In this powerful Q4-focused episode, Brin’na Rollins Williams pulls back the curtain on what REALLY determines whether your team enters 2026 energized or exhausted. Spoiler: it’s not the metrics. It’s the culture.
Brin’na shares a raw personal story from her Target leadership days—one that exposed how easy it is for leaders to chase numbers while unknowingly creating internal dysfunction. She breaks down how to uncover what’s actually happening within your team during the most high-pressure season of the year, and how a few intentional shifts can transform burnout into loyalty, engagement, and sustainable success.
Whether you’re managing a sales floor, running a business, or leading a team through the holiday rush, this episode gives you the exact questions, mindset, and micro-habits to build a culture people fight to be part of.
Key Talking Points
✨ How Q4 pressure exposes the truth about your team's culture—not the version you hope exists
✨ The Target story: the painful moment Brin’na realized numbers were rising while her people were silently drowning
✨ Three simple shifts (borrowed from client success) that boosted engagement, retention, and performance—without spending a dollar
✨ The essential Q4 questions leaders must ask to diagnose culture, build psychological safety, and start 2026 strong
I wanna talk about something that's going to determine whether your team starts 2026 energized or already burnt out.
Here's the thing about Q4. It's when the culture gets tested. It's when the pressure is on. It's when everyone is tired. It's when deadlines are looming. That's when you discover what your culture actually is versus what you might think it is.
mine whether your team starts:
What is happening inside of your team right now? I posted something yesterday that really hit a nerve with a lot of people. And it was a statement that said, you can't create external loyalty with internal dysfunction. The responses have been pretty telling, if I do say so myself. So many leaders are saying, ouch, that's us. Or I think my team is struggling, but I don't know how to fix it.
I'm just out here doing what I do. Here's the thing about Q4. It's when the culture gets tested. It's when the pressure is on. It's when everyone is tired. It's when deadlines are looming. That's when you discover what your culture actually is versus what you might think it is.
inful way possible. December,:
I was focused on the metrics, the performance and making sure that we hit our numbers. I knew I was going through interviews to promote to a district senior director. And I was trying to hold it all together to keep the outside looking tight and be the strong leader that I knew I was supposed to be. And then one of my own team leaders, someone who I very much so respected asked to speak with me privately. And she said, Bernat, I gotta tell you something.
The team is really struggling right now and people are scared to take their break. So they're working through lunch.
she told me this, she started to cry. And she said, I even caught one of them yesterday crying in the stock room because she was afraid to ask for help because she didn't want to be seen as a bottom performer. And I was shocked because that's the type of thing that I was doing behind the scenes by myself, but it broke my heart to recognize that it was happening under my own leadership in my own building. And I had no idea. And
I said back, know, I'm curious why she was so upset because we are hitting the numbers. Why does she think she's a bottom performer? And in a roundabout way, the same statement comes up years later as a district senior director as well. But in that moment, it wasn't about the numbers. It was about the leader who makes the team feel like they matter. And it hit me like a truck.
I had been so focused on the external results that I completely missed the internal dysfunction that it was costing my team to achieve those same results. I was creating it and fostering it in my environment. And that's when I learned that you can't create external loyalty with internal dysfunction. Your customers who are in your building choosing to spend their money on things that you sell will never love your brand more than your own team can.
Your clients will never be more engaged than your employees are. Your culture is your ceiling in business. So as we're in this final Q4 push, I wanna do something that might feel pretty uncomfortable, but take an honest look at what's happening inside of your team. And here's some questions that I put into play right after that conversation in my office with myself. I had to ask every leader,
that I was coaching in a positive developmental way during the most stressful time of year to get the raw real truth. So the first question you could ask is how do your people feel about showing up to work on Monday morning? Not what they tell you in the meeting, but what they actually are feeling. Are they energized? Are they dragging? Are they stressed out? Do they know that the plans aren't good? And how do we backtrack to fix those?
Another good question to ask is when your team has a problem, do they bring it to you early or do they try to handle it themselves until it becomes a crisis? That tells you all you need to know about psychological safety. And the last question is, are your high performers talking about staying and growing with you or are they quietly updating their LinkedIn profiles until
something better comes along. Because if your team went home tonight and their family sat across from them at the dinner table and they said, how was your day today? What story would they tell about how your leadership influenced them in a supportive way or dismissive way? That right there is the definition of the culture that you are running.
Through Legacy Fulfilled, I coach a lot of clients and I recently had one named David who was also crushing his Q4 numbers but losing his best people unexpectedly. So frustrating and heartbreaking, but also very transparent. When I started to ask some of these questions, he realized that he had been managing the metrics instead of leading the humans who were responsible to deliver the metrics.
And we did a super simple exercise and he went through his team leaders and he asked each one of them, what's one thing I could do differently to make your work experience a little bit better? And the answers were pretty eye-opening. People were not asking for more money or even better benefits. They wanted to feel heard. They wanted clarity on the priorities when things got chaotic.
They wanted to know that their work mattered beyond just hitting the numbers of the sales on Black Friday or Small Business Saturday or Cyber Monday or all 30 plus days in the month. That they matter, their work matters for more than just the numbers as they update. So my client David decided to make three little shifts and he started each meeting by acknowledging somebody's specific contribution.
and he created a priority clarity list. And he would check in every Friday and he instituted the no email after 6 p.m. during Q4 boundary. If it can be an email, it's an email, not a call. If it's an urgent matter or an emergency, you call twice and he knows to get into action. Other than that, there's no reason to add additional stress to the retail teams in Q4. And the result has been pretty...
eye-opening. Not only are they hitting their numbers, but their team engagement is through the roof. And every single person has stayed on his team since. It's not even a question about if they are interested in leaving. It's how they can do more because they love the boss they work for. They feel heard, they feel seen, and they know that they are valued beyond what they are delivering.
So if you know your culture is holding on by a thread, I challenge you to implement this this week. Have one real conversation with your direct reports, not about performance, not about the deadlines, but about them as people. How are they feeling? What do they need? What's working? What's not? And actually listen. Listen more than you talk. And then act on what you hear.
verything that is possible in:
People fight to join. And remember, you've got this and I'm right here beside you. This is Brin'na and I'll catch you on the next episode of the Legacy Lounge. Thanks for listening.
