Things Leaders Do
Things Leaders Do is the go-to podcast for leaders who want real, actionable strategies—not just theory. Whether you're a new leader stepping into management or a seasoned executive refining your skills, host Colby Morris delivers practical tools and processes you can start using today to lead with confidence, clarity, and impact.
Each episode breaks down key leadership topics with humor, insight, and real-world application, covering:
✅ How to communicate effectively and build trust in your team
✅ The secrets to high-performance leadership and team culture
✅ Handling setbacks and leading under pressure
✅ How to be a people-first leader without losing accountability
✅ Mastering the balance between strategy, execution, and influence
No fluff. No vague concepts. Just tactical advice that helps you grow as a leader and drive real results in your business or organization.
Subscribe now and join thousands of leaders leveling up their skills. Because leadership isn’t about what you say—it’s about what you do.
🔑 Keywords: leadership, leadership development, new managers, executive coaching, team culture, business growth, personal development, management strategies, communication skills, success, accountability, productivity
Things Leaders Do
How to Build Backup Systems That Scale — Without Creating Bottlenecks or Burnout
How to Build Backup Systems That Scale — Without Creating Bottlenecks or Burnout
Show Description:
If your business relies on one person to keep a process running, you don’t have a system — you have a single point of failure.
In this follow-up to last week’s episode, Colby shares real stories and practical tools to help you build backup systems that scale without piling on red tape or burning out your team.
You’ll hear:
- A true story from Colby’s hospital leadership days that changed the way he trained teams
- How to test whether your team is truly cross-trained or just good at talk
- Why most SOPs fail — and how to fix them by documenting context, not just tasks
- A powerful “Mission-Critical Map” exercise to find and fix your hidden bottlenecks
- A weekly challenge to help you build a more resilient, scalable team — starting now
This episode is for leaders who want to grow without becoming the bottleneck, lose sleep over operational gaps, or build a company that falls apart if one person goes on vacation.
Need help building resilient teams, systems that scale, or leaders who can handle the weight of growth?
Colby offers executive coaching, keynote speaking, and custom leadership training for organizations that want to grow with clarity, confidence, and consistency.
Contact Colby directly:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colbymorris/
Booking or inquiries: https://www.nxtstepadvisors.com/
Subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with another leader.
And you know why?
Because those are the things that leaders do.
#leadership #businesssystems #operations #scalingbusinesses #founderlife #teamdevelopment #thingsleadersdo
Hello leaders and welcome back to the TLD podcast. Last week we hit on a big one single points of failure and, based on your messages, your comments and some of the conversations, man that one landed. But I want you to realize that recognizing a weak spot just isn't enough. This week we're going from awareness to action. We're talking about how to build real redundancy without creating bloated systems, confusing org charts or leadership bottlenecks. I've got a story from my days running hospitals that hopefully will make the point loud and clear. So let's get into it. Number one don't just tell me, show me. I'll take you back.
Speaker 1:When I was leading hospital operations, I stopped a nurse during rounds and asked hey, in case of a fire. And asked, hey, in case of a fire, what would you do? She didn't blink. She walked me through the pass acronym, like it was second nature. I get the extinguisher, I pull the pin, I aim at the base, I squeeze the handle, I sweep from side to side, flawless delivery. But something made me dig a little deeper. So I asked her can you show me? We walked over to the fire extinguisher over on the wall. She couldn't even get it out of the case. Once we got it out, she couldn't figure out how to use it. The acronym was there, but the skill wasn't. And here's the problem. We were checking the box on training, but we weren't building real readiness. So we changed the training From then on. We didn't just talk through the processes, we walked through them Hands-on, real-time. You had to prove it.
Speaker 1:Here's your leadership lesson. Redundancy isn't about having a backup plan on paper. It's about knowing your backup can actually execute it. This applies to your business today. Ask yourself can your number two run the meeting if you're out? Can someone process payroll without needing six Slack messages? Can another leader handle the handoff call without stalling? If the answer is, well, they've seen me do it.
Speaker 1:That's not good enough. Hear me, redundancy lives in demonstration, not in documentation. Put people in position, let them run it and then debrief and refine the process from there. All right, number two document the. Why, not just the what?
Speaker 1:Let me tell you something I've seen in almost every organization I've coached or led. There's always that one SOP doc in a shared drive that looks so nice. It's solid. Okay, it's got the nice formatting, it's got the clean bullet points, and yet it's solid. Okay, it's got the nice formatting, it's got the clean bullet points, and yet it's useless. Why? Because it tells people what to do, but not why it matters.
Speaker 1:So when something unexpected happens and the process doesn't fit the situation, exactly happens and the process doesn't fit the situation, exactly your backup does what they freeze or, worse, they improvise in a way that breaks downstream systems. Let me be blunt People don't own what they don't understand. They follow rules until things get weird and then they just stop. So if you want true redundancy, your processes need context. I want you to add a line in your SOPs that says we do this because, or this timing matters because, okay, if we miss this step, here's what happens. If we miss this step, here's what happens. And take it further During training or handoff, tell stories about something that went wrong in the past and why this process now exists, because logic sticks better than rules.
Speaker 1:Hear me If you want people to step in confidently, you have to give them the thinking behind the doing. It's not just about transferring tasks, it's about transferring decision-making ability. All right, number three mission-critical maps. Let me tell you about a consulting call I had with an executive team not too long ago. They were growing fast, revenue looked great, but the founder just had this nagging feeling that if one or two things happen or one or two people left, everything could fall apart. So I walked their team through an exercise I call mission critical mapping.
Speaker 1:I asked them what are the five systems or processes that, if they failed today, would cost you money, momentum or credibility? They looked around the room for a second. There was some nervous laughter and then one of them said well, probably invoicing. That's all in one person's head. Another said our client onboarding process is mostly in Slack threads. Payroll came up next, tied to the one finance person. Okay. Then sales, pipeline tracking, all managed in spreadsheets, and finally facility operations, which only the ops manager really understood. So that's five Invoicing, client onboarding, payroll, sales pipeline, facility management. Then I asked okay, I want you to answer these three things for me One who owns it, two, who else could confidently run it tomorrow. And three, when was the last time that person actually did it? And, as you can imagine, that's when the room got real quiet, because for most of those areas there wasn't a backup, or there was, they hadn't touched it in months.
Speaker 1:That team had smart people, they had good systems, but all the doing lived in individual heads. They had single points of failure, hiding in plain sight. So we built out a mission critical map. Each process got a primary owner, a designated backup and a cadence for when that backup would actually step in and run it Real time, not pretend, because here's the reality. If the only time your backup runs a process is during an emergency, that's not a system, that's a liability.
Speaker 1:You want a business that's strong enough to flex, not fragile enough to fall apart when someone else is out or sick or moves away. Or sick or moves away okay, you got to have a way to get there. Regularly rotate ownership okay. Create clarity. Train in real scenarios. You're thinking, colby, that would be chaos. Well, yeah, at first, but that's why you're training, that's why you're doing this, so it's not chaos when it matters. Okay, you're doing this. So it's not chaos when it matters. Okay, that's how you build resilient, scalable operations, not duct tape survival plans. All right, here's the truth. Leader to leader Redundancy isn't about just adding layers Okay, about just adding layers okay.
Speaker 1:It's about building resilience. If your business needs you at 100% capacity just to function, if your team is one, resignation away from chaos. Or if your systems only live in one person's head, that's not scalable, that's survivable for now, but definitely not for long. So here's your challenge this week Identify one critical process, just one. Choose someone who isn't the usual owner but it needs to make sense and have them run it from end to end and then sit down with them. And then sit down with them, debrief what worked, what didn't, what you learned, what they learned, and make this a monthly habit okay, not a one-time fire drill.
Speaker 1:You want to scale, build a business that doesn't need to be rescued to keep going, and if this kind of leadership development is not important in your organization, you've got to get it there. You've got to get them to understand the importance of this type of operation Okay. And if this kind of leadership development is what your organization needs more of, I'd love to help. I speak at leadership summits, offer custom team training. I coach high-level executives who are serious about leading well, scaling smart and staying human through it all. I'd love to connect with you. You can connect with me on my LinkedIn. That's in the show notes. There's my webpage, my email, however, you want to get hold. If you have questions, I'd love to answer them. Just connect, reach out. I'm having some great conversations with everyone and I definitely appreciate it. So please go out there, build redundancies, no single points of failure. And you know why? Because those are the things that leaders do.
Speaker 2:Thank you for listening to Things Leaders Do. If you're looking for more tips on how to be a better leader, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and listen to next week's episode. Until next time, keep working on being a better leader by doing the things that leaders do.