Kyle McDowell

Bestselling Author. Speaker. Leadership Coach.

[Kyle McDowell @KyleMcDowellInc]

When leaders confuse visibility with productivity, the people doing the real work end up paying twice, once with the meeting and again with the extra hours required to recover the time they lost.

Give people a clear outcome, give them the authority to protect the time required to deliver it, and then measure whether they actually delivered.

Presence is easy to count, but outcomes are what move the organization.

WE 7: WE measure ourselves by outcome. Not activity.

#beginwithWE

#The10WEs #Leadership #Productivity #Meetings #WorkplaceCulture #Outcomes

[Kyle McDowell @KyleMcDowellInc]

When tough decisions need a scapegoat, WE teach people not to trust us. Own the decision. Explain the why, tell the truth.

People handle difficult decisions far better than they handle deception.

[Kyle McDowell @KyleMcDowellInc]

Strategy has no hands.

It can’t call a customer, fix a problem, coach a new hire, make a judgment call, or lead an organization through a difficult week without capable people turning that sexy idea into reality.

Developing people is not work leaders do after the strategy is set… it is the foundation that makes the strategy executable in the first place.

Build the people and you dramatically increase the number of things the organization can accomplish without you.

#beginwithWE

#Leadership #PeopleDevelopment #LeadershipDevelopment #Strategy #TeamBuilding #CultureOfExcellence

[Kyle McDowell @KyleMcDowellInc]

If you lead others, make no mistake, they're talking about you at their dinner table. If that bothers you, ask yourself why...

[Kyle McDowell @KyleMcDowellInc]

Cynicism is usually telling us something, but WE still have the opportunity to decide what to do with the information.

Not every hour at work is going to feel profound, and not every job needs to be your life’s calling, but spending years convinced that your time is being stolen is soul-sucking.

Somehow, WE have to reconnect the work to an impact WE care about, change the environment WE’re in, or maybe admit WE’ve been waiting for somebody else to make that decision for us.

Agency is uncomfortable because it gives us responsibility, but it also gives us a way out.

You are meant for more.

#beginwithWE

#Leadership #CareerDevelopment #WorkplaceCulture #Purpose #ProfessionalDevelopment #EmployeeExperience

[Kyle McDowell @KyleMcDowellInc]

When the leader fails to connect the team's work to something bigger, they might get compliance, but never commitment.

[Kyle McDowell @KyleMcDowellInc]

When the same people arrive late every week and everybody else waits, the lesson is not subtle: the people who honored the commitment are apparently the ones whose time is negotiable.

Sm(all) standards matter because teams watch whether expectations actually mean something when enforcing them is hard.

If we say WE Obsess Over Details, the details cannot only matter when they are easy.

#beginwithWE

#The10WEs #Leadership #CultureOfExcellence #WorkplaceCulture #Accountability

[Kyle McDowell @KyleMcDowellInc]

When the rest of the house is on fire, it's easy to neglect the room WE're responsible for.

Leadership means refusing to let chaos elsewhere become an excuse for failing the people right in front of us.

[Kyle McDowell @KyleMcDowellInc]

Undivided attention is one of the simplest ways a leader communicates value.

If someone waits all week for twenty minutes with you and spends those twenty minutes competing with your inbox, they’ll eventually stop bringing you the information you said you wanted.

If you can’t be fully present, reschedule the conversation - your team deserves more than half (or less) of you.

#beginwithWE

#Leadership #Listening #EmployeeEngagement #Communication #WorkplaceCulture #LeadershipDevelopment

[Kyle McDowell @KyleMcDowellInc]

If your time feels like rent you're paying to satisfy someone else's ego, ask yourself how long you're willing to keep paying it. No one else can make that decision for you

[Kyle McDowell @KyleMcDowellInc]

Every meeting is spending somebody’s time, which means every calendar invitation ought to justify the expense.

People should know why they’re there, what needs to be decided, what good looks like when the meeting ends, and who owns whatever comes next.

When none of those things are clear, the loudest person usually fills the vacuum and everybody else quietly watches another hour disappear.

A calendar full of meetings is not evidence that a team is communicating well, sometimes it’s evidence that nobody has designed the communication at all.

#beginwithWE

#Leadership #Meetings #Productivity #WorkplaceCulture #TimeManagement #CultureOfExcellence

[Kyle McDowell @KyleMcDowellInc]

A calendar full of meetings is not evidence that a team is communicating well. Sometimes it is evidence that nobody has designed the communication at all.

[Kyle McDowell @KyleMcDowellInc]

A meritocracy is not something an organization gets to declare about itself, it has to be earned by the decisions people watch us make.

If somebody believes they need to become louder, harder, colder, or less like themselves simply to be considered alongside their peers, that should tell the leader something about the culture in which they are leading.

Promotion criteria should be visible, decisions should be explainable, and the person who didn’t get the opportunity deserves specific feedback they can actually use.

The burden of fixing an unfair system cannot sit entirely on the shoulders of the people being treated unfairly.

#beginwithWE

#Leadership #WomenInLeadership #WorkplaceCulture #LeadershipDevelopment #CareerDevelopment #CultureOfExcellence

[Kyle McDowell @KyleMcDowellInc]

Even the best-intentioned process becomes dangerous when following the process becomes more important than doing the right thing.

[Kyle McDowell @KyleMcDowellInc]

A lot of terrible policies begin with one completely reasonable problem somebody was trying to solve.

Then we write another rule, and another rule, and before long 99 responsible adults are living under a miniature prison manual because one person once pushed the limit.

Good policy creates enough clarity to protect the standard while leaving enough room for human judgment and common sense.

#beginwithWE

#Leadership #WorkplaceCulture #CompanyCulture #EmployeeExperience #Management #CultureOfExcellence

[Kyle McDowell @KyleMcDowellInc]

The higher you climb in an organization, the funnier your jokes seem to get.

Trust me: you didn't suddenly become funnier.

Power changes what people are willing to tell you. Never confuse deference with truth.

[Kyle McDowell @KyleMcDowellInc]

People can usually tell when WE are talking to them and when WE are performing for them.

That matters because leadership depends on trust, and even little flashes of inauthenticity make people wonder what else is part of the performance.

You don’t need to “sound like a leader.” You just need to communicate well enough that people actually want to follow you.

#beginwithWE

#Leadership #AuthenticLeadership #Communication #Trust #WorkplaceCulture #LeadershipDevelopment

[Kyle McDowell @KyleMcDowellInc]

A great meeting starts before anyone enters the room.

Be clear about why we're meeting, what we need to accomplish, how much time we'll spend, and who owns what happens next.

[Kyle McDowell @KyleMcDowellInc]

Your employees are watching what you do far more closely than they're reading the values hanging on the wall.

A company can have beautifully written values, standards and mission statements.

None of them mean very much if leaders behave in ways that contradict them.

I recently joined Mason Duchatschek on The Workforce Alchemy Show to talk about why leaders have to model the behavioral standards they expect from everyone else.

People are watching for consistency.

They're watching how you behave when things go wrong.

They're watching whether the rules apply to you.

They're also watching what happens when you make a mistake.

Leadership credibility doesn't require pretending to be perfect. Sometimes credibility grows when a leader can say:

"You're right. I blew it."

Owning a mistake demonstrates one of the very behaviors many organizations say they value: accountability.

Values become meaningful when people see leadership model them consistently.

The poster on the wall is easy.

Living it is the real test.

Want the full conversation?

Podcast Audio:
https://t.co/Ixm8xml8T5

YouTube:
https://t.co/7ULgsbTMVg

#BeginWithWE

#management #leadershiplegacy #legacy #work #leader #leaders #team #care #AuthenticLeadership #authenticity #leadershipdevelopment #culture #CultureMatters #principleoftheday #leadership #employeeengagement #empathy #employeexperience #employeewellbeing #culture #mentalhealth #psychologicalsafety

[Kyle McDowell @KyleMcDowellInc]

Speak the truth. Say what you mean. Mean what you say. Clarity builds far more trust than trying to sound like the smartest person in the room.