Founder Bottleneck: Why You’re Solving the Wrong Problems as You Scale

“Many leaders don’t struggle because they lack drive. They struggle because they’re too close to the work to see what really matters.”

That opening line captures a reality many founder-led professional service firms face as they grow from $3M to $50M and beyond.

Growth increases complexity. Complexity increases noise. And when leaders stay buried in execution, they start solving the wrong problems.

When Everything Feels Urgent, Nothing Is Strategic

Sergio Santinelli, COO of Baseline, described stepping into complex operations that felt “messy, overloaded,” with “a lot of motion but not enough clarity.”

This is common in scaling firms:

• Requests from every direction
  
• Compliance and revenue pressures colliding
  
• Teams debating solutions
  
• Founders wearing multiple hats
  

When you are “receiving a lot of noise from all the different sides,” you default to busy work instead of strategic thinking.

Urgency replaces prioritization.

That is how the founder bottleneck forms.

The Pattern: Collect the Noise, Then Create Space

Sergio shared a simple but powerful process.

First: collect all the noise.
Acknowledge what feels on fire. List the signals instead of reacting.

Second: create space.
Take a walk. Remove yourself physically from urgency. Force abstraction.

That distance allows you to ask the right question:

“What are we actually trying to solve?”

Without space, leaders react.
With space, patterns emerge.

Clarity does not come from pushing harder. It comes from stepping back.

Trade-Off Thinking vs. Reactive Thinking

In regulated environments like fintech and lending, decisions carry layered trade-offs:

• Revenue impact
  
• Operational cost
  
• Risk exposure
  
• Cost of waiting
  

Instead of reacting emotionally, Sergio described assigning scale values to these variables and quantifying trade-offs. He emphasized evaluating reversibility and asking what outcome you are truly optimizing for.

Are you optimizing for revenue? Certainty? Guidance? Risk reduction?

Without structured trade-off thinking, urgency wins.
With it, prioritization becomes disciplined.

The Execution Hub Problem

Scaling often fails not because teams lack talent, but because founders remain the cognitive hub.

When team members bring problems without proposals, leadership bandwidth collapses.

Sergio’s rule is direct:

“What’s your proposal?”

That shift transfers ownership. It forces structured thinking at the edge of execution. It reduces decision fatigue and strengthens accountability.

Delegation is not complete until thinking transfers.

If you are still the final interpreter of every decision, you are still the bottleneck.

Checklists Reduce Cognitive Load

In lending operations, document reviews became circular. The same loan file required repeated mental processing.

The solution was not effort. It was structure.

Formalized checklists removed repeated decision-making and reduced cognitive drag.

For professional service firms, this applies directly to:

• Client onboarding
  
• CRM follow-ups
  
• Reporting workflows
  
• Document coordination
  

If you repeatedly solve the same issue, the problem is not capacity. It is missing structure.

Structure protects focus. Focus protects leadership bandwidth.

Context Before Autonomy

Sergio also emphasized onboarding with deep context.

When new hires understand the broader objective, they make stronger decisions independently. Without context, escalations increase and founders remain trapped in clarification loops.

Ownership is built through context.

When people understand the “why,” they bring solutions instead of questions.

Connect With the Guest

To learn more about Sergio Santinelli and his work at Baseline:

Website: https://www.baselinesoftware.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sergiosantinelliv/?locale=en_US

The Immediate Move

Sergio Santinelli’s perspective reinforces a simple truth: proximity is the constraint in most growing firms.

When leaders stay buried in execution, clarity disappears. When clarity disappears, prioritization breaks down. When prioritization breaks down, growth feels heavier instead of cleaner.

Protecting leadership bandwidth requires:

Intentional distance
Defined decision frameworks
Structured trade-off evaluation
Clear ownership at the edge of execution
Systems that reduce repeated cognitive load

Growth should increase clarity, not compress your time.

If it feels heavier, that is the signal to rebuild structure — not push harder.

Create space. Define the real constraint. Transfer ownership. Then move.

Watch this before you hire your next support role.

Book a discovery call to see how the right executive support helps you scale with clarity, alignment, and control without burnout or chaos. Click here to subscribe.

Full Podcast Transcript

Hey everybody, welcome back to the Scale Smart Grow Fast podcast. Now, many leaders don’t struggle because they lack drive. They struggle because they’re too close to the work to see what really matters. Today, I’m joined by the COO of Baseline, who has scaled regulated fintech operations across multiple markets. We’re going to talk about why leaders often end up solving the wrong problems and how stepping back, building the right systems and creating operational space leads to clearer decisions, stronger execution and scalable growth. Welcome to the podcast. How are you today?

Thank you so much. Excited to be here. Thank you for having me.

It’s our pleasure. Now, tell us a little bit more about your background. What brought you to what you’re doing today at Baseline?

Thank you. So it’s actually quite interesting because I spend most of my career just stepping into business with complex operations. I’ve been in lending, obviously the SaaS now at baseline, and some other type of operations, usually, sometimes they feel messy, overloaded, and I’m just naturally drawn to solving these problems where there’s a lot of motion but not enough clarity.

into what we should be doing. So just quick, quick, story is that early in my career, I actually used to joke that there’s three roles where you never want to be in. Number one is operations, projects, and maintenance. And that’s because all the time you have that responsibility, but when everything goes well, no one actually gives you any credit for those. And exactly. But when something goes wrong,

goalkeeper.

You’re just observing all the blame, even if you had nothing to do with it, right? Just sometimes things break and but in any case those three roles you always they want to blame so Naturally, my intention was never to be part of operations, right? Which later in life, you know, I realized that some of my strengths Just kept me coming back into resolving this type of problems particularly when there was a lot of

you know, lot of motion, not enough clarity, feel things felt messy overloaded. And I instinctively step back and abstract myself from some of those, you know, problems, the noise, and that system of creating distance allowed me to see the problem more clearly. And that’s where I started to differentiate in some of the patterns and identifying the constraints.

And basically that’s what’s keeping me back into operations and the opportunity of bringing obviously that structure to the complexity and sometimes how it pays clarity.

Now, let’s dive into that a little bit. Maybe you could share or expand kind of what that aha moment was when you first realized that like being too deep in the work was actually limiting the leadership effectiveness.

Absolutely. So I think, I think there is, there’s a couple of moments in my life when I realized that, but let me go back into school for the very first one. Right. So I, I’m a mechanical engineer by training. So when I w when I was at school studying, there were some times where, you know, the problem was so complex that there was no clear answer on how to solve it. And that’s when I started realizing that just taking a step back and acknowledging what the problem was.

sometimes even sharing the problem with someone that had no clue of what you were trying to explain them help a lot. And that abstraction of the problem now consistently became part of my life. Later on in life, various roles, I was able to identify precisely that moment where there was this complex operation, we were, you know, drowning in requests or something in a system that broke specifically.

And I caught myself immediately taking a step back and say, okay, wait, what’s the actual deal? What are we trying to solve here? And that’s when I realized like, okay. So this is actually the process where I default to into solving or identifying what the problem is, or trying to bring some space between the problem and myself to really, you know, promote that clarity and understanding of the.

Yeah, I’m glad you mentioned that kind of stepping back and like trying to see what the real problem is. And, many leaders out there are often buried in the execution of the business. What types of problems do you see them consistently trying to solve? And maybe why are they not the real constraints or problems that they should be looking at?

I think that’s a great question. That’s primarily because when everything is urgent, nothing feels important enough, right? So you’re actually just receiving a lot of noise from all the different sides that you’re, you know, as an entrepreneur, you’re holding multiple hats at the same time, right? So there’s a bunch of things that seem to be urgent and you’re just, you know, doing busy work all the time before really stepping back into understanding, okay.

Yes.

What are the things that I should be actually solving and the things that, know, yeah, I mean, they’re urgent, but they’re probably not the most urgent thing and will nothing happen. if you decide not to. So yeah, I can, I can step and, and, know, dive deeper into how sometimes I resolve based on that problem. If you want me to go there, right. Awesome. So, for the most part, way I process this is.

Yeah, let’s do it.

The very first approach that I take is just collect all the noise. Sometimes you just have to take it in. Collect all the noise. You understand, yes, this is on fire. This is on fire. This other thing is on fire. Or apparently, it seems to be on fire. And then you take all that noise and you create some space. And that space sometimes is a physical space. So you go out, take a walk. A quick walk sometimes helps clear your mind. It’s like that.

Mm-hmm.

removes that all that urgency and it’s a five minute walk to really understand, okay, this is the thing that I should be solving, right? Summary times is it’s way more complex than that. It’s, and, and it’s not something that you can resolve within the five minute walk. So in that case, what I like to do or what I default doing is precisely taking that, explain the problem approach. Right. And when you’re explaining this, I usually

You know, I used to call my mom right back in the day, but nowadays it’s just like, just take someone that is willing to listen to the problem without providing too much of an advice. I’m not looking for advice. I’m not looking for solutions. I’m just looking for someone to react to the way I’m explaining the problem. And that helps a lot because, you know, it forces all these noise into a pattern and it forces your brain into providing something articulated for someone else to explain. Right. So I’m, if I’m facing, let’s say.

problem with a lot of issues in one particular aspect of our platform these days. I’ll just take a step back and say, hey, listen, listen to me. This is a problem that I’m facing and I just go and these are all the noise. These are all the signals that I’m taking. This is all, you know, the problem that seems to be popping up. And that usually creates the pattern that I was looking for. Like it helps me bridge those gaps of my understanding.

And helps my brain, you know, start connecting by words, connecting the problem when data actually does not help. Right. I usually default to, the missing questions. So when, when I go through these exercises and I still don’t have the answer, that usually means that I don’t have the answers to all the questions that I’m looking at. So it’s like, okay, what are, what is.

Hmm.

Right.

What’s the piece that I’m missing to solve these? Like there’s a, I see these as a puzzle. So I’m missing a couple of, a couple of, you know, little pieces of that puzzle for me to understand what the problem actually is. but I wouldn’t be able to get to that unless I’m trying to explain it. And all of a sudden it’s like, well, that doesn’t make sense. Cause I’m not making sense on my explanation to you. And I cannot devise the actual problem that I’m trying to solve.

Yeah. That’s an incredible framework and great step-by-step kind of natural progression there that I hope everyone was taking notes while he sharing that. Let’s kind of switch gears. You know, we’ve talked kind of in general terms about challenges and issues. Maybe talking about like teams and, you know, dealing with people, that’s a whole nother set of challenges that kind of come in there with personalities and things like that and human nature. You know, can you share some like moments when you’ve found that maybe stepping back and not pushing harder led to a better outcome with your team and what changed once you gained that distance.

Absolutely. So you know what? That’s it’s amazing that you, that you asked me that question because that’s something we experience, let’s say almost every week, right? you know, there’s like in your team, you need different personalities for your team to be complete. And that difference in person, and it is usually means that there’s frictions on the approach and even on the solutions that you’re trying to reach with each of the problems. Right. So for example, sometimes we’re trying to solve a UX problem.

Right. And the engineering team wants to solve it in a pragmatic way. Right. So yeah, we can, we can get really deep into the details of, look, this is a theory of the UX design and this is why the bottom needs to be this color and all those different pieces. And the same thing with the, with the technical side is like, no, no, but you know, the integration, the tables, the flow, like all those pieces come into place. And now what really happens is.

You listen to both of them and yes, they’re making their arguments. And obviously it’s not on purpose, but our egos are coming out, right? Like this is, this is the best solution. I’m very confident. feel very strongly about the solution. Now taking a step back is okay. What is the actual problem we’re trying to solve? Do we have, and sometimes it’s even what’s the cost of solving each of these two problems, which is, which is even more powerful sometimes because sometimes what you’re trying to solve those

Yeah.

two different problems at the same time. That’s because you don’t have a clear understanding of what’s a trade off between one and the other. So to me, what happens is we try to take a step back and say, okay, first of all, are any of these two reversibles? Like, can we make the mistake of going the wrong way? And what’s the cost of making that mistake? So if the cost is low stakes, we just take a head look, then.

It doesn’t really matter. It’s a matter of preference. We can test both of them and just move ahead and unblock us. Right. That’s number one. Number two will be, wait, this is actually very, a very complex problem that we need a certain solution for it. Right. So now we’re optimizing for the solution. that the solution is the solution really one or the other, or is a combination of both of them, but sometimes explaining what the actual solution is or what the problem is. Look,

We’re optimizing for certainty here. We’re optimizing for guidance to the borrower. We’re optimizing to, back in the day, we were optimizing for, let’s say, revenue collection. So revenue collection is the goal. So does that mean that we need to provide more friction or less friction on this particular thing? So that stepping back into, hold on a second. Let’s articulate what we’re solving for.

And what is the expected outcome sometimes. And that usually helps a lot, you know, just unblocking the team into focusing on the solution and become solution-oriented rather than providing more arguments into each of their opinions.

I love that. And I’m kind of curious because the next question I have, think might tie into the similar approach, but I want to hear it from you. When you’ve worked in different kind of complex markets where there’s a lot of compliance risks, know, FinTech, lending, all these things have a lot of wrappers and other layers that get added on it other than just what the user wants and the tech team wants. How do you balance speed, accountability and consistency without slowing growth of the organization?

That is a great question. So for the most part, it’s all about the trade-off, right? So the speed comes from focusing on the right things in my experience. So obviously you can do your 80-20, right? And that’ll help you focus into what’s the 20%. You know the rule. What’s the 20 % that will yield you 80 % of the outcome. So that’s number one. Number two is what is the trade-off? the trade-off will be in the past where

What we’ve done is we’ve assigned kind of a cost of, you can do it at cost of waiting or a cost of operation. that is what is the cost of revenue if I do this or if I don’t do this, what is the cost of operation and what is the potential losses or risks. If I do this, it’s kind of a bit of risk management, but the front with, taking into consideration more aspects of the business. wouldn’t take more than four in a particular time.

And you can assign, let’s say scales to each one of them. So for example, you’re going to sign, if we’re talking about operations, I can assign the scale of like, there’s no cost of operations. Like no one, it wouldn’t affect us to do something like this, or it’s not affecting us today. Whatever we’re doing, or you can go all the way up to this is on fire because this is costing us a ton of money to operate. And we’re basically doing, you know, concierge services for X specific tasks that we have.

So understanding that you can quantify basically the scale of these four aspects and then decide, okay, so these are like, obviously if you put from scale one to 10, one to four, in this case, you can, they can add them all. And then you will have kind of your cost of operation. You can even tie it to an estimated dollar amount for each one of them. So, same, same revenue, cost of operation and losses. can estimate what’s the cost of.

each one of them in revenue or in dollar amount. By doing that, what’s going to happen is you’re going to have a clear prioritization system, right? And that will give you the ones that you need to tackle on at the very first, because those are going to be the most expensive things. Now, you’re always going to have things that are way too costly to solve, right? So I’m thinking,

you

It’s not only costly to operate in the current way, but it’s also costly to execute a solution for that thing. Right. Now that’s where a lot of creativity comes into play and understand the, okay, now that I understand this is a problem that I’m trying to tackle. Now that’s where you have to do on your research and find your 80 20 into these are the actual drivers.

Of this problem. So I’m going to solve these two or three drivers and that’s going to reduce my cost considerably. Now I can wait until I have something else build, or I can. You know, wait until I hire the next person for that particular thing. So it becomes kind of a framework between what’s my next two action and what is the driver of that action that I need to solve for.

Now you’re kind of talking about metrics here and I’m curious, obviously in business, finance is going to be a strong metric we look at oftentimes in making decisions. Do you have other stories maybe where there was like some different metrics that maybe people may not think of intuitively that helped you clarify those priorities and reshape how the leadership team made decisions?

Absolutely. So let me see. Let me see. One of the examples that comes to mind is precisely, let’s say, in terms of risk assessment, right? Particularly in the lending industry, you know that there is always a risk of getting sued, getting the missing one compliance piece. And what is the trade-off between one or the other, right? Most of the metrics

I think there’s two currents in terms of metrics. let me take a step back. And I think that defining both of these is going to be super important. One current is you have to have metrics for everything. So now your team is focused on a lot of metrics instead of actually executing the drivers for those metrics. And usually what happens is if you define the wrong metrics, you’re going to drive your business to the wrong side of the business. Because you’re focusing too much into

into metrics that won’t actually help your operation. And then there’s the other size, which is no metrics at all. So no metrics and everyone’s just running like headless chickens, right. To figure out a way to execute. So I think balancing both of them, it’s the trick here. and the trick will be, you have to know what the trade-offs are for one or the other. So if we’re thinking again on that risk assessment, right, let’s say, well, if I don’t send my letter to the borrower,

Right on time. Right. That usually means that I’m not going to be able to collect default interest. Right. So if I don’t collect default interest, what does that matter? It doesn’t matter. Well, I guess I’m being more lenient with the borrower. Right. So it’s going to cost me revenue, but on the other side, I’m gaining goodwill with the borrower, particularly if I upfront say, Hey, you should be in default by now, but I’m trying to negotiate with you. let’s work together. So.

putting those two in the violence. And sometimes it’s just a very simple Excel into like a scale potentially, or a matrix, like a two by two matrix where you put your costs, like your cost of not doing it versus your cost of doing it. And then you can balance visual. I’m a very visual guy. So every time I put something on paper and visualize one way or the other, it just helps me, you know, define the pattern and define one of the metrics, one way or the other.

Well, going back to the human aspect and starting to hand off tasks, as leaders scale, protecting the focus becomes more critical. How have you seen delegation from executive and leadership teams work into workflows to help remove decision noise and strengthen follow through and creating space for better thinking?

Absolutely. I think, I think we both have, read a Dan Martell book, you know, buy back your time. And I truly love that book because it provides a good framework for that. And in my experience, the way, the way it works is if you don’t have, you know, a true passion for solving whatever it is that you’re doing, like that’s probably not the right thing you should be doing. Right. Obviously.

your time.

We know that businesses are made on the boring stuff, right? Being very consistent on the boring stuff. So in the past, let me talk about specifically when we’re in the lending business before we’re doing SaaS, right? So one of the most boring things we could do was reviewing the loans for closing, right? So, know, know, you’re probably a lender as well these days. And usually what that happens is

There is a process where you collect all the documents, you read through the documents, you make any corrections or request any corrections, and then you move forward. The problem is that is a circular reference, right? So you go back, you do these over again, and then something change and you have to do it all over again, and then something else changes, and then you have to do it all over again. And at the same time, you’re maintaining your information or your source of truth somewhere else, right?

Either it’s an Excel or you have a system and you’re trying to keep everything pieced together. So it makes sense. First thing is that is a lot of cognitive load every single time, particularly if you have to think about those single steps every single time. Right. So what we did very pragmatic approach was let’s do a checklist. Right. So this is the checklist for this document. This is for the checklist for this step. Right. And then if you have to review one document again,

You just have to review your checklist once again. And that usually provides some clarity into let’s not think what we have to review every single time, but just execute the actions that we’ve thought in the past of what are the things that you have to review. So that’s a good way of looking at the processes in terms of let’s put what we do today. So we don’t have to solve the same problem every single time or decide on every single time. Cause that

just becomes very draining if you have to solve the same problem more than once. So once you’ve done that, then it’s a matter of just execution of the same problems. Once you’ve done that at least once, you know whether that’s something you love doing, or it’s something that you have to hire someone for. That’s just my approach and I’ve seen it work pretty well in the past.

Yeah.

It makes a ton of sense. And I can totally relate to like having the checklist. There’s been many times in our businesses, have the staffing business. We also have our lending business. if a procedure might be in place, but there’s still some things getting missed periodically, we implement the checklist. it’s, know, using technology is great because you can have that like visual kind of indicator of like how much, how many of the checklist items were done. And it like changes color when you do that. And we found that just taking that checklist kind of extrapolating from the SOP,

and putting it in the task management portal really eliminates those issues. And it’s amazing. So I’m glad you brought that checklist up.

Totally. I think just to add on top of that, one thing that I would like to add is you got to be consistent into adding the things into the checklist, but also removing things from the checklist.

Yeah, you got it. So talking about people again, what I guess I’d like to hear from you, if you have any tips on like onboarding practices to help quickly shift the new team members from just doing task execution to having true ownership in the operation environment.

Absolutely. some, sometimes people, people like the direction, right? So whenever you’re on boarding, even, even like, I remember back in the day, when I was starting my career, every time I jumped into a problem without any clear direction, just felt very frustrating. Right. Cause you just have to, you’re both understanding how the company works. You’re understanding how the problem works, right. Or what your role is. And then at the same time, you’re trying to execute something that makes no sense. So.

I think context is the most important piece. So particularly for us, and coming from very regulated and complex industries, usually providing that context upfront, it’s the best approach and that, and that even starts from the interview process. I really like to have deep, detailed interview process where people get a lot of the context. And that is because I feel that.

for someone to make the decision to come on board with you, they have to be aware of what are the problems that they’re going to be solving or what are the tasks that they have to be executing. So I think it starts even there. You have to provide whatever is your process, but as much as context as you can. And I can explain more about what the process is that we follow, but ultimately comes from that initial context. And then it comes from what do you need to know to be able to execute your task, right?

starts from globally, what is the company doing? What is the purpose of the company? And this is where the vision and mission and some of the values come into play, right? But also sometimes if you have the opportunity to onboard these people through all the aspects of the execution, that just opens the mind, right? Because number one, it creates connections outside of the, let’s say bubble of the group or the team that they’re working with. And

It also provides a good understanding of why the other team is doing what they’re doing. Right. So it builds those connections upfront. And from there, this is where you started working on, you know, more of the execution and teaching them what the execution is. After a certain point, then you just have to let them go. And that means instead of where every time they come up with, you know, a problem for you to solve, my approach has always been, okay, what’s your proposal?

Yes.

Like you’re, bringing me this problem. That’s fair. I can solve it. No problem. And we all know like as owners or as founders or the founding team execute executive team, can solve those problems, but to really be able to help your team grow is okay. You have to bring me a couple of solutions. Like what it is that you think it’s the best approach. You have the most amount of information. You should be able to articulate what the problem is and what a proposed solution is.

Sometimes those proposed solutions might not be aligned to the strategy, might not be the best approach based on what you know. Right. But you can compliment that and you can say, look, I appreciate your approach. think that’s great, but ultimately you’re missing all these two or three pieces that are just going to compliment. Here’s my other proposal. What do you think or how do you feel about that? Sometimes there’s a back and forth and you go into even a totally different direction based on that additional information, but that.

just provides more ownership and that communication style that you can rely on people to solve their problems. And also every time they get the solution that they propose, it just empowers them every single time.

That’s a great point. That’s something we also train our executive assistants to do is anytime they have a question or concern, we encourage that. Like you said, when you’re going to bring that question or concern, always come with at least one proposed solution. It doesn’t have to be the final answer, but it’s also easier from the leadership team’s perspective.

Rather than having like that mental burden of like solving everything from scratch, it’s a lot easier to just say like, yes, that’s good. Or no, here’s some modifications and having to start from scratch and just like solve it. don’t know that if they’ve thought about it at all. So I’m really glad you brought that up.

Awesome. Yeah, absolutely. I also think that it’s very empowering. If I were to give advice to myself, when I was starting my career, that will probably be my number one advice. Make sure you bring a solution every time you bring a problem. Cause sometimes you don’t even need someone else to take, you know, to, give you guidance. You’re just advising. This is what I will do. Let me know if you’re okay with it.

Sometimes it’s just that and leaders will say, yeah, go for it, run with it. Let’s see what happens.

Exactly. As we wrap up here, for those leaders that are listening and maybe feel busy and reactive and stretch too thin, what’s one immediate action or advice you’d have for them to take this week to create space and start solving the right problems?

Awesome. I would say number one is get some space. Get some space by doing two things. Number one is when you’re taking as much problems as you can, write them on a piece of paper, and then take a walk. That would immediately free up some of your mental overload.

and guide you into what are the things that you should be solving and what are the things that you can delegate to someone else. That’ll be my step number one. Step number two will be prioritization, but that’s probably more than a week.

Awesome, great advice. Now as we wrap up, where can people best connect with you and start exploring more of your work and learn about what you’re doing at Baseline?

Awesome. Thank you so much. best, the best way to approach me will be LinkedIn. Um, my LinkedIn, you can find me under and particularly will be linked in slash. let me find it here.

So there’ll be linkedin slash in slash V. Santinelli with a double L.

Perfect, and we’ll make sure to have that link in the show notes and podcast notes on all the platforms when this gets published. To those that were listening today, if you got value, hit the follow and subscribe button or tap that star and like button. Every rating helps us equip more business leaders who want to grow the smart way. Thanks again for tuning into the Scale Smart, Grow Fast podcast. Here’s to building businesses that give you more freedom, stronger teams, and lasting growth. Until next time, keep scaling smart. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Why Scaling Feels Heavier Before It Gets Easier — And How to Fix It

For many founders and executives in $3M–$50M professional service firms, growth doesn’t create freedom. It creates weight.

The calendar gets tighter. The inbox gets deeper. Follow-ups slip. Projects stall. Every meaningful decision still routes through you.

If that sounds familiar, you’re not underperforming. You’re operating as the execution hub.

In a recent Scale Smart, Grow Fast episode, Nathan Barkocy shared how nearly losing his life reshaped his philosophy around time, leverage, and leadership — and how that mindset directly impacts business scalability.

This isn’t about motivation. It’s about structure.

The Real Bottleneck in Growing Firms

Nathan’s story begins with a near-fatal accident that forced him to rebuild from scratch. That experience sharpened one belief: time is finite, and how leaders use it determines everything.

Fast forward to running multiple real estate ventures, a restoration company in Dallas-Fort Worth, a personal brand, developments, and a growing family. Success was present. Leverage was not.

The common pattern many founders miss:

• You are the follow-up hub
• You are the decision filter
• You are the escalation point
• You are the final approval on everything

When growth increases complexity without changing structure, scaling friction increases.

This is where most delegation efforts break down.

Delegation Fails Without Structure

Many experienced operators have support. What they don’t have is structured leverage.

Nathan initially tried to delegate broadly. The result was misalignment. Too much handed off without clarity on:

• What only he should own
• What required proactive follow-through
• What needed systems, not just assistance

True leverage required defining where his time created the highest return:

• Investor conversations
• Strategic partnerships
• Business development
• Vision and brand positioning

Tasks like content editing, posting, coordination, and administrative execution were transferred to structured support. Not casually. Not reactively. Intentionally.

The shift was not about doing less. It was about increasing the quality of leadership time.

Scaling a Service Business Without Becoming the Bottleneck

Nathan’s real estate restoration company in DFW provides a strong example.

Initially operating with a small team, growth was inconsistent. Revenue was present, but scalability was limited. Marketing experiments failed. Ad spend was inefficient. Execution depended heavily on leadership attention.

The turning point came when systems were built around:

• Clear workflows
• Defined ownership
• Follow-up discipline
• Operational delegation

Instead of competing with larger firms on ad spend, the company focused on organic growth and controlled operational expansion. Systems created predictability.

This is the difference between being busy and building scale.

The Time Audit Most Leaders Avoid

One of Nathan’s most practical recommendations is simple: track your time.

For one week, log every hour.

Then ask:

• Is this where I create the highest leverage?
• Am I doing $20/hour work inside a $500/hour seat?
• Am I operating as a strategist or a task manager?

Executives often don’t realize how much cognitive load is consumed by low-leverage execution until they measure it.

Scaling starts with awareness.

Legacy Thinking Forces Structural Decisions

Nathan’s broader philosophy centers around “True Wealth” — legacy beyond revenue.

Legacy in business does not happen without systems.

Without structure:

• Execution lives in the founder
• Decisions bottleneck
• Growth plateaus
• Multi-year scalability becomes fragile

With structure:

• Teams execute without rescue
• Leadership time protects strategy
• Growth becomes repeatable

This is how operators move from solopreneur intensity to scalable enterprise.

What This Means for Founders and Operators

If your firm is growing but feels heavier instead of lighter, the issue is not effort. It’s architecture.

Ask yourself:

• Are you still the execution hub?
• Does every meaningful follow-up pass through you?
• Do you have support, or do you have leverage?

Scaling without structured delegation increases stress. Scaling with leverage increases capacity.

The difference is not headcount. It is clarity around what only you should be doing.

Final Takeaway

Nathan Barkocy’s journey reinforces a simple truth: leadership bandwidth is the constraint in most growing firms.

Protecting it requires:

• Intentional delegation
• Defined systems
• Clear ownership
• Strategic use of support

Growth should expand opportunity, not compress your time.

If it feels heavier, that’s the signal to rebuild the structure — not work harder.

Watch this before you hire your next support role.

Book a discovery call to see how the right executive support helps you scale with clarity, alignment, and control—without burnout or chaos.  Click here to subscribe.

Full Episode Transcript

Below is the complete transcript of the Scale Smart, Grow Fast episode featuring Nathan Barkocy.

Hey everybody, welcome back to the Scale Smart Grow Fast podcast. Today we’ve got a special guest, Nathan Barcosi, and he didn’t build his business by chasing more. He built them by getting clearer on what only he should be doing. After rebuilding his life from a near fatal accident, Nathan went on to scale real estate and entrepreneurial ventures around his true wealth philosophy. In this episode, he’s gonna share what changed when he stopped being the execution hub and created real operational support.

and reclaim the focus needed to scale income, purpose, and legacy without burning out. Nathan, welcome to the podcast. How are you doing today?

Harley, thank you for having me. It’s an honor to be with you today.

Nathan, I’d love for you to share with our audience a little bit more about your background, especially that like near fatal accident that was mentioned in the intro.

Yeah, absolutely. this brings us back 10 years ago where the story really begins. I was a nationally ranked competitive cyclist. I was state champion in New Mexico, youngest to ever win the Tour of the Gila, setting records, going on the way to the Olympics, to the Tour de France, and becoming an internationally renowned competitive cyclist. That was my vision, my goal. And then in January of 2016, I was hit by a car.

at 60 miles an hour.

goodness.

So I died on the scene and the ambulance rushed me to the ICU. My parents got the call, right? My parents got the call that I was dead and that the officer had reported it as a fatality. so, I mean, God bless my parents, right? They were driving to the hospital thinking I was dead. So I was in a coma for two weeks and by God’s grace, you know, I opened my eyes for the first time two weeks later.

paralyzed. So I couldn’t move and then I went on a medical flight up to Craig Hospital in Colorado, which is where they do traumatic brain injury rehab and spinal cord injury rehab. And that is where they rolled me into the hospital on a wheelchair. I don’t remember being admitted to the hospital there, but my first memories start coming back during my recovery at that time.

And that’s where I learned how to live again. We learned how to walk again and function again. So that’s where life really started for me. And from that time, I was really passionate about bringing my message to the world about how important our time is. I thought, as a teenage boy especially, I thought that I was going to live forever. And then within an instant, within an instant,

All of that can be stripped away from you so fast. And so that’s why I really started to have a mental shift about the importance of our time, right? Because tomorrow is never promised. So I wanted to write a book. Since that day, I wanted to write a book about the importance of our time and what truly holds value in our life. Well, since that recovery, obviously I went to college and I was able to graduate high school with my class, which is great, you know, and I went through all of this

the different phases and that same passion was still driving me to create my own time, right? To create time freedom and to live today as if it’s our last day. Obviously we need to plan for the future, right? But tomorrow is never promised, right? So we needed to take action today in order to make our dreams come true, which is a very entrepreneurial mindset, right? Which is how we get into the business side of things. You know, I couldn’t trade my time as an employee.

for other people. I’ve done that many times and I was actually working with Josh McCallin up in New Jersey. He’s the owner of Accountable Equity and he fired me from when I was working with him because he told me I needed to go start my own business, right? And so that’s where we get to today, right? Which is where I’m sure you and I will dive into where we are now, how I’ve been able to scale, how I’ve utilized Workergenics to help me do so. And so I’m very honored to be with you today and to be bringing this message to your audience.

Awesome. That’s a great background, Nathan. I really appreciate you sharing that. Now, before we jump into the specifics of the business, maybe kind of stepping back a little bit, a little more meta discussion. Before you really started creating the real leverage in your businesses, what would a typical week look like for you and where were you still the bottleneck without maybe even realizing it?

Yeah, the question is, am I still the bottleneck? There’s a lot of things that I’ve realized through working with you guys at Workergenics, and also during the scaling process of my business, because there’s a difference between a solopreneur and a successful entrepreneur who is in a true capitalist, who is able to create work for others, to create opportunities for others.

and leveraging their expertise, right? In their certain fields, you’re able to scale so much faster and more effectively than having to do it all on your own. So if there was a time where I needed to realize this, was about, yeah, I mean, about a year ago when we started. And it was when I realized that I didn’t have time to do everything in order to have my businesses scale to the capacity that I needed them to. And so that’s when I really started to

put together the formulas of how to build a system. And that system is what’s going to allow you to scale. You know this too, Harley, right? That’s the only way to build your business effectively and efficiently is by creating those systems that are in place that others are able to execute and making it so easy for them to execute this, right? Not a lot of questions, just a lot of action to get it done, you know?

Absolutely, systems and people, excellent leverage there. So let’s talk more about what are your businesses that you’re focusing on now, and how did you create those systems in these businesses? I think a lot of people feel like their business is super unique and making systems to get them out of being the bottleneck is just impossible. So we’d love to hear your story with what you’re doing now and how you created some of those systems.

Yeah, it’s a great question. In reality, just point blank honesty, my systems and my businesses were spreading me thin, right? So I was pursuing multiple real estate investments at the same time. I was pursuing multiple brands. I was writing my book. I was building my personal brand. All of this stuff scaling. I’m also a father of two little boys and a husband of a beautiful bride.

I was running my family, running the businesses, running multiple developments, running investments, all of these different things at the same time. And that’s how I’ve been able to scale more effectively by bringing more people onto the team.

Your Team Is Broken Without This One Leadership System

Most leadership breakdowns don’t stem from strategy, skill, or software—they happen because of one missing element: a system for human connection.

In the latest episode of Scale Smart, Grow Fast, executive coach Nir Megnazi, former engineering leader at Intel and founder of Nir Megnazi Coaching, reveals the overlooked framework that drives real ROI, retention, and trust within high-performing teams.

Preferred listening on the go? Catch the full podcast episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

🧠 Why Smart Teams Still Struggle

Many leaders assume that hiring smart people and using great tools guarantees results. But as Nir explains, high-performing teams thrive not just on intelligence or efficiency—but on trust, presence, and communication.

Without this human system:

• Projects stall from hidden conflict.
• Leaders get surface-level compliance, not commitment.
• Talented team members disengage quietly.

🛠️ The One System That Changes Everything

This system isn’t complicated—but it requires intention. Nir outlines three key pillars:

1. Empathy & Trust
   Trust isn’t built—it’s earned. And it starts by understanding what trust looks like to each person on your team. Leaders need to ask:
   “What do you need from me to trust me?”
2. Curiosity Over Control
   Great leaders stop trying to “solve” people and instead start asking better questions. Curiosity invites clarity, connection, and buy-in.
3. Leadership Presence
   A 30-second mindset reset before each meeting—choosing to be present and to listen—can transform how your team perceives your leadership.

“If you want to influence, you must first be open to be influenced.” – Nir Megnazi

🚨 Red Flags You Might Be Missing

If your team:

• Agrees in meetings but acts differently afterward
• Delivers inconsistent performance
• Pushes back on every new direction

…it’s likely a trust issue, not a competence one. And trust is a leadership responsibility.

💬 Practical Takeaways You Can Apply This Week

• Pause before meetings. Set an intention to be curious and present.
• Ask your team: “What would make this a great collaboration for you?”
• Lead tough conversations by stating your intent clearly—before giving feedback.

These small shifts lead to massive returns—Nir has helped leaders drive 76% reported improvement in leadership behaviors and generate millions in ROI per leader.

🔗 Connect with Nir Megnazi

• 💻 Visit his website & get his free eBook on trust during change: https://nirmegnazi.com
• 💼 Connect with Nir on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nir-megnazi/ 

Ready to build a team that runs on trust, not tension? 

Book a discovery call with Workergenix to find your Ultimate Executive Assistant—the right-hand partner who helps you lead with clarity, connection, and calm.

Transcript:

Harley Green:
Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Scale Smart, Grow Fast podcast. Now, strategy alone won’t take your team to the top. Human connection will. In this episode, Nir Megnazi, executive coach and leadership expert, explains how emotions and relationships are the real pillars of leadership success. With measurable results, including 76% employee-reported improvement in leadership behaviors and millions in ROI per leader. Nir is going to show how to turn empathy, trust, and presence into your most valuable leadership tools.

Nir, welcome to the podcast. How are you doing today?

Nir Megnazi:
Thank you. I’m doing fabulous. Thank you for having me on your show.

Harley Green:
Our pleasure. Maybe you could share a little bit more of your background. What brought you to doing what you’re doing today?

Nir Megnazi:
So, originally, my core education is engineering. I’m a computer engineer and I worked for Intel for 23 years. Most of my career, I’ve been an engineer, an engineering manager. At one point during my career, I just got tired of focusing on improving technology. Let’s get more speed. Let’s get more performance out of it. The innovation was great, and don’t get me wrong, I love technology. I’m a geek. Every new piece of technology that comes out, I’m like, wow, this is so cool. I want to get my hands on it. But at one point, the technology that really got me interested was people—the technology of human beings.

As a leader, this challenge of how do I get more with the team that I have? How do we over-deliver on what we promised and truly make our clients, whether they’re internal or external, much more successful? I got more intrigued by that than by increasing the performance of one part. So I started to take these small courses that were offered at Intel for coaching. The first time I met coaching, I was really intrigued. What is this? This is different than the regular conversations that we’re having day-to-day at work. It feels different. It goes more to the root, into the bottom of things, to the source of why we have challenges. And they focus on the human challenge and the human aspect of the challenges that we’re facing.

That opened me to a completely different and new world of, wow, many of the challenges that we have are not technical. They’re human connection challenges. If we can tap into that and go to the bottom of what makes this a problem for us as leaders or as employees, there’s much more potential there. That took me on a parallel path of leadership coaching. I went and studied coaching. What I observed is, after graduating from coaching school, I became a much more efficient leader and manager for my teams.

My team started to outperform very quickly. Our internal clients were raving about the performance of my team. Let me get this straight. Although I’m an engineer, I was almost always the least smartest person in the room when my team was there. I had the privilege of managing great people—super smart, much smarter than me. The results that we received because of that were amazing. My managers would remove me from one team to another, even if I didn’t know anything about what that team does and I couldn’t even help them on the technical path. But I knew how to manage my clients really well. I knew how to have great conversations with the teams that I was working with. So I could sit with them and learn really quickly what success looks like for them and what the challenges are that they’re facing, and then navigate and direct my team through a strategy that would help our team serve that team very well. The outcome was raving results.

Harley Green:
That’s really powerful. I can relate to that. My background is also in computer engineering, and I’ve had similar experiences where you might have the brightest technical person, but if they are in charge of working with the customer and they don’t have that human emotion and human touch to communicate well, the project’s not going to do well. And I’m sure you experienced that too and saw those moments.

Nir Megnazi:
Many times. Sometimes I would go into a room and as an observer from the side, I would see two people just shout at one another. They were shouting and shouting, and as an observer, you’d notice that they’re not talking about the same thing. Each person has their own needs and they’re shouting their needs, trying to get them met, but the other person doesn’t listen. So they can’t get the other person’s needs met. That’s how conflict is created. It’s unmet needs that collide in the same moment.

Because I’m a coach, I’m really known to sit on the sidelines for a while. Then at one point, I just say, hey, time out, everyone. Here’s what I’ve heard. Group A, what I heard is that you need A, B, and C. Is that correct? Yes. Okay, hold on. Group B, what I heard you need is D, E, and F. Is that correct? Yes. So you see, you’re talking about two different things. Now Group A, can you satisfy the needs of Group B? Yes. Great. Conflict resolved.

Especially in engineering, people are taught from a very young age—school, what do we do? We solve problems. That takes us away from what I call possibility conversations. To stop for a second, listen to the other person, and get to the root of what they’re asking, what they need, and have a deep conversation. Instead, we get too emotional or hijacked by our own emotions. Then the conversation goes sideways and we waste time, resources, follow-up meetings, escalations.

Now the VPs are involved and they need to call one another to understand what happened. Why is this big conflict and drama? So we see so much drama because we think we’re talking about the details of whatever we’re trying to develop, but really it’s a conflict of needs and lack of better communication.

Harley Green:
Now, for people that don’t have the blessing of having you in the room as an independent coach helping facilitate their conversation, what are some indicators they can keep an eye out for or strategies or mindsets that they might keep in mind to really be able to have those possibility conversations and de-escalate these situations to have the ideal outcome?

Nir Megnazi:
The first mindset shift that I would offer is: how do you apply curiosity in your day-to-day? Here’s the atmosphere that I’m used to, and I see this with my clients, with other companies. Everyone is always stressed. Everyone is always late—to the next milestone, to the next release, to the next thing they need to achieve. When you’re stressed, you just want to get your needs met. So the level of curiosity you have is very low. You cannot have a conversation with someone else if you’re not curious. If you’re just there to bulldoze your needs onto others, you might get your needs met, but the entire project could fail.

So leaders need curiosity. To apply curiosity, they need to learn how to listen well. We hear a lot of people talking, but we’re not actually listening—to what they say, what they don’t say, to their energy. And we’re missing so much information that’s right there in the conversation.

So the mindset shift is curiosity. Leaders can do that by setting their intention before going into a conversation. Ask yourself, “My goal in the first 10 minutes is to understand the perspective of the other party.” That is applied curiosity, and it requires intention.

Second, I encourage every leader to become a master of human communication and connection. Why? Because the higher we climb the ladder of leadership, the less we are involved in the actual work. The work of leadership is done through conversations. At one point, it’s 100% conversations. So if the leader’s number one skill is to have conversations, how can you afford not being a master of human connection and communication?

Harley Green:
That’s powerful. Now, one thing you’ve also talked about is the ROI that people can get from mastering these skills, mastering communication. What are some of the shifts in behavior that have the biggest impact on team performance that you’ve seen?

Nir Megnazi:
That’s a great question, and it’s different from leader to leader because every leader has their own superpowers and areas for improvement. But overall, the ideal state is a leader who sets high-quality goals that align with success for them, the team, and the organization. The team needs to clearly understand what success looks like, their role in achieving it, and how they must cooperate with others.

It also taps into their uniqueness as a team and as individuals. When people know their unique value and how it contributes to the outcome, they feel needed, appreciated, and motivated. That’s what people want: to be acknowledged, to feel fulfilled.

Creating a cohesive, synergistic team is like a sports team. You don’t need all superstars; you need a team that works together efficiently and elevates each other’s game. That cohesion often lies beneath the surface—beyond goals, tasks, and milestones. It lives in our humanity: our emotions, creativity, and direction. Leaders who don’t address this miss a huge part of the potential they can unlock.

Let’s talk about two major emotions: trust and motivation. When I coach leaders and start talking about emotions—especially engineers—they ask why we need to talk about emotions. Well, is trust important to your work? Yes? What happens when there’s no trust? Long conversations, wasted time, more meetings. So yes, trust is a feeling, and it’s critical to business success.

Harley Green:
That’s powerful. Now, one thing you’ve also talked about is the ROI that people can get from mastering these skills, mastering communication. What are some of the shifts in behavior that have the biggest impact on team performance that you’ve seen?

Nir Megnazi:
That’s a great question, and it’s different from leader to leader because every leader has their own superpowers and areas for improvement. But overall, the ideal state is a leader who sets high-quality goals that align with success for them, the team, and the organization. The team needs to clearly understand what success looks like, their role in achieving it, and how they must cooperate with others.

It also taps into their uniqueness as a team and as individuals. When people know their unique value and how it contributes to the outcome, they feel needed, appreciated, and motivated. That’s what people want: to be acknowledged, to feel fulfilled.

Creating a cohesive, synergistic team is like a sports team. You don’t need all superstars; you need a team that works together efficiently and elevates each other’s game. That cohesion often lies beneath the surface—beyond goals, tasks, and milestones. It lives in our humanity: our emotions, creativity, and direction. Leaders who don’t address this miss a huge part of the potential they can unlock.

Let’s talk about two major emotions: trust and motivation. When I coach leaders and start talking about emotions—especially engineers—they ask why we need to talk about emotions. Well, is trust important to your work? Yes? What happens when there’s no trust? Long conversations, wasted time, more meetings. So yes, trust is a feeling, and it’s critical to business success.

The feeling of trust is critical for eliminating waste and achieving execution velocity. Same with motivation. Motivation is an emotion. We feel motivated, and it’s very personal to each person.

Harley Green:
I got a question real quick on the trust. Especially in technical fields—or honestly, any business leader coming into this—what are some strategies or advice you can share with them to help build that trust without it feeling forced? Everyone’s been on the team-building events with the trust falls. What’s your advice to build genuine, deep connection and trust?

Nir Megnazi:
One of the key moments when I dug into trust—and trust, by the way, is the most researched factor in human emotions in literature. There are so many studies about it because it’s elusive. I would start by saying that trust is earned. You don’t build trust; you earn it. I first heard that in a podcast with Esther Perel and Adam Grant. That idea really shifted my perspective.

There is a choice, whether conscious or unconscious, by one person to trust someone else—to some extent and in some domain. So, how do I become trustworthy? It depends on the other party. What behaviors are they expecting to see that allow them to assess whether I’m trustworthy? There’s a conversation that can happen, especially when a team is coming together for the first time.

That’s the expectations conversation. “What do you expect from us? What’s important for you to see so we earn your trust?” And vice versa—“Here’s what we need to see to trust you.”

Trust is very context-specific. For example, Harley, I trust you as a great podcaster, former software engineer, and entrepreneur. So if I need advice about those things, I’ll ask you. But I wouldn’t trust you to perform eye surgery—because that’s not your area of competence. That’s the visible layer: results and behavior.

Beneath that is the character part—intent and integrity. I recommend reading The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey. He breaks it down beautifully. One of the quickest ways to earn trust is to call out your intent.

This works especially well in tough situations—like performance management. You have an underperforming employee. You can go in with judgment and metrics. Or, you can start the conversation by saying:

“Hey, the goal of this conversation is to help you overcome some recent performance issues and invest in your growth. I want to see you succeed, outperform, and get promoted. Let’s figure out how to get there together.”

Now it’s a totally different conversation. You’ve shifted from judgment to support.

Harley Green:
Yeah, totally shifts the mindset there.

Nir Megnazi:
Right? And you can still be honest and direct. “If you don’t meet these goals, it might mean this role isn’t the best fit. And as your leader, I need to care for both the team and you.” But the conversation starts with intent, with care.

Most low performers already know they’re struggling. They feel the stress. So when I show up to help them—not judge them—it changes everything.

Harley Green:
Makes a ton of sense. On the flip side, looking at the leadership part of the equation, when they are having that disconnect from their team and there isn’t trust there, what are some of the red flags or warning signs they might keep an eye out for and be like, hey, trust might be an issue here. We need to really focus on earning that.

Nir Megnazi:
One of the first signs is when people agree—but then disengage. You’ll be the only one talking in meetings. Everyone nods but later does something different. You won’t see alignment in execution. That’s a massive red flag.

Sometimes it’s the opposite. If it’s a tight-knit team and they don’t trust you, you’ll get lots of pushback. They resist every direction. Why? Because they don’t trust your leadership or intentions. And that’s the difference between being a manager and being a leader.

I can say I’m a manager. But I can’t say I’m a leader. That’s something others decide—when they choose to follow you. That’s what makes you a leader.

When these signs show up, high-performance communication becomes essential. Say: “I asked you to do A, and you did B. I’m curious—what made you choose B over A?”

Harley Green:
It’s powerful.

Nir Megnazi:
It’s amazing what happens when we ask better questions and drop the judgment. We often judge based on our values and needs—not theirs. And if I want to transform the relationship, I need to first understand them. What do they need? What’s their perspective?

Through deep, curious communication, we shift perspectives together. And sometimes, their insights will reshape the actual goal. I’ve seen this happen many times.

Harley Green:
It’s powerful.

Nir Megnazi:
It’s amazing what happens when we ask better questions and drop the judgment. We often judge based on our values and needs—not theirs. And if I want to transform the relationship, I need to first understand them. What do they need? What’s their perspective?

Through deep, curious communication, we shift perspectives together. And sometimes, their insights will reshape the actual goal. I’ve seen this happen many times.

I’ll share a story. I was placed as a leader over a team where I had no technical background in their specific work. I understood the overall process but couldn’t support them technically. One day, we had to replace an old tool with a new one. My idea was to switch it piece by piece to avoid disrupting the client.

Everyone nodded in agreement during the meeting. But later, the tech lead pulled me aside. We walked around the building, something I enjoy doing during one-on-ones. And he said, “You made the wrong decision today.”

So I asked, “Tell me more. What did I miss?”

He explained, “We can’t decouple and replace blocks cleanly. Doing it your way would create massive overhead. Let us develop the full envelope for the new tool and launch it all at once. It’ll take a month longer, but the quality and outcome will be better.”

I asked, “Does the team agree with you?” He said yes. They’d discussed it already.

So the next day, I brought the team together and said, “I’m sorry. I may not have given you enough space to speak up and share possibilities. But now I hear you. You want to launch the new tool as a single unit.” They all confirmed.

I said, “I trust you. Show me a plan, and let’s go.” And that launch was a huge success.

Again, it came down to employee courage to speak up, and my willingness to be curious.

Harley Green:
I love that. Now, as we wrap up, if there are leaders listening today and they want to begin leading with more trust and empathy with their team and having that strong connection, what is the very first step they should start taking this week?

Nir Megnazi:
That’s a tough question. Let me think for a second.

The first step they should take this week is this: Before each meeting, take 30 seconds to pause and center yourself. Ask, “How do I want to show up in this meeting?”

Choose to be present. Choose to listen. Choose to be curious. Those 30 seconds will have two powerful effects.

First, your team will feel that you are truly there with them—not distracted by a hundred other things. That presence will translate as leadership presence. And that earns trust.

Second, you will learn so much more—because you set your intention to be curious.

Be open to having your perspective influenced. Because if you want to influence, you must be willing to be influenced. That’s the shift.

Harley Green:
Yeah.

Nir Megnazi:
That’s part of the mindset. When you’re curious, be open to being influenced. The goal isn’t to be right—the goal is to achieve results.

Harley Green:
Right. Awesome. That was powerful advice. Nir, thank you so much for sharing your stories, your wisdom, these practical tips for our audience today. If people want to continue the conversation with you, talk more about how they can build this connection with their teams and get that ROI with their people, what’s the best way for them to connect with you?

Nir Megnazi:
You can visit my website, nirmegnazi.com. There’s also a free ebook you can sign up for on how to build trust while going through major changes—how to lead through chaos and earn trust. Also, connect with me on LinkedIn. I read all my messages and love connecting with new people. So feel free to DM me.

Harley Green:
Awesome. We’ll make sure we have those links in the show notes. And for those of you listening, if you got value today, hit that like, follow, or subscribe button at the top. These ratings really help us equip more businesses and leaders who want to grow the smart way.

And maybe you know a business owner or colleague who could use this information—share this episode with them. It could be exactly what they need right now.

Thank you everyone for tuning in to Scale Smart, Grow Fast. Here’s to building businesses that give you more freedom, stronger teams, and lasting growth.

Until next time, keep scaling smart.