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Cicely Simpson shared thisLeaders can tell you their revenue number without hesitating. Ask them these 20 questions, and it gets a lot harder. I built a wheel around the 4 things I believe every VP to C-suite leader has to keep asking themselves. Most people only ask them once a year, at the offsite. I want you asking them on repeat. 👑 Leadership and Culture ↳ This is where trust is either being built or slowly lost. ↳ The questions here are not about whether your team likes you. ↳ They are about whether your team tells you the truth before you have to ask for it, and whether your culture would survive you being wrong in public. 🗣️ Communication Mastery ↳ A lot of leaders think they communicate clearly. ↳ Few check whether their team's silence means agreement or fear. ↳ This pillar forces you to look at the gap between what you meant to say and what your team walked away believing. 💪 Peak Performance ↳ This is the pillar a lot of leaders skip. ↳ Because it asks you to hold yourself to the same standard you hold your team to. ↳ Your pace either builds capacity for the next 5 years, or it borrows against them. 💭 Strategic Thinking ↳ This pillar separates leaders who see around corners from leaders who get surprised by them. ↳ The questions are about what you should have already anticipated. ↳ And whether you are solving today's problem, or the one that is quietly forming behind it. None of these questions have one right answer. That is the point. The leaders who keep asking them stay clear-headed longer than the ones who stop. Which pillar do you need to sit with the most this week? The full wheel, all 20 questions, is below. If you want a hard question like this waiting for you every morning, The 5-Minute Leader delivers one daily. The kind most leaders avoid asking themselves until it is too late. Join here to face the questions and get the tools to answer them: https://lnkd.in/gveHRsGY ♻️ Repost for a leader who needs to sit with a hard question today. And follow me, Cicely Simpson, for more.
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Cicely Simpson shared thisEveryone trains for failure. Almost nobody trains for what happens when it works. In 2021, I coached my very first client. I asked her what she was afraid of. Naturally, I expected her to say failure. Because that's what almost everyone says. But she said something I had never heard before: "My biggest fear is success. What if it works? What if I am not ready?" I sat with that for a while. Because a lot of leadership advice assumes the only thing in your way is doubt about whether you can do it. Nobody talks about the leaders who are scared of what happens if they can. Here is what changes when you get what you asked for: - If it works, more people are watching you. - If it works, more is expected of you. - If it works, you cannot go back to being invisible. I have watched this fear cost people more time than any lack of skill ever will. Here is how to work through it, in 6 steps: 1️⃣ Name the fear correctly. Ask yourself honestly: Am I afraid this will not work, or afraid it will? 👉 Action: Say the fear out loud, even if it is only to yourself. 2️⃣ Separate readiness from permission. Readiness usually comes after the step, instead of before it. 👉 Action: Take the next step before you feel fully ready for it. 3️⃣ Stop asking how, start asking who. The better question is not how do I fix this. It is who can help me see what I cannot see myself. 👉 Action: Ask someone who has already done this for their honest take. 4️⃣ Expect the discomfort instead of waiting for it to pass. Discomfort is often a sign you are growing into something bigger. 👉 Action: Keep moving even while the discomfort is still there. 5️⃣ Get specific about what success will require of you. Vague success feels bigger and scarier than it needs to be. 👉 Action: Write down exactly what changes for you if this works. 6️⃣ Commit before you have full confidence. Confidence tends to build after the commitment, instead of before it. 👉 Action: Make the decision first, and let confidence catch up after. If you are sitting on a next step you keep talking yourself out of, this fear is common. It is also not permanent. Fear will always show up. Your job is deciding whether it drives or just rides along. Which of these 6 steps do you need most right now? If you want more mindset shifts like this, The 5-Minute Leader delivers one every day, straight to your inbox. Join here: https://lnkd.in/gveHRsGY ♻️ Repost for a leader who needs permission to want more. Follow me, Cicely Simpson, for more on the mindset shifts nobody talks about.
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Cicely Simpson shared thisSome leaders build their reputation on what they say about themselves. Others build it on what they say about their people. I have sat in enough rooms to notice a pattern. The moment someone underestimates a person on your team in front of you. It's one of the fastest tests of what kind of leader you actually are. You cannot control who walks into the room with assumptions about your team. But you can only control whether you correct them or let them stand. Here are 7 moments when your team is underestimated, and what to say instead of staying mute 👇 1️⃣ Someone Redirects A Technical Question Away From Your Junior Hire → Hand it straight back to them. → "Actually, this is exactly the kind of thing [name] has been leading on. Go ahead." 👉 It signals competence before anyone has to prove it themselves. 2️⃣ Someone Skips Your Team Member When Assigning A Stretch Project → Name them for it directly. → "I'd like [name] on this one. They are ready for it." 👉 It puts your confidence in them on the record. 3️⃣ Someone Talks About Your Team Member In The Third Person While They Are In The Room → Bring them back into the conversation. → "Why don't we ask [name] directly? They know this better than anyone here." 👉 It restores them to the conversation instead of talking around them. 4️⃣ Someone Assumes Seniority Owns The Idea Instead Of The Person Who Built It → Correct the record without making it a confrontation. → "That came from [name]'s work last month. Worth hearing it from them." 👉 It gives credit where it belongs, in the moment it matters most. 5️⃣ Someone Questions Whether A Junior Person Is Ready, In Front Of The Room → Answer with specifics. → "They have already run this twice with strong results. I trust them with it." 👉 It replaces doubt with evidence. 6️⃣ Someone Automatically Hands The Harder Client To A More Senior Person → Make the case for your team member on merit. → "I'd actually put [name] on this. They have the judgment for it." 👉 It challenges the default without dismissing anyone else. 7️⃣ Someone Finishes Your Team Member's Sentence, Assuming They Cannot Get There Alone → Pass the floor back with intention. → "I want to hear the rest of this from [name]." 👉 It gives them the space to finish making their own point. The goal is not defending your team out of loyalty alone. It is making sure the room sees what you already know about them. Which of these moments have you faced with someone on your team? This is one framework out of dozens I break down inside The 5-Minute Leader. If advocating for your team is something you want to get better at, that's exactly the kind of thing I cover in 5 minutes or less. Join here: https://lnkd.in/gveHRsGY ♻️ Repost for a leader who needs this. Follow me, Cicely Simpson, to rewrite the rules at work.
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Cicely Simpson shared thisA lot of leaders think strategically once a year, at the offsite. The best ones do it every single morning, before their first email. Strategic thinking is not a personality trait. It is a skill with 5 distinct parts. Most leaders are only using 1 or 2 of them without realizing it. And what they lack is a repeatable moment in the day where they actually practice it. Here are the 5 dimensions, and why each one matters to you, your team, and your business: (Because it really is that important.) 1️⃣ Long-Term Orientation ↳ Thinking in quarters and years, instead of days and weeks. Decisions always look different once you stretch the timeline past this quarter. For you: It keeps you from winning this week and losing the next 2 years. For your team: It gives direction to build toward, instead of a task to finish. For your business: It protects decisions that take time to pay off. 2️⃣ Systems Thinking ↳ Seeing the organization as one connected system. Nothing in a business moves alone, even when it looks contained to your area. For you: It stops you from solving a problem that creates one somewhere else. For your team: It helps them understand how their work touches every other function. For your business: It prevents wins in one department from becoming losses in another. 3️⃣ Pattern Recognition ↳ Connecting dots across markets, industries, and functions. The same signal often shows up in a different industry first. For you: it helps you spot what is coming before your competitors do. For your team: it teaches them to notice when the same issue keeps resurfacing in different forms. For your business: it turns scattered signals into an early warning system. 4️⃣ Anticipation ↳ Seeing what is coming before it becomes urgent. A lot of surprises were visible weeks earlier to someone who was looking. For you: It moves you from reacting to leading. For your team: It means fewer fire drills and more time to prepare. For your business: It protects momentum instead of losing it to surprises. 5️⃣ Strategic Questioning ↳ Asking questions that shift a team from tactical to strategic thinking. The question you ask shapes the answer you get back. For you: It changes the quality of every conversation you lead. For your team: It teaches them to think, instead of just report. For your business: It builds a culture that solves problems before they escalate. Strategic thinking does not need a bigger block of time. It needs a repeatable moment in your day where you stop reacting and start looking further ahead. Which of these 5 dimensions do you use the least right now? If you want to see how these 5 dimensions apply directly to what is happening in the world and in your business right now. That is exactly what my Intelligence Report is built for. Drop me a DM to find out more. ♻️ Repost for a leader who needs to think further ahead this week. Follow me, Cicely Simpson, for more on leading with clarity under pressure.
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Cicely Simpson shared thisNobody claps when a new leader walks in. Instead, they watch. Because a strategy is only as good as the people willing to carry it out. And the people who have been there 10, 15, 20 years decide that faster than any plan on paper. Credit to my good friend Dora Vanourek for the visual here! Before you ask any of them to change, it helps to understand what they already know: - They know which promises never happened. - They know which initiatives quietly disappeared. - They know which processes exist for reasons nobody wrote down. A new leader who moves fast without earning trust first will rarely hear direct pushback. The plan just goes nowhere. The results never show up. And the leader is left confused about how a sound strategy fell flat. It's because a strategy without trust behind it is just an idea nobody agreed to help you finish. So, here are 5 ways to lead people who have been there longer than you: 1️⃣ Accept that your title does not impress them Earn credibility by respecting what they have spent years building. 👉 Ask them what they would protect before you change anything. 2️⃣ Listen to their complaints; they are telling you what they value Their concerns point directly to what matters most to them. 👉 Write down the complaint you hear most often this month. 3️⃣ Fix one thing that has frustrated them for years Solve a problem they had stopped expecting anyone to fix. 👉 Pick one small fix and deliver it within your first 90 days. 4️⃣ Frame change around what protects them, not what you need Connect the change to their priorities and their risks. 👉 Explain every change in terms of what it protects, instead of what it demands. 5️⃣ Take a genuine interest in them as people Understand what matters to them beyond their role. 👉 Ask one question in your next 1:1 that has nothing to do with work. None of this happens on your timeline. It happens on theirs. Earning the right to lead people who already know more than you do about how things work. That right never comes with the title. It comes from what you do in the first 90 days. Which of these 5 would make the biggest difference for you right now? If you are stepping into a new leadership role, The 5-Minute Leader gives you a daily playbook for exactly this: How to earn trust fast without losing the people you need most. Join here: https://lnkd.in/gveHRsGY ♻️ Repost to help a leader in your network navigate their first year. Follow me, Cicely Simpson, for more on leading people who have been there longer than you.
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Cicely Simpson shared thisEvery company has someone in charge of money, risk, and people. Almost none of them have someone in charge of the outside world. And yet that is the question that keeps showing up on a leader's desk. Something happens - a war, a policy change, a shift in the market - and suddenly everyone is looking at you, asking what it means and what you are doing about it. For years, I have been that person for the organizations I advise. Scanning the landscape, doing the analysis, and telling leaders what a moment means before it becomes a problem. I get asked what something means for their business so often, it made me think differently about what I could be building... What if this was not just something I did for a handful of organizations? What if it was something every leader could have? That is the idea behind what I have been building behind the scenes. Human intelligence and political intelligence, combined, So you are never left wondering what is going on in the world or how it is impacting your organization and revenue. Some people have started calling it a CIA for companies. I will let you decide if that fits once you see it 😅 This is still coming together, but I wanted to bring you along for the thinking behind it. Because I believe every leader deserves to feel ahead of what is happening in the world. Would having something like this change how you lead? If this is the kind of thing that would change how you show up on a hard day, drop me a DM and let's talk it through. ♻️ Repost for a leader who is tired of being caught off guard. And follow me, Cicely Simpson, for more on staying ahead of what the world throws at you.
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Cicely Simpson shared thisNobody burns out on a Tuesday. They burn out on the accumulation of every Tuesday that looked fine. I have sat across from leaders mid-collapse, and almost every one of them describes the same thing. Never one bad call. Dozens of small ones, stacked until the weight became impossible to ignore. Here are the 9 I see most often, including a few I had to unlearn myself: 1️⃣ Starting the day reactive instead of intentional Opening your inbox before you have decided what matters today hands your morning to whoever emailed you first. 👉 Decide your top priority before you open anything. 2️⃣ Attending every meeting you are invited to Your presence gets treated as automatic instead of earned, so your calendar fills before your thinking does. 👉 Ask what your specific input is needed for before you accept. 3️⃣ Carrying decisions that belong to someone else Staying the final approval on everything feels like leadership. A lot of the time it is just not trusting the people you hired. 👉 Hand off one decision this week that does not need you. 4️⃣ Treating every fire as equally urgent Not every problem deserves the same reaction. Treating them all as emergencies keeps your nervous system on alert. 👉 Ask if this needs to be solved today, or just needs to be seen today. 5️⃣ Never separating your identity from your output When your sense of value is tied to how much you produced today, rest starts to feel like failure instead of maintenance. 👉 Name one thing you did today that had nothing to do with output. 6️⃣ Responding to conflict the moment it happens Reacting in the heat of the moment rarely produces your best judgment. It produces your fastest one. 👉 Give yourself a few hours before responding to anything that made you angry. 7️⃣ Skipping the debrief after hard weeks Moving straight into the next thing without asking what that week cost you, means you carry it into the next one without realizing it. 👉 End every hard week with one honest question. What did that take out of me? 8️⃣ Confusing being available with being effective Answering at all hours signals commitment. But it slowly erodes the judgment your role depends on. 👉 Pick the hours you are reachable, and protect the ones you are not. 9️⃣ Never revisiting what you agreed to 6 months ago Commitments made under different circumstances keep running long after the reasons for them have changed. 👉 Once a quarter, ask which commitments no longer make sense. The moment you stop treating these as normal is the moment your decisions start to change. Which of these 9 is the one you most need to unlearn? If you want to catch these patterns before they turn into a collapse, The 5-Minute Leader gives you one lesson like this every day. Subscribe here for more: https://lnkd.in/gveHRsGY ♻️ Repost to remind a leader that burnout builds one habit at a time. Follow me, Cicely Simpson, for more on leading without losing yourself in the process.
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Cicely Simpson shared thisI sort every leadership conversation into 3 buckets: Strategy. The market. Geopolitical. Different headlines, different fears. But leaders come to me asking some version of the same question: How do I lead when I don't know what is coming next? And I understand why, because I feel it too. The pace has not slowed down in years, and it is not going to. But that is why each type of uncertainty needs its own way of thinking. Treat them all the same, and you will feel behind on all 3. Here's how to tell them apart, and a framework for each one: 1️⃣ Strategic Uncertainty This is the uncertainty that lives inside your own organization. Unclear priorities, competing plans, and decisions that need to be made before the full picture is in. 👉 The Three Horizons Framework, h/t McKinsey. Keep today's plan running while still building the one that replaces it. Useful when you are being pulled between what needs attention now and what needs investment for later. 2️⃣ Market Moving Information This is the uncertainty that shows up while you are mid-decision. Earnings, rate changes, a competitor's move, a shift nobody flagged in advance. 👉 The OODA Loop, h/t John Boyd. Observe, orient, decide, act, then repeat, faster than the situation changes. Useful when the information is moving faster than your usual decision process can keep up with. 3️⃣ Geopolitical Uncertainty This is the kind you cannot predict or control. 👉 Scenario Planning, originally developed at Shell. Prepare for several possible futures instead of betting everything on one. Useful when you cannot wait for certainty before you act. None of these frameworks are complicated. The challenge is applying the right one fast enough while everything keeps moving. Thankfully for you... I may have the answer to all your problems. With a system I built that turns strategic, market, and political intelligence into a plan, in minutes. So you can answer your own question of: "What does this mean for us?" instantly. If you want a hand thinking through which bucket is costing you the most sleep, drop me a DM and let's talk it through. Which of these 3 keeps you up at night? ♻️ Repost for a leader who needs a clearer way to think about uncertainty. Follow me, Cicely Simpson, for straightforward frameworks on leading through pressure.
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Cicely Simpson shared thisThere's a difference between a team that respects you and a team that trusts you. One follows your title. The other follows you. Respect can be earned by doing the job well. Trust has to be earned by being honest, even when it costs you something. Early in my career, I ran a team that respected me completely. They did the work, hit the numbers, and they never questioned a decision. I thought that meant I was leading well. Then one day, a mistake I made cost us a deadline. And instead of telling the truth, I found a way to explain it that made me look better than I was. Nobody challenged me on it. My team simply accepted what I said and moved on. That is when it hit me. They didn't trust me enough to expect the truth. They respected me enough to accept whatever I gave them. From that day on, I built a different kind of team. One built on trust rather than only respect. And I started to see a specific set of signs that told me trust was there: 1️⃣ They Tell You the Truth Before You Ask For It ↳ They flag the problem before you have to go looking for it 2️⃣ They Disagree With You Openly ↳ They aren't afraid one disagreement will cost them your favor 3️⃣ They Bring You Bad News Quickly ↳ They trust you to handle it without blaming the messenger 4️⃣ They Come to You to Think Something Through ↳ They ask because they want to think out loud, not because they need permission 5️⃣ They Admit Their Mistakes to You Directly ↳ They trust you to respond with correction 6️⃣ They Push Back on Deadlines That Do Not Work ↳ They know you will listen and adjust instead of dismissing them 7️⃣ They Share What They Are Genuinely Struggling With ↳ They feel safe enough to be honest about where they are stuck 8️⃣ They Stay Even When Things Get Hard ↳ They trust the relationship enough to work through friction instead of walking away A team that respects you will follow your instructions. A team that trusts you will tell you when your instructions are wrong. That is the difference between authority and leadership. But this type of leadership doesn't just build itself. It has to be built one honest moment at a time. Have you ever led a team that trusted you enough to tell you the truth, even when it was not what you wanted to hear? If you want to build that kind of trust with your team, The 5-Minute Leader gives you one short leadership lesson a day you can put to work right away. Hit the link to join: https://lnkd.in/gveHRsGY ♻️ Repost if you believe trust matters more than being right. And follow me, Cicely Simpson, for more on building a high-performing team.
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Being busy can feel productive because there is always something to point to, Mostyn. The harder part is protecting time for work that takes longer to show its value.
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Cicely Simpson liked thisCicely Simpson liked thisThere are thousands of TED Talks about work and leadership. But only a handful really challenge how we think about them. For me, the talks below do exactly that. They're from people who have built radically different organizations, studied what actually motivates us, or challenged some of our most basic assumptions about work. If you're serious about building a better organization, these 7 are worth watching. 🎬 Ricardo Semler, How to run a company with (almost) no rules A brilliant look at what happens when you replace hierarchy and control with radical autonomy. 🎬 Daniel Pink, The puzzle of motivation Why traditional rewards often fail to motivate people, and what decades of research tell us about autonomy, mastery, and purpose. 🎬 David Marquet, How Great Leaders Serve Others A former US Navy captain explains why leaders should stop creating followers and start giving people real control. 🎬 Jason Fried, Why work doesn't happen at work A simple argument for why meetings and constant interruptions make it so difficult to actually get work done. 🎬 Amy Edmondson, How to turn a group of strangers into a team Why psychological safety matters, and what it takes to create an environment where people can speak up and contribute. 🎬 Helen Sanderson, Self-managed Teams: An insider's story A practical look at what self-management actually looks like when teams start working without traditional bosses. 🎬 Debbie Lovich, 3 tips for leaders to get the future of work right A useful perspective on designing work around how people actually work best, with more flexibility and autonomy. You don't have to agree with everything in these talks. But if you're serious about rethinking how work is organized, they're a good place to start. And if you want to hear directly from one of the people on this list, Ricardo Semler will be speaking at the Corporate Rebels Summit in Amsterdam this November. He'll join 350 leaders from 30+ countries for two days of sharing what's actually working inside pioneering organizations. Find out more and join us here: https://lnkd.in/e2PvUNve ➕ Follow Pim de Morree for more on new ways of working. Work is broken. Let's fix it.
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Cicely Simpson liked thisCicely Simpson liked thisAlmost everything about modern work is designed to make us confuse being busy with being productive. You can have a very full day, but still feel like you've moved little forward. Shallow work creates movement. Notifications, quick replies, status updates, admin tasks. Your brain registers activity, so it assumes progress. Deep work feels different. Slower to start. Harder to stay in. Less obvious while it's happening. But it's where the real output comes from. Strategy, writing, thinking. The decisions that shape the next quarter. The problem is that almost nothing in modern work protects it. Open offices. Constant pings. Meetings that could have been a message. A culture that rewards fast replies over good ones. By the time you sit down to think properly, your brain is fried. So, if you want more deep work, you have to defend it on purpose: ✅ Schedule focus blocks ✅ Turn off notifications ✅ Protect your morning hours ✅ Work on one thing at a time ✅ Decline meetings that don't need you The goal is not to be busy all day. The goal is to spend more of your day on the work that actually matters. The ability to think deeply is becoming one of the most valuable skills in modern work. Most people are losing it. The few who protect it will stand out. __ P.S. This is taken from my most popular Sustaining Success leadership programme. Message me for the outline to see if it will help your team. "𝘔𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘺𝘯 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘦𝘹𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘳 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘥𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘥𝘢𝘺𝘴. 𝘏𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦-𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘳 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴." – FTSE 250 CEO, Financial Services __
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Cicely Simpson liked thisCicely Simpson liked thisYour connection count is the least useful networking metric there is. These four questions matter more: The way most people measure their network doesn't actually tell them much. Number of connections, events attended, messages sent... None of these 'KPIs' tell you whether anyone actually wants to hear from you. So here's a better set of KPIs to measure your network against. Not Key Performance Indicators, but: Keep People Interested Keep People Informed Keep People Involved Keep People Inspired And honestly, it's a far better way to think about how you impact the people around you. Transactional networking is obvious. People can feel when they're being contacted because someone wants something. They can equally feel when someone makes an effort consistently and adds something to their world without an agenda. So instead of asking "how many people do I know?", try asking these instead: Keep People Interested ↳ Are you worth staying connected to? ↳ Do you have something worth paying attention to between the asks? Keep People Informed ↳ Do you share useful things? ↳ Do people learn something from being in your orbit? Keep People Involved ↳ Do you bring people into conversations and opportunities? ↳ Do you make introductions, open doors, include others? Keep People Inspired ↳ Do people leave interactions with you feeling better than before? ↳ More energised, or more seen? These questions will give you so much more insight than any measurable number. Ultimately, networking has to be a habit you build, not just an event you attend. And if you're a woman in marketing or branding looking for a place where this kind of connection actually happens, People Like Me is exactly that. A community for women who are over the small talk and want to find their people. Our next breakfast is on the 17th of September! If that sounds like your kind of morning, please do sign up! 👇 📍 Shoreditch, London 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gk-AG4f4 ♻️ Share this with women in your network! ➕ Follow me, Kelly Mackenzie 🐻❄️, for more on high-quality networking
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Cicely Simpson liked thisCicely Simpson liked thisEgo is the single biggest reason senior hires fail. I test every single candidate for it before recommending them… 📌You can see how I do it in my free hiring guide: https://lnkd.in/e2G7krZk I learned just how strong the ego can be during an external assessment. I had an assessor interview my team anonymously. Naturally, because I pride myself on training leadership teams, I expected glowing feedback. Instead, I heard that my expectations were so high nobody felt they could ever meet them. I thought I was being motivational. Clearly, I wasn't. My first instinct was defensive. “Who said that?” Then I slept on it and realised: If that's how it comes across, that's the reality I have to work with. If you want to build real trust, remove the ego. These 12 phrases do it instantly 👇 1️⃣ "I was wrong about that." ↳ Self-awareness is the fastest way to earn respect. 2️⃣ "I hadn't considered that. Tell me more." ↳ I listen for this line with every candidate. It's my no.1 green flag. 3️⃣ "That was your success, so own it." ↳ Giving credit costs nothing and creates a team that will go to war for you. 4️⃣ "I don't know, but I'll find out." ↳ Show you’re willing to learn instead of pretending to know the answer 5️⃣ "Here's what I'd do differently next time." ↳ Take ownership without the self-flagellation. 6️⃣ "What do you think?" ↳ Be humble enough to let others build with you. 7️⃣ "I hear you, but let me think about it." ↳ You don't have to decide on the spot. Taking your time shows you care. 8️⃣ "I should have caught that sooner." ↳ Name your own missteps before anyone else does. 9️⃣ "You were right." ↳ People find this almost impossible to say, but without it you can build bonds. 🔟 "I'm not available for that, but here's who can help." ↳ A boundary and a solution in one line. 1️⃣1️⃣ "Let me be direct with you." ↳ Clarity is one of the highest forms of respect as long as you're polite. 1️⃣2️⃣ "That's on me." ↳ Take the blame publicly and the credit privately. None of these work if you don't mean them. No one is expecting you to have every single answer. But they will follow you if you're secure enough to admit when you don't. 📌 If you want to make better senior hires, grab my free guide: https://lnkd.in/e2G7krZk It has all the details you need to find low-ego, high-accountability executives for your business. ♻️ Repost to reach a leader who needs to hear this. And follow Emma J E. for more on how to lead better in 2026.
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Jason Hilliard
Jason Hilliard
Building and Realty Institute of Westchester and the Mid-Hudson Region (BRI)
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