December 5, 2025 • 8 mins
This episode introduces emotional ROI and shows leaders how small interactions create lasting cultural outcomes. Listeners learn how to track their impact and deliver energy rich conversations that build stronger teams.
Host: Paul Falavolito
Connect with me on your favorite platform: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Substack, BlueSky, Threads, LinkTree, YouTube
View my website for free leadership resources and exclusive merchandise: www.paulfalavolito.com
Books by Paul Falavolito
Host: Paul Falavolito
Connect with me on your favorite platform: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Substack, BlueSky, Threads, LinkTree, YouTube
View my website for free leadership resources and exclusive merchandise: www.paulfalavolito.com
Books by Paul Falavolito
- The 7 Minute Leadership Handbook: bit.ly/48J8zFG
- The Leadership Academy: https://bit.ly/4lnT1Pf
- The 7 Minute Leadership Survival Guide: https://bit.ly/4ij0g8y
- The Leader's Book of Secrets: http://bit.ly/4oeGzCI
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
performance through strong human relations, team building, and goalajiving. This
is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul
Fello Aledo.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
It's episode five forty four. Today. I want to give
you something that will change how you lead starting today.
It is a simple habit, A lens you can carry
in your pocket, and once you start using it, you
will never look at your conversations the same way again.
(00:45):
I call it emotional return on investment. You already measure
the return on investment of money, time, effort, and resources.
Leaders do that all day long. One thing most leaders
never track is the emotional return they leave behind after
every interaction. This one idea explains why some teams thrive
(01:10):
while others crumble, even when everything else on the surface
looks the same. Here is the question to ask, after
every conversation, meeting, email, hallway, chat, shift change, or coaching moment,
did I leave this person more energized, less energized, or neutral?
(01:34):
That is emotional ROI and it is one of the
cleanest mirrors you can hold up to your leadership. Let
me tell you how I learned this Many years ago.
I was leading a project that was running hot pressure. Everywhere.
People were tired and stretched. I started noticing something strange.
(01:57):
There were two employees who always walked into my office
with the same body language, shoulders slightly forward in a
quiet hesitation, like they were bracing for impact. I kept
thinking it was the project. Then one day I stepped
back and tracked my emotional ROI. I asked myself the
(02:20):
same question I'm asking you, what did they get from me?
After each interaction and every time, I realized I was
giving them urgency without clarity, intensity without reassurance, and feedback
without any direction. My energy was costing them confidence. That
(02:41):
was the return I was giving. The moment I realized
that that was what was happening, everything shifted for me.
Emotional ROI became a habit. Then it became second nature.
Then it became a standard. I hold myself too every day.
And here's why this works. Patterns appear. You start to
(03:05):
see who you elevate, who you accidentally drain, who you
stay neutral with, and most importantly, what those patterns say
about how you show up. Leaders love to think their
intentions matter the most, but emotional ROI exposes the reality
how did they feel when they walked away from you?
(03:26):
Because that feeling becomes the story they tell themselves about
working with you. Enough of those stories stitch together creates
the culture of the team, and that is why emotional
ROI becomes one of the best culture scorecards that you
could ever use. So let me show you how to
(03:47):
use this at a practical level. You don't need a
long system. You need a note on your phone or
a page in your notebook. After every interaction, put a
quick mark beside one of these three letters E, D
or N, Energized, drained or neutral. It takes two seconds.
(04:12):
At the end of the week, review it. That review
is where the gold is. Maybe you'll see that you
energize your top performers but drain your new hires. That
tells you your coaching style needs more reassurance. Maybe you
will see that you stay neutral with peers, which means
your communication style feels transactional. Neutral feels safe, but it
(04:36):
rarely inspires. Maybe you'll see that one specific person drains
you every time. That means you have an unresolved issue
with them that you have not addressed and it is
starting to leak into the culture. Emotional ROI exposes these
things so you can fix them before they grow. Now
(04:58):
here is your action move In every one on one conversation,
give one piece of energy, rich feedback, recognition, clarity, or purpose.
Pick one and deliver it in a clean sentence. Recognition
sounds like I saw how you handled that situation yesterday
(05:19):
and it made the team better. Clarity sounds like here
is the outcome I need from you next, so you
know exactly what success looks like. And purpose sounds like
what you were doing here matters because it directly affects
the experience for the people we serve. Those sentences cost
(05:40):
you nothing, and they give people fuel that lasts for days.
That is emotional ROI in action, because you are intentionally
sending someone out of that conversation with more energy than
they came into it with. And if you do this
(06:00):
for one month, something big will happen. People will start
walking into meetings with less tension. Team conversations will feel smoother.
You will see fewer defensive reactions. You will notice people
volunteering ideas instead of protecting themselves. That shift is not luck,
(06:23):
It is leadership math. The more emotional ROI you put in,
the more energy the team produces. Leaders who ignore emotional
ROI always wonder why their teams crumble slowly without a
visible cause. Leaders who track it understand why their teams
(06:44):
stay resilient even when things get tough. It always comes
back to the energy you circulate. So here is your
challenge for the next seven days, your emotional ROI and
commit to one energy rich sentence in every one on one.
(07:08):
Do this and watch the patterns reveal themselves. Patterns tell
the truth and once you know the truth, change becomes easy.
And before we wrap up, I want to let you
know that my YouTube channel is now home to leadership
content from the show. I'm adding leadership short videos built
(07:29):
from the strongest moments in each episode, and I will
be uploading select full video interviews too. So if YouTube
is your platform, head over to my channel and subscribe.
Link is in the description of the show and on
my website. Your support there helps push this message to
more leaders who need it around the world. This has
(07:52):
been the seven Minute Leadership Podcast, and I thank you
for listening.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
For more Paul Fell of Alito Podcast, visit Paul Fell
of a etail dot com
Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
performance through strong human relations, team building, and goalajiving. This
is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul
Fello Aledo.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
It's episode five forty four. Today. I want to give
you something that will change how you lead starting today.
It is a simple habit, A lens you can carry
in your pocket, and once you start using it, you
will never look at your conversations the same way again.
(00:45):
I call it emotional return on investment. You already measure
the return on investment of money, time, effort, and resources.
Leaders do that all day long. One thing most leaders
never track is the emotional return they leave behind after
every interaction. This one idea explains why some teams thrive
(01:10):
while others crumble, even when everything else on the surface
looks the same. Here is the question to ask, after
every conversation, meeting, email, hallway, chat, shift change, or coaching moment,
did I leave this person more energized, less energized, or neutral?
(01:34):
That is emotional ROI and it is one of the
cleanest mirrors you can hold up to your leadership. Let
me tell you how I learned this Many years ago.
I was leading a project that was running hot pressure. Everywhere.
People were tired and stretched. I started noticing something strange.
(01:57):
There were two employees who always walked into my office
with the same body language, shoulders slightly forward in a
quiet hesitation, like they were bracing for impact. I kept
thinking it was the project. Then one day I stepped
back and tracked my emotional ROI. I asked myself the
(02:20):
same question I'm asking you, what did they get from me?
After each interaction and every time, I realized I was
giving them urgency without clarity, intensity without reassurance, and feedback
without any direction. My energy was costing them confidence. That
(02:41):
was the return I was giving. The moment I realized
that that was what was happening, everything shifted for me.
Emotional ROI became a habit. Then it became second nature.
Then it became a standard. I hold myself too every day.
And here's why this works. Patterns appear. You start to
(03:05):
see who you elevate, who you accidentally drain, who you
stay neutral with, and most importantly, what those patterns say
about how you show up. Leaders love to think their
intentions matter the most, but emotional ROI exposes the reality
how did they feel when they walked away from you?
(03:26):
Because that feeling becomes the story they tell themselves about
working with you. Enough of those stories stitch together creates
the culture of the team, and that is why emotional
ROI becomes one of the best culture scorecards that you
could ever use. So let me show you how to
(03:47):
use this at a practical level. You don't need a
long system. You need a note on your phone or
a page in your notebook. After every interaction, put a
quick mark beside one of these three letters E, D
or N, Energized, drained or neutral. It takes two seconds.
(04:12):
At the end of the week, review it. That review
is where the gold is. Maybe you'll see that you
energize your top performers but drain your new hires. That
tells you your coaching style needs more reassurance. Maybe you
will see that you stay neutral with peers, which means
your communication style feels transactional. Neutral feels safe, but it
(04:36):
rarely inspires. Maybe you'll see that one specific person drains
you every time. That means you have an unresolved issue
with them that you have not addressed and it is
starting to leak into the culture. Emotional ROI exposes these
things so you can fix them before they grow. Now
(04:58):
here is your action move In every one on one conversation,
give one piece of energy, rich feedback, recognition, clarity, or purpose.
Pick one and deliver it in a clean sentence. Recognition
sounds like I saw how you handled that situation yesterday
(05:19):
and it made the team better. Clarity sounds like here
is the outcome I need from you next, so you
know exactly what success looks like. And purpose sounds like
what you were doing here matters because it directly affects
the experience for the people we serve. Those sentences cost
(05:40):
you nothing, and they give people fuel that lasts for days.
That is emotional ROI in action, because you are intentionally
sending someone out of that conversation with more energy than
they came into it with. And if you do this
(06:00):
for one month, something big will happen. People will start
walking into meetings with less tension. Team conversations will feel smoother.
You will see fewer defensive reactions. You will notice people
volunteering ideas instead of protecting themselves. That shift is not luck,
(06:23):
It is leadership math. The more emotional ROI you put in,
the more energy the team produces. Leaders who ignore emotional
ROI always wonder why their teams crumble slowly without a
visible cause. Leaders who track it understand why their teams
(06:44):
stay resilient even when things get tough. It always comes
back to the energy you circulate. So here is your
challenge for the next seven days, your emotional ROI and
commit to one energy rich sentence in every one on one.
(07:08):
Do this and watch the patterns reveal themselves. Patterns tell
the truth and once you know the truth, change becomes easy.
And before we wrap up, I want to let you
know that my YouTube channel is now home to leadership
content from the show. I'm adding leadership short videos built
(07:29):
from the strongest moments in each episode, and I will
be uploading select full video interviews too. So if YouTube
is your platform, head over to my channel and subscribe.
Link is in the description of the show and on
my website. Your support there helps push this message to
more leaders who need it around the world. This has
(07:52):
been the seven Minute Leadership Podcast, and I thank you
for listening.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
For more Paul Fell of Alito Podcast, visit Paul Fell
of a etail dot com
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