What Will Your People Experience from You?

We each have a leadership voice and the tendencies it brings along - some that help and some that hinder.

“She was not ready for that version of me,” an executive told me as he reflected on a former director in his business. Their leadership instincts and voices were different. She was deeply people-centered (a Nurturer voice), while he was driven and future-oriented (Pioneer).

He is preparing his business to scale. His culture language, which created tension with his colleague, centered on three priorities: performing well today while preparing for tomorrow, promoting the brand and strengthening the workplace, and progressing toward increasingly higher standards.

Pretty good, right? It is clear, memorable, and useful. It describes how the organization must function if it is going to grow. Here’s how we work around here (all verbs).

Perform, promote, progress.

A few days earlier, I had heard John Lai of Mister Car Wash speak at a Rotary luncheon. He talked about vision and business growth, but what stayed with me was his emphasis on employee satisfaction and quality of life.

The two conversations revealed an important contrast. My client’s language primarily answered one question: What do we need from our people? John Lai’s comments raised another: What should our people experience from us?

My client doesn’t lack concern for his team. He has practices in place to help them grow. But in the culture he described, their growth was primarily in service of stronger organizational performance.

NPS and eNPS

Lai described employee satisfaction and quality of life as outcomes worth pursuing in their own right. The business does not simply need something from its employees. It should also contribute something meaningful to their lives.

That commitment shows up in what Mister Car Wash measures. Lai noted that along with customer Net Promoter Score (NPS), the company regularly monitors employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS).

Perhaps the former director wasn’t ready for that version of my client. But his statement also raised another question: Was that version of him ready to lead her? As an organization grows, readiness must run in both directions. The team must prepare for what comes next, and the leader must become capable of leading the people who will take the business there.

A culture capable of scaling must call people to excellent performance while creating a workplace in which they can grow, contribute, and flourish. Doing both requires more than building organizational and operational capacity. The leader must also evolve.

That evolution shows up in practical ways. An owner who once drove results through personal urgency learned to create shared ownership. An executive who naturally pushed learned to listen to people who were wired differently. A senior leader who measured success primarily through performance began asking whether the workplace was strengthening the people producing it.

A Larger Definition of Success

In each case, results still mattered, but the leader’s definition of success grew larger. The aim was not simply to build a business capable of more, but to build a workplace that made more possible for the people building it.

If your organization is preparing to scale, the question is not only what the business needs to build. It is also how you and your leadership team need to evolve. CAT3 helps leaders clarify both. If you are ready to explore what the next stage will require, let’s talk.