The One Thing They’ll Remember

This is the Minute Business Riff (MBR). Quick takes. Big swings. Leadership riffs you can read in less time than it takes to scroll LinkedIn aimlessly.

One minute. One idea. That’s it.

Today’s word count: 301

It took me 1 min 05s to read this.

A new hire once told me something that stuck.

She had just wrapped a 12-week onboarding sprint - full firehose mode.

Product training. Tools walkthroughs. Cross-functional intros.

Notebooks full of acronyms, Slack channels, and SOPs that read like IKEA manuals.

So I asked her, “What was the most helpful part of your ramp?”

She didn’t say the wiki.

Didn’t mention the CRM.

Didn’t even shout out the buddy system.

She said: “Honestly? It was when you looked me in the eye on Day 1 and said, ‘You’re not expected to know everything. You’re expected to ask great questions and get a little better every day.’”

That was it.

Not a system. Not a slide deck. A moment.

Twelve weeks of info? Forgotten.

One sentence of human? Etched in.

Because here’s the truth: people don’t remember how perfect onboarding was.

They remember how present their manager was.

The ones who pause their day to check in.

Who ask, “How’s your brain today?” before diving into metrics.

Who block off 30 minutes to walk someone through a problem that could’ve been a Loom.

Those little moments tell your team: You matter more than my to-do list.

And that creates safety.

Safety creates trust.

And trust unlocks performance.

She didn’t succeed because she had all the answers.

She succeeded because she knew she had backup.

Tactical Takeaway:

When someone joins your team, the tools can wait. The email setup can wait.

But the tone? That happens in the first 5 minutes.

So before the onboarding maze begins, say something they’ll carry for the next 12 weeks.

Try: “You’re not here to prove you’re perfect - you’re here to grow, and I’m here to help.”

Because your presence is the message.

And that’s what they’ll remember..

Think this was a banger? Think I’m full of it?

Either way, hit reply and drop some truth bombs.

I read every email 😁

Great leaders are made in minutes. Not meetings.