What Your Team’s Behavior Says About Your Leadership

A note to young leaders.

If you want to know what your direct reports really think of you – watch how their teams behave around you.

Your reports will almost always smile and be polite to your face. It’s what they say when you’re not in the room that represents their true opinion of you.

If your direct reports speak well of you to their teams – it will show in the unscripted, everyday moments you share with them.

You’ll sense it in the little things – easy eye contact, unforced smiles, good natured ribbing, and an absence of tension.

The reverse is also true. If a direct report speaks ill of you behind closed doors – their teams will mirror the discomfort. Your interactions with those team members will be stilted, awkward and guarded.

This is the “secondary soundtrack”. Unlike the primary soundtrack – it never lies.