Your Team Might Fear You More Than Respect You. What happens when you're executive leadership delivering exceptional results but discover that the people around you fear you more than they respect you? What's the career advice that you would give then?

Kyle McDowell spent nearly three decades in corporate America, leading tens of thousands of people and carrying responsibility for multi-billion-dollar operations. On paper, his career looked remarkably successful. Behind it, Kyle increasingly felt disconnected from the environments he was helping to create.

A combination of personal events and some brutally honest feedback forced him to rethink what leadership actually meant.

In this episode, Kyle explains how that experience eventually led to the principles behind Begin With WE, why leaders so often confuse authority with leadership and what happened when he returned to corporate life to lead an organisation of around 15,000 people differently.

We discuss why company values frequently fail to influence behaviour, the danger of rewarding activity rather than outcomes, why leaders say they want to be challenged until somebody actually challenges them, and how cultural change spreads through a large organisation.

Kyle also explains why companies cannot outsource cultural transformation to a keynote speaker, consultant or HR initiative — and why senior leaders have to demonstrate the behaviour themselves.

In this episode

• Why Kyle's successful corporate career stopped feeling successful
• Discovering that colleagues feared rather than respected him
• The conversation with his mother that changed his perspective on work
• Why Kyle created the 10 WEs
• Being asked to change numbers on a corporate spreadsheet
• Why leaders struggle to accept challenge
• Measuring outcomes rather than activity
• Turning a difficult employee into a trusted confidant
• Creating culture across 15,000 employees
• Why corporate values don't automatically change behaviour
• The organisations that try to outsource cultural change
• Moving principles from belief into everyday behaviour
• Kyle's forthcoming book Win With WE
• Why good leadership still starts with treating people like human beings

Key Business Takeaway

Good results do not automatically mean good leadership.

The real test is whether people understand the standards expected of them, see those same standards demonstrated by their leaders and feel able to challenge decisions without fearing the consequences.

Chapters

00:00 Kyle McDowell's corporate journey

02:29 When success stopped feeling successful

03:49 “They feared me more than they respected me”

04:46 The moment Kyle's mother changed his perspective

06:54 Leaving and starting again

08:14 Creating the 10 WEs

11:30 The experiences behind the principles

15:35 Why leaders struggle to be challenged

17:39 Outcomes versus activity

19:00 Could Kyle live by his own principles?

23:19 Getting an organisation to buy into change

26:46 Creating culture across 15,000 people

32:57 Collaboration, accountability and leadership

38:58 Why company values fail

41:59 Can organisations outsource culture change?

44:12 Who responds best to this type of leadership?

46:45 Would Kyle change the book today?

49:54 How to begin transforming a dysfunctional company

53:48 Kyle's next book, Win With WE

55:27 Kyle's ultimate leadership rule

58:06 Rapid-fire questions

Guest Links

Kyle's current is a bestselling author, leadership expert and speaker and centres his work around the 10 WEs.

Kyle McDowell — Official Website

Kyle McDowell — LinkedIn

Kyle McDowell — Instagram

His LinkedIn profile confirms the Begin With WE bestseller recognition and his Fortune 10 leadership background.

For the book, I'd link to the official/retailer page you decide to monetise or track rather than an uncertain Amazon search result. Scribe's official book page also describes Begin With WE and Kyle's 10 WEs framework.

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