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🤔 Riddle me this: I build a bridge with no wood or stone, only trust. What am I? (Find the answer on the bottom).
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🧬 Your genes only control 25% of your lifespan—here’s how to optimize the other 75%.
💍 The money convo every couple needs to have (but keeps avoiding).
💬 Upgrade how you evaluate, recognize, and grow your team.
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Building a cohesive team isn’t just about hiring the right people. It’s about making tough calls when someone isn’t the right fit and intentionally building a group whose strengths and weaknesses complement each other.
Hire slow, fire fast
When you’re the hiring manager or department lead, you hold the power to shape your team. Part of that power means being willing to let go of people who aren’t cutting it. This doesn’t mean being ruthless or creating a cutthroat culture. It means having the discipline to acknowledge when a hire didn’t work out and acting quickly to fix it.
Great employees respect leaders who maintain standards. When you keep an underperformer around, your top performers notice. They see someone skating by while they’re working their asses off, and they question your judgment. Removing someone who deserves to be let go shows your top performers that you have standards and you’re willing to enforce them.
Build complementary teams
Once you have the right people, the next step is assembling a team whose strengths and weaknesses complement each other. Look at your existing team members’ capabilities, identify the gaps, and then hire to fill those gaps.
Some people are visionaries. Others are detail-oriented. Some are extroverts who energize the room; others are introverts who think deeply before speaking. Some are analytical, others creative. All of these differences are superpowers when paired intentionally.
The magic happens when differences aren’t competing, they’re collaborating.
The non-negotiable common ground
Every team member should share core values and commitment to the mission. Without alignment on the “why”, nothing else works.
That means hiring people with a growth mindset, who see setbacks as feedback. People with emotional intelligence to read the room, communicate honestly, and manage their emotions. People who take accountability instead of making excuses. And people who focus on solving problems, not assigning blame.
Skills can be taught. You can train someone on technical abilities. But these mindsets and outlooks? They’re much harder to develop if someone doesn’t already have them. This is why hiring for cultural fit and values alignment matters more than perfect experience.
Why this works
When everyone on your team is aligned on values and mindset, and you’ve assembled different personality types and skill sets to complement each other, everything shifts. People stop competing to look good and start collaborating to get things done. Your top performers stay motivated because they’re surrounded by others who match their commitment.
Three things you can do today:
Building a good team requires hiring carefully, firing when necessary, and strategically combining people whose differences actually strengthen the whole. That’s how you create a team that actually works.
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Protect your people, your culture, and your bottom line.
“My parents have always been leaders, so growing into my own leadership role has been a challenge. I want to find my own voice instead of copying theirs.” — Amanda Wakefield
That hits deeper than just leadership style. It raises an important question: What if the model you grew up watching isn’t broken, it just isn’t yours?
When we say, “I want to find my own voice,” it’s often less about imitation and more about self-doubt. You’re not afraid of sounding like them, you’re afraid you won’t measure up.
Influence vs. copying
There’s a big difference between copying someone and being shaped by them. Watching capable leaders navigate challenges, make decisions, and inspire others gave you a real-world education in leadership. That’s learning, not mimicry.
Many great leaders credit their approach to those who came before them: parents, mentors, or bosses who modeled what good leadership looks like. It’s not a lack of originality; it’s part of how strong leaders are made.
And research backs it up: leadership is often learned through observation and modeling. You’re not starting from scratch, you’ve been studying leadership your whole life.
Your voice is already your own
There’s only one of you in the world. Even if your parents inspired your values or style, you bring different experiences, perspectives, and contexts to the table. You lead in a different era, with new challenges, new tools, and new expectations.
Two people can learn from the same mentor and still lead in completely different ways because the context (and the person) are never the same.
Reframing the challenge
Rather than distancing yourself from your parents’ influence, ask: Which of their lessons still serve you? Which no longer fit? How can you adapt their strengths to your own world?
You don’t need to reject what shaped you. Take what works, let go of what doesn’t, and trust that your mix of experiences will define your leadership style naturally.
Building on a strong foundation
If your parents modeled great leadership, that’s not a shadow—it’s scaffolding. Athletes with athlete parents don’t reinvent the game; they build on what they learned and make it their own. Leadership’s no different.
Stop comparing resumes. You’re leading different people, in a different time, with your own challenges, and that’s more than enough to make your voice distinct.
You don’t have to find your leadership voice. You just have to start trusting it.
Recognition is a proven driver of engagement, retention, and real connection, especially across remote or hybrid teams. But in the rush of back-to-back meetings and overflowing inboxes, even the best intentions to say “thank you” can slip through the cracks.
That’s where Simpalo Snacks comes in: premium, healthy snack boxes that do the appreciating for you. Whether you’re celebrating a win, welcoming a new hire, or just reminding someone they matter, Simpalo makes it easy to deliver thoughtful, personalized moments that stick.
✨ It’s more than snacks. It’s team culture, delivered.
“A mentor once told me, “Leverage done right is a gift.” I used to avoid delegating because I saw it as dumping work on others. Over time, I realized it’s actually the opposite; it’s about connecting people with work that lights them up. By letting go, I wasn’t taking advantage, I was empowering others to grow. That perspective has shaped how I lead and build teams.”
Blair Knowles, Co-Founder & CEO
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