Leadership isn't about what you do. It's how you show up in the moments that matter. How you respond, how you engage, and what your team learns from you when pressure hits. All of that is coming up next.

Welcome to The Chris LoCurto Show, where we discuss leadership and life and discover that business is what you do, not who you are.

Welcome to the show, folks. I hope you're having a fabulous day wherever you are.

Today we are talking about one of the hardest things for leaders to realize, and it is this. You can be fully committed to your business and still unintentionally create distance with your team. It happens all the time.

Not because you're a bad leader, not because you don't care, but because stress changes how we show up.

And we get rushed, we get distracted, we start carrying everything ourselves, and little by little, you become mentally unavailable while physically present.

Now, you're probably starting to think I agree with them. I think I've been there. So over time, the business begins revolving around our reactions instead of healthy leadership.

So in this episode, I want to walk through a healthier way forward. So these are four questions that I get from time to time.

1. Are people experiencing me as calm… or constantly rushed? (00:01:28)

So let's kind of hit the first one here. Are people experiencing me as calm or constantly rushed?

Sometimes people will ask this. Sometimes people don't actually want to know the answer to this.

What I need you to understand is that, yes, I know you probably have a team member or two on your team that just wants to occupy a lot of your time, wants to ask you a lot of questions, wants to stop you every, you know, three minutes and engage and have conversation on things.

And we call that, you know, death by a thousand slashes.

That's not the thing that we're talking about today. We are talking about when you find yourself, you know, moving quickly from one thing to the next.

You know, let's say a team member asks you a question, and even though you answer them, you find that your attention really isn't on answering them. So what does that look like?

What should you be doing? Well, instead, what we have to realize is, yes, there are going to be times we're just busy. Yes, it is okay that you have things going on and things to do, all of that stuff, but that should not be the norm.

That shouldn't be something that people experience all the time. What we've got to do is recognize that if we don't spend quality time with our team members, even in just a small period of time, then we come across as somebody who's too busy.

Somebody who, you know, the team isn't a priority. We're just mentally unavailable. Even though we're physically there. What we need to do is we need to slow down a little bit, right?

When we're. When a team member is coming to us or somebody's asking us a question, then we need to remember that that question isn't about wasting time. It's not just a silly question. If it is, then we need to guide and direct, right?

We need to do something differently. What we should be focusing on is that this is a time for us to help somebody. I'm not saying you need to answer every question that comes your way.

You know, a better way would be helping them to solve the problem, but if our mind is somewhere else, then we're not going to help them to solve the problem anyways. It doesn't even matter.

So before responding, just pause for a second. You know, put distractions down. If you're digging in and gaining perspective by asking questions, ask another question, Ask one more, right?

Spend a little bit of time making sure that you're doing the best you can to help this person stay in the conversation a little longer than you normally would. I know many times we're like, hey, I've got to get going.

I've got to do something. And once again, caveat here is that I'm not talking about wasted conversations. I'm talking about team member really needs something or needs your attention on something, then make sure that you're engaging.

Well, even the small moments of intentional presence are going to change how your team experiences you. Now, why does it work? Well, because your emotional pace becomes the emotional pace of the team.

If you haven't realized that if your pace is fast and chaotic, your team's is going to be as well, right? So when leadership constantly feels rushed, teams become anxious, they become hesitant, they become reactive.

But when leadership feels grounded and present, then communication gets healthier and healthier and people will engage more and openly. So remember this the next time you're feeling rushed and somebody's trying to get with you.

Talk to you, ask you a question, get some guidance on something, think through this process. If again, you have somebody who's just wasting your time and death by a thousand slashes, you have to have a tough conversation.

It doesn't even have to be a tough conversation. You can just have a conversation of, hey, why don't we do this? I notice you have a ton of questions. Every handful of minutes.

Write them all down. Set an appointment with me this afternoon. We'll go through them all. What you will find is they will have very few questions at the end of the day because they will have answered everything.

And chances are they really just wanted to spend some time with you.

2. Am I helping my team think… or accidentally training them to wait? (00:05:33)

Number two, am I helping my team think or accidentally training them to wait? That's such a great question.

A problem shows up and you already know the answer, right? Somebody comes to you, they ask you a question, there's a situation, you know how to handle it, and unfortunately, you jump in quickly to help.

Now, Chris, how could that be unfortunate? Isn't that exactly what I'm supposed to do as a leader? No, I understand. It feels efficient. It feels like the right thing to do.

But eventually what you're training that team member, and if it's in the first 90 days of somebody's employment, I don't have a problem with that.

But eventually what you're doing is you're training that team member to stop thinking the problems through until they get to an answer or any answer or multiple answers, right?

They stop thinking because they know if they will just go to leadership, leadership's gonna take over anyways. Now, most people have good intentions with this, but you'll even find some people are just lazy.

They just realize they could get you to do it, so they're just going to come to you and get you to answer.

So what do you do? Stay in this process long enough to help your team think instead of immediately rescuing the situation. Ask questions instead of solving.

Ask questions. What are you seeing? What have you tried? What do you think the next step should be? Give me some ideas on possible solutions.

There's a whole ton of stuff that you can ask and, and guide the conversation instead of jumping in and controlling the outcome too early by doing so.

This is the reason why this works. People will actually grow when they learn how to think through problems, right? Not when they're constantly handed answers.

Their brain starts to go, oh, my gosh, well, he's not going to answer this for me. I've got to come up with something. And usually what I'll do is I'll tell people, hey, come back to me with three answers.

You know, go spend 20 minutes and come back to me with three possible answers.

And even if they just come back with one, I'm pretty happy with that. And it's something I can start with. I can start training. By doing this, you create ownership questions create ownership with the team member.

They know it's coming. They know what to expect if you continue this. If you do this correctly on a continuous basis and stop answering everything. Then they will discover if I come to Chris, I have to have some answers.

Because really what I'm looking for is I'm looking for somebody to be able to process through, come up with an answer to so that they can think for themselves.

And by the time they get to me, they're not even asking for my answer. They're saying, hey, here's the direction I'm thinking of going in. Do you approve? And I'm good with that. So constant rescuing absolutely creates dependency. Don't do it.

3. Have I become so task-focused that people mostly experience my pressure? (00:08:28)

Number three, have I become so task focused that people mostly experience my pressure? Great, great question. You're carrying a lot. You're a business owner, you're a business leader, you're carrying a lot.

You're solving issues, you're moving fast, you've got, you're probably juggling a bunch of decisions. You probably have a good number of conversations going on.

You've got messages to check, emails to check, phone calls to check. You're trying to keep everything moving in the right direction.

You know, you've got stuff on your list, your to do list that you just can't get to it. Well, if you're prioritizing correctly, there's probably some things you're like, man, I'd still like to get to that, but it's not top priority.

All of this stuff, even though you care deeply about your team, even though you care deeply about the business, what happens is when you interact with people, you feel to those that you're interacting with, it feels like it's just hurried and very transactional.

You've got to shift your focus from managing pressure items or pressure things or pressure moments and situations and decisions and all that kind of stuff to leading people through pressure.

You see, you have a phenomenal opportunity to help them. See you model what it's like to work through pressure, how to deal with pressure, how to solve pressure, how to. Right.

And at the end of the day, if it doesn't start with you, how is it ever going to translate to them?

So some of the things you need to do personally, you know, you get to the end of the day and you ask the ridiculous question, what in the world did I get done today?

It's, you know, if you're asking that question and you don't have the answer, well, you're probably running way too hard, right? Start asking, did I actually lead my team today?

How, how much time, not just having conversations, but legitimate leading, helping them, making them more successful.

How much time did I spend today? The average answer that I have heard from people is five minutes. That is a common thing that I hear from somebody.

Keep in mind you get paid to lead most of the time. You know, ask questions like, did people experience clarity from me today? Did I rush things and it made it difficult for them? Did I create calm or more stress?

Now that's a tough one because some people believe that creating stress creates productivity. You've probably come out of an environment like that before.

I know I did. I came out of very high pressure stuff back in the day. And the concept was if, if you weren't running 90 to nothing, you probably weren't doing enough.

And I will tell you, the more pressure you create, especially with different personality styles, the slower the productivity becomes.

Because pressure does not equate to better and faster productivity. In fact, it creates more problems, it creates more fires. It creates people jumping from double checking to quadruple checking their work, which slows them down.

All kinds of junk happens. So understand that leadership is not measured by how exhausted you are at the end of the day. It just isn't. That doesn't mean that you've done a phenomenal job leading.

What it probably means is you did a phenomenal job getting 14,000 things done today that you probably should be paying somebody else to do instead of you. Right?

So understand your greatest value is not how many things you can carry, it never will be. That should be more on a team member who's paid to do specific things and not paid to lead. Right. So your value is how well you guide people forward.

How will you lead people to success? So when leaders stay trapped in this constant task saturation process, this overwhelm, then the team, the entire team eventually feels it.

And they feel like the most important thing is to be doing as many possible tasks, no matter how focused you are on them, no matter how well they get done, it's just do a lot of stuff.

4. What are people learning from the way I handle pressure? (00:12:43)

So number four, what are people learning from the way I handle pressure?

Again, another great question. A stressful situation. Let's just say one hits the business and everyone just kind of looks to leadership to figure out how in the world is leadership going to handle it.

How serious is this? You know, I've had that so many times over my decades of leading people and leaders and business owners, whenever something goes crazy, it is almost like you can feel the eyeballs shift straight to you in the room.

Right? It's nuts. Everybody looks to see how are you going to handle it? How are you going to respond? Well, are you going to panic? Are you going to stay steady?

Are you going to be calm? Are you going to freak out? Are you going to push pressure on everybody else? I have watched so many bad leaders go ballistic and freak out and push pressure. We have a saying around our office, when you freak, you freeze.

That type of response to pressure causes people to freeze. It does not cause them to be productive and go crazy.

When you freak, you freeze. And most leaders don't realize how much their reactions shape the emotional environment of the team. The team's going to respond.

If you're going to freak, then they feel like they have to freak. So what do you do? Well, become intentional. Think about what are the attitudes and behaviors you want to model when under pressure.

I will tell you, I did not know this until it was pointed out to me years and years and years ago that when pressure came up, I usually handled it with a whole lot of calm.

One thing I know is if I freak out, I can't think. So I just don't. I'm like, there's a problem, all right, solve it. How do we solve the problem? Go straight to solving the problem.

And, you know, there's an old military term, slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Sometimes we think panic is fast. It is not smooth is fast. Slow down, do it smoothly, get it done.

And you will be amazed at how much faster you solve the problem, especially under pressure. Right. Hold on. Find out what's going on. You know, it's like, you know, if you hear. What is it you hear, a lion somewhere coming after you.

Don't run until you know which direction it's coming from because you might be running straight at it. Same kind of concept. Find out what's going on.

What do I need to change? How do I need to handle this? What do you do? Well, start focusing on things like your tone, your pace, your reactions. Right.

How do you communicate during stressful moments? Are you communicating with calm? Are you helping people not to freak out?

A common thing that I will say, you know, from time to time. I say, from time to time. It's probably once in a great while when I do see somebody freaking out is I will stop and I'll go, hey, you're freaking out.

Well, yeah, such and such. This thing's, you know, we got to solve the thing. Hey, is your freaking out actually solving the problem? And I cannot tell you how many times somebody will stop and go, no.

Okay, then stop. There's no need to freak out. You don't have to pretend things are perfect. You don't have to act as though you're not stressed out as well.

But if you lead people through pressure, instead of spreading pressure, you, you'll be amazed at how it will change the culture and then everybody will be able to respond better, especially when the pressure is on them.

Teams are going to absorb how leadership behaves. Doesn't matter, it's just going to happen.

So if leadership becomes reactive, if leadership becomes tense, if they become emotionally unavailable, then the culture starts to reflect exactly that.

But come calm, intentional leaders, that creates a much healthier response. It helps people to communicate healthier, it helps people to deal with conflict in a healthier way.

It even helps people to take more ownership. A lot of times with heavy duty pressure, if people freak out, you will find certain personality styles will give up ownership of something that they own.

That's something that they're responsible for because they don't want to deal with it and they don't want to see the, the negative effects of it.

A Challenge For You (00:17:12)

So here's something I want you to focus on this week. Choose one conversation where you normally feel rushed. You can probably, you probably already know what your week is going to look like.

And you know in certain situations, you're going to find yourself feeling really rushed in a conversation.

Slow down, stay present, ask just one more question, just give it a try and don't immediately solve any problems. Do some perspective gathering and try and help people to solve on their own.

Especially if it's about solving problems, right? But slow down. No matter what it is, just pay attention to what changes. Watch people.

And again, you know, if this is the first time you're doing this, what you may find is some people may panic because they don't have the answer.

That's okay, work through it. But as you do this, you're going to find that they will actually start solving stuff on their own.

Now, if you want to go deeper into real leadership situations, what's actually happening, and exactly how to respond, we break these down regularly.

So follow along on Instagram @chrislocurto to see how this plays out in everyday leadership moments.

Again, folks, leadership isn't about being everywhere.

It's about how people experience you when you are there. And small shifts in how you show up can completely change the health of your team. It can change your culture, it can change your business.

So slow down, be there, be present, respond properly. Well, that is all the time that we have for today. I hope we have helped you with this information.

As always, take this information, Change your leadership, change your business, change your life, and join us on the next episode.

Quick question for you: When's the last time you actually felt rested, not just physically, but mentally, emotionally, you know, truly restored?

If you had to think about it, this episode is going to hit home.

We're talking about the burnout pattern that's almost invisible until it takes you out and the leadership shift that high achievers need to make before it does. All of that is coming up next.

Welcome to The Chris LoCurto Show, where we discuss leadership and life and discover that business is what you do, not who you are.

Welcome to the show, folks. I hope you're having a fabulous day wherever you are. I'm so glad you're joining us because this episode, I'll be honest with you, is a little personal. We're talking about burnout.

And before you think, oh, I've heard this before, you know, I want you to stick with me because what I'm going to share today isn't the same, you know, rehashed advice that other people have given about, you know, taking bubble baths and logging off on weekends.

We're going deeper than that. We're going to talk about why high achieving leaders, people just like you, hit this wall, what's really at the root of it, and what the shift actually looks like when you get to the other side.

Now, the data is staggering. 71% of leaders right now are under increased stress. 40% are thinking about walking away.

If that's you or if you've been there, and maybe not the walking away part, but probably under the 71%, then this episode is for you. So let's get into it.

So we are not that terribly far into 2026. We are into the second quarter. And the current data shows that 71% of leaders report that they have increased stress in 2026.

Not some, not struggling ones. Most 71%. 7 out of 10 people say that they are experiencing increased stress. 40% are considering leaving their leadership roles entirely. Now, if you are a leader, that's vitally important for you to hear.

If you're a business owner, you've got to pay attention. You know, this is beyond just, hey, get over it. Take some vacation, right?

Burnout among business owners jumped from 36% in 2023 to 51% in 2024. So this is not a personal failure. This is a systematic signal telling you something, right?

We should be paying attention now. Burnout is not weakness. Some people think that it is. Some people think, oh, my gosh, if you can't handle it, if you can't keep running, well, those people you shouldn't be listening to now.

I am somebody who will tell you, bust your butt, make it happen. But you've also heard me say multiple times the things you've got to put in place.

You know, taking care of your health, taking time with your family, spending time, you know, downtime, all of those things. You know that I hate the hustle culture. I'm not saying I love hustle. Getting things done, making things happen. Crud.

If the ox is in the ditch, get the ox out of the ditch. Go, go, go. Make things happen while you're working, while you're supposed to be doing what you're doing.

But I'm also huge on your personal time, on taking care of you, taking care of your family, definitely your relationship with God, trying to remember what your kids names are because you've been working so long and so late.

You know, taking care of the things that are most important. Business is what you do. It's just one aspect of who you are. It's not all of who you are. And it should never be, right?

So when you hear me say I hate the hustle culture, that doesn't mean that I hate hustling. That doesn't mean that I-- at work. Wait, I don't know a great way to say that one.

What I mean is I have no problem with you busting it while you're working. I'm all about it. I do it all the time. I'm a go, go, go kind of guy.

But I'm also a hey, stop, rest, take care of yourself kind of guy as well. So burnout's not weakness, it's information. It tells you that the system you've built has a critical flaw. It's too dependent on you.

High achievers are especially vulnerable because they can push through pain signals even longer. That is one thing I have a high tolerance for.

But the problem is, is that by the time burnout is, you know, undeniable, it's been building for months or even years.

So if you think about that 71% that are experiencing increased stress, what's going to change the rest of the year? What's going to change next year?

What's the number going to be next year? So let's kind of get to the root cause of this, right? When your value as a person is tied to your productivity, then you can never rest without guilt.

Now I said this episode's a little personal. I will tell you, in my early days, when I would go on vacation, it would be so far into the vacation before I could finally start resting, that I would only get like a day or two and then I'm heading home.

That I never actually felt fully restored. I never felt fully rested.

I could tell you right now, now I'm also somebody who I don't get super excited about vacation until I'm on that plane or I'm on that, you know, I'm traveling or I'm doing something that, that's moving in the direction... I'm able to shut everything off.

But once I do, I'm able to shut everything off. So I went from a person who it took three, four days before he could start resting and relaxing and rejuvenating to somebody who the moment I'm in vacation mode, I'm in vacation mode.

I'm enjoying myself, I'm resting, I'm getting rejuvenated. I'm spending time with my family. I'm doing the things that I should be doing right?

Before I used to feel guilty, before I used to spend time. And I'm talking about, you know, a couple decades ago. I'm not--

I'm not talking about like, you know, a couple years ago, but before, you know, I would be checking my emails, you know, checking my texts and things to see am I needed.

Is there a problem reaching out to people? And, you know, when you do that kind of stuff, guess what? People know that they can talk to you while you're on your vacation, that they can reach out to you with problems.

When you build a system that works, you don't have to worry about that. You literally don't. It's funny, I got a text from the president of my company, Joel Fortner, just I think it was yesterday.

He's like, hey, I'm taking a couple of days off. And I gave him a thumbs up. That's it. Why? Because our system is so phenomenal, I don't have to worry about it.

I'm not like, oh my gosh, what's going to happen when he takes a couple of days off? Right? When I'm taking time off, I'm telling my team, hey, guys, I'm taking time off. Okay, good.

Why? Because we are not dependent on everybody being there 24/7.

So you have to understand that if you're struggling with guilt and your value is tied to this, then it's a faith and a character issue. It's not just a scheduling issue.

Many leaders have unconsciously made their business their primary source of identity and worth. So I need you to ask yourself a question. Who are you? When the business has a bad quarter, who do you become. How do you respond?

I've seen leaders of very large businesses lose their ever loving mind and in the process they lose the loyalty and the respect of their team members.

Whatever your answer is, it's going to reveal a lot to you. Proverbs 3, 5-6 says trusting in something larger than your own effort is not weakness, it's wisdom.

So if you're not spending time trusting in God and you're putting all your trust in you, don't be surprised that you're in that 71% category.

Are you the center of everything? (00:08:41)

So let's talk kind of about the business structure that causes the burnout. If your team can't make decisions without you, you don't have a team. You have dependents.

You should be claiming them on your personal taxes. Because every time you solve the problem, instead of developing the person you added to your personal load.

When you're not developing people, when you're solving problems for your team, then you're adding to your own load.

You should be spending that time helping them to be able to solve their own problems. You see, the self sustaining team isn't a luxury, it's a survival strategy.

Our team does not have to depend on anybody in any or every moment of the day. So think about what decisions your team brings to you that they should be making. That is your list to the delegation roadmap right there.

If they're bringing things to you that you should not be answering, that they should be able to answer on their own or solve on their own, then you've got to start to figure out how to delegate this process to them.

How do they start solving things and stop coming to you with all of the questions? Now am I saying that they shouldn't come to you with anything? That's not what I'm saying.

They're going to come to you once you do this process, because I've done it for decades.

What you'll find is your team comes to you with the really difficult stuff or the hey here's where we're moving, just want to make sure you're cool with it type of thing, right?

So it doesn't mean that you're not involved, it doesn't mean that you're not needed. It doesn't mean that you're not valued.

It means that you start focusing on the things you really should be focusing on, which is higher than just answering questions, right?

Non-negotiable shifts you need to make (00:10:37)

So there are three non negotiable shifts that you need to make.

The first shift is from doing to developing, from doing to developing. Your primary job is growing Your people not solving problems.

Sorry, man. Sorry, woman. If you're the person who is like, my identity is in solving problems, I'm a, I'm a fixer.

Guess what? Yours truly is as well. I've always been a fixer. I've always been a problem solver. But I learned way close to 30 years ago, probably, actually, goodness gracious, probably after 30 years, more than 30 years ago.

I learned early on in my, my young leaders career that if I was the one who was solving everybody's problems, I was never going to raise up into any place.

And I had goals, I had dreams. And so I knew that if I stayed answering everybody's problems and solving everybody's problems and not developing them and making them better, I was never going to get to my goals.

So that's a shift you've got to make. Number one, from doing to developing.

Shift number two, from reactive to too rhythmic. What does that look like? Protect, rest, reflection and reconnection as leadership tools.

So if you are not spending time resting, reflecting on your life, reflecting on your business, reflecting on your, your leadership decisions, if you're not reconnecting with who you are, with your relationship with God, your family, all of these different things, then you're going to get burnt out.

When you spend time protecting, rest, spending time reflecting and reconnecting with the things that are way more important that will grow your leadership.

Yes, it is a tool to make you a better leader. And by the way, what do you think's going to happen when people recognize that you're leading really well? You're doing really well.

You're still busting your butt at work, but you're also spending time doing those things. That's another shift that has to happen. Shift from reactive to rhythmic. What does it mean to have these types of rhythms in your personal life?

Shift number three, from willpower to structure. So stop.

As the words are coming out of my mouth, I could just think of how many people that are just like, oh, come on, man, that's how I do things.

I know, I know, I know, I know. I'm huge on discipline. I'm huge on making things happen. I'm huge on it. But here's what I need you to understand. You need to stop relying on discipline and build systems that protect your energy.

It doesn't mean that you stop being disciplined. It doesn't mean that you stop, you know, using willpower to make things happen.

It just means that we stop making everything depend on us, that we put systems in place that protect our energy. Now you might be out there and be, I don't know, 28 years old and going, man, I don't know what you're talking about. I've got tons of energy.

That's great. Here's what you need to understand. The more you compound stuff on you, the more you continue to work through willpower, you're going to run out of energy, you're going to run out of steam and then it's not going to be fun.

I love what I get to do. I enjoy it. I am busy as all get out. We've had a lot of stressors going on. But one thing that we've been making sure of is that we do spend time in downtime.

That I am connecting with God and my family and shutting down at the end of the day and all this kind of stuff. That's a shift that you have to make. How am I able to do it?

Because all the systems that are in place that don't require me. So understand that recovery is not linear, but it absolutely is possible.

So if you're somebody who's in that 71% or that 40% of the statistics that I shared, or just somebody who feels, you know, I just need to slow down some, then I'm going to tell you that it's going to feel a little bit slower before it feels better.

Put more on you to take more off of you (00:15:10)

So one of the things we say in like our StratPlan event is we say, hey, we're going to put more on you to take more off of you, right?

There's going to be a period of time where you're going to have to bust it so that we can get things off of you so you can spend more time operating without being in panic and chaos and you know, putting out fires, it's the same kind of thing here.

You're going to have to spend time building systems, putting things in place, giving some effort, maximum effort here to get things in place so that they don't all depend on you.

And the first step is naming, you know, honestly, what are the things that you have to change? What are the things you have to do differently instead of just continuing to push through everything, what must change.

Another thing I think you need to do is one, I think you need to go, you know, spend time with God, spend time with your spouse, spend time with your kids, specifically in that order.

But then also find community and you know, accountability that's going to help you recover. When you have accountability from folks that are like minded.

If you're going to go find community with people who are like dude, you need to be up at 4am and you need to be going to bed at midnight and doing all this stuff in between. You're never going to rest and you're never going to recover.

Right. Again, that kind of idiocy changes people's lives. For the negative. There's tons of studies out there of just running like that is going to absolutely collapse you at some point.

It seems fun, it seems great in the very beginning, but at some point you're going to discover that that kind of pace is unsustainable. It just, you can't do it.

So find a community of people who love busting it when they're supposed to and resting when they're supposed to.

If you get accountability from folks like that, then I can promise you it's going to accelerate your, your recovery dramatically. Right? Get coaches, get peers, get a faith community that can help you make the right decisions.

I know this may sound like, gosh, Chris, this requires so much. Yeah, yeah, just might.

If you're considering leaving something that, you know, maybe you feel called to, but you're burnt out and you don't want to do it anymore, then, yeah, surround yourself with the stuff that's going to get you to success.

Boundaries (00:17:32)

Now what's on the other side of all of this? Well, leaders who move through this type of response, this type of action come out with better boundaries. Oh my gosh, you need better boundaries.

You need to learn that 'No' is a complete sentence, that 'no' is an okay response. You gotta have better boundaries. And part of those boundaries are for yourself. Have boundaries where you tell you, no, my identity is not in that.

I don't have to push through all that. I don't have to, you know, force all of this through willpower. Instead, I can actually create systems, create processes, do everything that allows this to operate really well.

And then I can focus on the more important aspects. So when you do that, you end up with better teams, you end up with a deeper purpose.

Because now instead of being the one who solves everything for everybody, you're the one who's developing people to be better, which by default makes you better so the business doesn't have to suffer.

You know, it often gets stronger when leaders get healthier. I can promise you that. I mean, that's just common sense, right? So you can build something great and be present for your family every day.

These are not mutually exclusive. Now again, this is personal because there was a time I used to run, God, non stop. I mean, constant. And obviously the purpose is changing lives, helping people you know, all this stuff is necessary.

And I can tell you that there were parts of my life that just didn't get the attention that they needed, didn't get the attention that they deserved. And it wasn't just me.

Everybody around me was running the same exact way. Everybody, that was the group I was in. And I can tell you that kind of activity can absolutely destroy you.

I found myself being very unhappy. I found myself being desiring rest, desiring rejuvenation, being restored.

I found myself looking at my life going, this isn't what I want. I don't want these aspects here. I don't want this over here. Not saying that. Running hard.

Please, once again, don't hear this. You are not hearing me say don't run hard. I run hard. There is a lot that I get done. So I'm not saying, you know, throw your feet up on the desk. What I'm saying is, is don't do it 24/7.

Don't do it to extremes. So for me, there was a time I didn't. I kind of hit a wall in my mind. I didn't hit a wall with my activity. It wasn't. I didn't burn out and like, oh my gosh, I've got to shut everything down.

What I realized was I was having to tell myself that all of these things weren't necessary, that I could start making adjustments and making shifts and putting different things in place so I didn't have to worry about this.

I remember when I was in my early 20s and I was working at E-Trade, I was doing 50 hours a week overtime. I mean, it was just normal. That was just how I was doing stuff, right?

That was just how I worked, how I got things done. You make it happen. And that was nothing. That was just a normal week. So there was higher weeks than that.

I could tell you that. Well, that carried over into pretty much every aspect of everything I did when I was in traditional ministry.

That's exactly, you know, I would do all of my work all day and then work all night, all weekend long, everything non stop, everywhere I went, until I finally decided this is kind of ridiculous.

Is change happening? Sure. Am I helping people absorb? But what's happening to me?

Because when I look at the way that God sees me, he says, hey, you need to take care of you or you're not good for anybody. So I can tell you as somebody who experienced that a long time ago, trust me, listen to me.

If you're convincing yourself that what Chris is saying right now just isn't you know, it doesn't apply to you. It may not right now, but I bet you it will in the future.

So protect your time. Make sure that you're making good decisions.

Burnout is not the end of your story (00:22:13)

So here's what I want you to walk away with today. Burnout is not the end of your story. It's a chapter break. It's one that's asking you to lead differently as you go forward.

So if you're in it right now, the worst thing you can do is keep white knuckling it. I've been there. I know. Reach out, get support.

Start asking the question, what would I need to change for this to be sustainable? If you want to go deeper on this, I'd love to have you connect with us, one of our coaches, so that we can walk you through making better decisions.

Proactive, rhythmic, the kind of stuff that you need and setting up systems. That's what we do, Right?

So if you're interested in that, the links are in the show notes and if this episode spoke to you, share it with a leader, somebody in your life who needs to hear it.

Well, folks, that's all the time that I have got for you today. I hope this was powerful. I hope this is helpful. As always, take this information. Change your leadership. Change your business, change your life. And join us on the next episode.

Your business isn't stuck because it's failing. It's stuck because it's functioning without improving. Good enough quietly slows everything down. We're going to get into that coming up next.

Welcome to The Chris LoCurto Show, where we discuss leadership and life and discover that business is what you do, not who you are.

Welcome to the show, folks. I hope you're having a fabulous day wherever you are.

Today we are talking about good enough inside of a business and why we might be stuck and why we might be struggling.

And there is a level of success that feels stable but isn't actually moving you forward. Now, we're always looking for how can we be successful, obviously, right?

But what happens when we kind of become just almost plateaued or flatlined? The work gets done, the team shows up.

Things are fine, if you will, but growth feels harder than it should. Progress feels slower than it used to.

So in this episode, we're going to uncover where good enough is showing up and how shifting your standards as a leader changes how your team thinks, works, and takes ownership.

So there's five questions that I want you to be asking yourself that's going to help you to break out of good enough leadership, as I do my air quotes there.

Where have I allowed something to continue because it’s familiar? (00:01:42)

So the first question I want you to ask is this. Where have I allowed something to continue because it's familiar? Why does this matter?

Well, familiarity creates comfort. And while I don't want you to live in urgency and I don't want you to run your business in urgency, something you do have to know is that comfort removes urgency.

So let's think of a situation where maybe a process is slowing everything down, but no one touches it because, well, you know, it's always been this way.

We've always done it that way. That's the process that was set up. You just keep doing the process. So the team adapts instead of fixing it, they don't even think we should fix this.

And usually you've probably experienced this before, maybe when you were working for somebody else.

But when you think of the process of this should be fixed, it usually doesn't go much further than that. Or maybe you take it to somebody and they say, no, no, just keep doing it.

It's-- everything's fine. That's how inefficiency becomes absolutely normal.

What happens is, is that your team learns how to work around problems instead of solving them.

Guys, I will tell you, this is something that will cause you to have to go into babysitting mode all the time.

What do I mean by that? When your team does not solve problems for themselves, when your team does not recognize problems need to be solved, what ends up happening is all the problems come back to you.

What happens to your culture? Well, you create a culture that protects the past instead of improving the future. Why?

Well, because we've always done it this way. This is where the sacred cow should be shot, right?

We should get rid of this thing, butcher that thing up.

Because it needs to change so that we can continue to advance, so that we can continue to move forward, so that we could continue to fix the, the business.

So when you think about the things that you've allowed to continue, and the only answer really is when you get down into it and you dig into it because it's familiar.

Those are things that have to change. What does it change? Well, I promise you, you'll stop confusing this works with this works well.

And that's the thing we need to look at. Just because we're continuing to do something, does it mean that it's working?

Well, I've had many times helping businesses take a look at roles. You know, great people would be sitting in a seat and when you ask the question, why do we do this?

Well, I mean, that role has been in place for seven years. That's not what I'm asking. Why do we do it? Gosh, we started that because such and such.

How does that affect our current vision? It doesn't have anything to do with our current vision. Then we need to reevaluate. Do we change it?

Do we move that person into a more valuable role? So it could be processes, could be roles, it could be anything.

What are you allowing to happen? What are you allowing to continue? Because it's familiar.

Where am I accepting results without examining how they’re achieved? (00:04:55)

Number two, where am I accepting results without examining how they're achieved? Guys, this is a tough one because when you're busy, sometimes you're just happy that things are getting done.

And when you're slammed and so much stuff is coming your way, you're really just happy that things are getting done. But why does this matter?

How, how am I examining how these things, these results are getting achieved? Well, because results can hide broken systems.

So let's think about, maybe deadlines are getting hit, but only through stress or rework or last minute saves. That's not a strong system.

Well, but, but the thing got done. That's not. We're talking about, we're not looking for the thing got done. What are we looking for? Efficiencies, things that are working well.

Not taxing an entire team or taxing people and paying out incredible amounts of payroll for somebody to do something that takes way too long.

If we could have fixed it, we want it to be right. We want it to be a strong system. We want it to be something that's efficient and fast.

We want to be able to achieve results with efficiency. We don't want to just get to results and not care about what's happened to them.

When we don't examine what's going on, then we've got a team that's surviving your system even if your system is broke.

So what changes when we start evaluating processes and not just outcomes? Well, I can tell you this, your team is going to stop relying on last minute pushes and start building consistency.

Now, I will tell you I am somebody from time to time and I'll talk about this in just a minute.

In a different question, I am somebody from time to time who actually enjoys a last minute push. Sometimes that urgency is something.

Well, I guess I'm going to talk about it right now. Sometimes that urgency of that last minute push is something that allows me to focus heavily.

The key is, is that when it is a consistent process that teams are always doing last minute pushes, that's when it's unhealthy, that's when it's not a good thing.

You know, there are times that I will focus on, I don't know, I'm going to be teaching lessons somewhere, I'm going to be doing an event somewhere and focusing on it.

You know, a month out doesn't help me when I get close to the event. Instead I like to actually allow some urgency.

As I get close to the event, I get hyper focused, I get prepared, I'm ready to go, right?

But if I do that every day or every week or every project or every whatever solution, issue, whatever leading teams with urgency, then what happens is it becomes chaos.

And that's not what we're looking for. It's okay to have some last minute pushes. So don't hear me say never have last minute pushes.

But what I'm saying is that should not be consistent, right?

We need to build consistency in evaluating processes and then operating in those processes because they work, because they're correct, because they're efficient, because they are up to date.

So that's what we're looking for. Also. How's it going to affect your culture?

Well, I can tell you that your team is going to shift from, you know, get it done to do it right, which everybody listening to this should want.

That, that should be our goal. Our goal isn't get something done. We want to be able to grow. A big part of growth is efficiency. Think of how much money you're spending.

If you look through your business and find, I don't care, half a dozen processes that are not up to date and people are operating in a way that is taking longer, then you're losing money, you're losing resource.

You're spending too much on payroll because they're spending too much time doing it. You're losing out.

The opportunity cost is that you're losing out on them moving on to the next thing that they should be doing.

You can't take on more. And you're probably, you know, looking at some team members if there's a big lack of efficiency, that are probably getting burnout in the process, you know, or eventually they might.

So things to think about, you know, make sure you're asking, where am I accepting results without examining how they're achieved.

Where am I stepping in instead of building a system that works without me? (00:09:14)

Third question, where am I stepping in instead of building a system that works without me?

Please, please spend some time focusing on this question. Where am I stepping in instead of building a system that works without me?

You have to create systems that work without you.

The person who does not create those systems is usually somebody who's getting all of their worth, you know, all of their identity from the thing that they're doing or somebody who is afraid, thinking that they're not going to be needed or useful once they build systems that work without them.

Leaders, let me tell you, you are needed at a higher level than you currently are at, okay?

So every time you step in instead of building a system, you reinforce dependence. Dependence on you. What we need is people growing, people maturing, people being able to do stuff without you.

You being somebody who overlooks things, who checks things, who makes sure systems and processes are going well, but not the person that everybody depends on.

I will tell you, and I say this all the time and strap plans and all kinds of stuff. My team doesn't depend on me in the day to day.

They depend on me to do the higher level stuff that keeps the business running and operating.

They run the day to day. They kill it. They don't need me. My leadership team does a phenomenal job of leading the teams.

I lead the leadership team. That's what's important. So think of a team member, I don't know, asks a question that you've answered before and yes, you know, you go to answer it again because it's faster.

I should just give them the answer now, they're going to come back over and over and over again, looking to you to solve their problems.

That is how leaders accidentally train dependency. You answered it before.

What do I do with it now? How do I handle this now? How do I solve this now? So what should you be doing?

You need to start creating. And at the very bare minimum, stop answering every question that comes your way. Think of your kids. Same concept.

Quit answering every question that your kids ask. Start training them to think for themselves. It's exactly what you should be doing inside of your business.

Start training your team members to think for themselves. When they ask you a question, don't answer it. Ask a question back.

Hey, that's a great question. How do you think you should handle that? What are some. Well, I don't have any ideas. That's why I came to you.

Okay, take a couple of minutes and I want you to think about this. Come up with some ideas of how you could solve this.

Why? I don't know any. All right, go take 20 minutes. Go sit down. And I want you to come back with three possible answers to this.

Get them to start thinking for themselves. It can be a painful process in the beginning, but I promise you, eventually they will start answering the questions themselves and stop coming to you.

So this makes your team stop escalating every single thing to you, which means that you can get on to more important things and they can start solving things at a level that they need to.

What does this do for your culture? Well, ownership absolutely increases because decisions don't stop at the top.

So you move from solving problems to developing leaders who solve them or developing team members who solve them.

Guys, that is going to be a such happier place. I can tell. I've. It's all I've done for decades. That's how I have trained teams, leaders, people, my children as well, because that's vitally important to me.

And it is a much happier place than people coming to you all the time not being able to solve something on their own. My grandkids.

When I'm spending time with my grandkids, I will do the same thing. I will help them to think for themselves instead of, papa, can you do this? How do you do that?

How do you think you solve that? And what do you normally get?

I don't know. Well, let's work on it. Same exact thing is going to work with your team.

Where is “good enough” showing up in my standards? (00:13:38)

Fourth question I want you to ask. Where is good enough showing up in my standards? Ouch. Now, I am not saying one of our core values is excellence.

A lot of our core values are not Corporate, Corporate core values. But we do have a couple that, you know, a lot of other businesses may have.

Excellence is one of those, right? We think excellence needs to be in everything that we can do, especially anything that's customer facing.

But it doesn't mean that every single thing has to be at a certain level of excellence. Right.

Ordering coffee may not, you know, if you're buying coffee for your business, that probably doesn't take a high level of standards. Find the coffee you want, make the purchase.

Rock on. Good enough. But that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about the areas that good enough is not good enough. Right?

Where we don't want good enough to be in our standards, you know, taking care of clients, how we deal with offenders, allowing team members to not have accountability, making sure that our communication is not high, you know, that's a--

We-- we might be communicating or talking a lot, but not making sure we have high levels of quality communication.

So your standards define your culture. So if you see something that's, you know, almost right and you let it go, well, now your team knows almost right is acceptable.

This is huge to use the kids again. How are your kids learning? They're watching you do what you do, right? They hear what you're saying, but they watch your actions.

It's the same exact thing your team is doing. So if they see you being okay with something that is know good enough, then that is going to absolutely spread through your team.

Good enough will be good enough. What do we have to do? We have to change that. We don't want our team mirroring that level of, you know, tolerating something.

We have to understand that in our culture, actions and attitudes rise or fall to match our consistency as a leader.

So what do we have to change? We have to become more intentional about what we allow and what we do not allow.

We have to take a look at things and go, here's where standards need to be higher. Here's where good enough is. Okay, I'm, I'm all right with that.

I don't mind if the team sees this and, you know, they're good here. But all these other areas, we have to be modeling that level of excellence.

We have to be modeling and have to see it consistently again. Consistency is key here.

The more they see it, the more they will realize, I have to do that. And when they are not rising to the level of excellence, this may be where we're having tough conversations.

You know, you may have to sit down and go, hey, that is not acceptable, right.

If they come back with a, hey, but I saw you doing this, take responsibility, shift change, do what you need to, but get the standards up.

Where is my lack of clarity creating “good enough” execution? (00:16:54)

Number five question I want you to ask, where is my lack of clarity creating good enough execution? So it's not just enough to have standards of excellence.

Where is your communication and your clarity driving inconsistent results?

So let's just think about, you know, a situation where the team is busy but they're not aligned and everyone is working hard, but definitely not in the same direction.

You know, we would call that a shotgun approach.

That's not a performance issue, folks. I know it might seem like it. And you can be looking at the team going, oh, the team is not doing well in their performance.

The truth is, it is a leadership clarity issue.

We're not getting in there and communicating really well to get the team operating in the right direction and doing what we want them to do and making sure they're getting up, you know, to the standards and getting past this good enough concept.

When you do, then your team stops filling the gaps with assumptions, because that is probably happening throughout your team right now.

Right? There's probably a decent amount of assumptions that is driving toward execution. We can't have that.

So we need our culture to be where alignment replaces this scattered type of effort. Instead, we operate well, we're clear, we're consistent. You know, again, clarity is going to drive that consistency.

When you provide great direction, it eliminates guesswork.

What “Good Enough” Actually Costs You (00:18:32)

So what does good enough actually cost you? Well, it keeps you answering questions you shouldn't be answering.

We know that. It keeps you, you know, fixing problems that your team should actually own and be able to do on their own and be able to solve on their own.

It keeps you managing work instead of leading people, which, for the love, you don't have time for that.

Lead people to success. Let them operate really well as well instead of having to go back and manage everything. I hate managing.

Hate managing because if I have to get into managing, that means I have to stop doing the things I'm focusing on to manage a situation or a team member or a team when I'd rather lead them to success and hold them accountable to that success. Right.

So what else with all of this? It keeps your business dependent on you.

What to Do Instead (00:19:25)

So what to do instead? First thing, raise the standard. Clearly, don't assume your team knows what better looks like. Define it. Get in there, define it.

Help them to understand it and help them become successful at it. Number two, stop rewarding broken systems with your time for the love.

If you keep jumping in, the system never, ever has to improve. So fix the systems and start by stopping jumping in.

Number three, build clarity into everything. Clarity is going to remove hesitation, it's going to remove rework, it's going to remove dependency.

And number four, reinforce consistently. Culture is built by what you consistently allow, not what you say once.

And I know there's a lot of folks out there that are like, well, I told them doesn't matter. Consistency on clarity.

The more clarity you give, the more accountability you hold. They will get it and start making the right choices.

A Challenge For You (00:20:27)

So here's I want to challenge you this week. This week. Identify one area in your business or where you've been tolerating Good enough.

Then call it out. Clarify the standard and fix the system behind it. Then hold the line. Continue to have the same level of clarity, excellence and consistency over and over again.

So if you want to see what this looks like in a real leadership situation and how to respond in the moment, go follow us on Instagram!

@chrislocurto on Instagram, and we'll help you recognize it faster and lead through it better.

Good Enough doesn't feel like failure, but it's the reason your business isn't moving forward and why it still depends on you. Raise the standard and your team will rise with it.

Well folks, that's all the time that we have for today.

I hope this has been hugely beneficial for you. As always, take this information. Change your leadership, change your business, change your life and join us on the next episode.