Grow Yourself Academy

10/09/2026

✨ THE TITLE MADE YOU A MANAGER. IT DID NOT MAKE YOU READY. ✨
You were promoted. You received the title, the team, the problems, and the responsibility.
What you probably did not receive was a plan for becoming the leader your new role requires.
So you wait.
✔️ You wait for Human Resources to schedule training.
✔️ You wait for your boss to become a mentor.
✔️ You wait for somebody else to build your development plan.
Meanwhile, the team is already watching.
Here is the hard truth: Your company should support your development. But nobody can be more responsible for your growth than you are.
Becoming a manager means accepting responsibility for results, people—and your own ability to lead.
➡️ Struggling with delegation? Find someone who has built an independent team.
➡️ Avoiding feedback? Find a coach who will not let you hide behind being “nice.”
➡️ Missing business knowledge? Ask an experienced colleague to teach you.
Take the course. Attend the seminar. Read the book. Join the cohort. Observe a leader you respect. Ask your team for honest feedback.
🎯 Stop acting as if asking for help exposes weakness.
🎯 Pretending you already know is what exposes weakness.
As I say: “A title gives you authority. Growth gives you the ability to use it wisely.”
You need a personal leadership team:
✅ A mentor who has traveled the road.
✅ A coach who challenges your thinking.
✅ A colleague who tells you the truth.
✅ Training that gives you practical tools.
✅ A team willing to tell you the truth.
And then you have to do something with what you learn.
👉 Collecting books
👉 Courses
👉 Advice is not development.
💬 APPLICATION IS DEVELOPMENT!
Try one behavior.
Measure the result.
Adjust.
Repeat.
Your growth cannot stay buried beneath emails and meetings. It is part of the job. Because the team should not have to wait for you to accidentally become the manager they need.

📢 NO ONE IS COMING TO HAND YOU THE FINISHED VERSION OF YOURSELF! 📢 OUCH!
BUILD IT!
This week, identify one leadership gap and one resource that can help close it. Make the call, schedule the conversation, or register for the training.
📢 YOUR GROWTH IS YOUR RESPONSIIBLITY! 📢
OWN IT!
🔎 What are you doing to become the manager your team needs next?
In case you are interested:(On Friday Nov 6 – I will be hosting a Founder Cohort for Manager Mastery. If you want more information. Just send me a note. The size is limited… and exclusive. Only 10 people, and it’s half full now. )

Remember: It’s up to you to grow in your job; not anyone else’s!
We Don’t Make Leadership Easy. We Make It Possible.
Jerry Ervin
CEO & Founder | Grow Yourself Academy™
www.growyourselfacademy.com
🔁Feel Free to Repost
🔁 Please share this with a manager who is waiting for someone else to take responsibility for their development.

09/28/2026

WHAT WOULD JERRY SAY?
📢I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE MARKETING. NOW I LEAD SALES TOO.📢

✨ “Jerry,
Marketing is where I built my career. I love it. Now I have been promoted to the job that I’ve always wanted SVP of Marketing and Sales.

To be honest, my sales knowledge is weak. The team knows more than I do. How do I lead without being vulnerable - or leaving Sales out to dry while I run back to what I know?”

✨ “Congrats SVP of SALES & Marketing,

Do not hide in Marketing because it is comfortable.
You CANNOT lead Sales from the Marketing Department.

What you can do is use your lack of sales knowledge to your advantage.

I know! Confusing.

New Leaders go where they are strongest, give that team all their attention, and leave the other team wondering who is leading them.

You are NOT trapped in, “That’s the way we have always done it.”

With your fresh eyes.
Ask:
✔️ “What is working?
✔️ What is broken?
✔️ What are we doing because we have always done it?
✔️ What would you change if you owned the whole system?”

As I would say:
✔️ “Help Me”.
✔️ “Help Them”.
✔️ “Help Yourself”.

They help you learn the business. You remove barriers, set priorities, and give them authority. Together, improve the system.

Say this: “You know sales better than I do. I will not pretend otherwise. But I am responsible for the results, the standards, the priorities, and the way Marketing and Sales work together. Teach me the business. Then help me improve it.”

📌 That is not “WEAKNESS”.
📌 That is “VULNERABILITY WITH AUTHORITY!”

↳ The Identity Shift™ means you stop trying to be the expert in every room.
↳ The Trust Shift™ and The Team Shift™ happen when people see you learn without giving away responsibility.
↳ The Communication Shift™ and The Priority Shift™ demand one customer story, one pipeline truth, and clear ownership—not departments fighting for attention.
↳ The Delegation Shift™ means responsibility comes with authority. Coach early. Handle conflict early. Run meetings for decisions, not status theater.

➡️ Your job is not to prove you can sell better than Sales.
➡️ Your job is to align Marketing and Sales so both teams perform without waiting for your rescue.

🎯 TELL THE TRUTH! – SET THE STANDARDS! – BUILD THE TEAM! 🎯

That is the move from Maker to Multiplier™. When you build trust, clarity, and capability, you don’t just manage – you lead.

In the “COMMENTS” section you will find “From Insight to Impact”- page 3 of the
“TRUST BUILDER TOOL"

Comment if you have experienced a promotion to a non-native department, and what you did that was both successful, and a growth experience.

Jerry Ervin | CEO & Founder | Grow Yourself Academy™
707-800-9474 | https://lnkd.in/e7uxq_vf

📢 PS: We Don’t Make Leadership Easy. We Make It Possible”.

♻️ Share this with an executive who needs the reminder.

09/08/2026

"DON'T GIVE ME RESPONSIBILITY AND KEEP ALL OF THE AUTHORITY!"
What Your Team Is Thinking But Probably Isn’t Saying

You say, “You own this.”

According to Merriam-Webster: Delegation: “the act of empowering to act for another.” Authority is defined as: “power to influence or command thought, opinion, or behavior,” and can also mean “freedom granted by one in authority: right.” Merriam-Webster

Great.

- “Can I make the decision? NO”.
- “Can I approve it? NO”.
- “Can I change the process or commit the resources needed to deliver it? Also NO”.

Then let’s be honest: - I do not own it. - I am carrying the risk for a decision I am not allowed to make.

That is not empowerment. That is exposure.

Managers assign outcomes, delegate tasks, and hold people accountable - while keeping every meaningful decision upstairs. Then they ask why the team is hesitant, keeps escalating, and never takes initiative.

You trained them to wait. This is not a motivation problem. It is a leadership design problem.

That distinction matters. Without authority, people stop deciding, problems move upward, work slows down, and managers become the bottleneck.

Then leadership calls the team “not proactive.” If you want someone to own an outcome, clarify:
- The required result.
- The decisions they can make.
- The resources and boundaries.

When you want updates - not permission.

As Jerry would say:
“You cannot demand ownership from people you refuse to give any authorization This is within reason in their level and ability with guardrails.”

This is the work of The Delegation Shift™ inside Manager Mastery™: building capability by moving the right level of authority with the responsibility.

Are you developing ownership - or creating exposure and calling it accountability?

Assignment From The Delegation Shift™ Study Guide:
1. Look at one assignment you delegated this week.
2. Write down what the person owns, what they can decide, and what still comes back to you.
3. If the list is unbalanced, the problem may be your delegation - not the employee.

Comment: PM me DELEGATION and I will send you The Delegation Starter Map™

Coming soon… the release of the Maker to Multiplier Leadership Certification System: Manager Mastery - Cohorts, with a few mini-webinars through our L&D Department - KEEP GROWING\Webinars as a small taste. (MORE to COME)

Keep growing,
Jerry Ervin
CEO & Founder Grow Yourself Academy
[email protected]
707-800-9474

Please share this with a manager who needs the reminder.

We Don’t Make Leadership Easy. We Make It Possible.

08/30/2026

Amen.

08/30/2026

06/01/2026

You just got promoted. Congratulations!

Here is the hard truth: your new title does not automatically grant you trust—especially if you are now managing your former peers.

Moving from an individual contributor to a manager is one of the toughest transitions in business. You can no longer rely on peer friendship to get things done; you have to actively earn professional trust.

In the Manager Mastery™ program, we call this The Trust Shift™: From Peer to Trusted Leader.

So, how do you actually build this foundation? It all comes down to The Trust Triangle. Leadership only holds firm when these three sides are present:
🔸 Clarity: Vague expectations create anxiety. People trust managers who tell them exactly what is expected, why it matters, and what success looks like. 🔸 Consistency: Do what you say you will do, every single time. Small broken promises drain your "trust account" fast.
🔸 Care: People need to know you see them as human beings, not just resources. Show up, listen, and treat everyone fairly.

If one side of this triangle breaks, the whole thing becomes unstable. Remember, trust is built in small, everyday moments, not big speeches.
Take a look at the infographic below for a 20,000-ft view of how to navigate this critical first shift!

I’d love to hear from you: What is one small, daily habit you use to build or maintain trust with your team? Let’s discuss in the comments!

(And if you know a new manager who could use this framework, please feel free to share it with them!)

03/04/2026

A manager I worked with recently told me something that stuck.
“My team is working hard… but we’re not getting ahead.”

They were busy all day. Meetings were full. Projects were moving. But output wasn’t expanding.

When we looked closer, the problem wasn’t effort. It was ambiguity.

Three kinds, specifically.
1. Priority ambiguity
No clear answer to: What comes first this week?
2. Authority ambiguity
Team members weren’t sure who could make decisions, so work kept bouncing back to the manager.
3. Completion ambiguity
Everyone had a different idea of what “done” actually meant.

So work kept coming back for revision. Nothing was wrong with the team. They were just operating without structure. And without structure, even great people spin their wheels.

Here’s the truth most managers discover too late:
Structure removes ambiguity.
Ambiguity creates overload.

When priorities are clear, authority is defined, and “done” is explicit — capacity expands fast. Work flows. Decisions accelerate. Output grows.

This is the shift from Maker → Multiplier.

02/25/2026

Amen

Positivity is not the absence of hard moments.

It’s the discipline of not feeding the thoughts that don’t serve you.

You can acknowledge a negative thought
without building a home for it.

Notice it. Redirect it. Reclaim your energy. 🌿

02/25/2026

The hardest battle you’ll ever fight is the one happening inside your own head.

Most people spend energy watching others level up, when the real obstacle is the delay, the doubt, and the comfort they keep choosing over growth.

Stop measuring yourself against the room. Measure yourself against who you were yesterday.