“The Threshold”

Hiring someone is just the beginning. What happens after that determines everything - output, culture, retention and whether your business becomes a place to growth or quiet frustration.

Trust doesn’t just appear. It’s not “earned” in some vague emotional sense. It’s built through clarity:

• Clear expectations

• Clear roles

• Clear feedback

• Clear boundaries

• Clear consequences

Here’s the formula:

Clarity ➡️ Predictability ➡️ Trust ➡️ Autonomy

When your team knows what success looks like, what decisions they’re allowed to make and how you’ll react to mistakes - they perform better. Not because they’re perfect but because the relationship feels safe.

Tools for building this kind of clarity:

• Role Scorecards (what they own and what ‘great’ looks like)

• SOP’s + Loom videos

• Weekly 1:1s with structured agendas

• Shared task boards (Asana, Notion, ClickUp)

• Feedback frameworks (e.g. SBI: Situation - Behavior - Impact)

Without structured, feedback feels personal. With structure, it feels professional and that difference is everything when you’re trying to grow a small team into a reliable system.

Here’s a hard truth:

Most problems with people are not technical - they’re emotional.

• Someone under delivers, but you hesitate to confront it.

• Someone makes a small mistake and you overreact.

• You get disappointed because they didn’t “get it” - but you never really explained it.

These aren’t management problems. They’re relational maturity problems.

Your job is not just to assign tasks. It’s to create the emotional container where performance can happen:

• Where people know they can ask dumb questions

• Where feedback doesn’t feel like punishment

• Where excellence is the standard but humanness is allowed

This requires two things from you:

Presence and Emotional Discipline.

You have to be there - not just in Slack or messages but in tone, in responsiveness, in energy. And you have to respond, not react - especially when things go wrong.

Every time you stay calm and constructive in a tense moment, you teach your team something: “This is a safe place to grow.”

That’s Leadership because Loyalty Isn’t Given, It’s Cultivated.

Most founders want loyal people. But loyalty isn’t about money. It’s about meaning.

People stay when:

• They feel seen

• They’re growing

• They believe in where it’s all going

• They trust you - your word, your consistency, your values

You can’t fake that.

But you can live it.

Some ideas:

1. Openly admit when you make a mistake

2. Celebrate their progress publicly

3. Ask them what they want to grow into - and help them

4. Share why the work matters - not just what it is

5. Let them own wins, not just do work

When you do this well, something beautiful happens:

People become more than just workers. They become believers.

And believers go the extra mile. They stay late, solve problems you didn’t see, care about the client like it’s their own.

But it starts with you.

Boundaries That Protect the Relationship

Too many founders confuse being kind with being available 24/7.

Or being supportive with being everyone’s therapist.

Or being understanding with accepting underperformance

That’s not leadership. That emotional leakage.

You need boundaries. Not just for your own well-being - but for the integrity of the team.

• Don’t mix unclear roles with friendship

• Don’t avoid hard conversations because you want to be liked

• Don’t let gratitude become obligation

Boundaries don’t push people away. They make the relationship safer.

Why?

Because when people know the limits, they feel more secure in how to operate. And when the relationship is consistent, they don’t have to waste energy guessing your mood or your expectations.

Boundaries are a form of respect and you don’t grow alone.

You can build the machine. You can write the playbook. You can make the blueprint.

But it’s the people who bring it to life.

And they don’t just need instructions.

They need leadership.

They need relationship.

They need you - not just as a boss but as a human who cares, shows up and grows with them.

So take care of your people.

Speak clearly.

Expect greatness.

Be kind, not soft.

Be real, not robotic.

Because when you do that, you don’t just grow a business - you grow a team that builds the business with you.

And that’s how you can scale the machine - not just through systems, but through people who choose to keep showing up.