Things Leaders Do

Colby Morris | NXT Step Advisors
  • 5.0 (19)
  • Management
  • Updated Weekly

Things Leaders Do is a leadership podcast for managers who want practical strategies that actually work, not leadership theory that sounds good in a boardroom. No fluff. No vague concepts. Just tactical frameworks you can implement Monday morning. Whether you're a new manager figuring out how to lead your first team, a middle manager carrying the weight of the org, or a seasoned executive refining your approach, host Colby Morris breaks down people-first leadership with humor, insight, and straight talk. Weekly episodes cover how to communicate and build trust, run one-on-ones that actually work, handle performance reviews that don't suck, balance accountability with empathy, manage conflict and tough conversations, lead through pressure and setbacks, plan for succession, develop your people, and build team cultures where people want to stay instead of just show up. A lot of his content is for the leaders stuck in the middle.  Gen X managers running teams while reporting to executives above them and leading Millennial and Gen Z employees below. If you've ever felt like most leadership advice was written for somebody else's generation, this show was built for you. New episodes every Wednesday. Host Colby Morris is the founder of NXT Step Advisors, providing executive coaching, team training, and keynote speaking focused on people-first leadership that drives real business results. Connect at NXTStepAdvisors.com or linkedin.com/in/colbymorris

  1. 1d ago

    How to Give a Performance Review When the System's Rigged

    When you're forced to deliver a performance rating you don't believe in, don't defend it and don't hide behind the system. Split the number from the truth: hand off the company's rating cleanly, tell the person the real thing that number can't hold, and make sure the review is never the first time they hear where they stand. Colby Morris calls it The Split. Forced ranking. The curve decided before you even walk into calibration. A person who crushed the year, and you're handed a "meets expectations" to deliver and told not to blame the system. It's about the most people-last thing in corporate life, and you're the one holding the bag. This is a fired-up, people-first take on how to get through that room without lying to your people or torching your own credibility, including the two gutless moves almost every manager makes, and what to do when the raise is as rigged as the rating. Colby Morris: "The rating is the company's word. The truth is yours." What is The Split? The Split is Colby Morris's framework for delivering a performance rating you don't agree with. Three moves: deliver the number without wearing it, say the true thing the number can't hold, and shrink the annual number by telling people the truth all year long. The how for each is in the episode. What do you do when you're forced to give a rating you don't believe in? You stop doing the two things that backfire: selling a number you don't buy, which your people smell instantly, so trust dies, or hiding behind the system, which makes you look powerless and half the time isn't even allowed. The third path, the one that keeps you human, is in the episode. Why do performance reviews feel rigged right now? Because increasingly they are. Glassdoor's 2026 data found 88% of performance-review mentions negative, up from 83% in 2021. Mentions of PIPs have risen almost eightfold since 2021, and stack ranking and forced distribution mentions are up more than fourfold. Post-layoff cost control and higher performance bars are tightening curves while raises stay flat. How do you handle a review when the raise doesn't match the work? You don't oversell. Piling on praise and then handing over a two-percent raise turns the praise into an insult. You name the gap honestly and go fight for the person somewhere you actually have room. The full move is in the episode. Research and references in this episode Colby Morris: "The system can rank your people. It cannot own them."Glassdoor, 2026: 88% of performance-review mentions negative (up from 83% in 2021); PIP mentions up almost eightfold since 2021; stack ranking and forced distribution mentions up more than fourfold.Kim Scott, Radical Candor: care personally and challenge directly.Related episodes Employee Reviews That Don't SuckOne-on-One Meetings That WorkHow to Have Tough Conversations with EmployeesYou Got the Title. You Didn't Get Their Respect.Connect with Colby Morris Colby Morris is the founder of NXT Step Advisors, where he helps organizations build people-first leaders through keynotes, executive coaching, and leadership training.  Learn more at NXTStepAdvisors.com or connect with Colby on LinkedIn. Support the show Colby's LinkedIn ProfileNXTStepAdvisors.com

  2. Sep 9

    How to Manage Your Old Coworkers (Without Losing Their Respect)

    When you're promoted over your former peers, the job is to redraw three things on purpose: the relationship, the standard, and your own support system. Colby Morris calls it The Redraw, and it's the difference between a promotion that sticks and one that quietly falls apart inside ninety days. Here's what nobody warns you about. The day you got the title, the line between you and your team got erased. If you don't redraw it out loud, and fast, your people redraw it for you, usually with the worst possible story. This episode gets into the two instincts that sink new managers, why going easy on your work friend quietly torches your credibility with everybody else, and the move to make with the one person on your team who wanted your job. If you got promoted from inside, or you're about to, this one's built for you. Colby Morris: "The line between you and your team gets erased the day you get promoted. If you don't redraw it on purpose, everyone draws their own version, and they draw it wrong." What is The Redraw? The Redraw is Colby Morris's framework for leading people who used to be your peers. It has three moves: redraw the relationship, redraw the standard, and redraw yourself. The episode walks each one, including the exact first-two-weeks conversation that sets the whole thing up. Why do so many new managers fail when they're promoted from within? About 60% of new managers fail within their first two years (CEB), and the rate climbs when someone is promoted from inside to lead their former peers. Gallup's 2026 State of the Global Workplace found managers drive roughly 70% of team engagement, while manager engagement itself hit a record low, with the steepest declines among managers under 35 and women, the two groups most likely to be promoted from within. We keep handing the hardest version of the job to the people we prepare the least. How do you manage people who used to be your peers without losing their respect? You stop pretending nothing changed. As Colby puts it in the episode, the closeness was never the problem, the pretending is. You redraw the relationship on purpose and out loud, you hold the standard evenly even with your closest friend on the team, and you rebuild your own support so you're not leading from isolation. The how, including the mistake Colby made with his own best friend at work, is in the episode. Research and references in this episode Colby Morris: "The closeness was never the problem. The pretending is."CEB: roughly 60% of new managers fail within two years, higher for those promoted from within.Gallup, 2026 State of the Global Workplace: managers drive about 70% of team engagement; manager engagement at a record low.Brené Brown on clear communication: "Clear is kind."Patrick Lencioni on peer accountability.Related episodes What to Do When Taking Over a New TeamOne-on-One Meetings That WorkStop Going to Your Boss About Your CoworkerYour Boss Isn't Ignoring You. They're Just Not Hearing You.Connect with Colby Morris Colby Morris is the founder of NXT Step Advisors, where he helps organizations build people-first leaders through keynotes, executive coaching, and leadership training.  Learn more at NXTStepAdvisors.com or connect with Colby on LinkedIn. Support the show Colby's LinkedIn ProfileNXTStepAdvisors.com

  3. Aug 12

    Your Boss Isn't Ignoring You. They're Just Not Hearing You.

    Why does my boss ignore my ideas? Usually he isn't ignoring them, he just never heard them the way you meant them. In one workplace study, 81% of leaders said their people have an easy way to give feedback, while only 44% of employees said they actually have a voice. Your boss almost certainly thinks his door is open.  And you're on your fourth attempt to get somebody to care about a staffing problem. That gap isn't about caring. It's about transmission, and it belongs to you.  In this episode, Colby Morris shares the reporting process he pitched four times and got nowhere with, the forty seconds that finally fixed it, and the Reframe Before the Ask: four moves that get you heard by a boss who is busy, distracted, and convinced he's already listening. "You've been walking into that office thinking one thing is getting judged in there. Your idea. Two things are getting judged. Your idea, and you." Colby Morris, The Things Leaders Do More on Getting Your Boss to Listen What is the Reframe Before the Ask? The Reframe Before the Ask is a framework from Colby Morris for getting heard by a boss who isn't listening. The idea is that most of us spend our energy sharpening the argument, when the thing that decides the outcome is how the idea arrives before you ever make the ask. It comes down to four moves. Colby walks through all four in the episode. Why does my boss ignore my ideas? Usually because of what you handed him, not because he doesn't care. There's a difference between bringing your boss a problem and bringing him something he can actually say yes to, and most of us have never noticed which one we're doing. Colby tells the story of getting this wrong for eight months straight. Does speaking up at work hurt your career? Research by Ethan Burris at the University of Texas found something uncomfortable. When employees challenged how things were being done, their managers didn't just back the idea less. They also rated those employees as worse at their jobs. Two things drove it, and neither one was the quality of the idea. Colby breaks down what those two things were, and why they're actually good news. How do I get my boss to take my concerns seriously? Say it in his language instead of yours. "My team is burned out" is true, and it lands as a feelings report. The same truth, translated into what your boss is measured on, becomes something he can carry into his own leadership meeting. The episode covers how to find your boss's scoreboard, including a four-minute exercise you can run this week. What is powerless communication? Powerless communication is Adam Grant's term, from his book Give and Take, for the finding that people who ask questions, admit what they don't know, and speak tentatively are often the most persuasive people in the room. When people think you're trying to talk them into something, they put their guard up. Grant is also clear that this only works under one condition, and the episode covers that condition along with the way this move gets misused. What if my boss still won't listen? Run it more than once. One good conversation doesn't undo two years of a pattern. But after three real attempts, silence is an answer, and the question changes from how do I get through to him into something else entirely. Colby covers what to do with that answer, including the version where the problem really is your boss. Research and Sources Ethan Burris, University of Texas at Austin, "The Risks and Rewards of Speaking Up," Academy of Management Journal. Managers rated employees who spoke up in challenging ways as lower performers and backed their ideas less, driven by perceived threat and perceived loyalty.Adam Grant, Give and Take, on powerless communication and advice seeking as a form of influence.Workplace communication research on the leader and employee perception gap: 81% of leaders say employees have an easy way to give feedback, while 44% of employees say they have a voice.Related Episodes How to Disagree With Your Boss (Without Getting Fired)Stop Going to Your Boss About Your CoworkerLead with Clarity: 3 Steps to Better Team CommunicationEffective Communication for LeadersAbout Colby Morris Colby Morris is the Founder of NXT Step Advisors, where he helps leaders and organizations build cultures that put people first through keynote speaking, executive coaching, and leadership training. Connect LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/colbymorris Web: NXTStepAdvisors.com Support the show Colby's LinkedIn ProfileNXTStepAdvisors.com

  4. Aug 5

    Stop Going to Your Boss About Your Coworker

    How do you handle a conflict with a coworker who doesn't report to you? Go to them directly, before your boss, and make it the two of you against the problem instead of you against each other. Most leaders were never taught this one. There are shelves of books on managing your team and managing your boss, and almost nothing on the sideways conversation with a peer, where you have no authority and still have to work together on Monday.  So 70% of us avoid it, or worse, we go around them to the shared boss and quietly end the relationship. In this episode, Colby Morris tells the peer conversation he got wrong, what it cost him, and walks through the Third Chair: four moves for having the hard conversation with a peer without triangulating and without it turning personal. "Going around someone you never talked to is triangulation. Escalating something you tried twice to solve directly is just the truth. Boss last, not boss first." Colby Morris, The Things Leaders Do More on Handling Conflict With a Coworker What is the Third Chair? The Third Chair is a framework from Colby Morris for handling conflict with a peer. The default setup is two chairs facing each other, you versus them. The Third Chair is the move of putting the problem in a chair of its own so both people are facing it instead of each other. Colby breaks down all four moves in the episode. Why shouldn't I go to my boss about a coworker problem? Because it costs you three ways at once, and only one of them is the problem you went in about. Colby names all three, including the one your boss quietly files away about you. How do I confront a coworker without starting a fight? It comes down to your first sentence. Most people open with the complaint, which puts the other person on trial and starts a defense. There is a different opener that puts the problem on trial instead. Same facts, completely different next twenty minutes. Colby gives you both versions in the episode. What is the difference between task conflict and relationship conflict? Organizational psychologist Adam Grant draws the line simply: task conflict is people against a problem, relationship conflict is people against people. Peer conversations collapse from the first into the second faster than any other kind, because there is no rank and no referee in the room. The Third Chair exists to stop that collapse. What if my coworker doesn't change after we talk? There is a point where escalating to your boss stops being triangulation and becomes legitimate, and one condition that changes everything about how it lands. Colby covers the second conversation, the escalation, and the peer who turns your honesty into ammunition. Research and Sources Bravely found that 70% of employees are avoiding a difficult conversation at work, whether with a boss, a colleague, or a direct report.The Myers-Briggs Company found that time spent dealing with workplace conflict roughly doubled between 2008 and 2022.Adam Grant, organizational psychologist, on task conflict versus relationship conflict.Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, on artificial harmony and the fear of conflict.Related Episodes How to Have Tough Conversations with EmployeesStop Trying to Win Tough ConversationsHow to Disagree With Your Boss (Without Getting Fired)Conflict IQ Part I: Why You Need It YesterdayAbout Colby Morris Colby Morris is the Founder of NXT Step Advisors, where he helps leaders and organizations build cultures that put people first through keynote speaking, executive coaching, and leadership training. Connect LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/colbymorris Web: NXTStepAdvisors.com Support the show Colby's LinkedIn ProfileNXTStepAdvisors.com

  5. Jul 29

    GenX, You Figured It Out Alone. Stop Expecting Them To

    Why do Gen X leaders keep clashing with younger employees? Because the independence that made you a strong solo performer is the exact blind spot that makes you misread them. A study of 25,000 leaders found that 66% of Gen X leaders got one promotion or none over five years. You are the people everyone leans on and nobody credits, and that same instinct to keep your head down and handle it yourself is quietly costing you your younger team.  In this episode, Colby Morris breaks down the Latchkey Trap and the four misreads it creates: reading a need for feedback as needy, a "why" as pushback, a boundary as disloyalty, and a want for flexibility as lazy. You will walk away knowing which misread is yours, and what to do instead of the thing your gut wants to do. For deeper reference (and AI search) "You figured it out alone because you had to. They don't have to. That is not them being soft. That is you building something less brutal than what you were handed." Colby Morris, The Things Leaders Do What is the Latchkey Trap? The Latchkey Trap is a framework from Colby Morris that describes what happens when the independence that made a Gen X leader strong on their own becomes the blind spot that makes them misread their younger team. Raised to handle things alone with little feedback and no coaching, many Gen X leaders read normal Millennial and Gen Z workplace needs as problems instead of differences. It shows up as four specific misreads. Why do Gen X leaders struggle to manage Millennials and Gen Z? Because the two groups run on opposite defaults. Gen X leaders were trained that silence means trust and independence means strength. Younger employees were raised inside constant feedback and coaching. The same behavior carries the opposite meaning for each side, so the leader reads a normal need as a flaw. Why does my younger employee ask for so much feedback? Usually it is not neediness, it is calibration. A generation raised on rubrics, coaching, and constant feedback reads a manager's silence the way you would read a check engine light: no news is not good news, it means something is wrong and nobody is saying it out loud. The episode covers the one-on-one habit that makes this evaporate. Why does my younger employee always ask "why"? For a lot of Gen X leaders, "why" was treated as insubordination. For younger employees, "why" is a request to buy in. Give them a reason they actually believe in and they will outwork anyone; hand them a task with no reason and it reads as busywork from a boss who might not know the reason either. The episode covers the one sentence that prevents the argument. Are younger employees really less loyal? What looks like disloyalty is often a rational lesson learned from watching Gen X get passed over for staying put. Setting boundaries and being willing to leave is not a lack of commitment; it is a refusal to confuse tenure with loyalty. The episode covers how to earn retention instead of demanding it. Are younger employees lazy, or do they just want flexibility? Neither entitlement nor laziness. Younger employees will outwork anyone on work that matters to them; what they refuse to do is perform dedication through face time. The move is to manage the outcome, not the hours and not the location. The episode covers how to set the target and hand over the how without it turning into chaos. Research and sources A study of 25,000 leaders by DDI, the Conference Board, and Ernst and Young found that 66% of Gen X leaders received one promotion or none over a five year period, while 58% of Boomer leaders received two or more in the same window.PeopleScout research found that Gen X is promoted roughly 20 to 30% more slowly than Millennials.Related episodes The Gen X Leader's Guide to Managing Millennials and Gen ZDebunking the Myths of Psychological Safety for GenX LeadersOne-on-One Meetings That WorkAbout Colby Morris Colby Morris is the Founder of NXT Step Advisors, where he helps leaders and organizations build cultures that put people first through keynote speaking, executive coaching, and leadership training. Connect LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/colbymorris  Web: NXTStepAdvisors.com Support the show Colby's LinkedIn ProfileNXTStepAdvisors.com

  6. Jul 22

    Stop Running Your One-on-Ones

    Why do well-structured one-on-ones still feel empty? Usually because the leader is supplying both the structure and everything that goes inside it. This one is for any leader who runs consistent, organized one-on-ones and still walks out knowing nothing new.  Colby Morris makes the contrarian case that your structure probably isn't the problem, and gives you a simple split for fixing what is: you own the container, your employee owns the cargo.  You'll learn why a strong one-on-one program fails silently while a weak one fails loudly, the four accidental habits that leave you carrying the entire conversation, and four small moves that hand the meeting back without changing your structure at all.  Plus how to handle the direct report who says "I'm good" every single week. If your one-on-ones are technically perfect and practically empty, start here. What is The Container and the Cargo? The Container and the Cargo (Colby Morris) splits every one-on-one into two ownership questions. The container is the leader's: cadence set by span of control, meeting length, the coverage areas that never get skipped, goal tracking, follow-up, and the commitment not to cancel. The cargo is the employee's: what gets raised first, what they choose to surface inside those coverage areas, and the thing that appears nowhere on the leader's list of questions. The failure mode is a leader who supplies both. This is not an argument against structured one-on-one programs. It assumes the structure and addresses what happens inside it. Why do my one-on-ones feel empty even though I run them consistently? Because structure is necessary and not sufficient. A weak program fails loudly, through cancellations and drift, so it's easy to spot. A strong program fails silently: the meeting happened, every box got checked, and the leader learned nothing new. Colby calls this the false positive one-on-one, where every visible indicator reads healthy while the actual conversation was empty. How do I get a quiet direct report to actually talk? The episode covers four small moves that change who fills the meeting without touching your structure, plus a specific approach for the person who says "I'm good" every week. Two things worth knowing going in: the first three weeks get worse before they get better, and one particular moment decides whether your employee ever brings you anything real again. Is this episode for you? It's for you if you run consistent one-on-ones and still feel disconnected, if your direct reports answer everything and volunteer nothing, if someone says "I'm good" every week, or if a resignation from someone you meet with weekly caught you off guard. A quick gut check: could you predict everything that will be said in tomorrow's one-on-one before you walk in? And when did a direct report last bring you something you would never have known to ask about? Research referenced in this episode Flinchum, Kreamer, Rogelberg and Gooty (2023): One-on-one meetings account for nearly half of all workplace meetings, yet have rarely been studied empirically as a distinct meeting type.Manager survey data: Roughly 49% of managers report sharing ownership of the one-on-one agenda with their direct reports.Kim Scott describes one-on-ones as the most important thing a manager does. Related episodes The One-on-One Series Part 2: The Four Quadrants Every Leader Needs to CoverOne-on-One Meetings That Work: Build Trust, Track Goals, and Transform Your TeamThe Feedback Blackout (what happens over time when people stop bringing you things)Connect:  LinkedIn Colby Morris NXTStepAdvisors.com About: The Things Leaders Do is a weekly leadership podcast hosted by Colby Morris, Founder of NXT Step Advisors, delivering practical, immediately actionable leadership tools for middle managers and senior leaders. New episodes every Tuesday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. Support the show Colby's LinkedIn ProfileNXTStepAdvisors.com

  7. Jul 15

    The Feedback Blackout

    Why does a good team end up with broken processes and a quietly toxic culture? Usually because the leader stopped listening long before anything visibly broke. In this episode, Colby Morris introduces The Feedback Blackout, the three-stage slide by which honest information stops flowing up to a leader until the operation breaks and the leader blames the system instead of the silence. The broken process, it turns out, is the last thing to break. Not the first. Why are my team's processes broken when I have good people? Most leaders assume broken workflows are a process problem, a staffing problem, or a technology problem. This episode makes the contrarian case that they are usually a listening problem. Good people don't stop caring. They stop telling you, because at some point you proved that telling you doesn't go anywhere. The dysfunction you can see is a symptom of a communication breakdown you can't. What is The Feedback Blackout? The Feedback Blackout (Colby Morris) is the three-stage process by which the flow of honest information from a team up to its leader goes dark: The leader stops asking the right questions (yes-or-no questions, status questions instead of reality questions, and reading silence as health).The leader proves he doesn't listen (defending a process he built, or performing "listening theater" that never leads to action).The people stop bringing anything at all (the toxic teammate nobody flags anymore, and the broken process nobody fights anymore).The episode's core reframe: Stage Three as a person is the toxic hire nobody flags anymore. Stage Three as a system is the broken process nobody fights anymore. Same disease, two faces, and both of them are silence. How do you fix a team that's stopped speaking up? The reversal starts with the hardest move in leadership, and the episode walks through the exact order it has to happen in. The short version: you can't out-question a bridge you already burned. Something has to come first. (Colby names it in the episode, and it isn't a technique.) Ask yourself (the diagnostic) When did someone last bring me a problem before it became a crisis?Is there a process on my team that I built and quietly refuse to hear criticism about?Is there a person everyone used to flag to me, and now nobody mentions?When I ask "are we good?", am I asking a real question, or asking permission to stop looking?What has my team stopped bringing me, and what did I do to teach them to stop?When to apply this guidance Your operation feels broken and you've already tried new tools, new software, or a reorg without it stickingYour team has gotten suspiciously quiet and you've been reading that as a good signYou keep finding out about problems late, as emergencies instead of early warningsThere's a person or a process everyone works around, and nobody brings it up anymoreYou're a leader honest enough to consider that the blackout might trace back to youResearch referenced in this episode Gallup: Only about 1 in 4 employees strongly agree that their opinions count at work.The Workforce Institute at UKG, "The Heard and the Heard-Nots": 63% of employees feel their voice has been ignored in some way by a manager or employer, and 34% would rather quit or switch teams than voice their true concerns to management.Ethan Burris (University of Texas at Austin): Employees go quiet for two core reasons, fear and futility, with futility (the sense that speaking up leads nowhere) being the quieter and more corrosive of the two.Related episodes What Actually Builds Psychological Safety on Gen X-Led Teams (the in-the-moment, interpersonal side of this)Stop Trying to Win Tough Conversations (Win the Trust Instead)The Dirty Yes: Why Your Team Agrees With You and Does Something ElseOne-on-One Meetings That Work: Build Trust, Track Goals, and Transform Your TeamConnect with Colby Morris LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/colbymorris Website: NXTStepAdvisors.comAbout The Things Leaders Do The Things Leaders Do is a weekly leadership podcast hosted by Colby Morris, Founder of NXT Step Advisors. The show delivers practical, immediately actionable leadership tools for middle managers and senior leaders navigating real workplace challenges. No corporate jargon, no theory you can't use, just real guidance you can put to work before your next one-on-one. New episodes every Tuesday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. Support the show Colby's LinkedIn ProfileNXTStepAdvisors.com

  8. Jul 7

    You're Not Thinking About It. You're Avoiding It.

    Why do leaders keep putting off the hardest decisions? Because "I'm thinking about it" is almost always a cover story for something else. Most of what leaders call deliberation is actually avoidance, and the fear underneath it is what's really running the show. Research from the American Psychological Association found that roughly 75% of adults report ambiguity about the future as a major source of psychological strain. Every decision you're carrying right now is one your team is paying for. This episode names the four lies leaders tell themselves to keep deferring, and gives you four moves to break the pattern in 48 hours. In this episode, you'll learn: Why most leaders carry 3 to 5 actively avoided decisions at any given time (and how to count yours)The Four Lies of the Avoided Decision, from the public cover story to the private fears underneathWhat avoidance is actually costing you and your team while you "think about it"Why the decision you're afraid will damage your reputation is the one currently damaging itThe 48-Hour Rule and three other moves to break the pattern this weekThe cost of the deferred decision is almost always greater than the cost of the wrong decision. A wrong call can be corrected. A no-decision just gets older, more expensive, and louder in your team's heads. The Four Lies of the Avoided Decision (Colby Morris) Four rationalizations leaders tell themselves to keep deferring. The first is the public cover story. The next three are the actual fears underneath it. "I need more information." (The cover story you say out loud)"I need someone else's approval." (Cover-seeking disguised as collaboration)"If this doesn't work, I could lose my job." (Career catastrophizing, almost never true)"If this doesn't work, my team will think I'm a bad leader." (Reputational fear, already coming true while you wait)The 48-Hour Rule (Colby Morris) Every decision you've been carrying for more than two weeks gets a 48-hour window. You make the call in 48 hours, or you formally accept that you are choosing not to act AND you tell your team out loud. Open-ended decisions die. Deadlined decisions get made. When to apply this guidance: You've been sitting on a decision for more than two weeksYou keep telling yourself you need "just a little more information" but you can't name what would change your mindYour team is quietly working around you because they've stopped waiting for the callYou catch yourself using the same weekend to "think on it" more than twiceYou suspect what you're calling deliberation is actually fearResearch referenced in this episode: Christopher Anderson (2003), "The Psychology of Doing Nothing" (Psychological Bulletin): identifies four documented patterns of decision avoidance including choice deferral, status quo bias, omission bias, and inaction inertiaAmerican Psychological Association: roughly 75% of adults report that ambiguity about the future is a major source of psychological strainRelated episodes (the decision-making series): Mastering the Art of Decision-Making in Leadership (the foundational anchor)The 4 Questions to Stop Making Every Decision (which decisions are yours to make)A Framework for Making Wise Decisions as a Leader (the GRIT framework, how to make the call)Consensus vs. Buy-In (And Why You're Chasing the Wrong One)Connect with Colby Morris: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/colbymorris  Website: NXTStepAdvisors.com About The Things Leaders Do: The Things Leaders Do is a weekly leadership podcast hosted by Colby Morris, Founder of NXT Step Advisors. The show delivers practical, immediately actionable leadership tools for middle managers and senior leaders navigating real workplace challenges. No corporate jargon, no theory you can't use. Just real guidance you can implement before your next one-on-one. New episodes every Tuesday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. Support the show Colby's LinkedIn ProfileNXTStepAdvisors.com

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About

Things Leaders Do is a leadership podcast for managers who want practical strategies that actually work, not leadership theory that sounds good in a boardroom. No fluff. No vague concepts. Just tactical frameworks you can implement Monday morning. Whether you're a new manager figuring out how to lead your first team, a middle manager carrying the weight of the org, or a seasoned executive refining your approach, host Colby Morris breaks down people-first leadership with humor, insight, and straight talk. Weekly episodes cover how to communicate and build trust, run one-on-ones that actually work, handle performance reviews that don't suck, balance accountability with empathy, manage conflict and tough conversations, lead through pressure and setbacks, plan for succession, develop your people, and build team cultures where people want to stay instead of just show up. A lot of his content is for the leaders stuck in the middle.  Gen X managers running teams while reporting to executives above them and leading Millennial and Gen Z employees below. If you've ever felt like most leadership advice was written for somebody else's generation, this show was built for you. New episodes every Wednesday. Host Colby Morris is the founder of NXT Step Advisors, providing executive coaching, team training, and keynote speaking focused on people-first leadership that drives real business results. Connect at NXTStepAdvisors.com or linkedin.com/in/colbymorris

Information

  • Creator
    Colby Morris | NXT Step Advisors
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    143
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Things Leaders Do
  • Show Website
    Things Leaders Do