Stop Blaming Your Team Members and Lead More Powerfully with Gene Hammett

What does powerful leadership look like when a business is growing and challenges arise? In this episode, we explore how founders, CEOs, and business leaders can take ownership instead of blaming employees. We discuss practical leadership strategies, including clear communication, active listening, empathy, feedback, accountability, and setting expectations. We also examine the people and culture challenges that come with growth, including employee performance, organizational chaos, and difficult conversations. Finally, we address when coaching and support aren't enough and how leaders can recognize when it's time to part ways. A practical conversation about leadership, company culture, accountability, and building high-performing teams. Episode Highlights & Time Stamps 0:10 Leading Without Blame 1:49 Lead Powerfully, Not Reactively 3:48 The Four Phases of Tough Talks 5:41 Knowing When to Let Go What You'll Learn ✅Why blaming employees rarely creates meaningful change ✅How powerful leadership begins with personal ownership ✅When to listen, show empathy, communicate directly, or give tough feedback ✅How unclear expectations can contribute to employee performance issues ✅Why different situations require different leadership approaches ✅How to have difficult conversations that actually create movement ✅When coaching and accountability aren't enough ✅How to recognize when it may be time to part ways with an employee Resources & Next Steps Ready to take your leadership energy to the next level? Explore free training and resources at training.coreelevation.com and getfounderfreedom.com to help you identify energy leaks, strengthen your leadership presence, and elevate your team's performance. 🌐 Explore More: training.coreelevation.com 🎧 Listen to the Full Episode: Growth Think Tank Podcast

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Today, we talk about leading powerfully. One of the things I notice is a common pattern with founders, CEOs, leaders, is they want to blame their employees. Now, I'm not saying that the employees, their team members are not at fault. I'm not saying they shouldn't step it up. They should get in alignment with the goals. They should put in a little bit more focus and attention to detail. What I'm saying is if you have a problem with your people, blaming them doesn't help. Blaming your team members for not doing it the right way, not doing it the way you would do it, says more about you than it does about them. My name is Gene Hammett. I'm a founder coach. I've been working with companies that are in growth mode and they really are trying to keep

• 0:45Speaker 00

  the engine running. But sometimes there's challenges along that journey. There's chaos. There's people problems. And that's where we come in. We come in to help you analyze exactly what's going on within your leadership and culture to help you create the kind of team that performs at a higher level. Now, I've been doing this for about 16 years. My name is Gene Hammett and I love what I do. But it's also sometimes requires me to say the hard things to my leaders. So today, I share with you some insights around that. And one of the things, if you're kind of interested in what we do and how we do it, I have a new book out. I've co-written this with my wife, Amanda Hammett, and it's called Get Founder Freedom. If you want to get a copy of this book for free, just go to getfounderfreedom.com. You can download it.

• 1:27Speaker 00

  Inside it, you'll find the eight freedoms, but also the formula to help you create more value in your company. Now, let's dive into this whole context of leading powerfully. If you catch yourself blaming your employees, I'm not going to say you're wrong. Maybe they are out of line. Maybe their attitude could be better. Maybe their performance and attention to detail needs some adjustment. Here's the thing I hope you get from this message today. How do you lead them to see what you need them to see? How do you lead them powerfully to be the employees you want them to be? To be the team members, to get in alignment, to have that attention to detail, to be proactive? How do you lead them powerfully? Now, I could give you a lot of examples behind the clients I work with, but I'm not going

• 2:12Speaker 00

  to do that today. Today, I'm just going to sit down with you and say, ask this question. If I were going to lead this person powerfully, how would I show up in this moment? It may require you to listen more. It may require you to be more empathetic. It may require you to be more direct. Every person and every situation is different. I share this with you because I've seen this at scale. I've run my own businesses. I have my own team members and I've felt the same way too. It's very easy to blame them, but there's no power in blaming them. You give it all away blaming them. You hope that they turn it around. You hope that they apologize. You hope that they finally get it. The power is in how you step up as a leader, how you show up. Leading powerfully is up to you. Now, if you want to know how to do that, that's the core of the work I do.

• 2:57Speaker 00

  That's the core of everything we do to help serve our clients. And I say this to you, that it really is up to you learning to lead powerfully and not blaming others, sitting back and going, what am I in control of here? Do I need to be more clear about what I expect of them? Do I need to say it again, knowing that you've already said it four times, seven times? Do I need to find a different way to say it? If you're listening to this show, chances are you're a founder who's built something significant, but you're still too deep in the day-to-day to see the path forward. That's exactly what the Founder Freedom Strategy Call is for. It's free. It's 30 minutes with me personally. And we'll pinpoint exactly what's keeping you stuck and what you need to do about it.

• 3:42Speaker 00

  Book your time with me at my personal URL, schedulewithgene.com. Now, back to the podcast. You know, I know I mentioned my other book, Get Founder Freedom here, but the book that I've written with my wife also, How to Have Tough Conversations, is about how you reach them. There's four phases in here. You can buy this on Amazon. I don't have a free copy for you today, but I will tell you, it's a powerful tool if you're trying to reach someone, about how to give them the feedback, how to lead powerfully. But maybe there's something else missing. Maybe there's some accountability structure. Maybe there's empowering it. Maybe you just need to get to the heart of it. Maybe you've been focused on the symptoms of what's going on and not the core issue. Now, I don't know what it is because we're talking sort of theoretically here.

• 4:25Speaker 00

  I remember one of my clients was blaming an employee for their attitude. I let them rant. It was about 10 minutes, maybe 15, because sometimes they just need to get it out. And I'm emotionally not involved with this person and this situation. And so, I can listen to them. I can take it. It doesn't hurt me at all. I'm glad to absorb it for you, my client. But what ended up happening next was I had said, look, can I give you some feedback here? You're blaming them. You're the victim. How would you address this if you were leading powerfully? Now, I don't know if this is reaching you the way I want it to, but if you're willing to be a little bit more self-reflective, have a moment where you understand what does

• 5:06Speaker 00

  it really take for you to show up differently than you were before and connect with them in a different way? Because if you want a different result, you've got to lead differently. I say this, and I've opened this up about leading powerfully. It's not one thing, then the next, and the next. It's knowing when to use the thing, knowing when to listen, knowing when to be empathetic, knowing when to be direct, knowing when to give them the feedback, the tough conversation that they need to. The when is so important here, but don't give up because your job as a leader, in my opinion, isn't done until you figure out a way to reach them. Now, what do you do when someone's not getting it? You've had the conversations. You've had everything that you need to have. What do you do?

• 5:50Speaker 00

  Well, in that case, you get to turn back into yourself and ask yourself one final question. Have I said all I need to say to lead this person powerfully? If you haven't, keep working. If you're done, you're fed up, they're not getting it, they're not meeting you halfway, and maybe it's time for that phase four conversation, which we call the exit conversation, to part ways. You move in one direction, they move in another. You can be friends about it. It can be alumni, however you want to look at this, but it doesn't, you don't have to have any regret about this. You've tried and they haven't met you halfway. You've done what you can, but they've got to meet you halfway. Now, if you happen to be one of those employees that wants their boss to fix themselves, listen to this. Are you meeting them halfway? Are you showing up powerfully as an employee?

• 6:35Speaker 00

  Because it takes that if you want to succeed in today's workplace. Today's been all about how do you lead powerfully? Stop blaming your team members. Don't be a victim. Ask yourself, how do I lead more powerfully through this phase, through this moment? My name is Gene Hammett. I'm here to help you be a better leader, help you grow your business, to help you create the business of your dreams. If you want to download that book, Get Founder Freedom, do it now. And if you want to check in with us, follow our content, make sure you subscribe wherever you want to, but look for our content and lean in to see how it works for you. When you think of growth and you think of leadership, think of growth and growth. As always, the courage, we'll see you next time.