Why Great Operators Don’t Always Make Great Leaders

Why Great Operators Don’t Always Make Great Leaders

Servant leadership is not soft leadership. In this episode of Handle It, Joe Perkins and Brent Hillabrand sit down with Ryan Tiller and Will Jones, President/CEO of Thompson Children & Family Focus and author, to unpack what servant leadership actually looks like inside real operations, distribution teams, and frontline environments. This conversation challenges the common mistake of promoting great operators into leadership roles without giving them the tools, mindset, or development they need to succeed.  From the “flight attendant flying the jet” analogy to daily huddles, floor check-ins, turnover, trust, and the hidden cost of command-and-control leadership, this episode breaks down why leadership is the variable every operation feels but few actually measure. Joe, Brent, Ryan, and Will discuss how strong leaders build trust before tough conversations, stop rescuing people by doing their work for them, and create teams that perform because people feel supported, empowered, and held to a clear standard. In this episode, you will learn: * Why great operators do not automatically make great leaders * How servant leadership impacts trust, morale, retention, and performance * Why leaders should stop doing the work for the people they lead * How to build real check-ins during the first hour of a shift * Why protecting the standard starts with catching people doing things right  Turning your best operator into an unsupported leader can be risky! Learn how to develop leadership that builds trust, improves performance, and helps teams handle pressure without falling into constant firefighting.

How to Create Stability Without Slowing Growth

Stability without slowing growth is the tension every operations leader feels, and this episode shows you how to manage it without creating chaos. Stability without slowing growth does not mean moving slower, it means building calm, consistency, and trust that makes execution faster. Stability without slowing growth is the advantage you earn when your team stops mistaking busyness for progress and starts fixing the root causes that keep fires burning. In this episode of Handled It, hosts Joe Perkins (COO) and Brent Hillabrand (President and CEO) are joined by Lauren Murphy (VP of Human Relations) and David Horak (VP of Distribution) to unpack why “calm” can feel uncomfortable, how leaders accidentally create chaos, and what should never change even as the business scales. They break down the difference between urgency and chaos, why motion gets confused for momentum, and how stability creates the space for innovation, retention, and a faster, more focused operation. In this episode, you will learn: * How to define stability in a way that supports growth, not stagnation * The difference between urgency and chaos, and how leaders confuse the two * Why “busy” becomes a badge of honor and how to reset expectations * How stability builds trust, and how trust increases speed * When stability becomes competitive advantage, and when it turns into resistance * What breaks first when stability is ignored: trust, morale, retention, and standards * The non negotiables that should never change: values, integrity, priorities, accountability * How to spot “firefighting culture” and shift toward root cause problem solving * Why consistency without stability is unsustainable, and how to build stable habits and rhythms * A practical way to coach leaders who feel lost when nothing is “on fire” Don’t risk confusing chaos for progress and burning out your team while calling it growth. Learn how to create stability without slowing growth so your operation moves faster, retains great people, and scales with trust instead of turbulence.

Building a Culture That Sticks in an Evolving Industry

Culture and leadership development are the core keywords in this episode, and this conversation shows you how to build a culture that sticks even when growth, pressure, and turnover hit at the same time. Culture and leadership development are not slogans or posters, they are the daily decisions leaders make when nobody is watching, and you will leave with a clearer way to protect standards without slowing the business. Culture and leadership development matter because the fastest way to lose great people is inconsistent leadership, unclear expectations, and values that change when results are on the line. In this episode, Joe Perkins (COO) and Brent Hillabrand (President and CEO) sit down with Lauren Murphy (VP of Human Relations) to unpack what actually holds a culture together, why strong cultures decay over time, and how leaders unintentionally reward the wrong behaviors. They talk through real examples from inside operations, the strain that growth puts on onboarding and leadership readiness, and why turnover cannot be solved by pay alone. If you lead teams in a fast moving environment, this episode will help you build trust, strengthen standards, and retain great people without defaulting to pizza parties or empty “words on the wall.” In this episode, you will learn: * Why culture breaks down when results matter more than how you get them * How “high performers” can quietly reset the standard in the wrong direction * The difference between culture you design and culture that happens in “a thousand moments” * How leadership inconsistency creates “the call after the call” and kills trust * What stability looks like when your business is changing fast * How growth strains onboarding, coaching time, and leadership readiness * Why turnover is a leadership problem first, not a pay problem * How to build trust through clear accountability and honest conversations * What it means to “treat people great and pay fairly” without chasing the market every week * Practical ways to make values real through celebration, not just correction Don’t risk building a culture that only works when things are easy. Learn how to strengthen culture and leadership development now so your standards hold, your people stay, and your growth does not break what made the business work in the first place.

Are You Managing Data… Or Drowning In It?

Managing data is hard. Drowning in it is expensive. In this episode, managing data vs drowning in it gets real as the team breaks down how dashboards, metrics, and “one more report” can either sharpen decisions or quietly replace leadership. Joe Perkins (COO) and Brent Hillabrand (President and CEO) sit down with Justin Benson (VP of Intralogistics Solutions) and Danny Saleeba (VP of Finance) to unpack why leaders hoard metrics as organizations grow, how data can create a false narrative, and where dashboards give a false sense of control. You’ll hear how “rearview mirror” reporting can derail real-time judgment, why teams chase perfect data and stall momentum, and how to decide which metrics actually matter so you can move faster with more confidence. What you’ll learn in this episode: * Why leaders hoard metrics as teams scale and how it impacts trust * The difference between visibility and overload, and where dashboards cross the line * How reports can replace the conversations leaders should be having * When data obscures judgment instead of sharpening it * Why dashboards can create false confidence even when “everything is green” * How to spot manipulated metrics and misleading storytelling in reporting * Which decisions truly need data and which require context, values, and common sense * The real cost of waiting for perfect data in fast-moving environments * When it is necessary to eliminate metrics, reports, and “needless” data * How to build alignment on what matters so data actually drives action Don’t risk decision paralysis, slow execution, and frustrated teams because your organization is drowning in dashboards and conflicting reports. Learn how to simplify your metrics, focus on what actually matters, and make faster decisions with clearer confidence. 0:00 Introduction 1:29 Why Leaders Hoard Metrics 6:19 Can Data Obscure Judgment? 10:56 When Does Data Drive Decisions? 13:24 Dashboards & False Confidence 19:14 The Cost of Waiting for Perfect Data 22:37 When to Eliminate Metrics 28:34 Data Overload & The 97% Stat 36:53 Agree or Disagree

Over-Engineering Is Killing Your Warehouse

Over-engineering your process quietly kills performance, slows teams down, and drains morale. In this episode, we unpack the real cost of over-engineering your process and show you how complexity creeps in with the best intentions. If your systems feel heavy, bloated, or harder to use than they should be, this conversation will help you simplify without losing control. Joe Perkins (COO) and Brent Hillabrand (President and CEO) are joined by Justin Benson (VP of Intralogistics Solutions) and Ashley Watkins (Continuous Improvement Manager) to break down why leaders over-engineer as they grow, how blurred ownership hides accountability, and why complexity often breaks people before it breaks systems. From warehouse floors to back-office workflows, they share real examples of workarounds, redundant checks, siloed teams, and “no one owns it” moments—and what to do instead. If you lead operations, supply chain, or a growing team, you’ll walk away with a practical lens for removing friction and building processes that scale. What you’ll learn: * Why growth often leads to over-engineering—even when leaders don’t intend it * The warning signs your system is bloated or no longer being used * How blurred ownership destroys accountability and slows execution * Why only a small percentage of most processes truly add value * The hidden cost of redundant checks and too many handoffs * How workarounds form—and what they reveal about broken systems * What breaks first under stress: people, flow, quality, or morale * How standardization and continuous improvement actually enable innovation * Why psychological safety matters when simplifying complex systems * A practical way to strip complexity without sacrificing performance Don’t risk burnout, turnover, and stalled growth because your processes are heavier than they need to be. Learn how to identify over-engineering early, remove what no longer serves your team, and build systems that scale without breaking. Article mentioned in the episode: https://www.itpro.com/software/software-complexity-is-burning-through-enterprise-budgets-draining-productivity-and-burning-out-employees-and-its-a-gbp32-billion-problem-that-cant-be-solved IT Pro [https://www.itpro.com/software/software-complexity-is-burning-through-enterprise-budgets-draining-productivity-and-burning-out-employees-and-its-a-gbp32-billion-problem-that-cant-be-solved?utm_source=chatgpt.com]