Episode 688 - The Power of One Email

0:00Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of performance through strong human relations, team building, and goal achieving. This is the Seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host, Paul Felle Valido. Hello everyone and welcome to the Seven Minute Leadership Podcast, it's episode 688. Today I'm going to walk you through something that sounds incredibly simple on the surface, but it's one of the most powerful leadership decisions I've ever made. I send one email a week, that's it. One email every Thursday and it's a financial report. Everything else, every conversation, every correction, every recognition, every tough moment, every important decision happens in person. And before you brush that off as old school or unrealistic, I want you to hear this out

1:04because this philosophy will completely change how you lead, how your team communicates and how your culture feels every single day. Let's start with the problem most leaders are living in right now. Your inbox is running your organization, not your vision, not your standards, not your leadership presence, your inbox, you wake up, you check email, you respond to email, you manage problems through email, you argue through email, and you lead through email. And then you wonder why your team feels disconnected, confused, and disengaged. Email is efficient, but it is also the fastest way to remove humanity from leadership. There's no tone, there's no presence, there's no accountability in that moment. And most importantly, there's no leadership happening, it's just communication happening.

2:04And those are not the same thing, leadership is a contact sport, it requires presence. It requires eye contact, it requires reading the room, it requires the ability to adjust in real time, you cannot do that through a keyboard. So I made a decision, one email per week, every Thursday, financial report, it's clean, it's direct, it's transparent because numbers matter, people deserve to know where the organization stands, leaders need to understand the business side, not just the operational side. That weekly email becomes a rhythm, it creates consistency, it builds trust, it eliminates confusion, and most importantly, it removes the excuse of, I didn't know, everything else, it happens, face to face. If there's a problem, I find you, if there's a win, I tell you directly. If there's feedback, we talk about it in real time because leadership is not about sending

3:09messages, it's about creating moments and moments don't happen in inboxes, they happen in hallways, they happen in offices, they happen next to the truck, next to the desk, next to the job being done, this aligns directly with the belief that leadership is built in short, intentional moments, not long drawn out communication chains. Now here's where it gets uncomfortable for a lot of leaders, this approach forces you to show up, you can't hide behind your screen, you can't delay a difficult conversation, you can't carefully wordsmith your way out of accountability, you have to walk into the room. When you walk into the room, everything changes, your team sees you, they feel you, they understand you, and more importantly, they trust you because you're not managing them from a distance,

4:10you're leading them up close. So let me give you something real, if you've ever received a long, passive, aggressive email, you know exactly how it feels, you read it two or three times, you try to figure out the tone, you start building a defense in your head, and now what should have been done a two minute conversation turns into a two hour mental battle, that's what email does, it creates distance, creates confusion and unnecessary tension, now flip that same issue handled in person, direct, clear, respectful, you can see the reaction, you can clarify instantly you can resolve it right there, no guessing, no escalation, no damage to the relationship, that's leadership. And here's the business side of this because this is not just about culture, it's about performance, when communication is handled in person, speed increases, decisions happen

5:15faster, mistakes get corrected quicker, alignment becomes immediate, you eliminate the lag time of email chains, missed messages, and delayed responses, you create a real time organization, and in today's world, speed matters. Now I'm not saying email has no place, it does documentation reporting formal communication, those things all matter, that's why the weekly financial report stays, it's structured, it's consistent, it's necessary, but it does not replace leadership. Too many leaders confuse communication volume, with leadership effectiveness, sending more email does not make you a better leader, being present does. And here's where this ties into something deeper, when you choose in person communication, you're sending a message without saying a word, you're saying you matter enough for me

6:16to show up, you're saying this conversation matters enough to have it face to face, you're saying I'm not hiding from this, that builds credibility, and credibility is everything in leadership. Once you have it, your words carry weight, once you lose it, no email in the world will get it back. So here's the challenge, audit your communication this week, how many emails did you send that should have been a conversation, how many issues did you prolong because you didn't want to walk down the hall, how many opportunities did you miss to connect with your team because it was easier to just hit send, leadership is not about convenience, it's about impact, an impact happens when you show up, not when you hit send. So if there's one thing to take from this episode, it's this, reduce the noise, increase

7:23the presence, one email a week can run your information flow, your leadership has to run through you in person in real time, because at the end of the day, people don't follow emails, they follow leaders, they can see, hear, and trust. This has been the seven minute leadership podcast, and I thank you for listening for more Paul Felle Valito podcasts, visit PaulFelleValito.com.