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You ever been sitting on the highway or you're in traffic, you're minding your own business, and then somebody suddenly just comes out of nowhere and cuts you off. When there are three other lanes with no traffic, they're not using a turn signal, no warning sign, it's just pure chaos. And then they're wasting your gas because now you gotta be forced to slam on your brakes. Now, once your heart rate settles down, right? You realize something frustrating. Half of the people in your office are driving their projects, driving their work the same exact way. We talk about road rage all the time on the interstate, but nobody talks about the quiet road rage that is brewing inside of our organizations. The micromanager that's riding the bumper like they a tailgator at five o'clock during rush hour time, the teammate who swerves onto a completely new priority zone with zero communication, leaving you to clean up their pile up. Nah, if you want to crash out, you're going to crash out by yourself. The lane hogger, what about them holding up critical resources, right? While everybody else is stuck in neutral. Driving, just like leading and collaborating, it's the same thing. It's all about predictability, spatial awareness, and respecting shared lanes. Because when people drive dirty at work, they don't just slow down their own momentum. They put the whole team's safety and sanity at risk. So today, we're stepping on the gas. We're stepping off the highway and we stepping into the office, and we're going to unpack how to spot the bad drivers that's on your team. We're going to talk about how to protect your own lane and most importantly, how to navigate the traffic without losing your cool or crashing out on your own vision. Because some of y'all are in the fast lane on the wrong side of the road. And you're wondering why everything around you keeps crashing. Listen, having a driver's license does not mean that you are a good driver. And having a title, owning a business, managing people, being put in charge of a project or a team, that does not mean that you know how to lead people. Yes, I'm talking to you too. That's where we're going. Yep. Mm-hmm. So let's go. Put on your seatbelt. There are people who absolutely know how to drive. Don't get me wrong. Seriously. And I still don't want to be in a car with them. And you know exactly who I'm talking about. Technically, they're capable. They know how to start the car. They know how to press on the brakes. You know, they know where everything is. They know where they're going. But during the whole ride, you hold on the door. You holding on that little thing that's up at the top of the ceiling. Listen, I don't know what it's called, but I use it for to hang the clothes and the coats and stuff when you don't want it to get wrinkled. But, anyways, you're holding on to that, pressing on your imaginary passenger brake every five seconds because you're doing 85. You six inches behind somebody. You switching lanes like you playing a video game. And I'm sitting over here thinking, like, oh my God, Lord Jesus, please help me get to my destination safely. All you had to do was leave 10 minutes earlier. And we would not be in this type of mess. But to be honest with you, that's how some businesses operate. Everybody's moving, everybody's busy, everybody's doing something, right? But movement isn't the same thing as progress, and speed is definitely not the same thing as execution. If you're moving fast in the wrong direction, you are not ahead. You are going to get lost a lot faster. You know, I started thinking about this. I've had moments on the road where somebody did something so crazy that I'm looking at them like, what are you doing? You don't have no signal. Like, what are you doing? You just come right over here. Now I gotta hit my brakes and waste my gas. The person behind me thinks I'm tripping. Everybody's reacting to this one person's decision. And that's the part that was pointed out to me. Once the initial shock wears off, you realize that the driver isn't just a bad driver, they are a pattern. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized I don't just see those patterns on the interstate. I see these same patterns in meetings, on project channels, on in count calendars. I see them in businesses and leadership, definitely. Because driving isn't just about moving a car, it's about how you navigate around other people. The way you do anything is the way you do everything. Driving is awareness, it's about communication, it's about predictability, it's about you making the right decisions at the right time and respecting the fact that you are not the only person on the road. And whether you're sitting behind a steering wheel or you're sitting behind a laptop, those same habits are going to show up. You got people who switch directions and they have no warning at all. You got people who ride on your bumper every day. And then if you're in the office, those people who are riding and tailgating you, they're normally asking you stuff like, is this done yet? Can you send it to me now? Are we there yet? Then you got somebody sitting in a fast lane doing 35. Oh my goodness. This is crazy. You holding everybody up. And somehow you mad because people are trying to go around you. And then you know what? This is when I actually realized that some of us we work with these bad drivers. Some of us are these bad drivers. But listen, don't turn me off yet, all right? I ain't even get to where I need to go yet. We're going somewhere though. So the part that nobody talks about. A bad driver doesn't necessarily lack the ability to drive, okay? And that is the important part. They may know exactly how they're going to operate this vehicle, how to use the vehicle. The problem is, is how they operate around everybody else. See, in business, somebody can be incredibly talented and they can still be dangerous to a team. They know their job, they know their experience, they they have experience, they have credentials, they might even produce great results individually, but they are unpredictable. They don't communicate, they change direction without warning, they hold information, they're rushing everybody, they're creating unnecessary emergencies, and eventually everybody else around them is going to start doing what we all do on the highway every single day, and that's defensive driving. Except by this time, you got employees doing defensive working. They're documenting everything because they don't trust you. They're triple-checking conversations, they are afraid to make decisions, they're waiting before they respond because they don't know what version of you that they're gonna get. They have to start protecting themselves instead of producing or performing, and that's a performance problem. That is an execution problem. And you know what else it is? That's a business problem. And this is something that I teach my clients when I'm talking about identity and execution. Who you are eventually shows up in how you move. You can't separate that. So I have four bad drivers for you. And I want you to help me identify who's on the road and don't immediately start assigning names. Oh, that's definitely Lisa right there. Uh-huh. Yes. No, I don't want you to do that because I'm going to make you check your own driving record too. You are not exempt from this. Remember, I am the friend that you always wanted. So, driver number one, this is the tailgator. This is the micromanager. They're always on somebody's bumper. They're always in your face, like, where are we at on this? Did you finish it? Can you send it over to me? Give me an update, even though you sent the email like eight minutes ago. So I want to back up for a second. Leadership requires enough space for people to actually do the work. Did you hear me, leaders? Leadership requires enough space so people can actually do the work. Accountability matters, deadlines matter, follow-up matters. But if your employees are spending more time updating you about work when they can actually just be focusing on doing the work and then updating you, you got a whole nother problem on your hands. And to my tailgators, you usually believe that you're increasing performance by doing this type of stuff. But what happens is that you start to slow down the process. You slow down the performance when you're riding on people's bumpers all the time. Driver number two, the no signal driver, the swerver. Now, this one right here, it gets me every single time. And how it looks in business is Monday, you're going left. Tuesday, oh no, actually, we're gonna go right. Wednesday, oh wait, no. Um, why are we going right again? Because you told me to go right. Oh yeah, that's right. This is the person who constantly changes direction without communicating the change. Priorities are always shifting, deadlines is always moving, projects they always get redesigned, reassigned, but nobody is signaling and letting anybody know which way you're going. Now, everybody else is being blamed for something not being done, but there's nothing but confusion because I don't know which way you're going. What do you want to do? Changing direction isn't what is bad leadership. That is not the case. Sometimes, yes, circumstances they change, business changes. Sometimes you have to do a different strategy, right? But when you change direction, you gotta signal. You got to tell people what you're changing. You got to tell them why you're changing it, tell them what the new expectations is. You have to have communication. All right, number three, the distracted driver. So this driver, they're physically driving, right? They're physically there, they're present, but then they're not really there. You got a meeting, you got somebody half listening, you have an email, they didn't read it, you done sent them a the deadline, they done forgot the deadline, you got an important detail. Oh, nobody told me about that. Uh yes, we did. I sent it to you like a month ago. Three times, actually. This person is the type of person that will miss cues and then create emergencies because everybody else has to compensate for what they did not pay attention to. And you know what happens with this? This is costly because distraction can cost you. Just like when you're on the road, distraction can cost you. You have the missed deadlines, you got people doing duplicate work, you have opportunities that you don't missed out on, you got clients that will become frustrated and unnecessary things that you got to keep on cleaning up. That is not just annoying, and I'm not being annoyed just by thinking about this, but that is money wasted, money lost. So don't be a distracted driver. Pay attention, be present in the moment. Driver number four is the lane hogger. Y'all know this person. You, you probably the person. They are not going to move. They're not going to delegate, they're not going to share information, they don't let nobody else touch nothing. And sometimes they aren't even moving fast enough for themselves. They're blocking everybody else from doing what they got to do. And then the leader says, Well, nobody can do it like me. I gotta do this. Now don't get me wrong for those of you who have to take control over the lane because everybody else acting like they don't know which way they're going. Don't get me wrong if you're the type of person that is owning your lane, but then you got other people trying to come over and take over. So then you have to keep things together in your lane. So I'm not talking about you. I'm talking about those people who are intentionally hogging the lanes, causing people to be weeks behind in the work, withholding information. And I'm not talking about those of you who are who have to move in silence because you got some haters on the team. I'm not talking about that. These are people who are the haters that aren't moving. They are sitting in the lane because they don't want nobody else to get in that spot. You know those people when you're on the road and you have to get hurry up and get over so you can get off the exit. And this person is just moping around. They know that you're trying to get over. You got your blanker on, and they're just still moving slow because they don't want you to get in front of them. Those are the lane hoggers. But in the office, this is not leadership when people show up this way. This is a bottleneck. This is what can cause a traffic jam. You might feel important because you done held down that spot, that you are the one that everybody has to come to. You feel needed, you feel like you are the essential one. But leadership is not proving nobody can function without you. You are replaceable. Leadership is building something that can move because you developed other capable people. That's an influential leader. So I gave you those four different drivers, but how do you work with these people? What do you actually do when you got bad drivers around you? You know, when you're on the road, you may not be able to speed up, you might not be able to slow down, you might not be able to do much, but there are things that you can do. Number one is keep your distance and set boundaries. You don't have to participate in somebody else's chaos. If somebody constantly creates last minute emergencies, don't automatically make every emergency your urgency. Clarify the expectations and the deadlines and who's responsible for it. So, for example, if somebody drops something on you at 4:30, right? And they expect it by five o'clock and they knew they needed this like a month ago, don't accept it. Say what you can do that's realistic, when it can be completed, and let them deal with the rest. And if you have someone like this, or you need to kind of do inventory to figure out who's who and how you have to deal with them, take a look at the person or the situation and decide if you need distance or if you just need to establish some clear boundaries and do it. The second thing that you can do in how to deal with these types of drivers is use your mirrors. Your mirrors is what increases visibility, right? That's why you got so many mirrors on the left, the right, in the middle, and some of you have cameras. Your mirrors is what's gonna help you see what isn't directly in front of you. When you're at work, that might look like documentation. If a direction changes, you gotta document it. I was telling my daughter this the other day. You don't argue with nonsense and he say she say. You argue with facts and you document everything. If a deadline changes, document it, confirm it. If somebody assigns something verbally to you, follow it up in writing. Because people sure do be having amnesia when the fire gets started. And I'm not telling you to do this because you're trying to build a case, because you're not. But you gotta protect your own apples, your own assets, right? Because clarity protects execution. So when you're in your next important conversation, you got to recap right then and there. Okay, here's what I understand. So you want me to do X, Y, and Z. That's your mirror. Use it. Number three, do not participate in this mess. Don't go participating in the road rage. You know those people that's beeping the horn and then somebody else beep the horn and they hold it down longer. I know it's difficult because when somebody cuts you off, somebody beeps at you, somebody, whatever they do, your first instinct is going to be to catch up to them and give it back to them. Throw it on the middle finger, right? Don't do it. Workplace road rage, it looks like emotional emails. Those are the pre passive aggressive messages that someone is trying to prove somebody else wrong in. That's the matching attitudes. And now nobody is focused on the destination because everybody is riled up. You focused on what everybody else is doing. So the next time somebody frustrates you, don't immediately respond to them. You can walk away, you can be the bigger person. Think about it. What outcomes do I actually need here? And when you ask yourself that, respond to that outcome. Don't respond to the emotion. And this one, you have to master. Become a defensive driver. Defensive driving means that you're paying attention before something happens. You know when somebody's about to jump in front of you without them putting on their blanker, you can kind of see how somebody's moving, right? You leave room, you have options. And when you are at work, that's how it should be. If somebody's consistently late, you don't build your timeline based off of them delivering whatever they need to deliver. You build a buffer. If the communication regularly gets confused, you document it beforehand. If a person holds critical information, create something that allows them to be able to share that information right then and there. So they won't have no reason why they didn't send you the information when they needed to send it to you. So you got to get a step ahead of the game, right? You got to think ahead. You see that driver about to cut you off, either you slow down, move on to the next lane, or whatever you have to do, you have to look at it for the future ahead of time. Create your backup plan. Don't wait until you really need it. And that's how you strategize. So before you start naming other people in your office and you have a whole list of people that is the bad drivers, I need you to check your own driving record. Yep. We're gonna look at your driving record because you might be the person that everybody else is trying to get around for real. You gotta ask yourself for real though. Are you constantly changing direction? Is people waiting on you? Are they are you holding information because you want to stay needed? Are you creating emergencies because you don't have a plan? Are you micromanaging people because you don't trust them? And are you communicating? Or do you assume everybody knows exactly what you're thinking? I want you to be aware because awareness without correction is not going to improve performance. That is what I call the gap. You know better all day long, but are you doing better? Don't finish this episode, nod your head, identify your coworkers, and then go back to work. Do something about it. Identify the biggest bad driving behaviors that may be affecting your business, and then decide whether you need a boundary, a conversation, a documentation, or something better, maybe a better system, and then fix it. Execution is what's gonna beat sitting around analyzing the traffic. You can't control every driver, you can't control what other people do, but you can control your vehicle, your speed, your decisions, and then you can decide on who you're willing to follow. Somebody's gonna always cut you off, somebody's gonna always jump in front of you without a signal, somebody's gonna ride on your bumper, and somebody's always gonna sit in the fast lane knowing that they're going 25 miles per hour. Absolutely ridiculous. But I want you to remember that you don't have to let somebody else's reckless driving cause you to wreck your own car. Sometimes leadership means slowing down, it means creating distance, it means setting boundaries, communicating more clearly, letting somebody else pass. And then sometimes you might just need to pull over and get off the road completely. Take another route. When you know who you are, you become much more intentional about how you move. And that's why I wanted to bring this to you today. This is what connecting the dots between who you are and how you move looks like. Here's what I want you to do: don't just share this episode with somebody because you think that they're a bad driver. I want you to share it with the person who's serious about becoming a better driver. Then check your own driving record. You know how they say take the speck out of your eye before you try to take a log out of somebody else's. That's what you have to do. Pick a behavior, correct it, and put that correction in motion. Do it this week. Because knowing where you're going doesn't matter if it's the way you're driving keeps you from getting there. I'll talk to you in the next episode.