You Get to Change Lives with Every Decision

Written By Odalis Salazar Mullins
 

Show Notes

In this episode, we'll talk about the profound impact you as a leader and manager can have on your people—not just in how work gets done, but in how they feel as human beings.

We'll get into making decisions that create ripples far beyond the office with something as simple as changing the PTO request process.

Take Action

To make a positive impact today, start by reflecting on what you want to introduce more of into your team’s environment and consider one change you can make. If you're not sure where to start, listen to the next episode for ideas to get your brain juices flowing.

You can always message me (Odalis) to share your thoughts or ask questions about the changes you're considering.

And you can access the edited and oh so nicely organized version of the transcript below.

References

Organized Transcript

Hey, you're here!

This is the Change Lives with Your Leadership series for leaders and managers who want to leverage the coolest f*cking thing ever... the fact that, as a leader, you get to change people’s lives every. single. day. without any corporate, toxic f*ckery.

I'm Odalis...

And I'm honestly excited to have you here and to find more of my people!

And to talk about how we get to change people's lives every day with our leadership and how f*cking cool that really is.

A little about me...

I know we just met, so I'll give you a little backstory on me.

I chose to lead teams because it’s my way of creating more of what I want to see in the world. The support, the love, the compassion, the acceptance, the understanding, and simply more humans being human. I figure if most of us have to spend thousands of hours every year at work, it's pretty worth it to make that suck a lot less for as many people as we can.

I've been leading and managing for over 5 years (meaning I've been elbows-deep in setting vision and strategy, playing referee for disagreements, and figuring out whether or not we can afford yet another $15/user/month subscription).

And I do all of that while creating spaces where people feel good enough to stick around for at least 3 years, on average. This is on Support teams, where the average tenure is 18 months or less. So I’m not gonna lie, I’m pretty proud that my people stick around for so much longer.

Right now, I manage an amazing Support team at a tech company.

Plus, you'll also learn pretty quickly that I'm a coach. And since I've been doing that since 2013, I will talk about things like thoughts and feelings and love (yes, love) in a totally matter-of-fact way without any uncomfortable awkwardness.

(Try it. See how much you can talk about love to a total stranger, or even someone you know and love, without wanting to run away to hide behind a bush. It's okay if they run and hide behind a bush. The goal here would be for you to maintain your composure. If you do this, please, please, please let me know how it goes!)

But enough about me and daring you to talk about love.

I want to get to know you.

Look, I get that this is a podcast that you're listening through, but this series, it's not about a one-sided conversation where I tell you the 10 best ways to change people's lives with your leadership (in a faux superiority voice, of course) and then try to sell you something.

No, we're not going to do that here.

Instead...

I'm inviting you to talk to me…

Tell me what you think, what you feel, what you disagree with.

Because life includes nuance and paradox and different perspectives. We can’t cover all of that in any one podcast episode.

So, yeah, listen to me as I ever so casually pour out my mind and feelings all over this episode, talking about leading and changing people's lives, but then ​message me​. Do it 😀

Seriously, let's keep the conversation going so we can both grow and connect and support each other in doing better for our people.

Because being a leader is bananas! I don't know about you, but it's a lot easier to do it, to lead, when you've got people to support you and people who will just let you vent for 18, 19, 27 minutes straight about how frustrating and ridiculous your boss or your boss's boss or whoever is running your company and turning it into a more toxic and soul-crushing place.

​Message me​. I really want to hear what you have to say.

So now let's get to it.

Let's talk about what I really mean when I say you can change lives with your leadership...

First off...

You have the ability to impact every person on your team.

It is a given with your job because you get to make decisions and those decisions impact your people.

You don’t have to be a CEO or have “executive” in your title for this to be true.

This is for you.

The person who is with your people day-to-day. Who talks to them every day. Who listens to them every day. Who sees their daily contributions and struggles and sends them Michael Scott gifs because you know those make them laugh the most after dealing with the client who shall not be named.

How we feel comes from the culmination of our moments.

And you’re there for a hell of a lot of moments for your people each day, in a way that a CEO or higher up just can’t be. Which is why your impact is so much deeper and profound.

So if there's only one thing that you take away from this...

Even if you only listen to this one episode in the series…

Is that when I say you can change lives with your leadership, what I mean is that...

You have the power to change lives with your leadership because you get to make decisions that create a positive ripple effect that impacts more than the way that your people get work done.

I'm talking about them feeling better about themselves, not just as an employee, but as a human person. (And you know how hard it is to be human sometimes. There's puberty and death and politics and religion and the chaos agent that is the internet.)

I'm talking about your people feeling seen, heard, understood, appreciated, supported, accepted, cared for, respected, and loved.

And when they aren't working, they take that with them because our lives can't really be compartmentalized as much as we may want that to happen.

We can't just leave work at work.

The frustration, the annoyance, the mental exhaustion, the offenses and disrespect, all of that carries over to when we're not at work.

But as leaders, you and me, we get to change that and we get to do that at any given moment.

Seriously.

Even if you're listening to this in the middle of the night (while you're trying to fall asleep and figured that an episode about leadership would be boring enough to do the job), you can still email your people with a decision you've made and your decision will make an impact.

Again, impact is a given for you as a leader.

Even if the only decision you are empowered to make is to decide on the process for how your team will request PTO or vacation time, that is a decision that has an impact.

And that impact can be you giving your people more of what they want and you want to offer.

Here's what I mean...

Current process

Let's say your current PTO request process is something as simple as your team needs to send you a Slack message requesting PTO dates and that message has to be sent to you at least two weeks before the days that they want to take off. Super simple, straightforward.

But if you change just one thing about that process, you can do so much more for your people.

New process

So let's say that they don't need to give you two weeks notice, that they can request a day off for tomorrow if they need it without giving you a reason or any justification. Okay, so that's really two changes, but still those changes have a very different impact on your people.

It can tell them that:

  1. You recognize they're human and that life doesn't give us a two weeks notice when our basements flood thanks to a burst pipe or our moms need us to take them to see the specialist who has the results from their cancer screening.

  2. You trust them to do what's best for themselves while they are still mindful of their responsibilities at work, which is why they don’t have to give you a reason or reveal more than they are comfortable with to justify taking PTO.

  3. You don't automatically assume they will "abuse" this policy the way companies have always assumed that employees will abuse any policy or benefit that doesn't come with very strict rules and restrictions.

Your decisions, the way you choose to do things, makes a difference for your people.

And this is just one example to show you how one change to a seemingly insignificant process can introduce some of the things you want to offer in the culture and environment you're creating for your team.

Also, if you happen to want to make the PTO process change in my example...

I promise you can make it work. I have used it with past teams and I use it with my team now and they are all support people, meaning that their whole job is to constantly be responding to customers' emails and chats and answering phones. So when they are out of the office, the impact to the rest of the team is very real and yet we make it work. So, if you have any questions about how to implement that change, ​send me a message​.

Now, back to you changing lives with your leadership...

It is possible.

It's something you're already doing with every decision you make.

And there’s nothing “soft”, idealistic, or irresponsible about this…

Being a leader who does things differently takes far more courage, integrity, and advocacy than it takes to straddle the whole “way it’s always been done” approach to leadership.

It’s not “idealistic” to want to treat people like actual humans who are capable of doing their work without constant, to-catch-a-predator supervision. It doesn’t make you a “dreamer” who needs to be more realistic if you want to give your people choices, autonomy, and trust. Leading this way doesn’t mean you’re doing leadership wrong.

There are hundreds of studies, articles, and stories that prove that…

treating people like whole humans… 

and not programmed worker drones with the sole purpose of pulling levers for the company’s bottom line… 

is better for business. 

(You can find a whole collection of these studies, articles, and stories in the References section of the show notes.)

And leading this way isn’t something that you’re doing instead of your “real” job…

You get to take care of your people, create more of what you want to see in the world…

AND optimize resources, increase efficiency, and reduce risk.

AND deliver results and achieve goals for your company.

AND be a great leader and valuable member of the team.

This is not a “this” or “that” situation.

This is a “yep, and-that-too” situation.

So think about what it means to you to change lives with your leadership…

Take a moment right now.

Take a deep, slow breath and feel into how you get to change your people’s lives. Feel into how your position makes that possible for you. How life may be unpredictable and traumatic and f*cking painful, but you still get to add more good to it.

You get to create beautiful ripples that go beyond your team and yourself and can impact people you’ll never meet or speak to.

I hope you can feel that. If you can’t, don’t worry. I got you.

In the next episode...

We're going to cover lots of ideas for changes you can offer to your team and how to make that a collaborative process with your people.

Share this reminder…

And if you know any leaders or managers who could really use a reminder of the positive, life-changing impact they can make, share this email with them. Spread the hope and possibility and create a new ripple that reaches other leaders who want to create the same kind of change as us.

Message me about that…

Now, if you have questions, thoughts, ideas, musings about the meaning of life, or book recommendations of historical romances that aren't just about a girl meeting some rich and titled dude, ​message me about that​. Let's keep the conversation going and get to know each other better.

Let's change lives with our leadership—together.

Odalis Salazar Mullins
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