The Six Bills
Statement of account
Past dueThirty years running
What built you is sending a bill.
The strengths that build a leader send their bill around sixty. Not your weaknesses. You've managed those for decades. The strengths, the ones nobody checks, least of all you.
BalanceFind yours in five minutes
Twelve statements. Nothing you mark leaves this page.
Terms · Why around sixty
It didn't turn on you. It just never changed, and you did.
Something that paid you back for thirty years starts costing a little more than it pays. Then a little more. Sixty isn't magic. Some people get the bill at fifty, a few at seventy. But it comes around sixty for most leaders, for reasons.
- The strength has had thirty years to harden. A habit at thirty is a choice. At sixty, it's the shape of you.
- The people around you grew up. Your number two has been ready for years. What once held everything together now holds people back.
- The handoff question shows up. The moment you try to hand something over, you find out exactly what you've been holding, and how tightly.
- The people who gave you your conclusions are gone, or nearly. Once they are, you can finally hear their voice in your own mouth for what it is.
- The math on time changes. Three years of lying awake isn't a cost of doing business anymore. It's a real share of what's left.
None of this means it's too late. It means it's time.
Itemized
Every strength sits on a conclusion you reached a long time ago.
Usually young. Usually in a hard moment. Then the conclusion worked, so you never went back to look at it. Most leaders carry two or three of these hard and the rest lightly.
You believe in people before they've earned it.
When you trust people, most of them get better. Your best people are the ones you bet on early.
- The old conclusion
- Good people don't need checking.
- Warning signs
- You'd feel guilty asking someone to show you the numbers.
- One person has authority nobody reviews, and everyone knows it.
- When someone suggests a second signature, your first feeling is offense.
- One question
- Who in my company would my people be afraid to report on?
- One practice
- Put yourself under the system first.
You work harder than anyone you know, and you learned it at home.
Some of what you were handed was gold. It's why your work holds up.
- The old conclusion
- Love is earned by results.
- Warning signs
- You have phrases you're known for, and some of them were your parent's first.
- Your best young people leave, and you describe them as not tough enough.
- Someone who works for you braces when you walk in.
- One question
- Whose voice is that?
- One practice
- Write the list.
You believe you were put here for something bigger than a paycheck.
For some it's faith. For others it's family, a town, or the people who work for them. A leader with a calling is worth ten with a plan.
- The old conclusion
- My cause makes my motives clean.
- Warning signs
- No one around your cause can tell you no.
- You hold two roles that should check each other. Builder and board member. Donor and decision-maker.
- You've imagined the recognition in more detail than the work.
- One question
- If I took my name off it, would I still want to do it this way?
- One practice
- Pick one: builder or board.
Everyone can count on you.
Your crews, your kids, your aging parents, half your spouse's family. You carry them because it feels like what love is. It is love. Nothing here says it isn't.
- The old conclusion
- If I stop, it all falls apart.
- Warning signs
- Things stall when you're gone, and you take it as proof of how much you're needed.
- People call you for permission to do things they're already responsible for.
- You can't remember the last time you asked for help with something that mattered.
- One question
- Who around me has stopped growing because I keep holding them up?
- One practice
- Stand in the doorway.
You're the calm one.
The worse it gets, the steadier you get. Most of the people who work for you never knew how close it came.
- The old conclusion
- Strong people don't show cracks.
- Warning signs
- Only one person knows how bad it really is. Or nobody does.
- You're doing important work at night you wouldn't want your team to see during the day.
- You're waiting to tell people "until I have a better plan."
- One question
- Who do I need to tell before I have a plan?
- One practice
- Tell three people the truth, out loud, this week.
06 · Fighting for right
DUEWhen something's wrong, you don't let it go.
You stand up for your people, your customers, your name. You've won fights other people would've walked away from.
- The old conclusion
- Letting go means they win.
- Warning signs
- You rehearse the argument. In the shower, in the truck, at two in the morning.
- You've counted the cost of the fight in dollars but never in years.
- People close to you have stopped bringing it up.
- One question
- How many nights is being right going to cost me, and what else did I have planned for them?
- One practice
- Name the sentence you're waiting for.
The self-check
Mark what's true right now.
Not what used to be true, or might be someday. Right now. You'll be tempted to skip the line that's truest. Don't.
Nothing you mark is sent or saved. Close the tab and it's gone. Print it if you want to keep it.
Take it together
Then let someone who loves you mark it for you.
You can't see your own strength. It's too close. Your spouse, your number two, the friend who's known you longest can. In the two-person check, you mark yourself, they mark what they see in you, and the page lays the two side by side. The gap is where the bill is.
Write out what you're carrying. Then draw one line through one word.
What Built You
Where this comes from
What Built You, a leadership fable
A builder promises his company to his general manager by next Christmas. Over the next twelve months, every one of these strengths comes due at once. The six bills are the second half of the book.
About the book