WoW Wednesday​

This week, I’m reflecting on one of my all-time favorite leadership quotes, and it’s from the brilliant Craig Groeschel:

“People would rather follow a leader that is real than one that is always right.”

This quote cuts right to the essence of effective leadership. It’s not about projecting an image of perfection or having all the answers. Instead, it’s about authenticity, vulnerability, and genuine connection.

What does it truly mean to be a “real” leader?

It means:

▪️ Admitting when you don’t know: No one expects you to be omniscient. A real leader isn’t afraid to say, “I don’t have the answer to that right now, but let’s find it together.” 🙏

▪️ Owning your mistakes: We all mess up. A leader who can openly acknowledge an error, take responsibility, and learn from it builds immense trust and respect. It shows humanity, not weakness.

▪️ Showing your true self: Drop the facade. Share your struggles, your passions, and even your quirky sense of humor. People connect with people, not robots. When you’re authentic, others feel safe to be authentic too.

▪️ Empathy over ego: A real leader understands and connects with their team’s experiences, challenges, and aspirations. They lead with compassion, not just directives.

Why does this matter in leadership?

Think about it: Would you rather follow someone who seems unapproachable and infallible, or someone who is relatable, understands your challenges, and inspires you through their genuine character? Authenticity fosters psychological safety, encourages innovation, and builds a much stronger, more resilient team. When leaders are real, they inspire loyalty and a shared purpose, far more than someone who prioritizes being “right” above all else. 💖

For further reading on how to cultivate influential and authentic leadership, I highly recommend:

“Lead Like It Matters: 7 Leadership Principles for a Church That Lasts” by Craig Groeschel. 📖

Why? While the title references “church,” this book is packed with universal leadership wisdom that applies to any organization. Groeschel shares practical insights on what it takes to build and sustain a thriving, impactful team. He emphasizes the importance of vision, innovation, and a willingness to be vulnerable – all components of being a “real” leader that people are eager to follow.

And a bonus! You can also gain powerful, practical insights every month by tuning into Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast 🎧 – it’s a fantastic free resource for any leader wanting to grow!

This week’s thought-provoking quote from business strategist Hirav Shah:

“Three enemies of growth: comfort, confusion, and complaining.”

This isn’t just a personal mantra; it’s a profound blueprint for effective leadership and high-performing teams.

Leadership & Growth:

As leaders, we foster growth. Shah’s quote highlights silent progress killers:

▪️Comfort: Complacency in leaders stifles innovation, making teams resistant to change. Leaders must model a growth mindset, always seeking “what’s next” and embracing healthy disruption. 🚀

▪️Confusion: Unclear vision or goals paralyze teams, leading to wasted effort and frustration. Leaders must prioritize clarity, communicate relentlessly, and ensure everyone understands the “why.” 🧭

▪️Complaining: A culture of complaint is toxic, shifting focus from solutions to problems. Leaders must champion a positive, solution-oriented mindset, encouraging constructive feedback over grumbling. 💪

Team & Growth:

Teams thrive when engaged and empowered.

▪️Combatting Comfort: Encourage your team to step outside comfort zones—new responsibilities, skills, or projects. Celebrate efforts; growth happens at the edge of comfort! 🌱

▪️Overcoming Confusion: Foster a safe environment for questions and clarification. Regular check-ins and clear roles ensure alignment and effective execution. 🎯

▪️Silencing Complaining: Shift energy from problems to solutions. Implement constructive feedback processes and empower team members to own challenges, framing them as innovation opportunities. ✨

Examples in Action: Hospitality Focus

▪️Comfort: A resort leader pilots new virtual check-in tech, rather than solely traditional methods, pushing the team past their comfort zone for improved guest flow.

▪️Confusion: A restaurant manager clarifies new cleaning protocols and guest service standards during morning huddles, ensuring all staff are aligned for seamless operations.

▪️Complaining: When the team lament about a new inventory system, the leader asks, “What specific challenges are we seeing, and how can we find solutions or suggest improvements?”—fostering problem-solving over negativity.

📚 Book Recommendation:

For fostering team growth and clarity, I highly recommend “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” by Patrick Lencioni.

Why? Lencioni’s book brilliantly addresses the root causes of team dysfunction, tying directly to comfort (lack of trust), confusion (absence of commitment), and complaining (inattention to results). It offers a powerful model for building cohesive, effective teams and practical strategies to overcome these “enemies of growth.”

“There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.” – Brené Brown

This quote from Brené Brown hits hard because it’s fundamentally true, especially in leadership. As leaders, we often strive for perfection, creating environments where mistakes are seen as something to be avoided at all costs. But what if I told you that this very mindset could be stifling your team’s greatest potential? 🤔

Lets talk about it:

▪️ The “Flawed” App Update That Paved the Way for Perfection: I vividly recall when a major app update didn’t quite hit the mark. User feedback was… direct. Instead of sweeping issues under the rug, we debriefed rigorously, diving deep into every bug report. We identified critical user pain points and performance bottlenecks we’d missed. That “failure” directly informed the next iteration, which wasn’t just a fix, but a complete overhaul, becoming our most stable, feature-rich, highly-rated app version to date! 📈

▪️ The Debugging Nightmare That Led to a Scalable Solution: Or the late-night coding session where a major bug seemed insurmountable, but in dissecting the problem, we uncovered a fundamental flaw in our architecture that led to a more robust, scalable solution than we ever initially envisioned. Sometimes, the most frustrating technical challenges illuminate the path to true innovation. 💡

As leaders, how can we foster a culture where mistakes are seen as stepping stones, not stumbling blocks?

▪️ Lead by Example: Share your own professional missteps and what you learned from them. Vulnerability builds trust. 🙏

▪️ Create Safe Spaces for Experimentation: Encourage your team to try new things, even if the outcome is uncertain. Make it clear that the learning is more valuable than the initial “win.” 🧑‍🔬

▪️ Focus on the “Why”: When a mistake happens, don’t just assign blame. Dive deep into understanding the root cause and systemic issues. What can we learn from this? How can we prevent it next time? 🧐

▪️ Celebrate Learning, Not Just Success: Acknowledge the effort and the insights gained from an unsuccessful attempt. This reinforces that the journey of learning is just as important as the destination. 🎉

▪️ Embracing failure isn’t about being careless; it’s about being courageous enough to explore, iterate, and ultimately, innovate.

Book Recommendation 📚

Want to dive deeper into learning from mistakes? I highly recommend “Black Box Thinking: Why Most People Never Learn from Their Mistakes–But Some Do” by Matthew Syed.

Syed explores how industries like aviation meticulously analyze errors to improve. It’s a fascinating look at why some embrace learning from failure, while others remain stuck in denial. A must-read!

This week, let’s dive into a powerful insight from the brilliant Michael Porter:

“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.”

As leaders, we often feel the pressure to say “yes” to every opportunity, chase every trend, or try to be everything to everyone. But true strategic leadership isn’t just about what you embark upon; it’s profoundly about what you deliberately choose to forgo. 🚫

Think about it:

▪️ Focus & Clarity: By saying no to certain initiatives, you enable your team to pour all their energy and resources into what truly matters, leading to sharper execution and greater impact. 🎯

▪️ Resource Optimization: Every “yes” comes with an invisible cost – time, money, and mental bandwidth. Deciding not to pursue certain paths frees up invaluable resources for your core mission. 💰

▪️ Defining Your Niche: Differentiation isn’t just about what you offer, but also about what you don’t offer, carving out a unique space in the market. What makes your leadership, or your organization, truly distinct? 🚀

Examples in Leadership:

▪️ Team Initiatives: You, as a leader, might decide not to take on a low-priority side project, allowing the team to excel on critical, high-impact tasks.

▪️ Personal Leadership: You, as a leader, might choose not to attend every single meeting or committee, instead prioritizing deep work that moves the needle.

▪️ Market Expansion: You, as a leader, may decide not to enter every potential global market, instead concentrating resources on a few key regions where they can establish dominant market share.

▪️ Customer Segments: You, as a leader, might decide not to pursue every lead, focusing only on high-value clients who truly fit their ideal customer profile, leading to more efficient and profitable sales cycles.

Choosing what not to do requires courage, conviction, and a crystal-clear understanding of your vision. It’s about exercising the discipline to align your actions with your highest priorities, even when tempting distractions arise. This intentional omission isn’t about weakness or indecision; it’s a powerful act of strategic leadership that clarifies your direction, sharpens your competitive edge, and ultimately enables far greater success. It’s often harder than saying yes, but it’s where true strategic advantage is built.

📖 Book Recommendation:

If this resonates with you, I highly recommend “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t” by Jim Collins. 📚 Collins extensively explores the concept of disciplined action and, importantly, disciplined inaction – focusing on what truly drives greatness and shedding everything else. It’s a cornerstone for understanding strategic choices in leadership!

Happy WoW Wednesday! ✨

This week’s wisdom comes from the brilliant Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “Instruction does much, but encouragement, everything.”

This quote really resonates with me when I think about the core of impactful leadership. As leaders, it’s easy to focus on the “what” and the “how”—the instructions, the processes, the metrics. And yes, that instruction is absolutely necessary for direction and clarity.

But Goethe’s words remind us that the real magic, the true differentiator, lies in encouragement. Encouragement is the fuel that turns competence into confidence and potential into performance. It’s the human element that instruction alone can never capture.

So, what does encouragement look like from a great leader?

➡️ Seeing potential before it’s obvious: It’s telling a team member, “I know you can handle this project. I’ve seen your skills in X and Y, and I’m excited to see you stretch yourself here.”

➡️ Celebrating the effort, not just the win: After a tough project, it’s saying, “I saw the incredible amount of work and dedication you all poured into that. Your perseverance was inspiring, and I’m proud of this team.” 🙌

➡️ Creating psychological safety to fail: When something doesn’t go as planned, it’s responding with, “What can we learn from this? Let’s break it down. Your effort to innovate here is what matters.” This turns a setback into a foundation for growth.

➡️ Personalized recognition: It’s taking a moment to send a quiet message after a meeting: “The way you handled that difficult question today was outstanding. Well done.”

Instruction provides the necessary blueprint and the boundaries, a vital framework for any endeavor. But encouragement breathes life into that structure, giving it a soul. It transforms tasks into meaningful contributions, making the “why” just as important as the “how.” It’s the critical ingredient that inspires discretionary effort—that willingness to go above and beyond, not because it’s required, but because one wants to contribute and excel. When team members are consistently encouraged, they don’t just follow orders; they innovate, take initiative, and overcome obstacles. This fosters an environment where the team genuinely feels valued for their unique contributions, seen for their individual strengths and challenges, and truly capable of achieving anything they set their minds to. It cultivates a deep sense of trust and psychological safety, creating a powerhouse of empowered individuals. 🚀

Book Recommendation: 📕

For a practical read on this theme, I highly recommend “The Coaching Habit” by Michael Bungay Stanier. It helps you shift from ‘instructor’ to ‘encourager’ using 7 key questions to empower your team. A quick, actionable read that transforms one-on-one conversations.