Welcome to Inside the Phone Booth!
If you’ve been here for a while, you knew this newsletter as LEVEL UP. The name has changed. The mission hasn’t.
We’re still going to talk about becoming better leaders, better teammates, better humans… and figuring out who the hell we are along the way.
But over the last few years, my work has become increasingly centered around one idea:
Identity is the operating system of peak performance. ⚡️
Because eventually, every single one of us has a moment (or moments) where the version of ourselves that got us here isn’t quite enough for wherever there is.
A new role. A setback. A massive opportunity. A change we didn’t ask for.
You walk into that moment one way. Hopefully, you walk out a little different.
That’s the Phone Booth.
And I realized these conversations finally needed a home.
So… Welcome inside ☎️
⏰ TODAY, INSIDE THE PHONE BOOTH, IN 5 MINUTES OR LESS…
What happens when everybody is looking to you for answers… and you don’t freaking have them either?
Today we’re getting into the weird pressure leaders feel to look certain, why that pressure can make good leaders go quiet at exactly the wrong time, and what your people actually need from you when the script is still being written.
And before you leave, I’ll give you something you can actually use the next time you find yourself in the messy middle.
Alright… Let’s get into it.
Everybody’s looking at you.
Everybody’s looking at you.
One of the strangest things that happens when you become a leader is that somewhere along the way, people start expecting you to know stuff.
Like… all the stuff. 😂
Something goes sideways?
They look at you.
Big decision needs to be made?
You.
The company announces a restructure, new technology, leadership change, acquisition, layoffs, strategy shift or some other giant freaking plot twist?
Everybody turns around and looks at…
Yep.
You.
Except there’s one tiny problem.
Sometimes you don’t know what the hell is happening either.
Maybe you found out 20 minutes before they did.
Maybe you’ve been given half the information.
Maybe the decision hasn’t even been made yet.
And now you’re supposed to stand in front of people who trust you and somehow lead them through something you’re still trying to wrap your own head around.
That’s a very different kind of leadership.
The pressure to “have the answer”
The pressure to “have the answer”
I think this is where good leaders can get themselves into big trouble. Because leadership can quietly become part of your identity.
I’m the one who knows what to do.
I’m the one who fixes things.
I’m the one who stays calm.
And that identity feels pretty damn good… until you find yourself in a situation where none of those things are currently true.
Now what?
Some leaders start performing certainty. Some disappear into meeting after meeting waiting until they have something definitive to say. Some say nothing because they genuinely believe silence is better than giving incomplete information.
Meanwhile…
Your team knows something is up.
They see the closed doors.
They notice the weird calendar invites.
They feel the energy change.
And when information disappears, imagination usually takes over.
That’s when people start decoding the room.
There’s another person experiencing the change too.
There’s another person experiencing the change too.
You.
This is the part of organizational change I think we skip over way too often. We spend a lot of time asking:
How are employees going to respond?
How do we maintain morale?
How do we get buy-in?
All fair questions. But the person responsible for answering those questions may be experiencing their own identity disruption at the exact same time.
The expert becomes a beginner again.
The confident manager suddenly isn’t sure.
The leader who has always been able to point toward the destination is staring at a map that’s still being drawn.
And THAT is a Phone Booth Moment.
Because eventually the question becomes bigger than:
“What am I supposed to do?”
You have to ask:
“Who does this moment require me to become?”
That question is actually at the heart of a new keynote I’ve been developing called PLOT TWIST! Because change has a funny way of revealing which parts of our identity were built for the last chapter. And which parts we’re going to need for the next one.
Your people don’t need the finished script.
Your people don’t need the finished script.
Earlier this week I shared something I believe pretty strongly:
Your people can handle more truth than you think. What wears them down is having to decode the room.
That doesn’t mean telling everybody everything. There are legitimate confidentiality issues. Legal considerations. Decisions that aren’t yours to announce. Leadership still requires judgment. But there’s a huge amount of space between “I can’t tell you everything” and saying nothing at all.
Sometimes leadership sounds like:
“I don’t have the complete answer yet. Here’s what I can share today, and here’s when you’ll hear from me again.”
That’s it. No giant speech. No pretending you know how the movie ends.
Just clarity about the part of the story you actually know.
🛠️ THE TOOL: The No-Fog Update
So the next time you’re leading through the messy middle, here are five things your people probably need from you:
1. What I can confirm What do we actually know right now?
2. What’s still being worked through What hasn’t been decided yet?
3. What this means right now What changes today? And if nothing changes today, say that.
4. When you’ll hear from me again Give people a real date. “As soon as possible” has been abused enough.
5. Where your questions should go Otherwise the group chat becomes your communications department. (good luck with that…)
I call it the No-Fog Update. And notice what it doesn’t require:
You knowing everything. It requires you to be clear about what you do know.
BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE BOOTH…
There are going to be moments when leadership feels really good.
You have the answer.
The plan works.
Everybody thinks you’re brilliant.
Enjoy those. 😂
But eventually you’re going to get a plot twist.
And you may find yourself standing in front of people waiting for an answer you simply don’t have yet.
You don’t have to fake certainty.
You don’t have to disappear until somebody hands you the finished script either.
You can show up.
Tell the truth you can tell. Give people something solid enough to stand on. And make damn sure they know they haven’t been forgotten while the rest of the story is still being written.
Thats all for today kids… If you don’t know, now you know! And as always, ✌️❤️🌍
— Kxng Cory
