5 Fixable Mistakes Leaders Make - Business School with Sharran Srivatsaa

Business School with Sharran Srivatsaa: Episode 5 Summary

Episode Title: 5 Fixable Mistakes Leaders Make
Release Date: April 15, 2025

In this insightful episode of Business School with Sharran Srivatsaa, host Sharran delves deep into the common yet easily rectifiable mistakes that leaders often commit. Drawing from his extensive experience in scaling businesses, investing in leadership, and his background in top-tier banking, Sharran provides actionable strategies to enhance leadership effectiveness and foster a thriving organizational culture.

1. Share Your Credit

Key Insight: Leaders who hoard credit risk disengaging their teams.

Sharran emphasizes the importance of recognizing and celebrating team contributions to maintain morale and motivation. He highlights the subtle yet impactful difference between using "I" versus "we" in leadership communication.

"If you are taking all the credit, don't be surprised when your team stops caring."
— Sharran Srivatsaa [04:05]

Example: Sharran recounts observing a CEO who excessively used "I" when referring to company assets and achievements, which inadvertently sidelined the team's efforts. He contrasts this with Satya Nadella’s approach at Microsoft, where shifting to inclusive language significantly boosted company value.

Actionable Strategy:

Use Inclusive Language: Begin recaps with "we" instead of "I" to foster a sense of collective achievement.
Public Acknowledgment: Regularly shout out team members by name while reinforcing the team's success.

2. Build Your Voice

Key Insight: A leader without a public platform lacks influence and trust.

Sharran stresses the necessity for leaders to actively build their personal brands and maintain visibility, especially in the digital age where leadership presence is crucial for trust and engagement.

"A leader without a platform is like a samurai without a sword."
— Sharran Srivatsaa [07:30]

Example: He cites Richard Branson as a prime example of a leader whose personal brand significantly contributes to the Virgin brand’s identity and success.

Actionable Strategy:

Leverage Social Media: Consistently share insights, lessons, and authentic narratives on platforms where your audience is active.
Focus on Value: Ensure that every piece of content addresses the "so what?" factor, providing meaningful takeaways rather than mere updates.

3. Stretch Your Vision

Key Insight: Leaders must articulate a compelling and expansive vision that inspires and engages their teams beyond mere metrics.

Sharran explains that a grand vision connects team members to a greater purpose, enhancing their commitment and engagement.

"Your team didn't sign up to chase your KPIs. They signed up to chase a dream."
— Sharran Srivatsaa [11:15]

Example: Referencing Elon Musk’s ambition to colonize Mars, Sharran illustrates how such a visionary goal can inspire team members to see their individual roles as part of a larger, impactful mission.

Actionable Strategy:

Create a Big Picture Vision: Develop and communicate a vision that resonates emotionally and strategically with your team.
Use Vivid Language: Paint a future that team members can visualize themselves contributing to, ensuring it aligns with their personal motivations.

4. Soften Your Power

Key Insight: Leadership grounded solely in authority fosters mere compliance, not genuine commitment.

Sharran advocates for a leadership style that balances authority with empathy and collaboration to build trust and inspire true commitment.

"If you lead by force, all you get is compliance and never commitment."
— Sharran Srivatsaa [14:20]

Example: He references Pixar’s culture under Ed Catmull, where open communication and idea meritocracy fuel creativity and innovation.

Actionable Strategy:

Ask Questions Before Giving Orders: Engage your team through inquiries that encourage ownership and problem-solving.
Share Decision-Making Processes: Involve your team in the rationale behind decisions to foster transparency and trust.
Encourage Open Dialogue: Create an environment where team members feel safe to challenge and contribute ideas.

5. Sharpen Your Edge

Key Insight: Leaders must be recognized for a standout skill to gain respect and avoid being perceived as replaceable.

Sharran underscores the importance of developing and showcasing a unique expertise that sets a leader apart and garners admiration and respect from their team.

"If you are not known for something, you are replaceable."
— Sharran Srivatsaa [18:45]

Example: He mentions Steve Jobs' distinctive design acumen, which became synonymous with Apple’s brand identity and enduring legacy.

Actionable Strategy:

Identify Your Standout Skill: Solicit feedback from your team to discover what you excel at and are valued for.
Double Down on Strengths: Invest time in honing this skill and integrate it into your leadership identity.
Showcase Expertise: Regularly demonstrate your unique skill through actions, decisions, and communication to reinforce your leadership presence.

Conclusion

Sharran wraps up by reiterating the significance of these five fixable mistakes and how addressing them can transform leadership effectiveness and organizational success. By sharing credit, building a personal voice, crafting an inspiring vision, softening leadership power, and sharpening unique skills, leaders can foster trust, commitment, and a dynamic workplace culture.

"These are fixable mistakes. They are not character flaws, just operational blind spots that you can address to elevate your leadership."
— Sharran Srivatsaa [16:20]

Sharran encourages leaders to implement these strategies to not only enhance their business outcomes but also to cultivate a more joyful and fulfilling professional life.

For more insights and resources, visit Sharran.com.

Transcript

A (0:00)

Hey, this is Sharon Truvada. Welcome back to the Business School Podcast. In this episode, I'm going to tell you about the five big mistakes that leaders make. I've had a chance to be in great leadership. I've had a chance to watch great leadership. I've had a chance to invest in great leaders. And I've had the opposite as well. I've seen crazy mistakes that trigger me, that irritate me, that frustrate me, that can be easily fixed by just doing some small things that will change the very course of your business and your life forever. I break down for you the five biggest fixable mistake that leaders make. And it all starts right now.

B (0:36)

One thing is for certain, just because it's tried and true doesn't mean it's working right now. So the big question is this. Where can you learn what is working right now? The strategies, the tactics, the psychology, and.

A (0:50)

The exact how to.

B (0:52)

How to grow your business, how to blow up your personal brand and supercharge your personal growth. That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answer. My name is Sharan Srivatha, and welcome to Business School.

A (1:10)

All right, let me just say this up front. I've made about every leadership mistake I'm about to talk about. So if you've been leading a team, a company or organization, someone in a church, in your community, or even just yourself for more than a year, chances are you've made one or two or many of them as well. But here's the good news. I actually believe that what I'm going to share with you today are fixable mistakes. But they are mistakes nonetheless. So these are not character flaws. These are just operational stuff. They're not personality problems. They're just blind spots that sneak in and slow you down and make it harder for people to follow you and trust you and work with you. So let me just call them out one by one and I'll show you exactly how to fix them. Many of them I fixed for myself. I had enough awareness or I got a bunch of coaching to do this, and it is my chance to serve and share this right back to you. All right, so here are five fixable mistakes. Let me go to mistake number one. And the big idea here is to share your credit. Here's the kicker. If you are taking all the credit, don't be surprised when your team stops caring. Now you may say, well, I'm not taking all the credit. Well, you are when you use I versus V we language. I versus we. I was recently watching a CEO of a large company. Speak. And he literally said, I have this many cars, I have this many products, I have this many employees. And I'm like, you don't have any of that. You are just an appointed operator. CEO, sure. He doesn't even. Like, you're a CEO of a large company and you don't have anything. It is we, we have this, we have that. We have this, right? We do this, we do that. It's completely sidelining the contributions of the rest of the team, which is so sad. And I used to make this mistake. Even without realizing this, I have investors that, that would say, oh, yeah, I'm not going to buy the building. I'm like, with not your money, with the investor's money. And I'd say, I, I closed the deal. Or I built the strategy when it was really a team effort. It's subtle, but language shapes perception, right? And your team is paying attention. In fact, your subconscious is paying attention. And so I was reading the Harvard Business Review. Good, good magazine, by the way. Always has good. Research found that teams perform up to 30 to 35% better when leaders use inclusive language like we. And we've seen it all in action. Like, I remember reading the story about Satya Nadala, who's the CEO at Microsoft. When he became CEO, he shifted the, like, this entire company culture from this know it all to learn it all. How cool is that, right? From know it all to learn it all. And that change in tone alone, that tripled Microsoft's value in five years. Right now, I'm sure there are other things, but you got to think about the key I versus we component in all of this. I, I, I, I, I is there's. It's so shocking when some leaders say that. So if you're doing that, less I, more we. So here's how you fix it. Start every recap with a win with a we, not an I. You want to publicly shout out contributors by name and still go back to the web and make the team success. Your default language, it's all about the we. When I got a chance to reframe my language around this, you know, I would. I used to say, hey, my name is Sharon Srivatsa. I serve as the president of Real. And all that it means is that I work for you and that programmed the thinking, both the humility on my part and the gratitude on theirs, which is really important. So here's big idea number two, which is build your voice. Let me say this out loud. If no one hears you, no one follows. You and essentially no one cares. I used to think that being a leader meant staying behind the scenes and letting the business speak for itself. A lot of people think that, like, well, just our business will speak for itself. Our word of mouth will speak for itself, our quality will speak for itself. But that is not how leadership works anymore. That is not how the world works anymore. We have elections that are being and bills that are being passed and wars that are being started based on a random tweet. A leader without a platform is like a samurai without a sword. I'll say it again. A leader without a platform is like a samurai without a sword. People follow people, not logos. I was reading the study on LinkedIn that LinkedIn found that companies with visible leadership online cease like 50% more trust from both their teams and their customers. Why? Because people follow people, not logos. Just look at Richard Branson. His personality is the business asset, right? You couldn't name all the Virgin business lines. You couldn't in fact name any other operator in Virgin. You couldn't even name the businesses that a Virgin in. But you know, Richard Branson, he shares his lessons, his stories, his failures. You know, his time on Necker island and the Virgin brand feels like him. And because of that, people are so drawn to it. So here's how you fix it, right? You gotta. Social media is free today. It's free. I don't know how else to say this. People will spend time like for a week or a month or a year working with a PR company to get one article on entrepreneur.com that 27 people read and that you're done. But instead, if you post it every single day on a free platform that everyone's reading, that everyone's glued on their phones. Why are people glued it on their phones? Because they're looking at these platforms and if you are not on there, you are not going to be able to lead, you're not going to be able to share, you're not going to have the influence. Because a leader without a platform is like a samurai without a sword. And on these platforms, I will tell you, you got to share what you believe, what you've learned, what you're working on. Not like some stat update. Recently I saw some update about, you know, rates are going up and consumer, consumer price index is down or something like that. Well, duh, who cares? That. And you said that's bad news. Like how insightful is that? How terrible is that? We could do so much better than you just regurgitating what you just saw in the news. What does it mean for you, your team, your employees? Why should somebody else care? A lot of times when we put out a piece of information or a piece of content, you should ask the question, so what? Right? So what? Hey, you lost a bunch of weight. I, I, Kudos to you, right? You lost a bunch of weight. Awesome. You did it before and after photo. You've done it for three months. Okay, you're posting your again. So what? So what? Hey, you got an award. Great. You posted it for like six times. So what? Now who cares? Like, one time is a novelty, the second time is fine. The third time is just irritation. So what? Ask the question. So what? Because only when you ask the question, so what? You're not a reporter of news. Your brand and media personality, it changes everything. And the big idea is you want to be known for one clear idea or philosophy and repeat it often. If you know Gary Vaynerchuk, all he talks about it is, hey, just hustle. And life's not, you know, you have enough time, right? There's a theme here. What does Alex Hormozi talk about? Hey, you should. It's all about. It's all about relentless effort. What does Leila Hormozi talk about? Hey, it's all about leadership and building a team, right? What about Tom Bilyeu talks about building a plan. And so what's Tony Robbins say? Change your state. And they all arrive at this over and over and over again. So be known for one clear idea. But if you don't have a platform to share ideas no one wants, no one gets, the deeper look, a leader without a platform is like a samurai without a sword. All right, here's big idea number three is to stretch your vision. And what I mean by that is your team didn't sign up to chase your KPIs. They signed up to chase a dream. What is that dream? You emailing your team and saying, hey, you know, get those numbers up. Is it the most terrible way? And I'll get to that in a second. But a leader has to, has to paint a vision so big that my operating vision and contribution fits nicely, so nicely within that. When Elon says he wants to colonize Mars, I'm like, hey, that's cool. Like, I want to build this space shuttle to get there. Now I see my contribution within that bigger vision. I know it's just Elon's vision. I know that it's what it does not matter. But I get to contribute within a bigger vision. I don't know if you know, the story when JFK was walking the halls, when America, Americans are sending their first rocket to the moon, Apollo. And he asked the janitor, how's it going? The janitor's like, hey, I'm working hard putting a man on the moon. Even the janitor knew that he was helping put a man on the moon. And you know, like I read all these polls for a second. Like I read a Gallup poll that said 70 to 75% of employees are disengaged mostly because they don't connect with the mission or vision of the company. Like look at Elon. His vision isn't just electric cars. He's created a multi planetary future. You agree or disagree with him, it's inspiring, especially for those that want to contribute within it. Now you don't have to like him or dislike him, but there is a very clear vision has been painted and that's important. So ask yourself, would I be excited to follow this vision if I weren't in charge? Right. Would I be excited to follow this vision if I wasn't in charge? Or. And if you can use vivid or emotional language, not just a strategic jargon, hey, we're going to redefine real estate. Hey, we're going to change E commerce. Hey, we're going to, you know, reinvent pricing and payments. Like that's fine, but you got to do better, right? There's gotta be a, you gotta paint a future that people can see themselves in. Until then it doesn't, doesn't matter. And here's big idea number four, which is to really soften your power. Your power was given to you by some title based authority that you can hire and fire somebody, but if you lead by force, all you'll get is compliance and never commitment, right? If you lead by force, all you will get is compliance and never commitment. And we don't want compliance. That's not what we're here for as leaders. For a long time I thought leadership meant being decisive, strong and control. Like while the decisiveness matters, the top down power kills trust. And if it's not balanced with love and collaboration, the vast majority of employees say that they prefer leaders who collaborate over those who just command. That's, that's a, that's not a soft skill. That's like an insane human advantage. Ed Catmull, if you don't know him, he at Pixar built this into their entire culture. He gave everyone a voice, even the interns during this quote, brain trust feedback sessions that they talk about. This openness really fueled creativity in all these other billion dollar companies that they work with, crazy cool. So the question is, how do you fix it? Right? So number one, before barking on order, ask more questions. Because the questions will actually light them up to teach them to coach them do the right thing. Second, instead of saying, hey, we should do that. Like I've seen a lot of, a lot of leaders will say, oh yeah, we should do that. We should do that means you should do that. Oh yeah, hey, we should do that. That means you should do that. That's so terrible. Like, what a terrible way of saying. And then I've also seen leaders say they'll, they'll walk in. I actually, you know, work in that worked at a company where the founder used to do this. He used to barge into the room. He would not, you know, he would disappear for, you know, weeks on, on end, go fishing or whatever. And he'd come back and be like, where's my app? And it was so insulting to everybody in the room, like, where's my app? Where am I? You know, where are my profits? You know, up these numbers, you need to generate more leads. Like, it's just so terrible. And the whole idea of like, oh, we should do that means you should do that. Like the clear clarity and communication is so terrible. And I think that we, instead of barking orders, we need to soften our power and we need to share our decision making process with them, not just the result. Because why are we having this rise of people wanted, this rise of one to two to three people with AI agents and you know, building a 10, 20, 30, $100 million business. Why? Because working with humans is complex and that complexity kills and we crave humanity. That means we have to take care of our people. Can't just talk about culture. You have to operationalize it. Right? And you got it. As a leader, you just got to let your team challenge you because you want to be in an idea idea meritocracy, like the best idea wins not the best title. So I would really soften your power because if you lead by force, all you get is compliance and never commitment. Here's my fifth big idea, which is call it, sharpen your edge. If you are not known for something, you are replaceable. And when I say replaceable from a leader's perspective, you're just not respected. Meaning if you don't have a standout skill, like no one cares about you. So if there is a, if you are, if you're a leader of a sales organization and you don't know how to sell well, you're not going to have respect if you're a leader of a creative organization and you don't know how to. And you're not a creative that like, you're not going to have the respect if you're a leader of a technical organization. You're not technical. There's no standout skill. What is the skill that they love you for? They. Why do people love Steve Jobs? Steve Jobs isn't, was, wasn't just a face of Apple. He was like the design guy, right? That edge gave the company soul and it made him unforgettable. That's why we still talk about Steve Jobs today, right? There was this great study that Deloitte did that found that 90% of employees are inspired by leaders with a standout skill or strength. They're like, man, Sharon can do that thing better than anyone else can. They love that. Right? That's super important. What is your skill? What is the thing that you do really well? And the best part is you can work on it, you can make it better, but what is the thing that you do really well that you can show up and do that other people look around and be like, yeah, that's cool. And they don't just love you and care about you and work quote for you because of what you do. They respect who you are. What is your standout skill? If you don't have one, it's time to, you know, it's time to like work on one because they even will respect your growth in that aspect of it. The cool part is you hear is, what is your standout skill? It doesn't have to be related to the that business. It has to be something. You just can't be a nice person or you can't be kind or you can't be have work hard and you can't be a humanitarian or you can't be compassionate. You can't have, you can't be a visionary. Like, visionary is not a skill. It's a thing that someone thinks about you. Like you, you didn't do anything. What is the thing that they. What is the standout skill that people really look up to you for? That's what's important. So here's maybe how you fix it. Ask your team, hey, what's one thing that I do better than anyone else here? Ask your team that, because they're thinking it, they're just not telling you. And then you double down on it, study it, share it, build around it, because they already recognize that as part of you and you make that skill, a part of your leadership identity. And I remember this when I hire. I hired Tony Robbins, a speaking coach, and he said to me, he's like, we need to figure out your core identity. And we spent this entire time that I paid him a lot of money for, and he's like, we just need to find your core identity. We just need to find your core identity. We just need to find your core. And then finally, he's like, I got it. After seeing me present so many times, he's like, I got it. It's tactically inspirational. I was like, what does that mean? He goes, everything that you do is tactically inspirational. He goes. When you actually talk about how to do the thing, if you don't talk about the tactics, you are out of. Out of alignment, out of brand, off brand. And so everything that we've done so far, everything that I put out, I think about. All right, is this tactically inspirational? Right. Right now I'm sharing this with you because it's. I'm telling you exactly how to do something and then at the same time, telling a bigger, big, bigger story around it being tactically inspirational. All right, so these are the five big ideas on the five fixable leadership mistakes. Number one, share your credit, because stop taking all the credit and lift up your team. Number two, build your voice, as in, build your brand. A leader without a platform is like a samurai without a sword. So step out from behind the logo and lead publicly and share your thoughts. And don't say dumb things online, because now that actually makes it worse. You should probably just shut up instead, right? Number three, stretch your vision. Meaning, create a vision. Paint a picture that is so big that other people's contributions fit inside of it. Give people that future that is worth being a part of. Number four, soften your power just to control. Don't say, you know, we should do this, which means you should do this. Don't say, hey, where's my app? Where's my. Where am I? Where is my success? Where are my profits? Where is my sales? It gotta be more collaborative because you gotta lead with influence. And the last but not least, sharpen your edge. Essentially, that means have a standout skill. Be known for something unforgettable. Be known for something that is better than what they do, and only then will they respect you. Hey, I've been experiencing a lot of this. This is a little bit of a transitionary time in my life. I'm thinking about, like, all right, how can I be better? How can I do better? And I was reflecting on the mistakes I made and the mistakes I see people around me in the industry and in the broader world make. And I thought I would summarize these for you overall. So hopefully these are helpful to you. Hey, if you like this, can you do me a favor? Can you screenshot this episode and post it and tag me? That way I can know more. I can make more like this for you. I don't really know if you'd like this because the podcast is to have a response medium. So please do me a favor. Screenshot this episode, post it, and tag me. That way I can make more like this for you.