron.
(14:39):
But saying, Hey, you know, we'reall coming to kind of a quick
decision here and I just wannamake sure you know who, let's
talk, you know, who around thisroom disagrees with this, and
lets, let's talk about why.
Stop trying to win the argument.
There's a wonderful book namedConversational Capacity, and
(15:02):
they talk about this idea ofthat there's two different
extremes when you enter into adebate, a discussion, even an
argument, there's two differentextremes.
One extreme is minimizing.
Minimizing is when you saythings like, well, you probably
know this better than me, butI'm kind of new here, but.
(15:25):
The extreme version ofminimizing is you shut up.
You don't say anything.
Now, muzzling, the messenger.
This blind spot is more aboutthe other extreme, which is
winning, which is we enter intoa debate, a discussion, an
argument with the goal ofwinning.
And again, when you are theleader, when you are trying to
win, you shut people down.
(15:50):
What we need to do is we can, weshouldn't minimize, we shouldn't
try to win.
As weird as that sounds, winningsounds natural, but what we
should do is debate with thegoal of gathering the
information we need to make theright decision.
Now again, that doesn't mean youcan't feel strongly about
something, but if you feelstrongly and you know there's
(16:10):
people around the room thatdisagree, you might say, Hey, I
feel really strongly about this.
You might even say, it's hardfor me to see the other
argument, but I know there are alot of smart people around this
table.
Somebody help me out.
I know I must be missingsomething here.
What am I missing?
The other thing you can do tostop muzzling, the messenger to
(16:33):
improve the candor on your teamis debrief.
After a discussion, after atough meeting or a tough
discussion, ask, you know, didanybody feel shut down and
address those patterns?
The last thing I'll say, theother thing I do is I like to
use flip charts and post-itnotes.
(16:54):
Everybody's idea goes on apost-it note up on a flip chart,
and this way we hear fromeverybody, not just the
strongest people in the room.
Blind spot Number three, I callaccountability theater confusing
activity with outcomes.
As leaders, we need to holdpeople accountable for results
(17:17):
for outcomes.
You know, and I hear CEOscomplain, you know, people don't
follow through, but they acceptstatus updates as progress.
They tolerate vague promises.
You know, I think I'll get backon track within the next two
(17:38):
weeks.
They let missed commitmentsslide if it seemed like the
person was putting in goodeffort.
One of the things that I oftendo with my leadership teams, in
fact I have this on my scheduleto do with one of my clients a
little bit later today, is Ilisten in to one of their weekly
(18:03):
accountability meetings.
Now notice I called it a weeklyaccountability meeting, not a
weekly status meeting in aweekly status meeting.
It's a whole lot of talking.
And a whole lot of peoplelooking at their watches saying,
I've got real work to do.
While someone is saying, I didthis, I did that, I didn't do
this.
I'm waiting for a callback onthat, who cares?
(18:25):
And I'll get to more about theweekly accountability minute,
meeting in a minute.
But I sit through these weeklymeetings and I hear just excuse
after excuse.
I hear the CEO going around andsaying, you know, how are you
doing on your rock, on yourquarterly priority?
Well, you know, there was a bigfire drill with, you know, our
top client last week and, youknow, just really fell behind
(18:48):
and I'm gonna do my best.
and the CEO says, yeah, I getit.
It was really busy.
And then the next person goesis, well, you know, two of my
team members are on vacation, soreally couldn't get to it last
week.
And the CEO says, yeah.
Just accepting every singleexcuse.
Now, the effect on the team andthe effect on culture is people
(19:10):
show up and people talk a goodgame, but nothing changes.
I find the people that talk themost about their quote unquote
status, the people that talk themost are the people that have
done the least, but they'retrying to cover for that by
talking about every littledetail.
(19:32):
I called this person, I emailedthis person.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The end of the day you achievenothing.
So what are some actions there?
Number one, demand, clarity,turn every activity, you know,
we're working on this, we'reworking on that into a specific
(19:54):
outcome.
This will be done by X.
In fact, when my clients come upwith their quarterly rocks,
which is my word for quarterlypriorities, they come up with
their rocks.
I really try to push them to notsay things like, this quarter
(20:15):
I'm going to design a leadershipdevelopment program.
That's a whole lot of activity.
And not a lot of results.
I would rather hear somethinglike this quarter we're gonna
improve our talent densityindicator from 10% to 25%.
(21:54):
Challenge people to get clearabout a result, not just a set
of actions.
Next, use job scorecards foryourself, for your team.
Job descriptions are typicallyvague, not very helpful
documents, but a job scorecardhas specific measurable results
(22:16):
on it.
Make sure that everyone on yourteam understands what outcomes
they are responsible for.
And the greater the frequency ofthat target and measuring that
target, the better.
Someone having a target, youknow, a result that they're
accountable for a measure ofsuccess they're accountable for.
(22:39):
If they're accountable forachieving something by the end
of the year, it's very hard tohold them accountable throughout
the year.
The higher the frequency isbetter.
Quarterly is better thanannually.
Monthly is better thanquarterly.
Weekly is better than monthly.
I mentioned this a little bitearlier, but kill status
meetings.
(23:00):
I can't stand status meetings.
If I have to sit through onemore status meeting, I'm gonna
scream, replace them withaccountability meetings.
In a weekly accountabilitymeeting, you are holding people
accountable for their KPIs,their rocks, their quarterly
priorities.
(23:21):
And for whatever other tasks Icall them who, what, when they
committed to, and those weeklyaccountability meetings should
happen by exception.
If someone's in the green ontheir KPI or on their rock, then
we don't have to talk about itunless there's something they
need to communicate to thegroup.
(23:42):
But if someone's in the yellowor the red, they better come
with a plan.
It's okay to not be on target ahundred percent of the time.
This is real life.
But coming in and just saying,yeah, I was really busy.
I'll see if I can get to it, isnot good enough.
Coming in and saying, I've beenthinking a lot about this and
here's my plan.
(24:03):
Here's how I'm gonna get back ontrack and here's when I'm gonna
get back on track.
That's what happens in a weeklyaccountability meeting.
Blind spot number four, cultureby accident.
The silent power of yourexample.
(24:23):
You know, here's where in thisblind spot, a CEO says, you
know, I don't recognize ourculture anymore.
Our culture is not strongenough.
People aren't living our corevalues, and that's HR's job.
what leaders need to understand,including the CEO, is that.
(24:46):
Culture is the leader's job in acompany.
The CEO owns culture, not HR.
HR may own a lot of activitiesthat help to drive it, but the
CEO owns culture.
The CEO owns people living andbreathing those core values
because they have to model it.
(25:09):
One of the things I do with myclients that if you've listened
to a number of these podcastsyou're probably already aware
of, is I have a quarterly talentassessment meeting where we use
my talent density systemframework and the leaders assess
the performance of all of theirdirect reports and they assess
them based on productivity andculture.
(25:30):
And I had one CEO that.
Was very upset that their numberone salesperson.
Who was not living the corevalues was blatantly and
(25:52):
repeatedly violating many oftheir core values.
They were making the peoplearound them worse, not better.
they were very productive in andof themselves, but they were
hurting everybody else'sproductivity.
The CEO was livid that as aleadership team we were talking
about.
Making a decision on whether itwas time to coach this person
(26:16):
out of the organization, the CEOsaid, wait a minute, and he
looked right at me.
He said, Mike, I know whatyou're doing.
I get it, but I will not fire mynumber one salesperson because
they're being disrespectful tothe customer service team and
(26:37):
respect.
Was one of their core values.
Now, they didn't call itrespect.
They had a more detailed namefor it, but it was basically
non-negotiable that you neededto treat the people around you,
your coworkers, your clients,your vendors, with a great deal
of respect.
(26:59):
So the CEO said, I don't care.
This is our number onesalesperson.
not only am I not firing thisperson, but I'm not gonna waste
their time and talk to themabout it.
I need them out there.
Selling my message back to theCEO was certainly, Hey, this is
your business, not mine.
(27:21):
You need to make the decisionthat you believe is right for
the company.
But my coaching to you is ifthis is the decision you're
gonna make.
Please take all of the corevalues, posters off the wall, or
at the very least, stop sayingrespect is one of your core
values, because when you lethighly productive people get
(27:48):
away with not living yournon-negotiable core values that
you know, they become a joke.
They become a hammer you use tohit, unproductive people over
the head with.
But it's okay for your highlyproductive people to not live
(28:09):
those values, to hurt the peoplearound them.
You're modeling the very thingyou want to create.
You want a strong culture.
But you're letting highlyproductive people getting away,
get away with screwing yourculture up.
And while you're looking at thatone person and how productive
(28:29):
they are, you are not seeing theimpact of everybody else around
them.
So what do we do about it?
First is, as a CEO, don'tdelegate culture.
Be the first to live the values.
Be the first to own up.
(28:53):
When you've done somethingagainst those values.
Values, be the first to coachsomeone or maybe even coach them
out, or decide to coach them outif they're not living the
values.
Be the first to live the valueswhen there's a tough decision.
There are three tests of a corevalue that I use with my
(29:13):
clients.
One is that it's a fireableoffense.
It's not a fireable offense.
It's not a core value.
Are you committed to firinganyone, even your highest, high
productive people, even someoneon your leadership team, even
yourself?
Are you committed to firinganyone who blatantly and
repeatedly violates a corevalue?
(29:35):
That's the first test.
Second test is are you willingto take a financial hit to
uphold the core value?
Are you willing to lose a goodclient or a good employee to
uphold that core value?
The third test is that corevalue alive in the organization
today?
Something can't benon-negotiable and aspirational
(29:57):
at the same time.
And when I say alive in theorganization, you as the leader
of that organization need to beliving it.
Second thing you can do.
To deal with that blind spot ofculture by accident is to
enforce the core values inhiring decisions.
(30:20):
Make sure in your interviewprocess, you are only hiring
people that are already livingyour core values.
Don't think you're gonna hiresomeone who could be really
productive and then teach themyour core values once you
onboard them.
Of course, in your onboarding,you ought to be talking about
core values.
But you need to find ways inyour interview process to find
(30:41):
out if people are already livingthose core values.
Because coaching someone who'snot living your core values to
live your core values is likecoaching someone to become
someone they're not.
Can they do it if you put'em ona 90 day performance improvement
plan and threaten them with jobsecurity?
Of course they can.
But then after 90 days, they goback to who they really are.
(31:04):
Which, by the way is not a badperson, but might be a bad fit
for your organization.
Lastly, solicit feedback on yourbehaviors from others.
Where might you be modeling orviolating the tenets of your
(31:26):
culture, your core values.
One of the things I like to do.
With my leaders is have what Icall a peer accountability
session or do the peeraccountability exercise, and
that's an exercise where eachleader goes around the room and
gives each other feedback.
Here's something you do thatreally helps the team.
Here's something you do thatreally hurts the team.
(31:47):
Everybody gets that feedback,including the CEO last blind
spot.
Number five, I call thefirefighting fetish.
That blind spot is one where youas the leader are the first to
leap into the trenches, thefirst to jump in and do somebody
(32:11):
else's job.
I was with a leadership team andwe were talking about measures
of success for the leadershipteam.
And the CEO went last.
Everybody went through, youknow, the head of customer
service, talked about theirmission being, you know, wow,
experiences for their clients.
And the way they were gonnameasure it was through a net
(32:33):
promoter score and churn.
and the head of sales talkedabout revenue and gross margin,
and head of finance talked aboutnet cash flow.
And then we got to the CEO andthe CEO said, well.
Guys, my job is to help all ofyou.
That's what I do.
(32:53):
You tell me what you need.
My job is to help all of you.
Well, that's not a CEO's job.
And as a leader, stop thinkingabout your job as helping
everybody else on your team.
Of course, that's part of whatyou do.
But your job is not to doeverybody else's job.
(33:15):
And if you jump in and do that,you are modeling that for your
team.
You wind up with a lack ofownership.
You wind up with a team that'sexpecting you to swoop in.
You wind up with a team that'safraid to make a decision.
They're waiting for you to swoopin and make that decision.
(33:36):
So what do we do about it?
Become a better coach.
Stop giving advice all the time.
Ask people questions, let othersown their problem.
Don't take the monkey off theirback.
Give them their monkey back.
(33:57):
Coach them.
Ask them questions.
What's the big challenge herefor you?
What have you already tried?
What does success look likehere?
If you say yes to this, what areyou saying?
No.
To model a way of thinking forthem by asking questions.
Don't jump in and solve theproblem.
(34:21):
And I think sometimes leadersjump in and solve others'
problems'cause they're not surewhat else they should be doing
in their job.
CEOs do everybody else's jobbecause they're not sure what
the CEO ought to be doing.
I mentioned a job scorecardearlier.
Create a job scorecard for youas the leader of the team, or
for you as the CEO.
(34:42):
As the CEO.
Your job is culture.
Your job is to be that internalambassador, the external
ambassador.
Your job is probably vision andbig strategy for the
organization.
Your job is making sure you havea strong leadership team.
Now each CEO is different.
(35:03):
Each leader is different, butyou have a job that's different
than just helping everybody elsedo their job Block time in your
week to work on your job.
It's too easy for you as aleader to get caught up in
(35:23):
helping everybody else blocktime just for you to work on the
business block time where you'renot gonna jump into other
people's day to day.
And again, you are the model.
If you do that, your leaderswill model it.
If you start coaching, yourleaders will start coaching.
(35:43):
If you stop jumping in to solveproblems, your leaders will stop
jumping in to solve problems.
And the result of that is youall have time to work on the
business instead of just in thebusiness.
So we talked about five blindspots.
The Blame Game, Muzzling theMessenger, Accountability
(36:04):
Theater, Culture by Accident,and the firefighting fetish.
Which of these blind spots mightyou have?
And I say, might you have,because the definition of a
blind spot is you don't see it.
So talk to others.
And find out which problems areyou having?
(36:24):
Are you having problems wherepeople are blaming, where people
aren't being honest, wherepeople are giving status instead
of accountability, where peoplearen't living.
The core values, where peopleare jumping in and solving other
people's problems.
If they're doing those thingsand that's a problem, there's a
very good chance you're modelingit from the top.
(36:46):
These are habits.
That keep even great leadersstuck and some of these like
jumping in and solving otherpeople's problems.
We think that's what makes us agreat leader, but it's actually
what's hurting our team and ourcompany.
Now, you are probably guilty ofat least one of these, but the
(37:09):
good news is the power to changeit is in your hands, the
problems you complain aboutmost.
Are often the problems you arequietly enabling, but that also
means you are the best personequipped to solve them.
Go make it happen.
Stop making excuses yourself and your team will stop
making excuses.
Now, that doesn't mean you'renot gonna miss a deadline every
once in a while.
That doesn't mean you're notgonna screw up on something you
committed to, but own ityourself and you will see your
team start to take ownership.
Mike Goldman (00:28):
You made it to the better leadership team show, the
place where you learn how tosurround yourself with the right
people, doing the right things.
So you can grow your businesswithout losing your mind.
I'm your host and leadershipteam coach, Mike Goldman.
I'm going to show you how toimprove top and bottom line
growth, fulfillment, and thevalue your company adds to the
(00:48):
world by building a betterleadership team.
All right, let's go.
Mike (01:00):
I see this recurring pattern with CEOs, gonna say
CEOs.
It could be leaders if you'renot a CEO, but I see this
recurring pattern that many ofthe problems, these CEOs, these
leaders have that, that we have,I'll count myself in there.
(01:21):
is kind of like the very thingwe are fighting is the thing
we're modeling.
Leaders tend to create the veryproblems that they complain
about.
Mike, my team won't takeownership, or, you know, I wish
(01:42):
people would speak their mindsmore around here.
Why?
Why do people wait for me tosolve the problem?
You know, why can't my leaders.
Figure out how to, pullthemselves out of the business
so they could spend more timeworking on the business than in
the business.
Many times these problems arecaused by blind spots that CEOs
(02:09):
and leaders have.
These blind spots are kind ofthe hidden ways that leaders
unintentionally create the veryissues.
That frustrate them most.
So in this episode, I'm gonnashare five of those blind spots
that I tend to see.
It doesn't mean those are theonly ones, but I share five of
(02:32):
those blind spots.
And if you are a leader, ifthese issues sound familiar to
you, it may.
Sting a little.
Even if they don't, you know theissues may sound familiar, but
you might say, I don't have thatblind spot.
Well, you may wanna dig in alittle deeper.
(02:53):
You may want to ask some of thepeople around you because
understanding that you may haveone or more of these blind spots
just might save your team orjust might be the thing to.
Help you get more sleep at nightand have less frustration and,
and just have a better team anda better company.
(03:13):
So it may get a littleuncomfortable, but let's kind of
get uncomfortable together here.
Blind spot number one.
Let's dig right in.
Blind spot number one is theBlame Game leaders complain
about victim culture, but victimculture starts from the top.
(03:34):
So the definition of this.
Blame game, blind spot is theidea that people on your team
are not taking ownership.
They're blaming the market,they're blaming other people on
the team.
They're blaming the client,blaming the vendor.
So a number of years ago Iworked with the CEO of a, a
(03:56):
flooring retailer, and.
Started them off with a two daystrategic planning session.
just a great two days.
they had some difficultdiscussions.
they made some importantdecisions.
They created a plan for how theywere going to move forward.
(04:21):
One of the things they.
Agreed to do one of the thingsthe CEO agreed to do, within two
weeks after that meeting.
And that meeting was just theCEO and the leadership team.
The CEO, agreed that they would,have an all hands meeting and
communicate the new vision, thenew plan, the new priorities.
(04:45):
To the rest of the organizationbecause one of the things that
came out of the meeting is, thatpeople don't really always
understand what's going onthroughout the company.
Well, for the next two, maybe itwas three months in my coaching
calls with the CEO, when I domonthly coaching calls with most
(05:08):
of my CEOs, the CEO would spend.
The first 10 minutes of everycall complaining about the rest
of the team.
We have this plan.
Why are people not doing whatthey say they're gonna do?
They have every excuse in thebook.
How do I hold peopleaccountable?
What do I need to do?
(05:28):
Fire everybody.
He was frustrated and I get it,but I asked him on each of those
calls.
Hey, one of the things you wereaccountable for was to schedule
the all hands meeting schedule,the all hands meeting, where you
(05:51):
are going to communicate thevision, the plan, the priorities
to the rest of the organization.
And by the way, I knew he was,for a number of reasons, sort of
uncomfortable.
Doing that.
He had never had an all handsmeeting before.
He wasn't sure how theorganization would, you know,
(06:12):
rally around or would they rallyaround this new vision they had
created as a leadership team.
It also took some convincingduring the meeting that he even
had to do that, but hisleadership team convinced him
that he needed to communicatethis vision, this plan, that
these priorities to the rest ofthe organization.
(06:32):
Well anyway.
Right after he would get donecomplaining about everybody
else, I'd say, Hey, you know, Iknow you told me you were
scheduled last Wednesday to dothat all hands meeting.
How did that go?
Oh, a big fire drill lastWednesday.
(06:53):
you know, we rescheduled it.
I'm gonna be doing it nextThursday.
That happened once.
That happened twice.
The third time that happened,and it's now I said two to three
months.
Pretty sure it was three monthslater.
Three months after he said hewas going to do this.
He had yet another excuse as towhy he didn't do this all hands
(07:18):
when he said he was going to,and my challenge to him was.
You are gonna have a bitch of atime holding your team
accountable, getting your teamto stop playing the blame game.
If you are doing that, they'remodeling it from you.
(07:41):
They're seeing from you.
It's okay to say, oh, there wasa fire drill.
I didn't get that done.
You are modeling the very thingyou don't wanna see in others.
So I will not help you fix theproblem in others until you fix
it in yourself.
Teams follow the leader.
That blame becomes contagious.
(08:05):
So what are some tacticalactions you can take if you find
yourself or your team blaming?
And not really taking ownership,letting things slide, but always
have an excuse first.
Own your own issues first, andown them out loud and start
(08:30):
problem solving with not who'sat fault for yourself, for
others.
Start problem solving with, youknow what did I miss here?
Or what did we miss here?
Ban the word they, each timethey is used, clarify exactly
(08:52):
who they is.
Is it really we, the team, thevendor gets specific, you know
who is, they don't let peoplesay they.
Publicly, own yourself a recentmisstep.
Show a little vulnerability.
(09:13):
Let them know you screwed up andwhat you're gonna do to fix it.
And when you do that, I promiseyou your team's language will
shift.
Reward, root cause honesty.
Praise people who raise systemmisses, process misses, and make
(09:41):
kind of ownership moments aritual.
Spotlight the team and personalexamples of where folks have
taken ownership.
Model ownership, demandownership of your team.
Stop making excuses yourself andyour team will stop making
(10:05):
excuses.
Now, that doesn't mean you'renot gonna miss a deadline every
once in a while.
That doesn't mean you're notgonna screw up on something you
committed to, but own ityourself and you will see your
team start to take ownership.
Let's go to blind spot numbertwo, muzzling the messenger.
(10:26):
Let's talk a little bit abouthow we as leaders might kill
that candor that we say we wantso much.
You know, CEOs complained, youknow, why don't people tell me
the truth?
But meanwhile, when they hearthe truth, they react.
Defensively, they dismissquestions.
(10:50):
They almost punish honesty.
So I worked with a C-E-O for anumber of years, a super smart
guy, super talented, CEO, whohad one major issue, well
probably had more than one, butone major issue relative to this
(11:12):
podcast, and that's, he was.
A little too smart for his owngood, and when he was with his
leadership team, he would tendto state his opinion pretty
strongly.
Then if someone challenged him,and I remember one specific
(11:35):
instance that he had a verystrong opinion and he was
challenged on that opinion by amember of the team, and he
treated this poor guy like ahostile witness on the stand.
So are you telling me that if wedo that, it's gonna result?
You know we're gonna get theresult we want.
Tell me one other time.
(11:55):
You give me one example and justwent at this guy.
Now people quickly decidedaround that table, it's not
worth arguing with the CEO.
Now, he did two things wrong.
Number one, he spoke first.
And very often as a leader, whenwe state our opinion first, it
(12:20):
shuts people up.
People don't take it as a softopinion, which may be the way we
mean it.
They take it as a, as an order,as a dictate.
Second thing, obviously he didwrong, was got really defensive
and whether he was right orwrong doesn't matter.
When you push back and try towin the argument in that way,
(12:47):
people are just again gonna sayit's not worth it and they're
not gonna open their mouth nexttime, which means candor,
starves issues tend to fester.
People don't tell you the truthand don't challenge you.
So number one, don't talk first.
Wait to hear other opinionsfirst.
(13:08):
You don't have to agree witheveryone.
You are allowed to getpassionate and emotional about
things because you're a humanbeing.
Of course, you're allowed that,but try not to state your
opinion first, or that in, inand of itself may shut others
people up when you arechallenged or when you're given
bad news.
(13:30):
Thank people first and reactSecond.
Thank you for telling me, andthen figure out what to do about
it.
Number one, that's just theright thing to do even if you
don't agree with someone.
Thank them for being honest.
Thank people for modeling thebehavior you want.
It also allows you to take abreath.
(13:52):
If you're feeling kind ofemotional and passionate about
it, you're about to go back atthat other person.
Thanking someone first allowsyou to take a breath and think
about it.
Model a no retribution culture,kind of like I said before in
the first blind spot.
Share publicly about a time youwere wrong or what changed
(14:15):
because you were corrected bysomebody else.
Ask for dissent regularly.
Ask, you know who disagrees withme on this?
And I'd love to hear why.
Now you could say that with thewrong attitude, right?
Who?
Who disagrees with me?
I'd love to hear.
Why?
is another way of saying if youdisagree, you're a moron.
(14:39):
But saying, Hey, you know, we'reall coming to kind of a quick
decision here and I just wannamake sure you know who, let's
talk, you know, who around thisroom disagrees with this, and
lets, let's talk about why.
Stop trying to win the argument.
There's a wonderful book namedConversational Capacity, and
(15:02):
they talk about this idea ofthat there's two different
extremes when you enter into adebate, a discussion, even an
argument, there's two differentextremes.
One extreme is minimizing.
Minimizing is when you saythings like, well, you probably
know this better than me, butI'm kind of new here, but.
(15:25):
The extreme version ofminimizing is you shut up.
You don't say anything.
Now, muzzling, the messenger.
This blind spot is more aboutthe other extreme, which is
winning, which is we enter intoa debate, a discussion, an
argument with the goal ofwinning.
And again, when you are theleader, when you are trying to
win, you shut people down.
(15:50):
What we need to do is we can, weshouldn't minimize, we shouldn't
try to win.
As weird as that sounds, winningsounds natural, but what we
should do is debate with thegoal of gathering the
information we need to make theright decision.
Now again, that doesn't mean youcan't feel strongly about
something, but if you feelstrongly and you know there's
(16:10):
people around the room thatdisagree, you might say, Hey, I
feel really strongly about this.
You might even say, it's hardfor me to see the other
argument, but I know there are alot of smart people around this
table.
Somebody help me out.
I know I must be missingsomething here.
What am I missing?
The other thing you can do tostop muzzling, the messenger to
(16:33):
improve the candor on your teamis debrief.
After a discussion, after atough meeting or a tough
discussion, ask, you know, didanybody feel shut down and
address those patterns?
The last thing I'll say, theother thing I do is I like to
use flip charts and post-itnotes.
(16:54):
Everybody's idea goes on apost-it note up on a flip chart,
and this way we hear fromeverybody, not just the
strongest people in the room.
Blind spot Number three, I callaccountability theater confusing
activity with outcomes.
As leaders, we need to holdpeople accountable for results
(17:17):
for outcomes.
You know, and I hear CEOscomplain, you know, people don't
follow through, but they acceptstatus updates as progress.
They tolerate vague promises.
You know, I think I'll get backon track within the next two
(17:38):
weeks.
They let missed commitmentsslide if it seemed like the
person was putting in goodeffort.
One of the things that I oftendo with my leadership teams, in
fact I have this on my scheduleto do with one of my clients a
little bit later today, is Ilisten in to one of their weekly
(18:03):
accountability meetings.
Now notice I called it a weeklyaccountability meeting, not a
weekly status meeting in aweekly status meeting.
It's a whole lot of talking.
And a whole lot of peoplelooking at their watches saying,
I've got real work to do.
While someone is saying, I didthis, I did that, I didn't do
this.
I'm waiting for a callback onthat, who cares?
(18:25):
And I'll get to more about theweekly accountability minute,
meeting in a minute.
But I sit through these weeklymeetings and I hear just excuse
after excuse.
I hear the CEO going around andsaying, you know, how are you
doing on your rock, on yourquarterly priority?
Well, you know, there was a bigfire drill with, you know, our
top client last week and, youknow, just really fell behind
(18:48):
and I'm gonna do my best.
and the CEO says, yeah, I getit.
It was really busy.
And then the next person goesis, well, you know, two of my
team members are on vacation, soreally couldn't get to it last
week.
And the CEO says, yeah.
Just accepting every singleexcuse.
Now, the effect on the team andthe effect on culture is people
(19:10):
show up and people talk a goodgame, but nothing changes.
I find the people that talk themost about their quote unquote
status, the people that talk themost are the people that have
done the least, but they'retrying to cover for that by
talking about every littledetail.
(19:32):
I called this person, I emailedthis person.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The end of the day you achievenothing.
So what are some actions there?
Number one, demand, clarity,turn every activity, you know,
we're working on this, we'reworking on that into a specific
(19:54):
outcome.
This will be done by X.
In fact, when my clients come upwith their quarterly rocks,
which is my word for quarterlypriorities, they come up with
their rocks.
I really try to push them to notsay things like, this quarter
(20:15):
I'm going to design a leadershipdevelopment program.
That's a whole lot of activity.
And not a lot of results.
I would rather hear somethinglike this quarter we're gonna
improve our talent densityindicator from 10% to 25%.
(21:54):
Challenge people to get clearabout a result, not just a set
of actions.
Next, use job scorecards foryourself, for your team.
Job descriptions are typicallyvague, not very helpful
documents, but a job scorecardhas specific measurable results
(22:16):
on it.
Make sure that everyone on yourteam understands what outcomes
they are responsible for.
And the greater the frequency ofthat target and measuring that
target, the better.
Someone having a target, youknow, a result that they're
accountable for a measure ofsuccess they're accountable for.
(22:39):
If they're accountable forachieving something by the end
of the year, it's very hard tohold them accountable throughout
the year.
The higher the frequency isbetter.
Quarterly is better thanannually.
Monthly is better thanquarterly.
Weekly is better than monthly.
I mentioned this a little bitearlier, but kill status
meetings.
(23:00):
I can't stand status meetings.
If I have to sit through onemore status meeting, I'm gonna
scream, replace them withaccountability meetings.
In a weekly accountabilitymeeting, you are holding people
accountable for their KPIs,their rocks, their quarterly
priorities.
(23:21):
And for whatever other tasks Icall them who, what, when they
committed to, and those weeklyaccountability meetings should
happen by exception.
If someone's in the green ontheir KPI or on their rock, then
we don't have to talk about itunless there's something they
need to communicate to thegroup.
(23:42):
But if someone's in the yellowor the red, they better come
with a plan.
It's okay to not be on target ahundred percent of the time.
This is real life.
But coming in and just saying,yeah, I was really busy.
I'll see if I can get to it, isnot good enough.
Coming in and saying, I've beenthinking a lot about this and
here's my plan.
(24:03):
Here's how I'm gonna get back ontrack and here's when I'm gonna
get back on track.
That's what happens in a weeklyaccountability meeting.
Blind spot number four, cultureby accident.
The silent power of yourexample.
(24:23):
You know, here's where in thisblind spot, a CEO says, you
know, I don't recognize ourculture anymore.
Our culture is not strongenough.
People aren't living our corevalues, and that's HR's job.
what leaders need to understand,including the CEO, is that.
(24:46):
Culture is the leader's job in acompany.
The CEO owns culture, not HR.
HR may own a lot of activitiesthat help to drive it, but the
CEO owns culture.
The CEO owns people living andbreathing those core values
because they have to model it.
(25:09):
One of the things I do with myclients that if you've listened
to a number of these podcastsyou're probably already aware
of, is I have a quarterly talentassessment meeting where we use
my talent density systemframework and the leaders assess
the performance of all of theirdirect reports and they assess
them based on productivity andculture.
(25:30):
And I had one CEO that.
Was very upset that their numberone salesperson.
Who was not living the corevalues was blatantly and
(25:52):
repeatedly violating many oftheir core values.
They were making the peoplearound them worse, not better.
they were very productive in andof themselves, but they were
hurting everybody else'sproductivity.
The CEO was livid that as aleadership team we were talking
about.
Making a decision on whether itwas time to coach this person
(26:16):
out of the organization, the CEOsaid, wait a minute, and he
looked right at me.
He said, Mike, I know whatyou're doing.
I get it, but I will not fire mynumber one salesperson because
they're being disrespectful tothe customer service team and
(26:37):
respect.
Was one of their core values.
Now, they didn't call itrespect.
They had a more detailed namefor it, but it was basically
non-negotiable that you neededto treat the people around you,
your coworkers, your clients,your vendors, with a great deal
of respect.
(26:59):
So the CEO said, I don't care.
This is our number onesalesperson.
not only am I not firing thisperson, but I'm not gonna waste
their time and talk to themabout it.
I need them out there.
Selling my message back to theCEO was certainly, Hey, this is
your business, not mine.
(27:21):
You need to make the decisionthat you believe is right for
the company.
But my coaching to you is ifthis is the decision you're
gonna make.
Please take all of the corevalues, posters off the wall, or
at the very least, stop sayingrespect is one of your core
values, because when you lethighly productive people get
(27:48):
away with not living yournon-negotiable core values that
you know, they become a joke.
They become a hammer you use tohit, unproductive people over
the head with.
But it's okay for your highlyproductive people to not live
(28:09):
those values, to hurt the peoplearound them.
You're modeling the very thingyou want to create.
You want a strong culture.
But you're letting highlyproductive people getting away,
get away with screwing yourculture up.
And while you're looking at thatone person and how productive
(28:29):
they are, you are not seeing theimpact of everybody else around
them.
So what do we do about it?
First is, as a CEO, don'tdelegate culture.
Be the first to live the values.
Be the first to own up.
(28:53):
When you've done somethingagainst those values.
Values, be the first to coachsomeone or maybe even coach them
out, or decide to coach them outif they're not living the
values.
Be the first to live the valueswhen there's a tough decision.
There are three tests of a corevalue that I use with my
(29:13):
clients.
One is that it's a fireableoffense.
It's not a fireable offense.
It's not a core value.
Are you committed to firinganyone, even your highest, high
productive people, even someoneon your leadership team, even
yourself?
Are you committed to firinganyone who blatantly and
repeatedly violates a corevalue?
(29:35):
That's the first test.
Second test is are you willingto take a financial hit to
uphold the core value?
Are you willing to lose a goodclient or a good employee to
uphold that core value?
The third test is that corevalue alive in the organization
today?
Something can't benon-negotiable and aspirational
(29:57):
at the same time.
And when I say alive in theorganization, you as the leader
of that organization need to beliving it.
Second thing you can do.
To deal with that blind spot ofculture by accident is to
enforce the core values inhiring decisions.
(30:20):
Make sure in your interviewprocess, you are only hiring
people that are already livingyour core values.
Don't think you're gonna hiresomeone who could be really
productive and then teach themyour core values once you
onboard them.
Of course, in your onboarding,you ought to be talking about
core values.
But you need to find ways inyour interview process to find
(30:41):
out if people are already livingthose core values.
Because coaching someone who'snot living your core values to
live your core values is likecoaching someone to become
someone they're not.
Can they do it if you put'em ona 90 day performance improvement
plan and threaten them with jobsecurity?
Of course they can.
But then after 90 days, they goback to who they really are.
(31:04):
Which, by the way is not a badperson, but might be a bad fit
for your organization.
Lastly, solicit feedback on yourbehaviors from others.
Where might you be modeling orviolating the tenets of your
(31:26):
culture, your core values.
One of the things I like to do.
With my leaders is have what Icall a peer accountability
session or do the peeraccountability exercise, and
that's an exercise where eachleader goes around the room and
gives each other feedback.
Here's something you do thatreally helps the team.
Here's something you do thatreally hurts the team.
(31:47):
Everybody gets that feedback,including the CEO last blind
spot.
Number five, I call thefirefighting fetish.
That blind spot is one where youas the leader are the first to
leap into the trenches, thefirst to jump in and do somebody
(32:11):
else's job.
I was with a leadership team andwe were talking about measures
of success for the leadershipteam.
And the CEO went last.
Everybody went through, youknow, the head of customer
service, talked about theirmission being, you know, wow,
experiences for their clients.
And the way they were gonnameasure it was through a net
(32:33):
promoter score and churn.
and the head of sales talkedabout revenue and gross margin,
and head of finance talked aboutnet cash flow.
And then we got to the CEO andthe CEO said, well.
Guys, my job is to help all ofyou.
That's what I do.
(32:53):
You tell me what you need.
My job is to help all of you.
Well, that's not a CEO's job.
And as a leader, stop thinkingabout your job as helping
everybody else on your team.
Of course, that's part of whatyou do.
But your job is not to doeverybody else's job.
(33:15):
And if you jump in and do that,you are modeling that for your
team.
You wind up with a lack ofownership.
You wind up with a team that'sexpecting you to swoop in.
You wind up with a team that'safraid to make a decision.
They're waiting for you to swoopin and make that decision.
(33:36):
So what do we do about it?
Become a better coach.
Stop giving advice all the time.
Ask people questions, let othersown their problem.
Don't take the monkey off theirback.
Give them their monkey back.
(33:57):
Coach them.
Ask them questions.
What's the big challenge herefor you?
What have you already tried?
What does success look likehere?
If you say yes to this, what areyou saying?
No.
To model a way of thinking forthem by asking questions.
Don't jump in and solve theproblem.
(34:21):
And I think sometimes leadersjump in and solve others'
problems'cause they're not surewhat else they should be doing
in their job.
CEOs do everybody else's jobbecause they're not sure what
the CEO ought to be doing.
I mentioned a job scorecardearlier.
Create a job scorecard for youas the leader of the team, or
for you as the CEO.
(34:42):
As the CEO.
Your job is culture.
Your job is to be that internalambassador, the external
ambassador.
Your job is probably vision andbig strategy for the
organization.
Your job is making sure you havea strong leadership team.
Now each CEO is different.
(35:03):
Each leader is different, butyou have a job that's different
than just helping everybody elsedo their job Block time in your
week to work on your job.
It's too easy for you as aleader to get caught up in
(35:23):
helping everybody else blocktime just for you to work on the
business block time where you'renot gonna jump into other
people's day to day.
And again, you are the model.
If you do that, your leaderswill model it.
If you start coaching, yourleaders will start coaching.
(35:43):
If you stop jumping in to solveproblems, your leaders will stop
jumping in to solve problems.
And the result of that is youall have time to work on the
business instead of just in thebusiness.
So we talked about five blindspots.
The Blame Game, Muzzling theMessenger, Accountability
(36:04):
Theater, Culture by Accident,and the firefighting fetish.
Which of these blind spots mightyou have?
And I say, might you have,because the definition of a
blind spot is you don't see it.
So talk to others.
And find out which problems areyou having?
(36:24):
Are you having problems wherepeople are blaming, where people
aren't being honest, wherepeople are giving status instead
of accountability, where peoplearen't living.
The core values, where peopleare jumping in and solving other
people's problems.
If they're doing those thingsand that's a problem, there's a
very good chance you're modelingit from the top.
(36:46):
These are habits.
That keep even great leadersstuck and some of these like
jumping in and solving otherpeople's problems.
We think that's what makes us agreat leader, but it's actually
what's hurting our team and ourcompany.
Now, you are probably guilty ofat least one of these, but the
(37:09):
good news is the power to changeit is in your hands, the
problems you complain aboutmost.
Are often the problems you arequietly enabling, but that also
means you are the best personequipped to solve them.
Go make it happen.
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