The Dating App Founder | 8M members | Bootstrapped startup with a team of 50+ | Co-founder & COO of Inner Circle | Follow for insights on business, leadership and relationships

Co-founder of dating app Inner Circle — a global community where people with similar lifestyles meet. No games. No endless swiping. Just real people, genuinely worth dating.

Built from the ground up without external funding, Inner Circle now connects over 8 million people across the world, through shared lifestyles, intentional design and a belief that opposites don’t attract.

Currently every 4 seconds 2 people meet through Inner Circle.

keen to meet your match?
try the app with code MK2024 for a month of premium access.

Follow me for honest insights about work, life and love.

Looking for stars to join the team, check out the careers page: www.about.theinnercircle.co/careers. 

About me: 
I believe no strategy is better than its execution. 
My scope includes:
🏆 Hiring and developing winning teams 
✅ Alignment and execution driven by OKRs
🚀 Marketing that drives growth with ROI
🥾 Data to accelerate experiments that move the needle
🍸 Advisor and angel

In 2025, I stepped back into marketing as COO CMO. Content is the most powerful lever for any brand, so I started posting here to understand what makes it tick, share my learnings and lead my team better.

Michael Krayenhoff

Reminder for managers:

Your new hire’s failure is your failure.

One of the biggest mistakes companies make...
is not setting new hires up for success.

You can’t expect people to “hit the ground running”...
if you never put them in the race.

If they fail in their first 3 months,
it’s not their fault.
It’s yours.

Because great onboarding isn’t just a process.


It’s training.
It’s preparation.
It’s sharing knowledge.
It’s building relationships.
It’s learning what good looks like.

Managers don’t just hire talent...
they shape it.

Set people up to win,
and they’ll make your whole team stronger.

♻ Repost to remind others that leadership starts with day one.
✅ Follow Michael Krayenhoff for more on business, leadership and careers

People won’t remember what you said,

But they will remember how you treated them.

The best leaders don’t just manage tasks,

They connect with people.

And empathy is their most powerful tool.

✅ It’s how you earn trust.
✅ Diffuse conflict.
✅ Build loyalty.

And lead with heart, not ego.

Here are 15 Ways to Lead With Empathy:
(That Your Team Won’t Forget)

1/ Flex when life gets messy
↳ Be adaptable and offer options when life takes over.

2/ Listen to what isn’t being said
↳ Watch body language, mood shifts, and what’s left out.

3/ Make it safe to say “I don’t know”
↳ Reward curiosity and remove fear from learning.

4/ Stay steady when emotions run high
↳ Help to stabilize uncertainty and guide people back to the goal..

5/ Give people grace when they make mistakes
↳ Use errors as coaching moments, not moments for judgment.

6/ Ask “How can I support you?” and mean it
↳ Let them define what support looks like. Then step up.

7/ Lead with transparency in hard moments
↳ Share context honestly. Don’t leave people in the dark.

8/ Give feedback that grows, not shames
↳ Be direct, but kind. Critique behaviors, not people.

9/ Ask them how they’re really feeling
↳ Go beyond work and show you’re invested enough to listen.

10/ Listen without fixing or finishing
↳ Don’t rush to solve, but give people room to learn and grow.

11/ Support the person, not just the performer
↳ Check in when they struggle not just when they shine.

12/ Model positive boundaries and respect theirs
↳ Don’t glorify burnout, but lead with respect and boundaries..

13/ Make space for quieter voices
↳ Invite input early rather than letting the loudest dominate. 

14/ Act before they have to ask
↳ Anticipate needs and pay attention to signals.

15/ Praise progress, not just perfection
↳ Recognize the progress people make - not just the end result.

16/ Defend people when they’re not in the room
↳ Speak up when it counts. Loyalty is leadership.

17/ Speak to their potential, not just performance
↳ Reflect back the future you see in them regularly.

Let me know below 👇 

♻ Repost this to help your network.
✅ Follow Michael Krayenhoff for more on business, leadership and careers.

Power moves get tasks done.
Care moves people forward.
That’s the real scoreboard of leadership.

But it’s also the part most leaders overlook.

They chase performance.
Defend their image.
Micromanage the process.

But legacy doesn’t live in your CV.
It lives in the people who have worked beside you.

Want to build the kind of leadership people remember?
Start with these 10: 

1/ Protect people’s energy
↳ Respect workload. Notice burnout. Make space to breathe.

2/ Listen with intent
↳ Not to fix. Not to reply. Just to truly understand.

3/ Notice quiet effort
↳ The loudest voice isn’t always the one carrying the weight.

4/ Remove the ego
↳ The team wins when credit is shared and blame is absorbed.

5/ Be the same person every day
↳ Stability builds trust. Emotional swings erode it.

6/ Give trust early
↳ Ownership starts when people feel believed in.

7/ Ask better questions
↳ Good leadership isn’t about answers, it’s about curiosity.

8/ Celebrate progress, not perfection
↳ Consistency matters more than flawless performance.

9/ Step in before things break
↳ Don’t wait for a mess to show leadership. Prevent it.

10/ Grow people quietly
↳ No micromanaging. No spotlight. Just steady belief and stretch.

Because in the end,

No one talks about your job title.
They talk about how they felt under your leadership.

Seen.
Safe.
Trusted.
Stretched.

That’s the legacy people carry.

Which one of these do you wish more leaders practiced?
Drop your thoughts below 👇

♻ Repost to raise the bar for leadership.
✅ Follow Michael Krayenhoff for more on business, leadership and careers.

➕LEVEL UP YOUR STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP ➟ I share proven systems, actionable tips, and lessons from 20+ years of helping CEOs make better strategy ➕STRATEGY ADVISOR TO CEOs + THEIR TEAMS ➟ Learn more in my ABOUT section👇

I help CEOs, leadership teams, and boards design and execute real strategy—the kind that drives alignment, action, and results.

For over 20 years, I’ve worked with CEOs, boards, and senior leadership teams at global organizations like BMW, Deloitte, DeBeers, the OECD, as well as high-growth mid-market companies to move beyond strategic planning theater and into practical, co-created strategies that leaders can actually lead through.

Through my Better Strategy OS™ and frameworks like the Strategy Launchpad™ and the Strategy Canvas Collection, I guide organizations to:

✅ Create strategy that’s clear, actionable, and co-owned by the team
✅ Build strategic thinking as a core leadership capability
✅ Move from confusion to confidence—without outsourcing their future

But I don’t just facilitate strategy—I also help you learn it.

I offer courses, tools, and executive education programs for leaders, consultants, and professionals who want to master the Better Strategy OS, learn to think more strategically, and guide others through the process.

Whether you’re leading a team, or a strategist building your own expertise—this is where you learn to make strategy real.

What I’m known for:

– Making complex strategy simple and executable
– Facilitating alignment and unlocking clarity
– Rigorous, structured, yet pragmatic approach 
– Author of The Art of Opportunity (Wiley)
– Trusted advisor & educator to global leaders
– Creator of the Better Strategy OS™
– Challenger of old-school strategic planning
– Founder of The Better Strategy School

If you’re ready to stop outsourcing your strategy—and start building the clarity and capability to lead it—please DM me.

If you’re here to learn how to make better strategy yourself, check out my tools, courses, and frameworks at www.makebetterstrategy.com

Marc Sniukas

90% of strategies fail.
Not because of execution.
Because they were never good strategy to begin with.

Every year, leadership teams spend months building decks, setting targets, and holding offsites.

Six months later?
Those slides collect dust while everyone goes back to firefighting.

That’s not strategy. That’s theatre.

If you want better results, you don’t need more strategy.
You need Better Strategy — built on 7 essential shifts 👇


1️⃣ From financial targets → to strategic challenges
Numbers are outcomes, not strategy.
Better strategy starts with answering: What’s the real problem we must solve?


2️⃣ From 3–5 year plans → to 12–18 month priorities
Long-term plans create comfort, not clarity.
Better strategy focuses on what moves the needle now — while shaping the future.


3️⃣ From copying competitors → to creating advantage
Best practices make you average.
Better strategy puts innovation back where it belongs — at the core.


4️⃣ From annual offsites → to always-on strategy
Strategy shouldn’t happen once a year at a resort.
It’s a continuous practice of learning, sensing, and adapting — every week.


5️⃣ From closed boardrooms → to open collaboration
The best strategies aren’t designed in isolation.
They’re co-created with the people who make them real.


6️⃣ From PowerPoint → to real conversations
Strategy isn’t a document; it’s a dialogue.
Leaders who talk about strategy daily create alignment and momentum.


7️⃣ From consultants → to ownership
Advisors can guide, but they can’t lead for you.
The real power lies in taking responsibility for your own strategy.


Better strategy isn’t about perfection.
It’s about progress, clarity, and courage.

Strategy isn’t a plan — it’s a practice.
The question is: are you doing it once a year, or every day?

Let’s make better strategy.
Every day. Everywhere. Together.

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Dr. Marc Sniukas

20+ Years Helping Leaders Design + Execute Winning Strategies • Founded The Better Strategy School to Help Leaders Worldwide Master Strategy • Global Strategy Advisor

Most business schools teach strategy the wrong way.

They teach it like a recipe.
A few frameworks. A few steps.
A set of “best practices” to follow.

Students memorize models.
Apply them in tidy, predictable cases.
And graduate believing strategy is a process — not a way of thinking.

That’s the problem.

Because strategy in the real world isn’t linear or uniform.
It’s full of contradictions, tensions, and competing perspectives.
And yet, most textbooks flatten this complexity into one “accepted truth.”

So what’s the alternative?

A different approach — one that applies strategic thinking to the teaching of strategy itself.

It’s called the issue-based approach.
Instead of starting with theories, it begins with the strategic problems real leaders face.
Each issue — from competition vs. cooperation to profit vs. purpose — is explored through multiple, even opposing, lenses.
Students learn to compare, debate, and synthesize rather than memorize and repeat.

The goal isn’t to follow frameworks.
It’s to develop independent strategic thinkers who can navigate ambiguity and shape their own view of strategy.

👉 Join the Strategy Synthesis Masterclass with Prof. Dr. Bob de Wit — author of Strategy: An International Perspective — to explore how this approach transforms how we learn, teach, and practice strategy.

Sign up here 🔗 https://lnkd.in/dd9FW-Tr

If this resonates, please share to help others rethink how strategy is taught — and learned.

What’s a good strategy to learn about strategy?

Most people still learn strategy as if it were a formula.

Follow the steps.
Memorize the models.
Apply the tools.

That’s not strategy.
That’s administration.

In most strategy courses and textbooks,
you’ll find the same pattern repeated:

❌ A single, accepted view of what strategy “is.”
❌ A linear, step-by-step process to follow.
❌ Simplified, reworded ideas from past thinkers.
❌ And a strong bias toward one national or business context.

It’s clean.
It’s structured.

But it kills independent strategic thought.

Strategy isn’t a discipline of answers.
It’s a discipline of questions.

At the Better Strategy School, we don’t teach strategy like that.

We explore 11 types of strategic issues,
their underlying paradoxes, and
the multiple perspectives that exist to resolve them:

(1) How do we strategize?
(2) What’s our mission and vision?
(3) How do we compete at the business level?
(4) How do we create value at the corporate level?
(5) How do we collaborate and compete across networks?
(6) How is strategy formed and realized?
(7) How do we lead strategic change?
(8) How do we drive strategic innovation?
(9) How do industries evolve and shape our choices?
(10) How do we develop our organization?
(11) How does the international context influence our strategy?

Each of these issues invites opposing perspectives — markets vs. resources, control vs. chaos, globalization vs. localization — forcing leaders to think beyond one “right” answer.

Because strategy isn’t about memorizing frameworks.
It’s about learning to think across them.

👉 If you'd like to learn more about these 11 strategy issues, join our next webinar with Bob de Wit: https://lnkd.in/dd9FW-Tr

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I’ve spent 20+ years studying and answering three questions:


❓What is strategy?
❓How do you design a good strategy?
❓How do you execute a good strategy?

The key lesson I learned is this:
✅ Good strategists know there are no easy answers.


❌ There’s no silver bullet.
❌ No single framework.
❌ No “5 easy steps” that will magically give you your strategy.

Strategy is inherently complex.

To do it well, you must:
🔹 Understand all its dimensions:
Purpose: Why you exist and where you’re going.
Content: The choices that make you unique.
Process: How strategy gets created and renewed.
Context: The environment that shapes every decision.

🔹 Synthesize its paradoxes:
Profit ⬌ Purpose
Logic ⬌ Intuition
Outside-in ⬌ Inside-out
Competition ⬌ Cooperation
Deliberate ⬌ Emergent
Revolution ⬌ Evolution
Exploitation ⬌ Exploration
Globalization ⬌ Localization
and many more…

Mastering strategy is about holding these tensions, paradoxes, and perspectives together—not oversimplifying them.

👉 And if you’re ready to become a master strategist, join our Better Strategy School Executive Circle: https://lnkd.in/d-Zm9GPa

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20+ Years Helping Leaders Design + Execute Winning Strategies • Founded The Better Strategy School to Help Leaders Worldwide Master Strategy • Global C-Suite Strategy Partner

500+ leaders. One shared goal:
To make better strategy — not longer slide decks.

Most strategy efforts fail not because leaders don’t care —
but because they lack a clear definition, a structured framework, and a systematic process for making strategy work.

They’re told to “think strategically.”
But not how to do it.
They’re handed playbooks that explain what strategy is.
But not how to build and execute one in the real world.

That’s why so many strategies stay stuck in PowerPoints instead of changing organizations.

At the Better Strategy School, we’ve now passed 500 participants.

Leaders, founders, consultants, and executives who decided they don’t want to just plan, they want to lead strategy that delivers results.

But this milestone isn’t about numbers.
It’s about impact.

Here’s what that looks like in practice 👇

🧩 Stefania Mangini, CFO & Board Member, O’Neill:
“Valuable insights from real case studies. Helpful framework, easy to use when having strategy discussions and to ask the right questions at board meetings.”

🧠 Tylney Taylor, Managing Director, Bold Transformations:
“Marc brings in unique and highly valuable insights that add to the robust framework he has developed.”

🚀 Lisa Rehm, Associate Director PMO, Nice-Pak Products:
“Marc’s Better Strategy Masterclass takes this work to an entirely new level.”

💡 Semih Görür, CEO, Tuna Aluminium:
“The sessions provided practical applications directly relevant to today’s business challenges. Marc makes complex concepts easy to understand and apply.”

If you want to design and execute winning strategies — not just talk about them —
you need three things:

1️⃣ A clear definition of what strategy really is.
2️⃣ A structured framework to align thinking and teams.
3️⃣ A systematic process that connects design with execution.

That’s the foundation of Better Strategy — and what every leader deserves to master.

🎯 Learn how top leaders are transforming how they think, design, and execute strategy:
👉 https://lnkd.in/dejWcSAT

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Michael Krayenhoff

Marc Sniukas

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The Battle

Michael Krayenhoff

Marc Sniukas

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Michael Krayenhoff's LinkedIn Performance

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