Leadership Made Simple: The Three Buckets Every Leader Must Get Right
In this episode of The Leadership Hustle, Andrea Fredrickson and Michelle Hill challenge the idea that leadership must be complex to be effective. Drawing from real leadership training sessions, Andrea shares a moment when a group of first line managers listed dozens of leadership responsibilities, only to discover that nearly all of them fit into three simple buckets.
Andrea and Michelle outline those three buckets as clarity and expectations, giving people what they need to succeed, and understanding your impact on others. They explain how leaders often believe they are doing these things well, yet unintentionally create confusion, frustration, or disengagement when expectations are unclear, resources are incomplete, or impact goes unexamined.
The conversation breaks down each bucket with practical examples, from ensuring understanding instead of assuming comprehension, to recognizing feedback as a critical resource, to acknowledging how body language, tone, and offhand comments can carry more weight than intended. Andrea and Michelle also emphasize that leadership impact is not measured by intention, but by how others experience a leader’s behavior.
This episode serves as a practical blueprint for leaders who want to simplify their approach, reduce friction, and lead with greater clarity, consistency, and self awareness.
LISTEN TO THE EPISODE
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Why Leadership Feels Harder Than It Has to Be
Most leaders are not struggling because they lack effort or care. They are struggling because leadership has become cluttered with too many tools, frameworks, theories, and expectations layered on top of one another. Communication tips, motivation strategies, delegation models, time management hacks, emotional intelligence skills. All of it matters, and all of it piles up until leadership starts to feel heavier instead of clearer.
In Episode 73 of The Leadership Hustle, Andrea Frederickson and Michelle Hill name what so many leaders feel but rarely say out loud. We have made leadership far more complicated than it needs to be. Not because leaders are incapable, but because we keep adding instead of simplifying. This conversation brings leadership back to what actually moves people and shapes culture in real organizations.
By the end of the episode, leaders are invited to rethink what truly matters, simplify their leadership approach without lowering standards, and focus on three core buckets that make leadership more effective starting immediately.
Breaking It Down: The Three Bucket Blueprint
Clarity and Expectations
Most leaders believe they are clear because they have communicated expectations. Andrea challenges that assumption. Clarity is not defined by what was said, but by what was understood. People do not come to work intending to fail. When mistakes happen, it is often because expectations were rushed, assumed, or never fully explained in the first place.
Leaders frequently ask, “Do you understand?” believing it checks for clarity. In reality, it often shuts down honesty. Most people will say yes, not because they are confident, but because they do not want to look incapable. They may even believe they understand, only to discover later that their interpretation was incomplete or incorrect.
True clarity shows up in behavior. Can the person explain the expectation back? Can they execute without constant correction? Can they make decisions within the boundaries you set? Michelle adds that expectations must include behavior, not just tasks. How people treat one another, communicate, and show up is just as much an expectation as what gets delivered. This is where culture quietly forms.
Make Sure People Have What They Need
When leaders hear the word resources, they often think about tools, equipment, or access to technology. Andrea and Michelle expand that definition significantly. People also need time, context, permission, feedback, training, and a supportive environment to succeed.
Time is one of the most overlooked resources. Many employees feel trapped in constant reaction mode, jumping from fire to fire without space to plan or think. Sometimes what leaders need to give is permission to slow down just enough to prevent the next crisis. Context is equally critical. When leaders delegate tasks without explaining why they matter or how they connect to larger goals, people lose the ability to problem solve independently and become overly reliant on direction.
Feedback is another powerful resource that often goes unnamed. Michelle reframes feedback as a tool for growth rather than a threat. If leaders do not clearly define feedback as a resource, employees will interpret it through their past experiences, many of which may have been painful or punitive. People also need access to other humans, subject matter experts, collaborators, and mentors.
In some cases, giving people what they need means removing obstacles. That obstacle might be a toxic dynamic, a disrespectful environment, or unclear authority. It might even be the leader themselves. This is uncomfortable, but real leadership requires the willingness to ask what or who is getting in the way and to address it directly.
Understand Your Impact on Others
This third bucket is where leadership becomes personal, and where many leaders struggle the most. Impact is how others experience you. Your tone, facial expressions, body language, speed, silence, and offhand comments all carry weight. Michelle points out that leaders tend to judge themselves by their intentions, while employees experience leaders by their impact.
Andrea shares a reality many leaders overlook. A comment that feels insignificant to a leader can create anxiety for an employee for days. This is not about sensitivity. It is about power dynamics. Titles amplify everything. What leaders say, do, reward, or tolerate sends constant signals, whether intentional or not.
In family owned businesses, this weight is even heavier. When leaders are also family members, their words and behaviors carry emotional, relational, and financial meaning all at once. Closing the gap between intention and impact requires ownership. Not defensiveness. Not justification. Simply acknowledging impact, apologizing when necessary, and working to align behavior with intent. This is how trust is repaired and strengthened.
The Impact
When leaders try to do everything, teams feel the consequences. Confusion increases, priorities blur, people hesitate, and culture begins to drift. Employees become dependent on direction instead of thinking independently. Feedback feels risky. Trust erodes quietly.
When leaders focus on clarity, resources, and impact, something shifts. People understand what success looks like and why it matters. They have what they need to execute. They feel safe enough to speak up and capable enough to act. Leadership becomes consistent, and culture becomes aligned.
This is not softer leadership. It is clearer leadership. And clarity is what creates sustainable results.
Action Steps: Moving From Overwhelm to Discipline
Leaders can apply this blueprint immediately by replacing the question “Do you understand?” with requests for demonstration or explanation. Asking someone to walk through their plan or describe what success looks like reveals clarity far better than a yes or no answer.
Leaders can also make it a habit to ask one resource focused question each week, such as what is getting in the way or what support would make the biggest difference right now. Removing even one obstacle can significantly improve performance.
Finally, leaders should audit their impact regularly. After meetings or key conversations, reflect on what behaviors were reinforced, what was tolerated, and what may have been unintentionally shut down. This self awareness is not optional. It is part of the role.
A Bold Close
Leadership is not complicated. We make it complicated by chasing more instead of committing to what matters most. Clarity, resources, and impact form the foundation of effective leadership and healthy culture.
When leaders stay disciplined here, they stop relying on hustle to compensate for behavioral gaps. They build trust, alignment, and accountability that lasts. Culture is lived in behaviors, and leaders are always part of the environment they create.
About the Hosts
Andrea Fredrickson
Andrea Fredrickson is a thought leader and consultant at Revela, an organization based in Omaha, Nebraska specializing in the development of leaders, culture alignment, and business strategy for private and family businesses of all sizes. Revela is one of the region's most experienced thought challengers, helping individuals and companies find their greatness. Andrea has built an amazing team by believing that fundamentally people want to be successful and become better versions of themselves.
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Andrea has degrees in education, management, and business. She is the author of Insight Unseen; How to lead with 20/20 business vision. She helps people see things differently, self-reflect, and never stop looking for ways to improve themselves on a personal and professional level. Andrea has spent more than 30 years researching and developing methods to help people communicate and lead more effectively.
When Andrea isn’t working with clients, you’ll find her spending time with her family & friends and making memories by exploring new cities.
Michelle Hill
Michelle Hill is a master facilitator and coach at Revela, an organization specializing in the development of leaders and aligning the culture of privately held and family businesses of all sizes. Revela is one of the region's most experienced thought challengers, helping individuals and companies find their greatness.
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An ambitious leader, Michelle has the natural ability to create forward momentum to build teams and get results. She inspires others to look within themselves and to challenge the status quo. She helps create high-performing environments. Michelle brings a diverse background: operations, employee development, and sales in the steel, hospitality, and consulting industries.
Outside of work, you will see her competitive side engaged in her daughter’s sports and ISU athletics. She loves life, her four-legged companions, and captures all the moments through her camera’s lens.
TRANSCRIPT
Andrea Fredrickson:In this episode of The Leadership Hustle, we are going to talk about how we make leadership way too complicated and how we can simplify it. Welcome to The Leadership Hustle, the podcast for executives whose companies are growing fast and need leaders who are ready.
Hi there, and welcome back to this episode of The Leadership Hustle. I’m Andrea Frederickson, and I’m joined by Michelle Hill.
Michelle Hill:
Hi, everyone.
Andrea:
Lately, we’ve been working on a lot of different frameworks, taking things we already know to be true and organizing them into more structure.
Michelle:
Blueprints.
Andrea:
Yes, blueprints. Putting those blueprints together.A couple of weeks ago, I was working with a second level leadership group. These were not senior executives or directors. They were first line managers. We had already gone through seven of nine sessions together. We had covered delegation, motivation, time management, and many of the general leadership topics we talk about, including emotional intelligence.
At the beginning of one of the classes, I asked them a question. I said, “What are the things leaders must do to be most effective with the people they lead?” I broke them into small groups and had them brainstorm. They came back with long lists. Leaders need to listen well. They need to be honest. They need to be available. They need to have good attitudes. All good things. Really good things.
And I said, “At least you’re hearing this somewhere,” because they were doing great work. But then I reminded them, “What have I told you all along? There are really only three things I care about.” We’ve had nine sessions together, so at that point they looked at me like, “Okay, that’s fair.” Then I said, “What if there are only three things? What if there are three priorities, or three buckets?” And that’s where the conversation really started.