My youngest daughter is learning to ride her bike.
It’s painful — for both of us.
She falls.
I bend over, running alongside, back aching.
“Pedal, pedal, pedal” – I say as I’m holding her seat.
Crash!
“You let me go too soon!” she shouts.
I want to tell her all the things she isn’t doing, but I take a deep breath, pick her up, hug her, and… well, if at first you don’t succeed,
Try, try again.
Rinse and repeat.
This week, that bike ride had me thinking about my leadership journey, our company’s growth, and the growth of our team members.
We have two ‘customers’ at MCFA — the clients we work for and the teammates who entrust their careers to us.
Two clients = two brand promises.
To our clients, our promise is your project is in better hands if we are at the table.
To our employees, our promise is a fulfilling career.
Fulfillment doesn’t usually come easy.
It requires a whole lot of ‘pedal, pedal, pedal – crash’.
Fulfillment starts with knowing what you want — but it’s unlocked by discovering what you can uniquely give.
And that’s where Unique Ability comes in.
As my guest on the podcast this week — and a long-time mentor — Eustace Mita reminded me:
“Everybody has a unique ability. God gave us all unique talents. Discovering it is step one. But once you discover it, you have to focus on it like a maniac. Whatever you focus on will multiply your energy tenfold.”
Eustace didn’t build successful companies by trying to be everything to everyone. He built them by knowing his gift — and obsessively reinforcing that gift across his team.
That’s the employee side of the equation — everyone, whether you are at mcfa or not, should be working to discover your gift and hone your Unique Ability.
The employer side of the equation?
What can we do to drive fulfillment?
That’s where teaching, training, coaching, managing and accountability (leadership) comes in.
And right when we’re ready to tell someone all the things they aren’t doing, we have to take a deep breath, pick them up, and give them a hug and…
Try, try again.
Because repetition is the burden of leadership. (Connor Barwin)
Our teams are learning all the time.
It’s easy to think you taught a lesson once, so it should stick. You covered the concept in a class or a Zoom meeting, so it’s locked in. Right?
Wrong.
Just like learning to ride a bike, leadership, technical skills, business development, networking, lead generation, proposal writing, engineering, construction, problem-solving, strategic planning — none of these are learned in a book.
They’re built through repetition.
Teach it. Practice it. Reinforce it. Teach it again — even when you’re tired of hearing yourself say it.
Remember Skill-Drill-Time?
Repetition is the burden of leadership.
If you want to grow a high-performance team, don’t chase novelty.
Build clarity — then repeat, repeat, repeat.
And if it’s not sticking or working? Sometimes you have to bend over, grab the seat, and hold the bike while they pedal-pedal-pedal.
This is exactly why we invest so much time, energy, and patience into training at MCFA — not just as a box-checking exercise, but as a cultural commitment to growth.
If you’re leading a team — whether it’s project managers, engineers, or a youth football squad — remember: your job isn’t to teach once, it’s to teach until it sticks.
That’s the heart of leadership.
That’s the heart of Leadership Blueprints.
Want to see how we’re applying this inside MCFA — or explore how you could build this muscle in your own team?
Listen to this week’s episode with Eustace Mita and reach out if you want to compare notes.
Keep Pedaling,
BJ
