Systems Create Trust, Alignment, and Freedom
When a company is in its early stages, one of the biggest challenges is that the knowledge, decisions, and vision that helped to start the business often remain trapped inside one person’s head. When you first start out, this isn’t a problem because it’s just you. You sit close enough to the work and the […]
Accountability Is an Act of Respect
The hardest part of accountability is admitting when you were the one who waited too long. Accountability is easy to believe in when someone else needs to be accountable. It gets harder when the person who needs to own the mistake is you. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in business. Some are small. Some […]
The Hidden Engine of Business Growth: Partnerships
When most businesses think about growth, the conversation usually starts with marketing or increasing their salesforce. And that makes sense. Marketing is essential. It helps businesses become visible, communicate their value, and attract and engage customers. Strong marketing builds awareness, engages current customers, and helps to turn customers into advocates that repeat the cycle. But […]
You’re the Best-Kept Secret in Your Industry – That’s the Problem
There’s a particular kind of Ohio manufacturer that doesn’t need much introduction, at least not in the rooms that matter. You’ve been around long enough that the right people know your name. Your sales team has relationships going back decades. You have customers who have stuck with you through leadership changes, supply chain chaos, and […]
The Little Things Matter – Plussing the Customer Experience
You’ve probably heard stories about Walt Disney and how he approached customer experience. What most people don’t realize is that he didn’t just build theme parks and make cartoons. He engineered delight. And one of the core principles behind that was what he and his teams came to call “plussing”. They were always finding small, […]
Letting Go of the Vine: The Hardest (and Most Liberating) Shift I’ve Made as a Business Owner
Last Tuesday, I sat in our weekly L10 (a structured, weekly leadership meeting format from the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS)) and did something that felt physically painful: I kept my mouth shut. Someone asked a question about resource allocation. It was the kind of thing I have answered on instinct for 20 years. My brain […]
What I’m Still Learning About Leadership
I used to think leaders got paid for vision. Now I think we get paid for alignment. Not just alignment with goals or metrics, but alignment of people. Talented, opinionated, passionate people who care deeply about the work and want to see it done right. Getting everyone moving in the same direction takes focus, patience, […]
Finding Your People: Leadership and Peer Groups
I joined Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) Cleveland in June of 2020, smack in the middle of the pandemic. The world was unraveling, and I was navigating a minefield of business uncertainty, personal fear, and a future I couldn’t predict. I didn’t go looking for EO. A friend mentioned it offhandedly, and something just clicked. It felt […]