Ep#207 Invisible Leadership The High Impact Low Stress Approach
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[00:00:00] Hi everyone. My name's Dex Randall, and this is the Burnout Recovery Podcast where I teach professionals to recover from burnout and get back to passion and reward at work.

[00:00:22] Hello my friends. Today let's talk about invisible leadership, the high impact, low stress approach. I personally love it because it suits my style, but in fact, it works for everyone. And here's the guts of it.

[00:00:37] You don't need a title to lead. In fact, some of the most decisive leadership in any team happens quietly, behind the scenes, long before anyone calls you boss.

[00:00:51] If you've ever been in a messy team, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

[00:00:55] One of the strongest leadership moments in my own career happened when nobody actually knew I was leading. I'd been hired for a contract technical role in an entrepreneurial outfit with 20 staff. Small, scrappy, personality led. And the boss, a charismatic visionary, wanted the tech to be silent, invisible, and definitely not his problem.

[00:01:21] Mention tech issues, and he glaze over like a donut.

[00:01:26] So many of you will relate to this.

[00:01:29] The trouble was, when I joined, tech was a problem, a big one.

[00:01:36] There was no leader, no shared purpose, no common mechanics, just smart people in separate disciplines making local decisions with zero reference to the whole machine.

[00:01:50] So of course, the result -under performance, high failure rate, low morale, slow delivery, and constant conflict with every other team in the company. It was a quiet war going on. So, because of this, quality drop timelines blew out and blame shot around in every direction. And honestly, I really hated working in that vibe.

[00:02:12] I did. I function best where risk is managed, communication is pretty clean and everyone knows what the heck's going on. This was not that.

[00:02:22] So as I went, I made a few gentle suggestions to the boss sounding him out, and he very quickly decided I was an A player and told me to do whatever I thought best.

[00:02:33] So I began to lead quietly and really I needed to connect with the team before I could even start fixing the team.

[00:02:42] Before I touched anything structural, I had to understand the humans. Strengths, weaknesses, ambitions. What frustrated them, what scared them, what drained them, why they felt like quitting.

[00:02:57] I also needed to understand the friction with other teams because the fighting was getting ridiculous.

[00:03:04] The sales manager literally said she tossed requests blindly over the wall into the tech bunker and hoped for the best. And the tech team resented her for that. Her sales target suffered. Everybody lost.

[00:03:20] So I focused first on connection. I made sure every engineer felt seen and respected. I deferred to their expertise.

[00:03:28] I helped diffuse tension between them. I backed them in external conflicts, and I coached them quietly one by one. I helped them reconnect with pride in their craft.

[00:03:41] I didn't have a grand plan. We tried, for example, agile sprints and standups, but they hated it. But we kept moving forward anyway.

[00:03:51] We started incrementally fixing the system without ever announcing any kind of transformation project.

[00:03:59] In the background, we started the delicate job of modernizing the tech stack - antiquated, idiosyncratic systems; zero documentation; fragile customizations; unreliable backups; and upgrades had become literally impossible.

[00:04:19] It was a house of cards! So quietly we patched risk holes and we unblocked the pathways that had stopped us making improvements.

[00:04:29] Nothing flashy, just removing the landmines.

[00:04:33] At the same time, I helped the other teams learn how to request changes properly or effectively: how to give clearer briefs, realistic timelines and the why behind the request.

[00:04:49] This protected the tech team from the daily flak storm, and it gave them a sense of control. It began to knit gently back together. Performance lifted, teamwork lifted. Cross team relationships thawed a little bit.

[00:05:03] Eventually, on the strength of this, I was promoted to team lead and I just kept building. Building respect, morale, predictability, communication standards, turnaround times. All the foundations of a healthy team.

[00:05:19] But the real challenge? Morale, every time.

[00:05:23] Looking back, the hardest part wasn't the systems. It was the silos, the distrust, the "us versus them" culture that had quietly taken over the whole organization.

[00:05:35] Here's the truth. This happens in every company, unless collaboration is deliberately created and maintained and nourished.

[00:05:44] You can't legislate a good culture. You can't tell people to cooperate.

[00:05:50] You build trust by respecting people, listening to them without reacting, giving them their own voice, not judging or ridiculing suggestions, inviting contribution, having their backs, and above all, keeping your own ego out of it.

[00:06:08] In today's tough climate, high targets, tight budgets, staff churn, constant change, it is tough. But it's absolutely possible.

[00:06:20] It starts with a leader being grounded in confidence, emotional intelligence, and psychological safety, not bravado.

[00:06:27] So here's what leaders need to know. If you are in leadership overload, anxious, overwhelmed, stuck in conflict, or carrying too much, the skills you need to extract yourself aren't mysterious.

[00:06:43] They're just very rarely taught, and this makes them the most sought after skills in the modern workplace.

[00:06:51] Once you have them, you're in rare company and leadership becomes far more effective, far less stressful, and yes, much more enjoyable.

[00:07:00] If you want a good read on this, by the way, try Creativity Inc by Ed Catmull. Pixar solved the exact same problem during their cultural overhaul of their animation department. They built a creative powerhouse by removing the invisible forces that suffocated inspiration. And they went on to put out a series of films whose gross takings were far exceeding the industry norms.

[00:07:29] So great leadership is often invisible. You don't need to dominate the room, you need to de-risk it, by reconnecting the people in it through trust and respect.

[00:07:42] Maybe there's some questions for your own leadership challenges here? 

[00:07:45] Cutting any problem down to size is much easier once you've established the human dynamics and constraints.

[00:07:53] So you might ask yourself:

[00:07:56] Who set the goal you're trying to achieve?

[00:07:58] Do you understand what need this goal satisfies for them?

[00:08:03] Is your team actually bought in? If not, why not?

[00:08:09] What's the real difficulty for you in this situation?

[00:08:13] Where's the misalignment?

[00:08:15] Who doesn't trust whom?

[00:08:17] Where is their resistance conflict or disengagement?

[00:08:21] Importantly, do your people know you have their backs and do they have each other's backs?

[00:08:28] Do you see a possible path forward?

[00:08:31] If you do, are you willing to take the first step?

[00:08:35] If we boil it down to a quick three step process on how to lead invisibly:

[00:08:40] Step one is map the friction.

[00:08:43] Where are people protecting turf? Where are expectations mismatched?

[00:08:48] Step two, stabilize the humans first.

[00:08:53] Not the systems, not the processes, the humans.

[00:08:58] Step three, remove the stupid obstacles.

[00:09:02] Half of leadership is just clearing the, is just clearing the path, so good people can be good again.

[00:09:09] For a simple next step right now:

[00:09:11] If you want to get a live read on your own leadership situation today, try this:

[00:09:16] Open Dex AI coach and ask:

[00:09:20] How can I reduce team friction today?

[00:09:23] How can I align my team behind a shared purpose?

[00:09:27] How do I lead from behind, instead of pushing from the front?

[00:09:31] Give just a little bit of context, a sentence or two about what's happening.

[00:09:35] You're gonna be surprised how quickly it narrows in on the leverage point for you.

[00:09:41] My clients use this for on the spot stress relief and fast practical tactics that they can apply immediately.

[00:09:49] One leader this week was at an interstate conference, feeling a bit unsure what he was there to achieve, who to talk to, what outcome to pursue.

[00:09:59] He didn't want to admit that to anyone in the room, so he asked Dex AI privately.

[00:10:04] That conversation clarified his approach, eased the pressure, and gave him a simple strategy. He ended up making valuable connections calmly, intentionally, without trying to impress anyone, and that created opportunities for collaboration that weren't there an hour earlier. Low stress leadership, high impact outcome, exactly what we're aiming for.

[00:10:31] If you do want help, don't wait for the pot to boil over.

[00:10:34] Fixing these issues early saves you from carrying workplace stress home, chewing on it all night, and burning yourself to the ground.

[00:10:43] It also positions your leadership for next level success. Your gains are likely to be noticed.

[00:10:50] If you'd like personalized support to improve your leadership results, your team, and your day-to-day experience: come talk to me at mini.dexrandall.com. We'll create a simple plan for your growth, starting with cutting stress and energizing your daily efforts.

[00:11:10] Hope this was good, what you've heard today. Thank you so much for listening, and I'll join you again next week.