Happy Teams Don’t Happ(y)en by Accident

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Listen to this week’s podcast episode, Ep.180: How to Build Happy Teams: Using Your Voice to Lead with Service and Purpose, with Chris Wilson, using the player below, or click here.

Happy Teams Don’t Happen by Accident

If you’ve ever felt stuck in your job, like you’re pushing through each day on autopilot, wondering if this is just what being an adult feels like; you’re not alone. Plenty of leaders feel it, probably even more employees feel it. And most of us don’t talk about it until something snaps.

This week’s guest, Chris Wilson, knows that feeling all too well. A former hotel GM, founder, midlife crisis mentor, and now a coach combining speaking with selling to help people make more impact with their voice. Chris brings a hard-earned clarity to the big questions we often avoid:

What’s your purpose?

Why do you lead?

And are you doing either of those things in a way that feels honest?

His advice is less about grand gestures and more about practical reflection, small shifts that reconnect you to the reasons you do what you do and help others do the same. And it’s a message that will chime with many leaders, certainly with founders, business owners, and solopreneurs (I certainly heard bells ringing in my head throughout our latest conversation).

Leadership Starts with Listening, to Yourself First

Chris isn’t big on fluff. His story starts at 15, pot-washing in a Beefeater steakhouse. It moves through hotel management, event planning, telemarketing, sales, and finally, coaching. It’s the kind of career path most people don’t plan, they live it, learn from it, and adjust when things stop making sense. (Again, a familiar note to many of us in the world of solopreneur-ing).

A key turning point came for Chris on a beach in Anglesey, with a literal line in the sand. After struggling to build a business coaching midlife men, a mission he cared deeply about but couldn’t sustain. It wasn’t working. Time to shift.

That moment speaks to something most leaders need to hear: Purpose is important, but it also needs to be functional. You can’t serve well if you’re barely staying afloat. Purpose is not a performance, it's alignment, knowing what energises you and making choices which honour that, even when they’re hard ones.

Managers Get Things Done. Leaders Change How People Feel About Work.

Here’s an important distinction that came up in the conversation, one that gets lost in the day-to-day grind. Managers manage tasks. Bosses bark orders. But leaders? Leaders shape the tone of the entire workplace.

Leaders influence how people feel on Sunday night, they set the emotional weather; that means the difference between people waking up ready to contribute or dragging themselves into work wondering if they’ll make it through another week.

Chris puts it simply: leadership is a responsibility. You have the power to make your people’s lives better or worse not in a grand, saviour-like way, but in small, consistent moments of empathy, clarity, and service.

He suggests using your voice not just to give direction, but to listen, check in, ask questions that matter. That’s how you build a happy team. Not with forced positivity or empty perks, but with honest connection and visible care.

The Middle Manager Squeeze (and Why They Deserve More Respect)

Middle managers often get the worst of both worlds. They’re expected to lead people, motivate teams, and manage admin while also translating big-picture strategy into actual results. Meanwhile, they’re squeezed from the top and pulled from the bottom. Targets above, team well-being below, and not enough hours or support to do either properly.

Chris captured this well: Sometimes leaders are just a fire blanket caught between the flames from the top and the heat from below. That kind of pressure builds fast, especially when leaders don’t feel like they can talk about it.

Which is why leadership needs to include space for honesty. Too many leaders keep their struggles to themselves, thinking it’s a sign of strength. But isolation doesn’t build resilience, instead it breeds burnout. As Chris says, coaching and development shouldn’t be something you reach for when you’re already broken, after the damage is done, or as a belated box-tick during the later stage of a ‘performance improvement plan’. Done right, they’re part of the preventative maintenance that keeps things running.

Finding Purpose Doesn't Mean Changing Your Whole Life

There’s a myth we’ve absorbed from social media and TED Talks that your purpose has to be your job, and if it’s not, you’ve somehow failed.

Chris challenges that completely.

Purpose doesn’t always mean quitting your job and chasing a dream, for some of us that makes sense, but for many people it doesn’t, and isn’t practical, sensible, or achievable.

Sometimes, chasing your purpose means making peace with what work is for, and finding your deeper fulfillment elsewhere. In family, in community, in creativity, volunteering, in helping others. Work can fund your purpose without being the purpose itself.

And if you're lucky enough to align the two? Great. But if not, it doesn’t mean you're doing it wrong. You're not broken, you're just living life like most people do, with trade-offs, nuance, and the constant need to reflect and readjust.

What to Do Next

If you’re a new manager, a founder, or just someone trying to lead without losing yourself in the process, here’s what you can take away from this episode:

• Check your purpose: Are you being driven by something internal, or dragged by outside expectations?

• Start conversations, not check-ins: Go beyond ‘How’s it going?’ Try: “What’s going well, what’s not, and what’s something you care about outside of work?”

• Be visible, curious, and human: Your title won’t earn trust, but your presence and your consistency will.

• Remember, leadership isn’t about having time: It’s about making time - for people, for listening, and for asking better questions.

One Last Thing…

Chris said it best: "The longer you stay with it, it's your decision."

You don’t need to quit your job, change careers, or write a purpose manifesto. But you do need to stay awake at the wheel, because if you're the one setting the tone (for yourself or for others) then your decisions matter.

They shape the room.

They shape the culture.

And they shape how many people can show up and feel like they're doing more than just getting through the week.

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Thanks for reading, be sure to catch the full conversation with Chris, he’s a brilliant storyteller so it’s not one to miss: https://smartlink.ausha.co/leading-with-integrity/ep-180-how-to-build-happy-teams-using-your-voice-to-lead-with-service-and-purpose-with-chris-wilson-leadership (or if you prefer video you can watch on YouTube).

Tune in next week for a conversation about leadership and imposter syndrome, with Executive Coach, Consultant, and Imposter-Syndrome-Slayer, John Little.

I’ll talk to you then, meanwhile: Be a Leader, Not a Boss!

- David

In case you don’t know me that well, I’m David Hatch and I’m here to help new managers and first-time founders with their leadership skills, so they can become leaders not bosses, lead with integrity, and build happier, higher performing teams, more effective organisations, and, ultimately: successful businesses.

Be less Palpatine. Be more Picard. Become the leader you wish you’d had, come join my online leadership community now (solopreneurs also welcome 😉) if you have a healthy love of sci-fi and want to learn more about leadership, then this is the community for you. Here’s the link: Integrity Leaders: Community membership and learning, for new leaders or first-time founders.