Be the Leader They Want to Work For

In this episode, we explore what it means to be the leader people actually want to work for. Drawing from Quick Leadership by Selena Rezvani, we reflect on how everyday behaviors responsiveness, clarity, and follow-through shape how leadership is experienced. Through story and coaching insight, this episode invites leaders to examine the small moments that quietly build trust or erode it. We close with coaching questions to support more intentional leadership.

Transcript

TJ 0:00

Welcome to the Leadership Buzz Podcast with Lloyd Buzz Buzzell. Buzz is an ICF ACC credentialed coach with over 37 years of Air Force leadership experience guiding individuals and teams. His vision is to serve others. This podcast is for leaders who want to align behavior with values and build self-awareness. The podcast is built on a simple structure: one book, one story, one concept, and then we'll leave you with three coaching questions. No noise, not overwhelming, just focused on leadership growth. Each episode explores one idea shaping today's leadership conversations grounded in experience, coaching insight, and real stories from the field. Because leadership isn't just about results, it's about character. Work hard, tell the truth, and build something that remains. Let's roll.

Buzz 0:52

Thanks, TJ. I started the leadership buzz because I don't believe leadership improves by consuming more content. I think it improves when we slow down and think more clearly about the right things. Especially the things we usually rush past. After years in military leadership, I've learned that leadership isn't really about control. It's about responsibility. Responsibility for people, for culture, and for what remains after we move on. My faith has shaped that understanding, reminding me that leadership is something we're entrusted with, not something we own. I haven't always gotten that right. The standard I keep coming back to is simple. Work hard, tell the truth. Work hard means doing the uncomfortable work that usually builds strength. And telling the truth starts with being honest with yourself about your leadership and its impact. That's the work that I keep coming back to.

TJ 1:55

Today we're exploring Quick Leadership by Selena Rasvani. In this book, Rasvani focuses on something many leaders underestimate, how their everyday behaviors shape whether people actually want to work with them. We often think leadership is about vision, authority, or decisiveness, but much of what defines a leader happens in smaller moments like how quickly we respond, how clearly we communicate, and how consistently we follow through. At the heart of this conversation is a simple reality. Leadership is experienced. People don't just evaluate your strategy, they experience your pace, your clarity, and your accessibility. Many leaders assume being thoughtful means waiting, but for teams, silence often creates uncertainty. A lack of response can quietly erode trust, even when that was never the intent. Quick leadership isn't about rushing decisions. It's about reducing friction. It's about making it easier for people to move forward because they know where they stand. Being the leader people want to work for means creating clarity, closing loops, and building predictability in how you show up. Because leadership isn't measured only by results. It's measured by how it feels to work with you. As you listen today, consider this. Are you the leader they want to work for? Coach Buzz, let's get into it.

Buzz 3:26

Hey, thanks for coming back for more at the Leadership Buzz, uh, Work Hard Tell the Truth. I appreciate you coming back, and we do welcome feedback. So if you have something that we can make this more meaningful or more impacting, that would be great. Um, I wanted to share a couple or at least one thing from the book. And that's uh be the leader that you want to work for. And that's what kind of what we're gonna center in on this this week's episode. Be the leader they want to work for. And what I've seen in the Air Force a couple of times is that people wanted to leave the Air Force because of who they were working for. They were hating their jobs. The great thing about the Air Force is you can move to another base and almost reinvent yourself at that new location. And so what I see a lot of times is people were very dissatisfied with their jobs, their location, it impacted their families, it impacted their work styles. And I I always just said, hey, let's just give this a second shot. If it's just about the person you're working for, they're gonna leave or you're gonna leave, and something will change because of that. And so it really impacts your workers on how you lead and how you conduct yourself at work. I mean, how many people are at work thinking, hey, I want to leave this place because of you? And on the flip side of it, how many people are staying there because of you? Okay, TJ, what's our first question for this week?

TJ 4:49

The book talks about killing the chaos meetings. Did you see that in your Air Force career and what happened when leaders actually did it?

Buzz 4:57

Yeah, that's a great question. So I'm gonna kind of flip it the other way, where I saw a boss go the other way. Instead of killing meetings, he actually increased meetings. So through the day, he was asking for status updates later in the day that he'd asked for things in the morning at a previous meeting. Well, the leaders couldn't get out of the first meeting or the second or third or fourth or fifth meetings to go even check on what the status was. So when I first started in the Air Force as an officer, I thought our meetings at the base level were driven by higher headquarters so that we had no control over those whatsoever. So and there was a lot of meetings, believe me, a lot of meetings. And what I realized was once I got to the you know a higher level in the organization, I realized how much the leadership could control that. And so in one situation, uh we tried to get to the missile field to be able to be have more contact, and it was just hard to do that because the meetings are spread over. So usually at one base that I was at, they would take Thursdays, and those would not be a meeting day. So in other words, you weren't allowed to schedule meetings that day unless they were mandatory or we just had to do them from some other some other program that was a must have. But in other words, on Thursdays, at least it was uh cleared, so we could count on getting out of the office, seeing the folks at where they work, and being able to talk to people, and it was a concentrated effort. And what this was driven by was the boss was able to do that and make it easier on his people to be able to not have meetings that day. Because it's pretty easy to schedule meetings throughout the whole week. It's just kind of a hey, let's fill up the calendar. So you have to have a concentrated effort to do that, and that's what this one boss did. He just said, Hey, Thursday's is gonna be a non-meeting day, it's gonna be a field day, and so in other words, a field day is in going to the missile field out in the so I've seen leaders do it two different ways. I've seen one leader just have meetings all day, and there was just no discussing that there was gonna be any change to that. That was his rhythm, that's what he appreciated as a leadership style, whether it was effective or not. But it kind of wore out his leadership because they weren't actually able to have their own clear free space for themselves. And then another leader who focused on hey, let's clear a day so our team can have some time with their folks where they work in the missile field, because sometimes it would take two to three hours just to get out there to see the operations. That was really important.

TJ 7:31

Buzz. A lot of leaders fall into the good idea guy trap, and what the book Quick Leadership discusses about sharing thoughts the moment they pop up. How have you learned to balance accessibility without constantly disrupting your team's focus?

Buzz 7:46

That's such a great question because you want to be innovative, you want to push for new things, but you want to be careful that you're just not launching a new idea on the team every time you turn around. And so I've had to balance that accessibility, that that idea that we're gonna just keep pushing forward with new stuff. And I think in that regard, what you do is you look at what the priorities are, you got to align them with your boss's priorities, and then you have to kind of have lines of effort to be able to get things done. And when I say lines of effort, you know, distinct type things so your team knows where you are. The worst thing is like you just keep coming up with an idea every morning, like, okay, well, let's work on this, let's work on that. Like, if you can align your stuff with your boss, that's the key, right? I mean, I constantly told folks in the in the military when we did mentoring and coaching was find out what your boss's top priorities are and work those priorities. It's such a cliche, but it's so true if you just kind of think through that. I mean, if you're a leader and you're trying to get things done, and an individual comes to you and says, Hey, I want to work on your priority number one and number two number three, and I want to lead that effort, and I'll start working on it today. I mean, that's what you're looking for from people, or one of the definitely one of the things you're looking for people is to work what you need to get done. And hopefully those are in line with your bosses and then in line with his bosses or her bosses. So I think understanding what your bosses, the organization's priorities are, and then aligning your lines of effort with that so that when you're working on things, you can get toward a concentrated goal. Because the worst thing is if you were to leave in three years from now and say, like, okay, what did I do in the last three years? What am I accomplishing? Today, today is that day I'm leaving. Did I get that done? So focus on what you can get done instead of the good ideas.

TJ 9:45

How about the idea that it's not just about having an open door, but really opening the floor for honest conversations? What's one practical way you found to make feedback and dialogue truly feel safe for people?

Buzz 9:58

Well, I think I I hate to be cliche about it, but part of a big part of this is being authentic. And that's all over LinkedIn. That's all over everything we talk about these days. I mean, you still have to get results, but when you're talking about getting feedback from your folks and receiving it, you want to open it up so you can get that feedback from them. You know, when you say the door is always open, yeah, it's open, and then like the book says, they go in it, and then what happens? So you're gonna have to be authentic, you're gonna have to get in touch with your folks. Like if you've never spoken to a person, if you've never had any interaction, they're never going to come in. And sometimes you just need to hold your tongue, and if they're giving you feedback, then you're able to listen to what they have to say, listen to their ideas, and then go from there. And yes, sometimes they don't have the big picture, and sometimes they don't have all the details, so that's going to inhibit some of their input. But maybe that input is something that you need. I know I was in a meeting once, it was a morning, morning standout meeting, and one of the folks was giving me an update, and I thought I felt I had all the input. I kind of cut that person off and didn't let him finish what he was telling me. Well, if I'd let him continue, we would have had that information, and then I would have made a better decision later in the day, and then later in the week on something that was very critical. So sometimes it's not assuming that you have all the information, that you're not the smartest guy in the room, that you know the answer when other people are trying to tell you the answer, and that you're getting new information from them. And so sometimes you need to re-listen to people and hear what they have to say. But I think the biggest tip there is you need to have some type of personal connection to those folks. And when you do that and you're genuine and authentic with them, they will sense that because the first time you shut them down, the first time you shut them off, they might not as well come back the next time. There are many people that you employ or that work with you or for you or around you, that they're resilient enough in their personality and their work behavior that they'll just keep coming back. But a lot of people will just kind of shut down. And especially with a person that just has great ideas that might not bring those up. You you you want that person to come forward. And so I I think one tip is definitely making sure that you have a connection with that person, then just not shutting people down, especially in front of all other people. Uh people pay attention to that.

TJ 12:35

Coach Buzz. The first chapter in the book talks a lot about moving from a boss image to a real leader persona and stepping into a mentoring role. How have you seen that shift in your own leadership journey? And why do you think mentoring is so crucial?

Buzz 12:52

I think that shift in me happened when I started supervising people. Even as young as a sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, I just saw that as a very important piece of why I was there and found it really satisfying to be able to step into that type role or to help people of where they are to f to find their in their space. And I mean, people are seeking information and advice and mentoring and coaching. They want to do a good job. I mean, I'm of the opinion that the majority of our people are really, really good people and they're really trying to do something, do something good. And I think the more you try and do it, it's like planting trees that you'll never see grow. I mean, I truly feel that way, and from a servant leader type aspect, you can get a lot of lot done there. I mean, mentoring is important because people need information that they haven't been there. Uh there's leaders are readers, so if you've never experienced it, you can acquire a lot of that through reading. You can acquire a lot of that through mentoring and finding out from other mentors and from people that are senior to you that have gone through that. Just as we do all in where in life, right? Just like parents help children out, uh, the experienced person helps the inexperienced person out, the person that's been there teaches the person behind them, helping the person next in line. And I think as a servant leader, serving that servant leadership aspect is very important. And it's how we kind of survive and move along. You can only get so much from a book, you can only get so much from an education class, uh, you can get only so much by just hearing a podcast. You're gonna really need to be able to sit down with somebody and have a one-on-one. And I think that personal connection with people is just so important to coming around. And I think the majority of our people are seeking that, and that and that's a key to success for our organizations.

TJ 14:55

Buzz, in this week's book, Rizvani talked about how leaders can shield their team from unnecessary chaos. How have you seen that play out?

Buzz 15:04

Yeah, I'm gonna kind of flip this question a little. So, what happened to me was we had a very intense situation where there was a mistake. And it it was really kind of hard to focus in on if it was a personnel mistake, it was a machine mistake, if it was a process mistake. You know, it was hard to clarify that. And I think there was a point where I should have stepped back a little and realized that there was a personnel error. We could never totally verify that it was, but everything pointed to that. And I tried to shield our team, and I probably did it too much, even to the point where the leader that was in charge of the team said, Hey, I think this is a personnel error, I think this is what happened, and this is the most likely scenario. I just continued to stand up and try and shield that team. And I I think there's a certain point where you don't have to do that, you just go through the facts, you work through those, and and then you learn from that. You don't just hammer everybody on it, you try and look at it from an improvement aspect to be able to help and mentor those people. Okay, so there was a mistake, let's move on. You know, was it intentional? Was it uh actual something that somebody was trying to do, some mischievous type thing? There's a huge difference there uh of not just the words themselves, but of what people are intentionally trying to do or just a genuine mistake. Because as you can tell, there's probably nobody that I know of in my life, and I would challenge you to see if there's anybody that's actually not made a mistake in their lives. That would be pretty impossible to approach. So if if if you've never made a mistake and somebody makes a mistake for you, then maybe that's something that maybe we could give a little grace on and look back on and see how to to approach it. So that's kind of I just kind of flipping it there that you know I was shielding the team maybe almost unnecessarily, and this question is more about the chaos that's going on and the and the constant upheaval of changes and requirements that come down on the team, and that's not always healthy either, right? So if if you're just really just taking the brunt of everything as a leader and you're not trying to get things changed or trying to change the team to be able to adapt to that, that could be an issue too, because what's going to happen when you leave and a new leader comes in and doesn't feel that way, and then changes occur there. I and I will I welcome feedback on this point, but I I I think the chaos that goes on, uh you need to kind of uplift that to the to the boss to be able to say, hey sir, you know, or or ma'am, like we what is happening here? You know, what why are we doing so many things when we don't need to do those things? And I think also a healthy piece is to go and say, okay, we can do these things, but we're not going to be able to do these other things at the same time. Here's our limit. The problem in the military is no leader wants to say that because they will get removed. Most of the time, the leader, if they can't handle it, will find somebody else to take care of that. And that's kind of a dangerous aspect to have in your organization is to have a feeling of it's always going to be able to get done. And the problem with that is that you'll take extraordinary measures, and whether that's you know, the team takes it to work more hours, you do it with less resources, not enough money, but you still get it done, and it'll flip back on you. Well, you got it done, didn't you? You said you couldn't do it, but you did it anyway. And so I think at some point the leader needs to take some responsibility and go, sir, ma'am, we cannot do this because of this. These are the things our team can do, and that's a really tough line to take. Uh because in the military, there's a person right behind you ready to take over as you're saying, hey, I can't do this. Um, and and when you have to have all the facts in line and to be able to point toward those. And there's sometimes you have to fall on your sword, and sometimes you just have to work along to try and get along things done. And maybe sometimes the hundred percent solution isn't the hundred percent solution that you can get things done at the 80% and still get all those things done.

TJ 19:42

Let's get to this week's three coaching questions for our listeners.

Buzz 19:46

Yes, three coaching questions. Okay, uh, let's get to it. Uh, first one is how do you notice yourself showing up when your team has experienced chaos or uncertainty? Uh you know, what do you notice about your anger or behavior when that urgency shows up? Two, how would you describe the experience others have when they work with you day to day? How would you describe that? And then finally, number three, what assumptions do you become aware of when you feel the urge to step in quickly? And what options do you see when you pause instead? How does that feel for you? And just how does that work?

TJ 20:25

Today we explored Quick Leadership by Selena Rasvani and the idea that leadership is experienced in everyday moments. We talked about how responsiveness, clarity, and follow-through shape whether people actually want to work with you. Being thoughtful doesn't always mean waiting for many teams. Silence creates uncertainty. Quick leadership isn't about rushing decisions, it's about reducing friction and making it easier for people to move forward. Because leadership isn't just measured by results, it's measured by how it feels to work with you. As you reflect on today's conversation, ask yourself this: are you the leader they want to work for? Buzz, over to you.

Buzz 21:11

Thanks, TJ. Let's remember leadership isn't just about what you accomplished, it's about what continues without you. If this episode resonated, share it with a leader who values both performance and people. Subscribe to the Leadership Buzz for weekly insights. Drop a comment, give a like. One book, one concept, one story, and three coaching questions to sharpen your leadership. And remember work hard, tell the truth, and build something that lasts.