Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of performance through strong human relations, team building and gola GV. This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul Fellovledo.
Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast. It's episode six oh two. Today we're talking about something that sounds uncomfortable on purpose, conducting a pre mortem to avoid disaster. Now, most leaders love post mortems or debriefings or a hotwash. Something goes sideways, The team gathers, everyone points at what happened, lessons learned, action items written down, and then life moves on. That feels responsible, it feels organized.
It also happens too late. A pre mortem flips that entire idea on its head. A pre mortem asks a simple but powerful question before you launch, decide, announce, or execute anything important. Imagine it failed completely, publicly, expensively. Now explain why that question alone has saved more teams, careers, and organizations than any glossy strategy deck ever will. Here's why this matters. Leaders are wired for optimism. You do not get promoted by assuming things will fall apart. You
rise by believing you can make it work. That belief is useful, but unchecked optimism blinds leaders to weak points, silent risks, and uncomfortable truths sitting right in front of them. A pre mortem forces you to look at your plan from the future, standing in the wreckage, asking what you missed. This isn't negativity, This is leadership maturity. Picture a leadership team rolling out a major change, new software, a new structure, or a new policy or a new direction. Everyone nods,
everyone agrees. Silence fills the room. That silence is not alignment. That silences fear, politeness, or even exhaustion. A pre mortem breaks that silence safely. You say, fast forward six months. This failed. Our reputation took a hit. Our people are frustrated, our budget is bleeding. Why did this fall apart? Now something interesting happens. People speak up. The quiet concerns come out.
The issues that were parked in side conversation's surface. The risks you felt but could not articulate, suddenly have language, and that is leadership gold. Here's a key rule. You do not run a pre mortem to assigned blame. You run it to expose reality. If people think honestly will be punished. The exercise fails. The leader sets the tone. By inviting criticism of the plan, including their own decisions.
You might hear things like the timeline was unrealistic, training was rushed, we underestimated resistance, the vendor oversold, communication was confusing, and accountability was unclear. None of that feels good to hear. All of it is cheaper to hear now than later. A strong pre mortem has structure, not chaos. First, set the scenario. Be specific, not someday. This might fail. Say it clearly, it is six months from now and this
initiative failed hard. Second, and give people space to think independently. Ask them to write down reasons quietly before discussions start. This prevents groupthink and stops the loudest voice from dominating the room. Third, collect everything without debate, no defending, no explaining, no fixing. Yet your job is to listen. Fourth, sort the risks. Some are controllable, some are warnings, some are red flags that may stop the project entirely. And here
is where leadership courage shows up. If a pre mortem reveals a fatal flaw, you do not power through anyway just to save face. You pause, adjust, or pull the plug. That's not weakness. That is accountability in real time, and this is where red key leadership shows up again. Routine decisions can survive optimism, high consequence to se decisions require discomfort. A pre mortem is a red key move because it forces leaders to own outcomes before they happen and let
me be blunt. Most disasters were predictable, not perfectly, but enough. Someone saw it coming, someone mentioned it quietly, someone felt uneasy and ignored it. Pre mortems give those instincts a voice. They also build trust. When your team sees you asking what could go wrong, they know you care about doing it right, not just looking right. That credibility carries weight
long after the meeting ends. You can use this tool anywhere, strategic planning, hiring decisions, promotions, mergers, crisis preparation, even personal leadership choices. Ask yourself, if this backfires, what did I overlook? That question alone sharpens judgment. This is also a time discipline tool. Seven intentional minutes spent running a pre mortem can save months of cleanup, stress, and damage control. That is the entire philosophy behind this podcast. Leadership is not
about predicting the future. It is about respecting risk enough to prepare for it. The leaders who avoid disaster are not lucky, they are honest early. So here is your challenge for this week. Pick one upcoming decision that matters, and before you act, run a pre mortem. Invite people in talk with them, sit with the discomfort, and adjust the plan if you have to. You're not looking for perfection, you are looking for blind spots. How strong leaders stay
standing while others are explaining what went wrong. This has been the seven Minute Leadership Podcast and I thank you for listening.
For more Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot com