The Golden Thread Clear Vision → Clear Priorities → Clear Path Everything Gets Redesigned Eventually Last week Kelly and I went to an Alpha School showcase. And I appreciated it for reasons I wasn’t expecting. Alpha School is a fascinating concept. Self-paced learning. AI feedback loops. Mastery instead of memorization. All very important to us. But what really caught our attention is this: It’s a school built around: - appealing to kids, - how they learn best, and - making good use of their...
10 days ago • 2 min read
The Golden Thread business alignment ↔ leadership ↔ strategy ↔ systems Feeling Not Ready Is the Sign You Are You don’t get in shape before you hire a trainer. You hire the trainer to get in shape. A couple of days ago I had a great conversation with a founder who is two years in business. She’s sharp and has a great service. They’re growing and the momentum is picking up. When I mentioned quarterly planning, she said: “I don’t know about that... I can't see past one to two months ahead right...
17 days ago • 2 min read
The Golden Thread business alignment ↔ leadership ↔ strategy ↔ systems If You Are the System, You Are a Bottleneck Last week I was on a call with a client who swore he didn’t have an operations problem. ‘We’ve got systems for everything,’ he’s telling me. ‘The issue is people not following them.’ So I asked him to walk me through his week. By Tuesday afternoon, he had personally approved four invoices, fielded a hiring question, fixed a client’s onboarding form, and rewritten a team email...
24 days ago • 3 min read
The Golden Thread business alignment ↔ leadership ↔ strategy ↔ systems Moments of Proof vs. Moments of Truth My last company dominated client experience for a decade, in large part due to something I called Moments of Proof and Moments of Truth. Here's the story: I called a meeting and asked my team: “What is everyone else doing to deliver their best client experience?” We filled a whiteboard with the usual suspects. The things competitors brag about... Then I said: “Great. From now on, their...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
The Golden Thread business alignment ↔ leadership ↔ strategy ↔ systems The Mystery of Misalignment As owners we’re always trying to nail down the problem. “We need a better strategy.” “It’s a people issue.” “Ops has always been our weak spot.” But in most cases, that’s a misdiagnosis. It’s not one problem in one area. It’s the lack of alignment between three things: ✅ Leadership ✅ Strategy ✅ Systems When those aren’t working together, the business drags. Any progress made is capped by how...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
The Golden Thread business alignment ↔ leadership ↔ strategy ↔ systems Why Every Business Needs an Operating System Because structure creates freedom. A few weeks ago the Yale School of Management released a study where they compared companies who had been acquired with a BOS (Business Operating System) versus those without one. The difference was... stark. 🔴 Without a BOS Decisions based mostly on instinct and relationships Meetings that drag on but resolve nothing The same issues...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
The Golden Thread business alignment ↔ leadership ↔ strategy ↔ systems The 5 Hills I Would Die On I’ve recently started sharing a my core business philosophy and beliefs in a 5 day sequence for someone when they subscribe to The Golden Thread newsletter. It’s a 5-day sequence where I walk through the beliefs that drive everything I share with you: The 5 hills I would die on as a business owner Why alignment beats hustle (with examples) How the leader becomes the biggest lever Real...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
The Golden Thread business design // leadership // strategy // systems "The definition of a nightmare is having a big dream and a bad team." -John Maxwell The Weekly Habit to Get Out of the Weeds If I had a mandate (or could recommend one thing) as a starting point to getting out of the weeds, it would be a Weekly Operating Routine. Especially for the owner. You can’t dig out while you’re drowning in the day-to-day. This simple rhythm is like a gateway... It brings order to the chaos, and it...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
The Golden Thread business design // leadership // strategy // systems "The definition of a nightmare is having a big dream and a bad team." -John Maxwell The Weekly Habit to Get Out of the Weeds If I had a mandate (or could recommend one thing) as a starting point to getting out of the weeds, it would be a Weekly Operating Routine. Especially for the owner. You can’t dig out while you’re drowning in the day-to-day. This simple rhythm is like a gateway... It brings order to the chaos, and it...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read