Tales of Leadership: Being Present With Those You Support

Good early afternoon, Cadre crew. Gosh, what an amazing day to be alive. So, as you're all aware, on Mondays, I share a story of Monday motivation, and on Thursdays, I either share a story of a tale from leadership, a tale from entrepreneurial ship, or sometimes it might be a little bit of both. But, you know, regardless, you know, I have a. I have a story that I want to share today that regardless, it's going to impact you. And I know you're going to take this message and you're going to carry it with your day to day some way, shape, or form.

Right. Last week, I talked about entrepreneurship and how entrepreneurship ultimately led into this wave of. I have to figure out how in the h*** to work with Ada compliance stuff and blah, blah, blah, blah. Right. So those things happen when you take on those entrepreneurship journeys. It's like just the next thing that you gotta work with. Right? Good afternoon, Katie. But what I wanna share today is a story. You know, there's this old adage that nobody will ever remember exactly what you said, but they always remember how it made them feel.

And I have to share this with you. Hey, Barbara. I have to share this story with you that I think that you will always remember this moment. Maybe something like this has happened to you where you felt so small. Okay. So I just graduated college. I was off working. I was. I took my first role at a Fortune 500 company. I thought I was. Yeah, I had had the world, right? And I'll never forget meeting with my manager for the first time on my one to one, right. I was meeting with my manager. I was, you know, early twenties, and my manager sat on literally like this, on his computer, just going like this, like, yep, yep.

I. Yep, yep. No, I understand. Yeah. Yep. No, that makes sense. Yep, yep, yep. Okay. Yep. And so, like, 1520 minutes later, I'm telling and answering these questions, and he's literally the entire time, like, on his computer, looking at his screen, looking back at me every maybe 30, 45 seconds, giving me eye contact, heading right back to his computer. I could not have felt less seen in my entire life. Right. Like, this manager just gave me no respect. I was this small. And why I'm sharing the story today is this.

Right? There's 96%. com dot. 96% of individuals currently right now are looking for new roles. So company a, company b, company c, you know, that are rolling out Cadre that going to be rolling out Cadre into their organizations or otherwise. Think about this. The majority of your teams are going to be looking for work one way or another in 2023. And the number one way, in my humble opinion, is to ultimately never give somebody that feeling that I just explained and shared to you, right. Never, never allow employees to feel that way.

So in other words, what can you do? So if you are that manager and you're overseeing your staff, number one, be where your feet are. Be where your feet are. Number two, look at somebody, eye contact, taking that information. Share with them, work with them, be engaged. Be a mentor. Right. That. Transformational leadership. Transformational leadership. Right. Like, you're working with them together through the process. Right. There are managers today that feel like their manager responsibility is, is to basically oversee people.

Right? And if that's who you are and that's who you're showing up, as I'm telling you, your teams are looking for work out right now. Trust me when I tell you that. Okay? So I want to reiterate to you right now, I shared that story of, you know, how I felt as an employee reporting up to somebody. And if that's you and you're in that role and that your position of leadership right now, you know, my question to you is, how are you making sure that your employees are being seen, that are being heard, and that understand that feedback is a consistent chain on the good, on the bad, and everything in between?

So let me reiterate this again. Your employees will never, ever, ever remember exactly what you said, but they'll always remember how it made them feel. Number two, how are you making sure that people are reporting to you, are feeling seen, are feeling heard, or feeling a consistent level of feedback. Right. How are you making sure that those things consistently happen? And last but not least, we should all, we should all make sure that we strive to become transformational leaders. That does not mean just throw on the same page, becoming a transformational leader does not mean a title.

Right? That does not mean a title. Transformational leader means how you show up for other people. You can mentor other people. You can work with other people, you can support other people. You can listen to other people. Okay, so I shared a story with you today that hurt me back in the day in my early twenties, and I'm sure there's somebody out there right now that knows exactly what I, what I said and how that made them feel, because I have a feeling they probably smell, felt small one day, too.

How can we change that? How can we change to ensure that. That people feel that less and less and less? Right? That's our job. That's all of our jobs. So my story today is making sure people feel seen, making sure people feel heard and absolutely value their feedback. If you can do those things, you will absolutely crush. You will be the 4%. Your employees will not be looking for other work. Your employees will not be jumping off and trying to find monster. Indeed, and all different opportunities.

Your your people will fundamentally not only believe in your mission, vision, values, but they'll believe in you. And when they believe in both, you will be in that 4%. So trust me when I tell you that I hope everybody has an amazing day. Remember that story nobody will always remember.