Are Your Results Masking a Leadership UH-OH?

Let’s talk about an UH-OH that almost every high-performing leader stumbles into at least once.

It starts with great intentions. You step into a new role or inherit a struggling team, look at bottom-ranked numbers, and think, “We can fix this, and we can fix it fast.” So you roll up your sleeves, start tweaking the execution plan, and pretty soon, the metrics start moving up.

You’re winning, right?

Maybe on paper. But under the surface, there’s a massive UH-OH brewing.

In a throwback episode of our UH-OH Conversations with Cohesive Leaders podcast, Troy Hall, PhD I-CUDE and I spoke with our good friend Kenya Dunn, an executive coach and leadership strategist, to explore a defining moment from her corporate career.

Kenya had taken over a wireless call center that was sitting dead last, #24 out of 24 nationwide. Driven by a fierce desire to help her team win, she started making quick tactical adjustments to speed up performance. And guess what? It worked. Within a year, they rocketed into the Top 7.

She thought she was celebrating victories alongside her team. Then her boss flew in with a shocker: an official integrity line complaint signed by twelve of her own site leaders.

The complaint said she wasn’t listening, that it was her way or the highway, and that she was knee-jerking the plan. Kenya was crushed and initially defensive. After all, she was approachable, she cared, and the results were right there on the scoreboard.

Her mentor explained to her that she had settled for compliance instead of building commitment. Pushing for compliance can move metrics fast, but when pressure for results overshadows team buy-in, even the best strategies fall apart.

Here are three lessons from Kenya’s story that every cohesive leader needs to hear:

• Intentions vs. Landing: You can have the best intentions in the world, but if your leadership is landing wrong with your people, it’s your responsibility as a leader to own it and fix it.
• Listen to the Whispers (and Be Spider-Man): Employee satisfaction surveys only tell part of the story. You have to pay attention to how your leadership falls on people during high-pressure times. As Kenya put it, sometimes a leader has to act like Spider-Man, casting a web to shield their team from corporate pressure rather than passing that pressure straight down.
• Separating Identity from Role (The Power of the Do-Over): Leaders with integrity separated who you are as a person (approachable, caring, dynamic) from what you do in your title. Kenya didn't hide behind her role. She stood in front of her entire team, admitted her approach was wrong, read back their feedback line by line, and asked for forgiveness and a do-over.

They gave her that do-over. And that same team went on to become the #1 super center in the entire country for years running.

If you’ve ever had your leadership land wrong despite your best intentions, or if you’re trying to figure out whether your team is just compliant or truly committed, this conversation is for you.

Check out this episode on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube.