When was the Best Time to Plant a Tree? This old proverb says the best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The next best time is now. The same is true for your 2027 strategic plan and budget. If you have not started, today is the day. The leaders who finish strong… Continue reading Best Time to Plant a Tree
Tag: alignment
Being Managed vs Being Led
Stop for a second. Who’s coaching you right now? Not your boss. Not your spouse. Not your best friend cheering from the sidelines. Who is in your corner, every single day, pushing you to become the person you’re capable of being? If your honest answer is “no one” here’s the truth. That job was never… Continue reading Being Managed vs Being Led
Where Is Your Time Actually Going?
The summer slowdown is behind us. Vacations are logged, the out-of-offices are off, and what’s left of 2026 is a sprint that runs straight into your 2027 plan. Before you put your head down, it’s worth pausing for one uncomfortable exercise. Verne Harnish’s Scaling Up methodology rests on four pillars: People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash.… Continue reading Where Is Your Time Actually Going?
The Four-Month Sprint
Today is September 10th. New Year’s Eve is seventeen weeks away. That’s not a long runway, it’s four months, 80 working days, one earnings cycle, one holiday season, and one last shot at whatever this year was supposed to be. Sprint or yawn? I’m voting for a fast sprint. Here’s the thinking. The Business Ledger… Continue reading The Four-Month Sprint
Geese as Teammates
What do Geese Know About Building Great Teams? Great teams are not made of great individuals. This is a hard truth for anyone who has built a business by hiring the most talented person in the room and hoping talent alone would carry the organization forward. It rarely does. What separates a group of capable… Continue reading Geese as Teammates
Should Your Digital Employees be on the Org Chart?
….and be named? These are not just chatbots buried in a help widget. They’re named, branded, and treated as members of the workforce, and that is exactly how every organization should be thinking about its AI agents. The case for naming A name changes how people relate to something. “Chatbot #3” is infrastructure. Billie is… Continue reading Should Your Digital Employees be on the Org Chart?
Org Chart Current VS Org Chart Future
Every quarter, I ask my CEO clients to do something that sounds simple and almost never is, draw your current org chart. It’s easy in the sense that everyone knows who reports to whom. But when we put it on paper, a pattern shows up almost every time. The founder or CEO sits in three… Continue reading Org Chart Current VS Org Chart Future
The Gift You’re Not Giving: Why “Firing” Is the Wrong Word
I’ve sat across the table from thousands of leaders wrestling with the same knot in their stomach. It’s time to let someone go, and they can’t make themselves do it. So, they wait. They coached for the third time when the first two didn’t work. They tell themselves it’s kindness. It isn’t. It’s cowardice wearing… Continue reading The Gift You’re Not Giving: Why “Firing” Is the Wrong Word
Culture is Caught, Not Taught
Over the years, I’ve come to believe one of the biggest myths in business is that culture lives in a handbook. Our great recruiting practices solve for culture. It doesn’t. You can print your values on a poster, laminate them, hang them in the break room, and still watch people behave in ways that contradict… Continue reading Culture is Caught, Not Taught
Are You Avoiding Conversation Collisions with Others?
The Cost of the Conversation You Keep Avoiding Every team has a moment where someone should say something, and does not. The deadline that is clearly slipping. The teammate who is coasting. The behavior that’s quietly eroding trust. Instead of naming it, we route around it. We collided. Here is the problem. Avoiding the collision… Continue reading Are You Avoiding Conversation Collisions with Others?